Changes in dunefield geomorphology and vegetation cover as a response to local and regional climate variations

Abstract

Miot da Silva, G., Hesp, P., Keim, B., Martinho, C.T. and Ferligoj, Y., 2013. Changes in dunefield geomorphology and vegetation cover as a response to local and regional climate variations. In: Conley, D.C., Masselink, G., Russell, P.E. and O'Hare, T.J. (eds.)Published analyses of aerial photographs show a marked increase in vegetation cover of coastal transgressive dunefields along the Southern Brazilian Holocene Barrier around the late 1970s. This phenomenon is reflecting an increase in precipitation and a decrease in aeolian sediment transport. These climatic changes are associated with recurring high intensity El Niño events related to the 1976/1977 regime shift of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO).