Do swarms of migrating barchan dunes record paleoenvironmental changes? — A case study spanning the middle to late Holocene in the Pampa de Jaguay, southern Peru

Swarms of barchan dunes are common in arid environments. Unlike immobile or slowly moving dunes whose stratigraphy can be used to reconstruct paleoenvironmental changes, the high migration rate of barchans seems to prohibit their use as geoarchives. In this paper, a possible use of barchan swarms for paleoenvironmental reconstructions is presented. The approach is based on dune migration. In a case study based on 500 dunes in the Pampa de Jaguay aeolian transport corridor in coastal southern Peru, middle to late Holocene changes in the supply of aeolian material are inferred from calculating the time of dune initiation at the coastline. Limitations posed by the assumptions underlying this approach are discussed.