The expansion of the agricultural frontiers that occurred in the last decades in the South American savanna (Cerrado), the second-largest biome in Brazil (covering an area of 204 million hectares), has accounted for a substantial portion of South America’s CO₂ emissions. In this context, our research investigated the potential for soil carbon storage in the biome. The analysis of previous data (n = 197) shows a vertical distribution pattern of soil carbon stock: 26.17% for the upper 0–30 cm layer, 37.67% for the 30–100 cm layer, and 36.15% for the 100–200 cm layer. The total soil carbon storage for the biome is 13.5 ± 6.7 gigatons (n = 71) for the upper 0–30 cm layer, 30.5 ± 18.9 Gt (n = 64) for the 0–100 cm layer, and 47.8 ± 4.3 (n = 9) for the 0–200 cm layer. The results indicate that the soil carbon stock up to 1 m deep in the Cerrado ranges from 0.5% to 2.29% of the global soil organic carbon storage for this depth. Further research is necessary to investigate what happens at a depth of at least 2 m. The results also indicate that the soil under pasture lands constitutes the largest manageable pool for increasing soil carbon stocks via the restoration of degraded pastures.

O rio São Francisco é o maior rio que drena as áreas cratônicas das savanas do Cerrado, e ambientes semiáridos da Caatinga no Nordeste do Brasil. Este estudo apresenta o primeiro mapa geomorfológico do Médio rio São Francisco e descreve as principais unidades morfosedimentares da planície aluvial. O uso de imagens de satélite de alta resolução, modelos digitais de elevação, dados de poços de estudos anteriores e descrições de campos morfosedimentares foram os procedimentos aplicados. Oito unidades geomorfológicas foram reconhecidas. A unidade classificada como Planície impedida é a mais rica em termos de diversidade de feições geomorfológicas, e foi subclassificada em sete subunidades morfosedimentares. Pelo menos três estágios fluviais devem ser responsáveis pela construção do atual mosaico de morfologias exibidas na planície de inundação. É provável que o canal entrelaçado seja o tipo de sistema mais antigo atuado na região e tenha deixado marcas na planície preservada. Posteriormente, um importante estágio mais úmido induziu uma mudança no comportamento do rio principal para um tipo multicanal, responsável pelas principais características da corrente observada. Finalmente, o estágio atual, mais seco, com menor vazão do rio, controlou o desenvolvimento da planície de inundação de acreção das margens e da planície de inundação fluvial-eólica durante o Holoceno tardio. Portanto, essas variações paleohidrológicas do rio São Francisco devem ter um papel fundamental na construção da complexa e relicta planície do Médio rio São Francisco.

Impact cratering plays a major role in shaping the Moon’s surface, producing widespread ejecta deposits that archive the sedimentary and morphological imprint of planetary surface processes. Since early 2019, Chang’e-4 mission has been investigating such deposits within Von Kármán crater, where materials ejected from the nearby Finsen crater were emplaced across a complex landscape. This setting offers a rare opportunity to study ejecta emplacement directly from the ground. Yet, despite valuable in-situ subsurface exploration, the geomorphic patterns and depositional mechanisms of these ejecta remain unconstrained at the scale of individual landforms. Here we integrate digital terrain analysis with lunar penetrating radar data to characterize the morphology and internal structure of the landform traversed by the mission’s rover. The analysis defines the spatial extent of the landform and reveals its intricate morphology, configured as an ridge over a sheet-like flow. Internally, we identify two stacked sedimentary sequences overlying mare basalt: a basal paleoregolith marked by hummocky structure, overlain by Finsen ejecta. Ejecta morphology reflects interactions between local topography and deposition volume, with ridge areas reaching ~30 m in thickness, including ~10 m imaged by radar. The landform’s shape and subsurface architecture support the interpretation that emplacement triggered a syn-depositional dry debris flow that remobilized the underlying paleoregolith. These findings provide an example of medial-to-distal ejecta emplacement shaped by dynamic processes, contrasting with more static classical models. They demonstrate how integrating surface and subsurface data supports reproducible ejecta models, offering a framework for investigations across the Moon and other planetary surfaces.

Inland tropical dune systems in South America serve as critical archives of past environmental conditions. This study examines the Middle São Francisco Dune Field (MSF-DF), one of the largest inland aeolian systems in tropical South America. We integrate remote sensing, field data, ground-penetrating radar (GPR), gravimetry, and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating to reconstruct the morpho-chronostratigraphy and develop an evolutionary geomorphic–paleoenvironmental model. Our results indicate that dune initiation was triggered by localized deflation of fluvial sediments along a structurally controlled, sediment-rich knickzone of the São Francisco River. These initial deflation nuclei evolved into transgressive dune forms and later stabilized into large-scale source-bordering dunes (SBDs), laying the groundwork for inland aeolian expansion. Geomorphic mapping reveals a pathway-like spatial organization, shaped by prevailing winds, paleotopography, and fluvio-aeolian interactions. The sand field encompasses diverse morphologies, including parabolic megadunes, sandy ramps, and extensive sand sheets. OSL dating across representative landforms identifies four phases of dune activity since ~108 ka. The most significant construction and diversification phase occurred between 61-40 ka, likely driven by increased aridity and wind energy, establishing the dominant dune forms and their spatial configuration. Later reworking episodes during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene were more localized and morphodynamically subdued. By integrating surface morphology, internal stratigraphy, and geochronological data, we propose a process-based conceptual model for the evolution of the MSF-DF. These findings underscore the diagnostic potential of geomorphological analysis in interpreting aeolian systems and highlight the value of morpho-evolutionary-based approaches for reconstructing paleoenvironmental aeolian records in tropical South America