LAND USE AND OCCUPATION AND CLIMATE PULSES AS MECHANISMS FOR MODELING DIFFERENT LANDSCAPES IN BRAZIL, CHILE AND SPAIN

• Grant number: 25/12143-8
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: November 01, 2025
• End date: October 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Geography
• Principal Investigator: Archimedes Perez Filho
• Grantee: Archimedes Perez Filho
• Host Institution: Instituto de Geociências (IG). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• City of the host institution: Campinas
• Associated researchers: Estêvão Botura Stefanuto ; Ignacio Eduardo Ibarra Cofre ; José Araos Espinoza ; Marcos Francos ; MARIA ESTELA NADAL ROMERO ; María Victoria Alejandra Soto Bauerle ; Rui Filipe Ferreira Carvalho
• Associated scholarship(s): 25/25126-4 - GRAIN-SIZE ANALYSIS AND DATA PROCESSING LINKED TO THE PROJECT: 'LAND USE AND OCCUPATION AND CLIMATE PULSES AS MECHANISMS FOR MODELING DIFFERENT LANDSCAPES IN BRAZIL, CHILE, AND SPAIN', BP.TT

Abstract

The landscapes found in fluvial and coastal plains, which contain important geomorphological records in their fluvial, marine, and fluvio-marine terraces, as well as in alluvial fans and debris cones, have been shown to be shaped by low-intensity, short-duration processes at spatial and temporal scales. Notable examples include the Late Quaternary Climatic Pulsations and, more recently, anthropogenic activity. In parallel research projects, most of which have already received support from FAPESP, examples of climate-induced changes leading to the deposition of terraces and/or alluvial fans can be found in the lower courses of the Coruripe, Perucaba, and Piauí Rivers, in the southern coastal region of Alagoas (Brazil), and in the Volcán River valley, a high mountain region of the Andes (Central Chile). On the other hand, anthropogenic intervention in natural systems can be observed in depositional surfaces of the alluvial valley of the middle Ebro River (Northeastern Spain), through ancient human occupations now buried, as well as in channel course changes at the Valo Grande channel, at the mouth of the Ribeira de Iguape River, on the southern coast of São Paulo, and the lower course of Mogi-Guaçu river, São Paulo (Brazil). Some of the study areas are connected through research projects and FAPESP fellowships (in Brazil and abroad) linked to the Laboratory of Geomorphology and Environmental Analysis at UNICAMP, and share, to some extent, similar techniques and analytical methods, such as Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) and Lead-210 (²¹¿Pb) dating of sediments. The high cost of applying these techniques, along with the need to continue and complete these investigations, provides the main motivation and justification for this project. Based on the results obtained from these analyses and dating techniques, it will be possible to complement existing databases regarding the effects of Late Pleistocene and Holocene Climatic Pulsations not only in Brazil but also in other study areas across South America and Europe. Furthermore, the project aims to establish a new research front and database through the application of ²¹¿Pb dating, enabling the measurement of anthropogenic contributions, driven by land use and occupation, in the formation of potentially anthropogenic depositional records. (AU)