The rise and demise of Iran’s Urmia Lake during the Holocene and the Anthropocene: “what’s past is prologue”

• Published in: Regional Environmental Change
• Main Authors: Sharifi, Arash, Djamali, Morteza, Peterson, Larry, Swart, Peter, Ávila, María Guadalupe Pulido, Esfahaninejad, Mojgan, de Beaulieu, Jacques-Louis, Lahijani, Hamid, Pourmand, Ali
• Other Authors: Neptune Isotope Laboratory (NIL), Department of Marine Geosciences, Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric & Earth Science, University of Miami, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149-1098, USA, Department of Marine Geosciences, Department of Marine Geosciences, Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric & Earth Science, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149-1098, USA, Beta Analytic-Isobar Science, Research and Development Department, 4985 SW 74th Ct, Miami, FL 33155, USA, Institut méditerranéen de biodiversité et d'écologie marine et continentale (IMBE), Avignon Université (AU)-Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Institut de recherche pour le développement IRD : UMR237-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratorio de Palinología, Instituto de Botánica, Departamento de Botánica y Zoología, Universidad de Guadalajara, Camino Ramón Padilla 2100, Las Agujas, Nextipac, C.P. 45200 Zapopan, Jalisco, México, Laboratorio Nacional de Identificación y Caracterización Vegetal (LaniVeg-CONACYT), Departamento de Botánica y Zoología, Universidad de Guadalajara, Camino Ramón Padilla 2100, Las Agujas, Nextipac, C.P. 45200 Zapopan, Jalisco, México, Nickel District Conservation Authority (NDCA), 401-199 Larch Street, Sudbury, ON P3E 5P9, Canada, Marine Geology Division, Iranian National Institute for Oceanography and Atmospheric Science (INIOAS), P.O. Box, Tehran 14155-4781, Iran
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2023
• Subjects: Urmia Lake; Hypersaline Lake; Holocene; Anthropocene; Paleorainfall; Human impact; Iran paleoclimate; Medieval Warm Period; Little Ice Age; [SDE]Environmental Sciences; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://amu.hal.science/hal-04204286; https://amu.hal.science/hal-04204286/document; https://amu.hal.science/hal-04204286/file/Sharifi%20et%20al-2023.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-023-02119-x

Urmia Lake in NW Iran was the world’s second largest hypersaline lake until three decades ago, when it began to lose ~ 90% of its surface area due to dwindling water input and enhanced evaporation. To help discern the role of natural vs anthropogenic factors in the rapid demise of Urmia Lake, we present a high-resolution, multi-proxy reconstruction of climate, and hydrological variability from the lake’s sediments. We identify several episodes of wet and dry conditions over the past 11,300 years, and an atmospheric teleconnection between the climate of the interior of West Asia and the North Atlantic region. Estimates of mean annual precipitation based on chemical weathering indices range between 174 and 401 mm year−1 during the Holocene. A combination of geochemical proxies, pollen reconstruction, and the absence of any evaporite horizons throughout the Holocene period point to the prevailing role of human impact on the current vanishing of Urmia Lake