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

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Abstract

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.

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Data availability

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary materials. These data are additionally available online: https://zenodo.org/record/7240650#.Y1SvIuTMI5k.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Naser Ghasemi, Majid Pourkerman, and Mehdi Moradi for their extensive support during the fieldwork. Dahvya Belkacem is also thanked for assisting in laboratory pollen extraction.

Funding

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation grant EAR-1003639 to A. Pourmand and by a Geological Society of America Graduate Student Research Grant to A. Sharifi. The field campaign was supported by INIOAS project No 391-012-01.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 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

    Arash Sharifi & Ali Pourmand

  2. Department of Marine Geosciences, Department of Marine Geosciences, Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric & Earth Science, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL, 33149-1098, USA

    Arash Sharifi, Larry C. Peterson, Peter K. Swart & Ali Pourmand

  3. Beta Analytic-Isobar Science, Research and Development Department, 4985 SW 74th Ct, Miami, FL, 33155, USA

    Arash Sharifi

  4. Institut Méditerranéen de biodiversité et d’Ecologie (IMBE – UMR CNRS 7263 / IRD 237 / Aix-Marseille Univ/Avignon Université), Europôle Méditerranéen de l’Arbois, BP 80, 13545 cedex 04, Aix-en-Provence, France

    Morteza Djamali & Jacques-Louis de Beaulieu

  5. 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

    María Guadalupe Pulido Ávila

  6. 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

    María Guadalupe Pulido Ávila

  7. Nickel District Conservation Authority (NDCA), 401-199 Larch Street, Sudbury, ON, P3E 5P9, Canada

    Mojgan Esfahaninejad

  8. Marine Geology Division, Iranian National Institute for Oceanography and Atmospheric Science (INIOAS), P.O. Box, Tehran, 14155-4781, Iran

    Hamid A. K. Lahijani

Authors
  1. Arash Sharifi
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  2. Morteza Djamali
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  3. Larry C. Peterson
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  4. Peter K. Swart
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  5. María Guadalupe Pulido Ávila
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  6. Mojgan Esfahaninejad
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  7. Jacques-Louis de Beaulieu
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  8. Hamid A. K. Lahijani
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  9. Ali Pourmand
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Contributions

A. S. and A. P. designed the study. Fieldwork and sampling were conducted by A. S. and H. A. K. L. organized the expedition. X. R. F. analysis of cores and data interpretation performed A. S. and L. C. P. Pollen extraction and data interpretation were performed by M. D., M. G. P. A, and J. L. B. Geochemical analyses were performed by A. S., A. P., and P. K. S. DEM model and GIS mapping was conducted by M. E. A. S. wrote the original draft of the manuscript. All authors equally contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Arash Sharifi or Ali Pourmand.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Communicated by Juan Ignacio Lopez Moreno

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Sharifi, A., Djamali, M., Peterson, L.C. et al. The rise and demise of Iran’s Urmia Lake during the Holocene and the Anthropocene: “what’s past is prologue”. Reg Environ Change 23, 121 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-023-02119-x

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