Variability of the Brazil Current and its impacts on the South American climate during the last 30,000 years

• Grant number: 13/25518-2
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): April 01, 2014
• Effective date (End): July 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences
• Principal Investigator: Cristiano Mazur Chiessi
• Grantee: Marília de Carvalho Campos
• Home Institution: Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades (EACH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 12/17517-3 - Response of the Western Atlantic Ocean to changes in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation: from millennial to seasonal variability, AP.PFPMCG.JP
• Associated scholarship(s): 15/11016-0 - Variability of the Brazil Current and its impacts on the South American climate during the last 30,000 years: assessing sea-surface temperatures via Mg/Ca analyses, BE.EP.MS

Abstract

The Brazil Current (BC) represents the southern branch of the bifurcation of the South Equatorial Current that interacts with the eastern and southern Brazilian continental margins. The BC plays an important role in controlling the intensity of the South American Monsoon System that, in turn, is responsible for summer precipitation in a large sector of South America. Moreover, the BC is markedly influenced by the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation whose past oscillations generated marked global abrupt climatic changes.Presently, the few paleoceanographic records available from the western South Atlantic do not allow a detailed reconstruction of the changes that happened in the BC during the last glacial cycle.This MSc. project aims at reconstructing the variability of the BC around 32oS during Marine Isotope Stages 1-3, as well as its impacts on the climate of southeastern South America. Therefore, we will investigate two marine sediment cores collected in the southern Brazilian continental margin, in a site under the influence of the BC. We will develop age models based on 14C ages, and produce downcore records of oxygen and carbon stable isotopes in tests of planktonic foraminifera, as well as records of X-ray fluorescence in bulk sediment samples.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

CAMPOS, MARILIA C.; CHIESSI, CRISTIANO M.; VOIGT, INES; PIOLA, ALBERTO R.; KUHNERT, HENNING; MULITZA, STEFAN. delta C-13 decreases in the upper western South Atlantic during Heinrich Stadials 3 and 2. Climate of the Past, v. 13, n. 4 APR 18 2017. Web of Science Citations: 4.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

CAMPOS, Marília de Carvalho. Millennial variability of the Brazil Current and South American climate during the last glacial period. 2016. Master's Dissertation - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades São Paulo.