Arya Pandey,^1,2,* Swati Tripathihttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-9202-4346,^1,**,*** Brijesh Kumar,^3,**** Priyanka Singhhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-8678-9740,^1,4,***** Hema Singh,^2,****** Achuta Nand Shukla,^5,******* Arti Garg<sup>3,********

1</sup>Quaternary Palynology Laboratory, Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences (BSIP), Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
²Department of Botany, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
³Botanical Survey of India (BSI), Northern Regional Centre, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India
⁴Indian Institute of Geomagnetism, Navi Mumbai, India
⁵Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), New Delhi, India

^*Arya Pandey is working as a DST-INSPIRE Fellow (SRF) while pursuing her PhD at the Quaternary Laboratory of the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences in Lucknow. She is pursuing a PhD at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi. Her research focuses on ‘Climate-Induced Holocene Vegetation Response and Anthropogenic Impact in the Upper Brahmaputra Valley of Assam, Northeast India: Signatures of Global Climatic Events’. She earned her master’s degree in botany in 2019 from APS University in Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, where she secured first rank (Gold medalist). She worked as a research assistant on a SERB-sponsored project (Women Excellence Award) from 2019 to 2021. To date, she has published nine research articles in peer-reviewed journals, including Catena, Nature Scientific Reports, and Palynology. Her research interests encompass the pollen morphology of living plants, the investigation of Holocene vegetation, palaeoclimatic reconstruction, and the study of modern vegetation through both pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs along with abiotic proxies. She has also presented her work at several national and international conferences.
^**CONTACT Swati Tripathi ✉ swati.tripathi@bsip.res.in Quaternary Palynology Laboratory, Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences (BSIP), Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India; Brijesh Kumar ✉ brijesh26bsi@gmail.com Botanical Survey of India (BSI), Northern Regional Centre, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India
^***Swati Tripathi is a Scientist-E in the Quaternary Palaeoclimate Department of the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow. Her research interests include Quaternary vegetation and climate change studied through pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs, examining pollen micro-morphometry of living plants, copropalynology and melissopalynology. She received three gold medals, including the Birbal Sahni Memorial Gold Medal, for obtaining the highest marks in the MSc (botany) programme at Lucknow University in 2007. She received her PhD in 2011 from the Department of Botany, Lucknow University. She is also the recipient of the Dr B.S. Venkatachala Memorial Medal (2012) and the Dr Chunni Lal Khatiyal Medal (2016) for her outstanding work as a research associate and Scientist B, respectively. She is an associate of the prestigious Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore. She has published 57 research papers in peer-reviewed journals. She has trained 14 MSc students for their dissertation and is currently supervising two PhD students including a DST-Inspire SRF. She has successfully completed several projects dealing with the reconstruction of palaeoecology in northeast India and is currently involved in the Himalayan and Quaternary Lake Drilling Projects. She is the recipient of the SERB-Women Excellence Award – 2019.
^****Brijesh Kumar is a Scientist-C at the Botanical Survey of India, Northern Regional Centre, Dehradun. He has 11 years of post-PhD research experience in floristics and taxonomy of vascular cryptogams. He has published more than 50 research papers in national and international journals as well as 18 popular articles, and jointly authored the Assessment of Kedar Nath Natural Disaster, Impact on Flora. Presently, he is engaged in studies on ferns and fern allies of Western Himalaya.
^*****Priyanka Singh did her PhD on delineating the contribution of Indian summer monsoon and western disturbance to the palaeoclimate of the Higher Central Himalaya, from BSIP, Lucknow. She completed her formal education in applied geology from Banaras Hindu University (Varanasi) and Lucknow University (Lucknow). Apart from luminescence dating, carbon dynamics and palaeoclimate studies, she has wide interests that include applying time series analysis, causality analysis, and multivariate statistics in variety of scientific problems such as this. Currently she is a Research Associate at the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism, Mumbai.
^******Hema Singh is a Professor in the Department of Botany at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi. She has made significant contributions to the field of agroecosystems, particularly in understanding microbial management and the restoration of soil fertility through various tillage methods and different combinations of fertilizers and plant residues. She earned her master's degree in botany from Allahabad University in Prayagraj and completed her doctorate in botany at Banaras Hindu University. She has conducted several research projects for different organizations. Her research has focused on the productivity and biodiversity of tropical grasslands, particularly how these are affected by changes in rainfall patterns and the invasion of alien species; and on the ecophysiology of crops and their dominant weeds. To date, she has published over 60 papers in peer-reviewed journals.
^*******Dr. Achuta Nand Shukla is a Scientist E, in CS-III (Biodiversity) Division, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, New Delhi, and is looking after the policy matter of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Biological Diversity Act, National Biodiversity Authority works. He is also working as a National Focal Point India for Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS), Nagoya Protocol, and National Focal Point India for Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). He has published six books and more than 75 research papers, as well as 22 popular articles, in the field of plant taxonomy, invasive alien species, and conservation. He has 20 years of research experience, and is the recipient of Swarn Jayanti Puraskar by NASI Allahabad.
^********Arti Garg, Senior Scientist in the Botanical Survey of India (BSI), Northern Regional Centre, Dehradun, is a renowned palynologist and taxonomist. She also worked as Head of Office, Central Regional Centre of the BSI, Allahabad, and has made significant contributions in melittopalynology, revisionary studies, speciation and evolution of Berberis L. and Pedicularis L., and the reproductive biology of endangered plants including adaptation, plant–pollinator co-evolution and inbreeding-depression. Her contributions to several floras – Flora of India, West Bengal, Lakshadweep islands and Chhattisgarh states – are commendable. She has worked on the taxonomic documentation of several families, mainly Asteraceae, Dipsacaceae, Lamiaceae, Poaceae, Rubiaceae, Scrophulariaceae and Valerianaceae. She has also worked on Ramsar sites of India, palaeobotanical aspects and climate change, and the age determination of ancient trees of Adansonia digitata, Ficus benghalensis and Manilkara hexandra; furthermore, she discovered several novel plant species, such as the world's oldest Manilkara hexandra, the world's tenth largest Ficus benghalensis and the oldest Adansonia digitata (after Africa) in India. She has completed about 27 research projects and to her credit are ca. seven books, several book chapters, 190 research papers in peer-reviewed national and international journals, 17 completed research projects, and several honours and awards.