Iran's Climatic Change in the Holocene

Introduction Paleoclimatics studies can respond the many uncertainties about past climate change; an issue that is being studied seriously in the world but less attention has been paid in Iran. The Late Quaternary can be considered as Holocene. Holocene, which spans over 11,000 years ago; In general, it is considered as a period with relatively warm and stable climatic conditions. However, recent studies have shown that the Holocene climate is relatively unstable and characterized by several short-term climate fluctuations. The present study attempts to investigate the events of the late quaternary climate change in Iran. Hence, by studying various internal and external sources, first major climatic changes were identified at the late quaternary, and then these changes were detected in Iran. Then, based on the results of a case study, the results of the studies were tested. This research seeks to answer the following questions: - Is it possible to detect the major events of the Holocene climate change in Iran? - Is there a difference between the time of occurrence of major Holocene climate changes in Iran and other parts of the world? - How has moisture changes been in cold and hot periods?   Method and Materials This research consists of two sections. In the first, a review has been conducted. In this section, first, using studies in relation to the late Quaternary climate change in the world, major climatic changes were identified in the Late Quaternary. Then, by studying and reviewing existing theories and resources, including books and articles, it has been attempted to determine the overall framework for climate change in Iran at the Late Quaternary. In the second part, the results of a case study were used to confirm the review studies. This case study includes a core length of 8.5 m, taken from the Parishan lake floor. In this section, two proxies were used to carry out analyzes and identify climate changes of late Quaternary, which include the use of palynology and magnetism susceptibility methods. The magnetism susceptibility technique was used to determine the warm-cold periods and the reconstruction of paleo-vegetation was used to determine wet-dry periods. To calculate the AP/NAP index, samples were taken in 10 cm interval from the sedimentary cores and pollens extracted and identified by the method of Moore et al., 1991 (with slightly change). Samples were also used to measure the magnetism susceptibility by use the Bartington Susceptibility Meter with a 1 cm interval.   Results The studies on climate change in this period show a number of significant fluctuations, including four cold events: The Younger Dryas, The 8.2 ka cooling event, The Cold period of Migration time and The Little Ica Age (LIA), and 4 warm events: The climatic optimum, The Roman warm period, The Medieval Warm Period (MWP) and The Modern warming period. In the Parishan Lake, 6 major cold and warm periods in Holocene can be identified, for the four of them, it can be found that there is an approximate correspondence with the temperature changes occurring on the planet, but these courses have been delayed. Discussion The results indicate a reverse relationship between the moisture index and the magnetism susceptibility; in fact, during warm periods humidity has increased, and humidity has decreased during cold periods. The rate of moisture index has also decreased with increasing cold intensity; in the Younger Dryas and The 8.2 ka cooling events have lowest temperatures in the region and the lowest moisture index has been recorded in these two periods. The highest moisture content was recorded in The Climatic Optimum.   Conclusion The results of this study showed that there is a good correlation between cold and warm periods in other parts of the world with Iran, although between these periods in Iran and North Europe and the United States there is a time lag of approximately 200 to 300 years. Also, the existence of cold-dry and warm-wet periods was confirmed in the past of Iran. In the studied region, at the Younger Dryas and The 8.2 ka cooling events, with the lowest temperatures in the area, the amount of tree species has reached almost zero, which indicates the dryness of the area during cold periods. In all warm periods, the moisture index of AP/NAP was higher than the cold periods. It can be concluded that warm periods were generally more humid than cold periods.