Amazon River discharge variability since 1400 A.D.: towards decoupling natural and anthropogenic effects

• Grant number: 08/09347-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: December 01, 2008
• End date: July 31, 2009
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences
• Principal Investigator: Carlos Afonso Nobre
• Grantee: Cristiano Mazur Chiessi
• Host Institution: Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE). São José dos Campos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Natural climate variability may interfere with anthropogenic forcing pushing key components of the climate system to exceed a tipping point. While instrumental records are suitable for studying interannual climate variability they do not cover a long enough time span to accurately analyze decadal and multidecadal variability. Within this project a high temporal resolution reconstruction of the Amazon River discharge since ca. 1400 A.D. will be generated. This will be based on isotopic, geochemical and sedimentological proxies measured on marine sediment cores from sites located under the influence of the Amazon River freshwater plume, in the Amazon continental shelf. By doing so, a significant step towards both the detection of decadal and multidecadal climate variability, and the decoupling of natural and anthropogenic effects on Amazonian climate are foreseen.