Amazon 10kyr: from the past climate to future challenges

Abstract

The Amazon Basin, comprising 7.5 million km² plays a key role in the global climate system, acting as a major component of the South American Monsoon System (SAMS), coupling the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) to the South Atlantic Convergence Zone (ZACS).  It is an important player in the moisture source for the tropics and sub-tropics in the South Atlantic Sector, recycling the water through the vegetation and surface soil, and contributing to the hydrological cycle of the Andean high mountains. Its evolution along the Holocene is still an issue of debate with inconclusive hypotheses about the evolution of the forest and its biodiversity. An important dry event (or megadrought) that took part during the mid-Holocene in the Amazon basin has been a matter of interest for paleoclimatologists