Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T09:55:48.328Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Timing of Atmospheric Precipitation in the Zagros Mountains Inferred from a Multi-Proxy Record from Lake Mirabad, Iran

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Lora R. Stevens ,
Emi Ito ,
Antje Schwalb  and
Herbert E. Wright Jr.
Lora R. Stevens*
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, California State University, Long Beach, CA 90840-3902, USA
Emi Ito
Affiliation:
Limnological Research Center, Winchell School of Earth Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
Antje Schwalb
Affiliation:
Institut für Umweltgeologie, Technische Universität Braunschweig, D-38106 Braunschweig, Germany
Herbert E. Wright Jr.
Affiliation:
Limnological Research Center, Winchell School of Earth Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
*
⁎Corresponding author. Fax: +1 562 985 8638. E-mail address:[email protected] (L.R. Stevens).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A sediment core 7.2 m long from Lake Mirabad, Iran, was examined for loss-on-ignition, mineralogy, oxygen-isotopic composition of authigenic calcite, and trace-element composition of ostracodes to complement earlier pollen and ostracode-assemblage studies. Pollen, ostracode-inferred lake level, and high Sr/Ca ratios indicate that the early Holocene (10000 to 6500 cal yr BP) was drier than the late Holocene. Low δ18O values during this interval are interpreted as resulting from winter-dominated precipitation, characteristic of a Mediterranean climate. Increasing δ18O values after 6500 cal yr BP signal a gradual increase in spring rains, which are present today. A severe 600-yr drought occurred at ca. 5500 cal yr BP, shortly after the transition from pistachio-almond to oak forest. During the late Holocene, two milder droughts occurred at about 1500 and 500 cal yr BP. Within the resolution of the record, no drought is evident during the collapse of the Akkadian empire (4200–3900 cal yr BP). Rather, a decrease in δ18O values to early-Holocene levels may indicate the return to a Mediterranean precipitation regime.

Keywords

Near EastHoloceneOxygen-isotopesPollenOstracodesStrontiumSeasonalityDroughtMirabad
Type
Special Issue Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 66 , Issue 3 , November 2006 , pp. 494 - 500
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bar-Matthew, M., Ayalon, A., and Kaufman, A. Late Quaternary paleoclimate in the eastern Mediterranean region from stable isotope analysis of speleothems at Soreq Cave, Israel. Quaternary Research 47, (1997). 155–168.Google Scholar
Chivas, A.R., De Deckker, P., and Shelley, J.M.G. Strontium content of ostracods indicates lacustrine palaeosalinity. Nature 316, (1985). 251–253.Google Scholar
Cullen, H., deMenocal, P.B., Hemming, S., Hemming, G., Brown, F.H., Guilderson, T., and Sirocko, F. Climate change and the collapse of the Akkadian empire: evidence from the deep sea. Geology 28, (2000). 379–382.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dean, W.E. Determination of carbonate and organic matter in calcareous sediments and sedimentary rocks by loss on ignition: comparison with other methods. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 44, (1974). 242–248.Google Scholar
Eugster, H.P., and Jones, B.F. Behavior of major solutes during closed-basin brine evolution. American Journal of Science 279, (1979). 609–631.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, J.P., Smith, R.B., and Oglesby, R.J. Middle East Climate simulation and dominant precipitation processes. International Journal of Climatology 24, (2004). 1671–1694.Google Scholar
Frumkin, A., Magaritz, M., Carmi, I., and Zak, I. The Holocene climatic record of the salt caves of Mount Sedom, Israel. The Holocene 1, (1991). 191–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griffiths, H.I., Schwalb, A., and Stevens, L.R. Environmental change in southwestern Iran: the Holocene ostracod fauna of Lake Mirabad. The Holocene 11, (2001). 757–764.Google Scholar
IAEA/WMO, (1998). Global Network for Isotopes in Precipitation. The GNIP Database. Release 3. URL http://www.iaea.org/programs/ri/gnip/gnipmain.htm.Google Scholar
Kendrew, W.G. The Climates of the Continents. 5th ed (1961). Oxford University Press, London. 608 pp. Google Scholar
Parker, A.G., Eckersley, L., Smith, M.M., Goudie, A.S., Stokes, S., Ward, S., White, K., and Hodson, M.J. Holocene vegetation dynamics in the northeastern Rub' al-Khali desert, Arabian Peninsula: a phytolith, pollen and carbon isotope study. Journal of Quaternary Science 19, (2004). 665–676.Google Scholar
Roberts, N., Reed, J.M., Leng, M.J., Kuzucuoglu, C., Fontugne, J., Bertaux, , Woldring, H., Bottema, S., Black, S., Hunt, E., and Karabiyikoglu, M. The tempo of Holocene climatic change in the eastern Mediterranean region: new high-resolution crater-lake sediment data from central Turkey. The Holocene 11, (2001). 721–736.Google Scholar
Rossignol-Strick, M. The Holocene climatic optimum and pollen records of sapropel 1 in the eastern Mediterranean, 9000–6000 BP. Quaternary Science Reviews 18, (1999). 515–530.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevens, L.R., Wright, H.E. Jr., and Ito, E. Proposed changes in seasonality of climate during the Late-glacial and Holocene at Lake Zeribar, Iran. The Holocene 11, (2001). 747–756.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M. Yale radiocarbon measurements IX. Radiocarbon 4, (1969). 545–658.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J., Bard, E., Beck, J.W., Burr, G.S., Hughen, K.A., Kromer, B., McCormac, F.G., v.d. Plicht, J., and Spurk, M. Calib 4.2. Radiocarbon 40, (1998). 1041–1083.Google Scholar
Van Zeist, W., and Bottema, S. Palynological investigations in western Iran. Palaeohistoria XIX, (1977). 19–85.Google Scholar
Watson, R.A., Wright, H.E. Jr. The Saidmarreh landslide, Iran. Geological Society of America Special Paper 123, (1969). 115–139.Google Scholar
Weiss, H., Courty, M.-A., Wetterstrom, W., Guichard, F., Senior, L., Meadow, R., and Curnow, A. The genesis and collapse of third millennium North Mesopotamian civilization. Science 261, (1993). 995–1004.Google Scholar
Wigley, T.M.L., and Farmer, G. Climate of the eastern Mediterranean and near east. Bintcliff, J.L., and Van Zeist, W. Paleoclimates, Paleoenvironments and Human Communities in the Eastern Mediterranean Region in later Prehistory. BAR International Series 133. (1982). British Archaeological, Oxford. 3–37.Google Scholar
Wright, H.E. Jr., Ammann, B., Stefanova, I., Atanassova, J., Margalitadze, N., Wick, L., and Blyarkarchuk, T. Late-glacial and early-Holocene dry climates from the Balkan peninsula to southern Siberia. Tonkov, S. Aspects of Palynology and Palaeoecology. (2003). Pensoft Publishers, Sofia. 127–136.Google Scholar
Xia, J., Ito, E., and Engstrom, D.R. Geochemistry of ostracode calcite: 2. The effects of water chemistry and seasonal temperature variation on Candona rawsoni . Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 61, (1997). 383–391.Google Scholar