Late Quaternary fire regime in tropical South America

• Grant number: 21/13129-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: June 15, 2022
• End date: June 04, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Geology
• Principal Investigator: Paulo Eduardo de Oliveira
• Grantee: Thomas Kenji Akabane
• Supervisor: Daniau Anne-Laure
• Host Institution: Instituto de Geociências (IGC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Université Bordeaux 1, France
• Associated to the scholarship: 19/19948-0 - Influence of Late Pleistocene climate changes on the Amazon vegetation, BP.DR

Abstract

Fire has been a key force in shaping landscapes in the tropics along with Quaternary climate changes. Despite its importance, millennial-scale interactions of fire, vegetation, and climate in Brazilian ecosystems are poorly known due to the scarcity of high-resolution Quaternary archives. Marine sediments collected off large drainage basins are excellent archives of continental environmental signals. As such, microcharcoal particles recorded in marine sediments provide essential information about past fire regimes. This study will produce automated microcharcoal analyses on two key marine sediment cores: (1) GeoB16224-1 (gravity core, 6º39.38'N, 52º04.99'W), retrieved from a site under the influence of the Amazon sedimentary plume, spans between 47 and 12.8 ka BP and represents the first high-resolution Amazonian record covering this timespan; and (2) the M125-95-3 (piston core, 10°56.7'S, 36°12.342'W) retrieved under the influence of the São Francisco sedimentary plume, spanning the last 71 ka BP and will represent the longest continuous charcoal record for the Cerrado/Caatinga. Our main objective is to investigate changes in the intensity and frequency of the fire regime over northern and eastern tropical South America during the late Quaternary. The submillennial resolution analyses will allow us to evaluate short (millennial-oscillations) and long-term (orbital) trends in fire regimes. The activities will be performed in a top-level research group headed by Dr. A.-L. Daniau based at the Université de Bordeaux, France, a highly recognized international institution. (AU)