Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T18:26:58.976Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The effect of climate change on the mobility and stability of coastal sand dunes in Ceará State (NE Brazil)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Haim Tsoar ,
Noam Levin ,
Naomi Porat ,
Luis P. Maia ,
Hans J. Herrmann ,
Sonia H. Tatumi  and
Vanda Claudino-Sales
Haim Tsoar*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Environmental Development, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel
Noam Levin
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91905, Israel
Naomi Porat
Affiliation:
Geological Survey of Israel, Jerusalem 95301, Israel
Luis P. Maia
Affiliation:
Instituto de Ciências do Mar — LABOMAR, Av. Abolicão, 3207, Meireles, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil
Hans J. Herrmann
Affiliation:
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Computational Physics, ETH-Hönggerberg, Institut für Baustoffe (IfB), HIF E 12, Schafmattstr. 6,8093 Zürich, Switzerland
Sonia H. Tatumi
Affiliation:
Laboratório de Vidros e Datação, Faculdade de Tecnologia de São Paulo, Centro Estadual de Educação Tecnológica, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Vanda Claudino-Sales
Affiliation:
Departamento de Geografia, Universidade Federal do Ceará, 60451-970 Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil
*
⁎Corresponding author. Fax: +972 8 6472821. Email Address:[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The coast of Ceará State in NE Brazil is covered by vast fields of active and stabilized coastal sand dunes. Its tropical climate is characterized by two seasons, wet and dry, with wind intensity determined by the meridional shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone. The wind power is negatively correlated with precipitation, and precipitation is negatively correlated with the difference between sea surface temperatures of the tropical Atlantic north and south of the equator. We present a model suggesting that during the Late Pleistocene wind power determined the mobility and stability of the dunes. Sand dunes accumulated during periods of high wind power (as it is today) and stabilized when wind power was low. Once the dunes were stabilized by vegetation they could not be activated even by increased wind power. Samples that were taken for luminescence dating from 25 stabilized dunes along the coasts of Ceará gave ages ranging from135 ka to < 100 yr. We postulate that these luminescence ages fall at the beginning of wet periods in NE Brazil characterized by low wind power. These paleoclimatic wet periods correlate well with the cold periods of stades in Greenland ice-core records.

Keywords

Coastal sand dunesMobilityStabilityClimate changeNE Brazil
Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 71 , Issue 2 , March 2009 , pp. 217 - 226
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aitken, M.J. An Introduction to Optical Dating. (1998). Oxford University Press, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arz, H.W., Patzold, J., and Wefer, G. Correlated millennial-scale changes in surface hydrography and terrigenous sediment yield inferred from last-glacial marine deposits off northeastern Brazil. Quaternary Research 50, (1998). 157–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ash, J.E., and Wasson, R.J. Vegetation and sand mobility in the Australian desert dunefield. Zeitschrift fur Geomorphologie N.F., Supplementbande 45, (1983). 7–25.Google Scholar
Auler, A.S., and Smart, P.L. Late quaternary paleoclimate in semiarid northeastern Brazil from U-Series dating of travertine and water-table speleothems. Quaternary Research 55, (2001). 159–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ben-Dor, E., Levin, N., Singer, A., Karnieli, A., Braun, O., and Kidron, G.J. Quantitative mapping of the soil rubification process on sand dunes using an airborne hyperspectral sensor. Geoderma 131, (2006). 1–21.Google Scholar
Bond, G.C., and Lotti, R. Iceberg discharges into the North-Atlantic on millennial time scales during the last glaciation. Science 267, (1995). 1005–1010.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Castro, J.W.A. Burying processes carried out by a mobile transversal dunefield, Paracuru County, State of Ceara, Brazil. Environmental Geology 49, (2005). 214–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chiang, J.C.H., and Koutavas, A. Climate change — tropical flip-flop connections. Nature 432, (2004). 684–685.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chiang, J.C.H., Biasutti, M., and Battisti, D.S. Sensitivity of the Atlantic intertropical convergence zone to last glacial maximum boundary conditions. Paleoceanography 18, (2003). Google Scholar
Chung, J.C. Correlations between the tropical Atlantic trade winds and precipitation in northeastern Brazil. International Journal of Climatology 2, (1982). 35–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Claudino-Sales, V., and Peulvast, J.P. Dunes generation and ponds on the coast of Ceara State (Northeast Brazil). Allison, R.J. Applied Geomorphology. (2002). John Wiley & Sons, Chichester. 443–460.Google Scholar
Dansgaard, W., Johnsen, S.J., Clausen, H.B., Dahljensen, D., Gundestrup, N.S., Hammer, C.U., Hvidberg, C.S., Steffensen, J.P., Sveinbjornsdottir, A.E., Jouzel, J., and Bond, G. Evidence for general instability of past climate from a 250-kyr ice-core record. Nature 364, (1993). 218–220.Google Scholar
De Oliveira, P.E., Barreto, A.M.F., and Suguio, K. Late Pleistocene/Holocene climatic and vegetational history of the Brazilian caatinga: the fossil dunes of the middle Sao Francisco River. Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology 152, (1999). 319–337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellwood, B.B., Petruso, K.M., and Harrold, F.B. High-resolution paleoclimatic trends for the Holocene identified using magnetic susceptibility data from archaeological excavations in caves. Journal of Archaeological Science 24, (1997). 569–573.Google Scholar
Filgueiras, A., and Silva, T. Wind energy in Brazil — present and future. Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews 7, (2003). 439–451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Folk, R.L. Reddening of desert sands: Simpson desert, Northern Territory, Australia. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 46, (1976). 604–615.Google Scholar
Fryberger, S.G. Dune forms and wind regime. McKee, E.D. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1052, (1979). U.S. Geological Survey, Washington. U.S.. 137–169.Google Scholar
Galbraith, R.F., Roberts, R.G., Laslett, G.M., Yoshida, H., and Olley, J.M. Optical dating of single and multiple grains of quartz from Jinmium rock shelter, northern Australia: Part I. Experimental design and statistical models. Archaeometry 41, (1999). 339–364.Google Scholar
Gardner, R., and Pye, K. Nature, origin and palaeoenvironmental significance of red coastal and desert dune sands. Progress in Physical Geography 5, (1981). 514–534.Google Scholar
Gasques, J.G., and Magalhes, A.R. Climatic anomalies and their impact in Brazil during the 1982–83 ENSO event. Glantz, M., Katz, R., and Krenz, M. The Societal Impacts Asociated with the 1982–83 Worldwide Climate Anomalies. (1987). National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder. 30–36.Google Scholar
Genty, D., Blamart, D., Ouahdi, R., Gilmour, M., Baker, A., Jouzel, J., and Van-Exter, S. Precise dating of Dansgaard–Oeschger climate oscillations in western Europe from stalagmite data. Nature 421, (2003). 833–837.Google Scholar
Hastenrath, S. Circulation and teleconnection mechanisms of Northeast Brazil droughts. Progress in Oceanography 70, (2006). 407–415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hastenrath, S., and Heller, L. Dynamics of climatic hazards in Northeast Brazil. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 103, (1977). 77–92.Google Scholar
Jimenez, J.A., Maia, L.P., Serra, J., and Morais, J. Aeolian dune migration along the Ceara coast, north-eastern Brazil. Sedimentology 46, (1999). 689–701.Google Scholar
Lancaster, N. Development of linear dunes in the southwestern Kalahari, Southern Africa. Journal of Arid Environments 14, (1988). 233–244.Google Scholar
Levin, N., Tsoar, H., Maia, L.P., Sales, V.C., and Herrmann, H. Dune whitening and inter-dune freshwater ponds in NE Brazil. Catena 70, (2007). 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Little, M.G., Schneider, R.R., Kroon, D., Price, B., Summerhayes, C.P., and Segl, M. Trade wind forcing of upwelling, seasonality, and Heinrich events as a response to sub-Milankovitch climate variability. Paleoceanography 12, (1997). 568–576.Google Scholar
Lun, I.Y.F., and Lam, J.C. A study of Weibull parameters using long-term wind observations. Renewable Energy 20, (2000). 145–153.Google Scholar
Magalhes, A.R., Filho, H.C., Garagorry, F.L., Gasques, J.G., Molion, L.C.B., Neto, M., de, S.A., Nobre, C.A., Porto, E.R., and Reboucas, O.E. The effects of climatic variations on agriculture in Northeast Brazil. Parry, M.L., Carter, T.R., and Konijn, N.T. The Impacts of Climatic Variations on Agriculture. (1988). Kluwer Academic Publications, Dordrecht. 273–380.Google Scholar
Maia, L.P., Freire, G.S.S., and Lacerda, L.D. Accelerated dune migration and aeolian transport during El Nino events along the NE Brazilian coast. Journal of Coastal Research 21, (2005). 1121–1126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Markham, C.G., and McLain, D.R. Sea-surface temperature related to rain in Ceara, Northeastern Brazil. Nature 265, (1977). 320–323.Google Scholar
Mathieu, R., Pouget, M., Cervelle, B., and Escadafal, R. Relationships between satellite-based radiometric indices simulated using laboratory reflectance data and typic soil color of an arid environment. Remote Sensing of Environment 66, (1998). 17–28.Google Scholar
Middleton, N., and Thomas, D.S.G. World Atlas of Desertification. (1997). UNEP/Edward Arnold, London.Google Scholar
Murray, A.S., and Wintle, A.G. Luminescence dating of quartz using an improved single-aliquot regenerative-dose protocol. Radiation Measurements 32, (2000). 57–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nobre, P., and Shukla, J. Variations of sea surface temperature, wind stress, and rainfall over the tropical Atlantic and South America. Journal of Climate 9, (1996). 2464–2479.Google Scholar
Norris, R.M. Dune reddening and time. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 39, (1969). 7–11.Google Scholar
Peterson, L.C., Haug, G.H., Hughen, K.A., and Rohl, U. Rapid changes in the hydrologic cycle of the tropical Atlantic during the last glacial. Science 290, (2000). 1947–1951.Google Scholar
Pye, K., and Tsoar, H. Aeolian Sand and Sand Dunes. (1990). Unwin Hyman, London.Google Scholar
Rahmstorf, S. Timing of abrupt climate change: a precise clock. Geophysical Research Letters 30, NO. 10 (2003). 1510 1510.1029/2003GL017115 Google Scholar
Tsoar, H. Sand dunes. Hillel, D. Encyclopedia of Soils in the Environment. (2004). Elsevier, Oxford. 462–471.Google Scholar
Tsoar, H. Sand dunes mobility and stability in relation to climate. Physica A 357, (2005). 50–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsoar, H. Land use and its effect on the mobilization and stabilization of the NW Negev sand dunes. Breckle, S.W., Yair, A., and Veste, M. Arid Dune Ecosystems. (2008). Springer, Berlin. 79–89.Google Scholar
Tsoar, H., Blumberg, D.G., and Wenkart, R. Formation and geomorphology of the NW Negev sand dunes. Breckle, S.W., Yair, A., and Veste, M. Arid Dune Ecosystems. (2008). Springer, Berlin. 25–48.Google Scholar
Walker, T.R. Red color in dune sand. McKee, E.D. A Study of Global Sand Seas. Professional Paper 1052, (1979). U.S. Geological Survey, Washington. U.S.. 137–169.Google Scholar
Wang, X.F., Auler, A.S., Edwards, R.L., Cheng, H., Cristalli, P.S., Smart, P.L., Richards, D.A., and Shen, C.C. Wet periods in northeastern Brazil over the past 210 kyr linked to distant climate anomalies. Nature 432, (2004). 740–743.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wasson, R.J. Late Quaternary palaeoenvironments in the desert dunefields of Australia. Vogel, J.C. Late Cainozoic Palaeoclimates of The Southern Hemisphere. (1984). A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam. 419–432.Google Scholar
White, K., Walden, J., Drake, N., Eckardt, F., and Settle, J. Mapping the iron oxide content of Dune sands, Namib Sand Sea, Namibia, using Landsat Thematic Mapper data. Remote Sensing of Environment 62, (1997). 30–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wopfner, G., and Twidale, C.R. Formation and age of desert dunes in the Lake Eyre depocentres in central Australia. Geologische Rundschau 77, (1988). 815–834.Google Scholar
Yizhaq, H., Ashkenazy, Y., and Tsoar, H. Why do active and stabilized dunes coexist under the same climatic conditions?. Physical Review Letters 98, (2007). Art. No. 188001 MAY 188004 182007 Google Scholar