Palaeoenvironment, palaeovegetation and palaeoclimate of lower Nhecolandia region, Pantanal, Brazil

• Grant number: 20/07726-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: October 01, 2020
• End date: December 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Geology
• Principal Investigator: Luiz Carlos Ruiz Pessenda
• Grantee: Giliane Gessica Rasbold
• Host Institution: Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura (CENA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 16/14227-5 - Climatic changes and environmental impacts in wetlands of Pantanal region (Brazil): quantification, control factors and long term temporal modeling, AP.PFPMCG.TEM

Abstract

Global climate change results in changes in precipitation patterns, which can have dramatic effects on aquatic and terrestrial ecology. In order to create mitigation strategies is required a deep understanding of the mechanisms and rates of climate change. Lakes and wetlands are sentinels of environmental changes because their sediments and water columns serve as sensitive records of the climate, hydrology, and anthropogenic (human-induced) processes. The Pantanal, located on the Upper Paraguay River, is considered the largest wetland on the planet and performs numerous ecosystem services, as well as harboring an immense biodiversity and being fundamental for global biogeochemical cycles. The lower Nhecolândia region has lakes isolated from each other by sandy barriers (called cordilheiras), where four characteristic groups of lakes are observed: the Saline-Alkaline Green Lakes, Black Saline-Alkaline Lakes, Saline-Crystaline Lakes and freshwater lakes (locally called baías). Because they are isolated, they offer a more reliable sedimentary historical record for vegetation changes with climatic inferences during the Holocene. This postdoctoral project is linked to the thematic project "Climate change and environmental impacts in wetlands of the Pantanal (Brazil): Quantification, control factors and long-term forecasting (2016/14227-5)", and has as one of the objectives to complement its database in the paleoclimatic context, with the use of multi-proxies analyses (concentrations of larger elements and traces, delta C-13, delta N-15, C/N, pollen grains, sponge spicules, phytoliths and C-14 dating) in the bottom sediments of the different lakes, located in the São Roque Reserve area, in the lower Nhecolândia region. With the results to be obtained, it is intended to contribute to the production of models and estimates of paleoclimatic, paleoecological patterns and the evolution of these environments at least during the Holocene, to understand the interactions between climate, vegetation and hydrology and their influence on the paleoproductivity of wetlands in the lower Nhecolândia region.

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)

BARCELOS FERREIRA MACHADO, DAVID OLDACK; GOMES COE, HELOISA HELENA; BANDEIRA, DIONE DA ROCHA; SOUZA, ROSA; RASBOLD, GILIANE GESSICA; CHUENG, KARINA FERREIRA; DIAS, RAPHAELLA RODRIGUES; FERREIRA, JESSICA; VIEIRA, CELSO VOOS; DE SA, JULIO CESAR. Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction through phytolith analysis in the Casa de Pedra shell mound archaeological site, Sao Francisco do Sul, Santa Catarina, Brazil. VEGETATION HISTORY AND ARCHAEOBOTANY, v. N/A, p. 13-pg., 2022-11-30. (20/07726-0)