Even though continental margins only make up about a third of the oceanic area, they are responsible for >80% of carbon burial in marine sediments. Tropical continental margins, in particular, receive some of the largest terrestrial organic and inorganic riverine fluxes into the marine realm. This is the case for the Brazilian Margin. In addition, the Brazilian Margin occupies a crucial region of the global oceanic conveyor belt and is of key importance for the interaction of terrestrial low latitude climate and ocean dynamics.
Despite decades of research, it is yet not well constrained if and how its highly vulnerable marine and terrestrial ecological systems react to changes in climate. A better understanding to which degree future climate change will alter the Brazilian Margin requires synergetic efforts from multiple Earth system science disciplines. This Research Topic aims to bring together, but is not limited to, studies from the fields of Geology, Biology, and Oceanography and thereby intends to fundamentally improves our understanding of the Brazilian Margin as a key compartment of the (sub)tropical climate system and the South Atlantic dynamics.
Here we invite the submission of original research articles, but also comprehensive reviews, addressing both modern processes and paleo-perspectives about oceanography and hydrology (e.g., ocean currents, nutrient recycling, upwelling), biogeochemistry (e.g., C and N-cycles), micropaleontology (e.g., plankton catches, core top studies, faunal and geochemical proxy records), inorganic and organic geochemistry (e.g., trace elements, stable and radiogenic isotopes, rare earth elements and their isotopes, organic biomarkers), cold-water corals and their mounds (e.g., dating, ecology, geochemistry, sedimentology), palynology, land-ocean interaction (e.g., sediment transfer from land into the ocean), sedimentology (e.g., grain size, clay minerals) and anthropogenic influences (e.g., pollution, sediment erosion, coastal protection).