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Mid-Holocene Climate of Tropical South America: A Model-Data Approach

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Past Climate Variability in South America and Surrounding Regions

Part of the book series: Developments in Paleoenvironmental Research ((DPER,volume 14))

Abstract

Most of the Early and mid-Holocene paleoclimate studies in tropical South America indicate a drier climate in Amazon and Southeast Brazil and a wetter climate in Venezuela. This pattern has been interpreted as a northward migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) due to insolation changes explained by Milancovitch cycles. We show how model simulations and model-data comparisons can help to investigate further the reason of these changes by considering the mid-Holocene period (6 ka). The insolation effect and the vegetation interaction on the seasonal cycle are explored with emphasis on the regional impact on precipitation and on the atmospheric circulation. A major feature of the mean mid-Holocene simulated climate is indeed the decrease of the rainfall in the South Atlantic Convergence Zone (SACZ) region compared to present day, which is confirmed by the proxy data. However, the ITCZ migrates southward during the Southern Hemisphere summer thus enhancing the precipitation in Northeast Brazil. The SACZ and ITCZ displacements are enhanced by the vegetation feedback. The analysis of the transient meridional heat transport and of the baroclinicity of the model climate suggests more intense winter and early spring cold outbreaks in the central region of South America, which seems in agreement with paleoclimate proxies.

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Acknowledgments

Most of this work was made possible thanks to CNPq/IRD grants (“PALEOTROPICA”, “CLIMPAST”) and to the French LEFE EVE project ECHOS. This work is also part of the PROSUR(IAI) project. FAPESP provided the financial support to Tatiana Jorgetti. The Milenium Institute in Mathematics financed by FINEP/CNPq Brazil is also acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Laboratory of Scientific Computing and Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Pedro L. Silva Dias

  2. IPSL/LOCEAN, Laboratoire d’Océanographie et du Climat: Expérimentation et Approches Numériques (UPMC/CNRS/IRD/MNHN)Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, 32 av Henri Varagnat, 93143, Paris, Bondy cedex, France

    Bruno Turcq

  3. National Laboratory of Scientific Computing and Centro de Previsão de Tempo e Estudos Climáticos (CPTEC), Rodovia Presidente Dutra, Km 40, 12630-000, Cachoeira Paulista, SP-RJ, Brasil

    Maria Assunção F. Silva Dias

  4. IPSL/ LSCE, Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de L’Environnement, Point courrier 129. CE Saclay, 91191, Orme des Merisiers, Gif sur Yvette cedex, France

    Pascale Braconnot

  5. National Laboratory of Scientific Computing and Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences, University of São PauloRua do Matão 1226, Cidade Universitária, 05508-090, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

    Tatiana Jorgetti

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  1. Pedro L. Silva Dias
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  2. Bruno Turcq
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  3. Maria Assunção F. Silva Dias
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  4. Pascale Braconnot
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  5. Tatiana Jorgetti
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Correspondence to Pedro L. Silva Dias .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. IRD, CEA-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, 91191, France

    Francoise Vimeux

  2. L'Institut de Recherché pour le, CEREGE, Aix-en-Provence, 13545, France

    Florence Sylvestre

  3. IRD, CEA-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, 91191, France

    Myriam Khodri

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Silva Dias, P.L., Turcq, B., Silva Dias, M.A.F., Braconnot, P., Jorgetti, T. (2009). Mid-Holocene Climate of Tropical South America: A Model-Data Approach. In: Vimeux, F., Sylvestre, F., Khodri, M. (eds) Past Climate Variability in South America and Surrounding Regions. Developments in Paleoenvironmental Research, vol 14. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2672-9_11

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