Expanding a neoichnological study on the Brazilian coast: application of novel field and analytic methods

• Grant number: 23/02524-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 05, 2023
• End date: October 04, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Milene Fornari
• Grantee: Ana Lorenzetti Fortes
• Supervisor: Shahin Exton Dashtgard
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB-CLP). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus Experimental do Litoral Paulista. São Vicente , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada
• Associated to the scholarship: 22/01317-7 - Estuary neoicnology: a sedimentary approach towards morphodynamics, BP.IC

Abstract

Modern biogenic sedimentary structures (BSS) reflect animal burrowing behavior under varying physicochemical environmental conditions. Neoichnology, the study of BSS, provides a tool to predict spatial and temporal changes of the environment, especially to coastal ecosystems which are increasingly threatened by global climate change and rising sea level. This proposal for Research Internship Abroad (BEPE) aims to provide methodological development and generation of new knowledge for the Brazilian coast. The research internship candidate, Ana Lorenzetti Fortes, will spend four months at Simon Fraser University, where she expects to: (1) Perform field and laboratory routines in neoichnology and apply similar methods in Ms. Fortes' current research in Brazil; (2) Perform statistical analyses on the neoichnological and sedimentological datasets obtained from estuaries of the coast of São Paulo to answer three fundamental questions: (A) Which BSS occur in the morphological features of the estuaries? (B) How are the diversity and density of burrows distributed across the morphological features of the estuaries? (C) Are physicochemical and sedimentary dynamics factors associated with the distribution of BSS? Results from this project will lead to the development neoichnology model to the estuarine system, which is unprecedented for the Brazilian coast. The internship will be developed at the Simon Fraser University, supervised by Dr. Shahin Dashtgard. The motivation for this internship is learning of analytical procedures, data analysis and interpretation of neoichnological dataset to estuarine coastal depositional features. (AU)