Lake Neor reveals how mountain vegetation responded to 7000 years of hydroclimate variability in northwestern Iran

Abstract

Palynological and geochemical analyses provide valuable information about modern and past climatic regimes and vegetation. The impact of climate and humans on past vegetation in the semi‐arid areas of northwestern Iran has received increased interest in the wake of warming temperatures in the Middle East. Palynological and down‐core XRF elemental abundances from a peat core from Lake Neor enabled a reconstruction of vegetational changes of the past 7000 years over the highlands of northwestern Iran. Periods of increased arboreal pollen (AP) types and high (Artemisia + Poaceae)/Chenopodiaceae ratios along with low titanium abundances, high percentages of total organic carbon, more negative δD values, and higher carbon accumulation rates suggest a relatively wet climate. These conditions have persisted during the periods 6700–6200, 5200–4450 and 3200–2200 cal a bp. The overall low AP values, substantial rise of Chenopodiaceae, high Ti abundances and low values of palaeo‐redox proxies, are all evidences of a drier climate, as has been reconstructed for the periods 6200–5200 and 4030–3150 cal a bp and the last 2200 years. An important feature of the last centuries is the increase of anthropogenic and pastoral indicator pollen types. Our results may provide basic data to predict future trends in vegetation dynamics under future climate change in western Asia.

Late Holocene paleoenvironmental changes inferred from multi-proxy studies of the Kholasht-Kouh Lake sediments in the Gilan mountains, northern Iran

“…860 cal yr BP (72 cm core depth), Fagus trees became more frequent indicating more closed canopy compared to previous phase, Fagus sapling, as the shade tolerant taxa out compete the lightdemanding Quercus sapling (Ligot et al 2013). Alinezhad et al (2021) showed also in their study on Neor Lake that over the last 1800 years, Quercus had the strongest occurrence at ca. 1000 cal yr BP, followed by a reduction after ca.…”

Vegetation and climate dynamics at the dawn of human settlement: multiproxy palaeoenvironmental evidence from the Hashilan Wetland, western Iran

“…1a). Variations in the intensity and interactions of these climate systems induce major shifts in climate regimes that have strong impacts on terrestrial ecosystems of the region (Fleitmann et al, 2003; Sharifi et al, 2015; Hamzeh et al, 2016; Talebi et al, 2016; Sharifi et al, 2018; Gurjazkaite et al, 2018; Vaezi et al, 2019; Safaierad et al, 2020; Alinezhad et al, 2021; Arsalani et al, 2022).…”

First pollen record from the Late Holocene forest environment in the Lesser Caucasus

“…It was based on pollen studies conducted in the 1970s that determined the presence of the forest on the shores of Lake Sevan in the middle Holocene. While the proportion of forest cover (35%) given by Sayadyan (2011) is highly debatable, its regression is a common feature documented in the Lesser Caucasus mountain ranges (Cromartie et al, 2020;Joannin et al, 2014a;Messager et al, 2013;Robles et al, 2022), the Alborz (Alinezhad et al, 2021;Homami Totmaj et al, 2021;Ramezani et al, 2021), the Zagros (Stevens et al, 2006(Stevens et al, , 2001 and Anatolia (Roberts et al, 2011;Wick et al, 2003).…”