Advances in Remote Sensing Technology and the Three Poles

23 Wetlands as Potential Zones to Understand Spatiotemporal Plant-Human-Climate InteractionsA Review on Palynological Perspective from Western and Eastern Himalaya

Sandhya Misra^*, Anupam Sharma, Ravi Shankar Maurya and Krishna G. Misra

Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, 53 University Road, Lucknow 226007, India

^* Corresponding author

23.1 Introduction

The land or part of the land which is partially or completely covered by water during any/some part of the year is known as wetlands. They act as the passage between the land and the water ecosystem. Based on their origin, geomorphology, hydrology, water depth, floral/faunal composition, physical and chemical nature, and water chemistry/substratum characteristics, these areas support a variety of living forms and are widely defined/classified by many workers across the globe. Varied definitions from diversified parts of the globe can be seen in Sharma and Singh (2021 and references therein). In the Indian context, Gopal and Sah (1995) classified the wetlands on the basis of vegetation types that represent the prevailing hydrological state in these regions. India, with 15.3 million hectares of wetland area, has over 757,000 wetlands in the form of ponds, lakes, rivers, swamps, ditches, estuaries, mudflats, etc. covering 4.7% of the nation’s total geographical area (Global Wetland Outlook, 2018). Varying ecoclimatic zones in India facilitate a diverse variety of wetland systems ranging from cold desert wetlands at high altitude ...