Wet periods in northeastern Brazil over the past 210 kyr linked to distant climate anomalies

Xianfeng Wang (), Augusto S. Auler, R. Lawrence Edwards, Hai Cheng, Patricia S. Cristalli, Peter L. Smart, David A. Richards and Chuan-Chou Shen
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Xianfeng Wang: University of Minnesota
Augusto S. Auler: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
R. Lawrence Edwards: University of Minnesota
Hai Cheng: University of Minnesota
Patricia S. Cristalli: Universidade de São Paulo
Peter L. Smart: University of Bristol
David A. Richards: University of Bristol
Chuan-Chou Shen: National Taiwan University

Nature, 2004, vol. 432, issue 7018, 740-743

Abstract: Abstract The tropics are the main source of the atmosphere's sensible and latent heat, and water vapour, and are therefore important for reconstructions of past climate1. But long, accurately dated records of southern tropical palaeoclimate, which would allow the establishment of climatic connections to distant regions, have not been available. Here we present a 210,000-year (210-kyr) record of wet periods in tropical northeastern Brazil—a region that is currently semi-arid. The record is obtained from speleothems and travertine deposits that are accurately dated using the U/Th method. We find wet periods that are synchronous with periods of weak East Asian summer monsoons2, cold periods in Greenland3, Heinrich events in the North Atlantic4 and periods of decreased river runoff to the Cariaco basin5. We infer that the wet periods may be explained with a southward displacement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone. This widespread synchroneity of climate anomalies suggests a relatively rapid global reorganization of the ocean–atmosphere system. We conclude that the wet periods probably affected rainforest distribution, as plant fossils show that forest expansion occurred during these intermittent wet intervals, and opened a forest corridor6,7,8 between the Amazonian and Atlantic rainforests.

Date: 2004
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DOI: 10.1038/nature03067

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