Name : Dr. Mital Thacker
Designation : Research Fellow

Brief Background :

I hold a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Environmental Science from Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidyanagar. In 2017, I joined the Agharkar Research Institute, Pune, as a Junior Research Fellow (JRF) under a project sponsored by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES). My doctoral research, focused on the study of ‘Diatoms as Indicators of Environmental and Climatic Changes in the Myristica Swamps of the Western Ghats’

Contact Details :

  • B.Sc., M.Sc. Environmental Science & Technology

My research expertise includes diatom taxonomy, diatom ecology, paleolimnology, climate reconstruction, micropaleontology, and water quality monitoring. 

I study both living and fossil diatoms in freshwater environments, using them as bioindicators to infer present and past environmental conditions. My work also examines the role of diatoms in archaeological contexts to understand the interactions between ancient civilizations and their natural environments.

  1. Thacker, M., Kumaran, K. P. N., Hamilton, P. B., & Karthick, B. (2023). Appraisal of Asian monsoon variability in the Indian subcontinent and East Asia through the Quaternary using diatom records. Earth-Science Reviews, 104622.
  2. Thacker, M., Limaye, R. B., Padmalal, D., Rajaguru, S. N., Kumaran, K. P. N., Punekar, S. A., & Karthick, B. (2023). Holocene climate dynamics and ecological responses in Kaas Plateau, Western Ghats, India: Evidence from lacustrine deposits. Quaternary Science Advances, 100087.
  3. Thacker, M., Dwivedi, A., Gayathri, C. R. & Karthick, B. (2024). Diatoms from ancient pots: exploring pottery sherds and paleoenvironmental insights in the lower Kaveri River Basin archaeological landscape, Tamil Nadu, India. Current Science., 126 (8), 916. 
  4. Nayak, P., Thacker, M., Hamilton, P. B., & Karthick, B. Description of a new freshwater diatom (Bacillariophyta) species– Geissleria triundulata sp. nov. from the Mula-Mutha River Basin, India. Phytotaxa, 661(1), 109-119.
  5. Kulikovskiy, M. S., Thacker, M., Glushchenko, A. M., Kuznetsova, I. V., Iurmanov, A. A., Karthick, B., & Kociolek, J. P. (2023). Gandhia gen. nov.—A New Diatom Genus with Unusual Morphology Split Off from the Genus Navicula Bory. Plants, 12(23), 3941.
  6. Thacker, M., Karthick, B. (2022). Response of Diatoms to the Changing Water Quality in the Myristica Swamps of the Western Ghats, India. Diversity, 14(3), 202.
  7. Thacker, M., Roy, S., Kociolek, J. P., Lowe, R. L., & Karthick, B. (2019). A new species of Germainiella (Bacillariophyta) from the Myristica swamps of the Western Ghats, India. Diatom Research, 34(3), 181–191.
  8. Pardhi, S., Kokila, T., Thacker, M., Alakananda, B., Karthick, B. (2023). Diatoms (Bacillariophyta) of the world’s highest aquatic environments from the Western Himalayas, India. Oceanological and Hydrobiological Studies, 52(2), 172–205.

Book Chapter:

  • Thacker, M. & Karthick, B. (2023). A catalogue of Quaternary diatoms from the Asian tropics with their environmental indication potential for paleolimnological applications. In: ‘The Role of Tropics in Climate Change’. Elsevier publications.

Popular Science Article:

  • Thacker, M., and Karthick, B. (2023). Diatoms: hidden ecological sensors inside the Myristica swamps. DREAM 2047. Vol.26 (03). 15–17.
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