The Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is very important area as far as the climate modeling and forecasting of climate change is concerned. To look at the fluctuation in Quaternary climate, planktonic foraminiferal assemblages from a number of sediment cores (including Deep Sea Drilling Project & Ocean Drilling Programme) at various locations in the Indian Ocean were studied by Prof. Sarkar. These studies fulfilled a longstanding need of construction of a paleoclimatic curve for the Pleistocene in Northern Indian Ocean based on multi-proxy approach and hence enabled to show that coastal Arabian Sea is the potential region to decipher the monsoonal behavior over the subcontinent (Sarkar et al, 2000, Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 173 (3-4), pp 209-218).

For the first time, Prof. Sarkar has used foraminiferal 14C Accelerator Mass Spectrometery dates from the offshore sediment cores all along the western coast of India. This work finds significance, as it presents a comprehensive view on the sediment deposition-erosion relationship in the region off the west coast of India (Somayajulu et al, 1999, Science of Total Environment. 237-238, pp 429-439).

Prof. Sarkar also works on various aspects of petroleum geology and geochemistry viz. biostratigraphy, paleodepth of deposition, depositional paleoenvironment, source rock characterization, etc.

Specialization:
Micropaleontology including paleoclimatology and paleoceanography; stable isotope systematics; and petroleum geology.

Research Interest:
Foraminiferal Micropaleontology, paleoclimatology, isotope geochemistry, Basin evolution and petroleum geology.