Lagoa dos Patos in southern Brazil is part of the largest lagoonal system in South America. The Holocene lagoonal sediments of the Lagoa dos Patos, mostly muds, have an average thickness of about 6 m as determined by 297 km of 7.0 kHz echograms. Holocene muddy sedimentation developed over a probable Upper Pleistocene coastal plain, whose surface has a subbottom reflector that could not be penetrated by the energy of a 7.0 kHz seismic wave. The characteristics of this reflecting surface suggest indurated Pleistocene muds and/or sediments that are coarser than the overlying muddy deposits of Holocene lagoon. Based on stratigraphic correlation and the local sea level curve, we estimate that Holocene sedimentation started about 8.0 ka ago. This yields an average deposition rate of 0.75 mm/yr. A broadly comparable average rate of 0.52 ± mm/yr was obtained for cored intervals between 14C samples from the upper part of these muddy Holocene lagoon deposits. These long-term sedimentation rates are much slower than rates based on two determinations of 210Pb for surface muds deposits in the last 150 years, which yielded values of 3.5 and 8.3 mm/yr. Quite possibly the high short-term rates may be the result of more rapid lagoonal sedimentation related to deforestation of the watershed of the lagoon and other impact types related with human activities during the 150 years of European colonization in the Rio Grande do Sul state. Also, the aim of this study is to identify present and possible future environmental problems related with high lagoonal sedimentation rates such as the water quality, port dredge and the presence of mud deposits on the oceanic beach.

Zones of erosion and accretion were delimited by comparing a DGPS shoreline mapping in 1997 and the beach line reproduced from the army chart collection of 1975. The results show extensive shore retreat along of Rio Grande do Sul central coast, while accretion was observed in Mostardas and Dunas Altas beach. Mathematical estimative of the regional longshore transport potential along the Rio Grande do Sul coast, a 630-km long holocenic fine sand barrier, resulted in a large net northward annual sand volume. Additionally, the estimated potential of sediment transport based on the CERC formula predicts a substantial variation of the energy flux into the surf zone, due to little changes in shoreline alignments and in the potential alongshore sediment transport. The reduction in the sediment flux due to changes in the shoreline alignment produce a jam in the longshore transport, meaning that part of the sediment arriving from the upstream stretch may be deposited or diverted offshore by coastal jet. Based on that, it is possible that changes in the net longshore sand transport are responsible for the increase in the shoreface width from less than 1 km to more than 3 km in Mostardas beach and Dunas Altas beach. Interesting to note that wider dune fields are associated to those beaches where shoreface is also wider. In this way, the volume of longshore sand transport and the sediment jam provide by changes on shoreline alignment in Mostardas and Dunas Altas beaches are important for both coastal dune fields and shoreface width.

No abstract