Attaining provenance proxies from OSL and TL sensitivities: Coupling with grain size and heavy minerals data from southern Brazilian coastal sediments

• OSL and TL sensitivities are confronted with grain size and heavy minerals data.
• We report OSL and 110 °C TL sensitivities as provenance proxies.
• 110 °C TL sensitivity outlines environmental changes better than OSL sensitivity data.

In the São Francisco do Sul (SFS) barrier in southern Brazil, the optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and thermoluminescence (TL) sensitivities of coastal sands vary according to geomorphological units. Sands from older beach ridges (ages older than 2000 years ago) show higher OSL and TL sensitivities than younger units (ages younger than 2000 years). Geomorphological units in the SFS attest to changes in provenance as a result of a coastal climate shift evidenced through grain size and heavy mineral analysis. We argue that in the SFS barrier sands, OSL and TL sensitivity signals provide an additional proxy to climate events and can be used as an alternative method to assess changes in provenance and tracking source-to-sink systems to monitor past and future environmental changes.