India, Feb. 28 -- A new scientific study has revealed how climate change, floods and human activity have shaped Majuli Island over the past 4,000 years, offering crucial clues about the future of the world's largest inhabited river island.

Published in the 'Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology', the study conducted by Arya Pandey, Swati Tripathi, Sadhan K. Basumatary, Salman Khan, Biswajeet Thakur, Anupam Sharma, and Hema Singh from the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences in collaboration with other organisations, reconstructs long-term monsoon variability and vegetation dynamics using sediment records from the Majuli Island.

By analysing fossil pollen and sediment layers from a 150 cm-deep core, researchers identified five major...