Vegetation reconstruction in Serra do Mar State Park - Curucutu Nucleus since the Middle Holocene

Abstract

This research is inserted in the project "Reconstruction of the vegetation and climate since the middle Holocene in Brazil", in preparation in the C-14 Laboratory of CENA, being an extension of the Master thesis of Mofatto M., 2005, that involved environmental changes during the last 30,000 years in the region of Nucleo de Curucutu. The objective of this research is to evaluate the paleoenvironmental changes that occurred during ~6000 - 5000 years in high resolution, observing the changes of vegetation each ~300 years. Carbon isotope (12C, 13C e 14C) and pollen analyses will carry out in a peat material collected in a peat bog at Reserva Florestal do Parque Estadual da Serra do Mar, Núcleo Curucutu, São Paulo, SP. We intend to reconstruct the environmental changes that occurred in the region with centennial of year resolution, and to verify its relation and influence with the current climate and vegetation. The other objective is that the student understand and apply the techniques used in this work, and learn how to analyze and to interpret the data set, associating with climatic variations.