Climate changes in Northeastern Brazil from deglacial to Meghalayan periods and related environmental impacts

Changes in insolation driven by precession and obliquity are considered the major driver of tropical precipitation on orbital time scales, and responsible for vegetation and physical landscape changes during the Late Holocene over tropical South America. Here we investigate the environmental changes in the karst region of Chapada do Apodi - Northeastern Brazil (NEB), using a multi-proxy approach including carbon (δ¹³C), oxygen (δ¹⁸O) and strontium (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) isotopic analyses on speleothems from different caves, carbonate bedrock, and clastic cave deposits. This approach reveals that the balance between soil formation and erosion and their alternating impact on vegetation and precipitation changes occurred in response to variations in the position and intensity of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) over the region. The high δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O and low ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values at 4,200 yrs BP indicate a massive episode of soil erosion, resulting in the exposure of carbonate bedrocks over a large area of the karst terrain. This event marks the beginning of the Meghalayan chronozone, characterized as the aridification of this region, decline in soil production, drying out of underground drainages, and increased dominance of dry-adapted flora species, characteristic of a more open vegetation (caatinga). We investigated if the Holocene climatic changes affected human occupation in the NEB and found that the overall demographic course is virtually identical to the well-established curve characterized by population deflation during Middle Holocene.