RAPID: How Does Environmental Change Influence Landscape Evolution in the Pantanal Wetlands (Brazil)?

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A non-technical description of the project, which explains the project's significance and importanceThe Pantanal region of Brazil is a vast domain of headwater wetlands that represents a little-documented aspect in the evolution of river systems. These environments are extremely important for the ecological health of tropical rivers. The environment is sensitive to both climatic and environmental changes, but the degree to which these will affect the region is unknown. This project will examine lake cores collected from the region to establish a chronology of environmental change in the region that documents the response of the system to climate and can help evaluate the possible effects of human intervention. This is a collaborative project that is co-funded by the NSF Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE).A technical description of the projectThis RAPID project will examine how changing environmental conditions can (1) impact surface processes (e.g., erosion and weathering); and (2) influence landscape evolution in lowland tropical wetlands. The field site is the little- studied Pantanal of central South America. The Brazilian Pantanal offers an excellent example of extensive savanna-floodplain wetland development along several coalescing megafans (large distributive fluvial systems). The main objective of this research is to collect new lake sediment cores from a large floodplain lake in the northern Pantanal. Lake deposits are a potential archive of Quaternary landscape evolution, as the dynamics of sediment composition and accumulation are sensitive to environmental transitions. The project will use standard techniques to assess how the lake accumulates sediment today, and use these data as a framework for interpreting older material recovered from the lake cores.