| Grant number: | 25/05117-0 |
| Support Opportunities: | Regular Research Grants |
| Start date: | October 01, 2025 |
| End date: | September 30, 2029 |
| Field of knowledge: | Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Geology |
| Agreement: | ANR |
| Principal Investigator: | Cristiano Mazur Chiessi |
| Grantee: | Cristiano Mazur Chiessi |
| Principal researcher abroad: | Aline Govin |
| Institution abroad: | Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique , France |
| Host Institution: | Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades (EACH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil |
| City of the host institution: | São Paulo |
| Associated researchers: | Christine Hatte ; Dailson Jose Bertassoli Junior ; Gwenael Herve ; Jeremy Jacob ; Ji Woong Yang ; Kageyama ; Luciana Figueiredo Prado ; Natalia Vazquez Riveiros ; Paulo Eduardo de Oliveira ; RODRIGO AZEVEDO NASCIMENTO ; Thiago Pereira dos Santos ; Vinícius Ribau Mendes |
Abstract
The Amazon rainforest hosts the richest terrestrial biodiversity on Earth, is one of the largest surface carbon pools in the world and has historically been a major sink for anthropogenic CO2 emissions. However, anthropogenic changes in climate and land-use may push the Amazon rainforest towards irreversible degradation, characterizing it as a core tipping element of the climate system. The extent of the Amazon rainforest itself also depends on the amount and seasonality of Amazon rainfall. The projected future decrease in Amazonian rainfall, which could be regionally altered by the likely future slowdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), may adversely further affect the Amazon rainforest.Preparing for future changes depends on an in-depth understanding of the Amazon vegetation and climate, including its natural variability and oceanic drivers. Paleoclimate records are a valuable source of information on the functioning of the Amazon ecosystems and hydroclimate, but high-quality natural archives are scarce, especially those that go further back in time than the last glacial period. Fortunately, new high-quality marine sediment cores collected during the French-Brazilian oceanographic cruise AMARYLLIS-AMAGAS II, led by the PIs of AMACLIM in 2023, are now available to fill this gap.The AMACLIM project will use interglacial and millennial-scale climate changes of the last 220,000 years as natural experiments to provide the first integrated understanding of atmosphere-land-ocean interactions that control natural changes in Amazon climate and vegetation under different climatic forcings of the past two glacial cycles. To achieve these objectives, AMACLIM will couple high-resolution paleoclimate reconstructions from two pairs of marine sediment cores collected downstream of the mouth of the Amazon River during the oceanographic cruise AMARYLLIS-AMAGAS II, with state-of-the-art vegetation and climate model simulations of the Amazon. The project will address key questions about how interglacial and millennial timescale changes in the dynamics of the surface, subsurface and deep western equatorial Atlantic influenced the Amazon climate and vegetation, with potentially different impacts in the Andes and lowlands of the Amazon basin.AMACLIM gathers a unique team of French and Brazilian early-, mid-carrier and senior experts in paleoclimate reconstructions and modelling of the Amazon region. Expected results include (1) the first comprehensive characterization of climatic mechanisms and feedbacks linking the western equatorial Atlantic dynamics and the Amazon climate and vegetation under different climatic conditions, as well as the first reconstruction and full understanding of the responses of the Amazon climate and vegetation (2) to warmer than pre-industrial conditions and (3) to AMOC slowdowns of varying amplitude, as may be achieved in the future. This comprehensive view of the Amazon climate, vegetation and its oceanic drivers will be a major scientific breakthrough, helping us to better anticipate future Amazon changes.AMACLIM builds on the close French-Brazilian collaboration established in paleoceanography and paleoclimatology through three ongoing scientific initiatives: the AMARYLLIS-AMAGAS II oceanographic cruise and two scientific mobility projects (the IRP-INSU Saravá and CAPES-COFECUB projects). It is also perfectly in line with the key focus area "Earth and Ocean Sciences" (Pillar "Oceans and Climate") of the International Research Center "Transitions" created in 2024 between CNRS in France and the University of São Paulo in Brazil. (AU)
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