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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:tsoar@bgu.ac.il
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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

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