Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Environmental Earth Sciences (2019) 78:658 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-019-8666-5 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Determination of sedimentation rate of Hoor‑Al‑Azim wetland by carbon‑14 method and analysis of its past climate using element geochemistry Seyedeh Marziyeh Moosavian 1,2  · Abdolreza Karbassi 3  · Sima Sabzalipour 2  · Reza Amirnezhad 4  · Jahanbakhsh Daneshian 5 Received: 27 September 2018 / Accepted: 5 November 2019 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract Wetland sediments are considered as prominent documents for studying climate change and sedimentary environments globally. Environmental changes (whether in climate, terrain, or in both) afect the process of sedimentation. The sediment changes are also refected in the physical and chemical properties of sediments through which the process and the environ- ment of sedimentation in the ancient times can be tracked. There are several methods for identifying climatic conditions in the past, such as isotopic studies, vegetation identifcation, sedimentology, and geochemistry of elements. In this research, after the registration of the sediments, to reconstruct the past climatic conditions of the Hoor-Al-Azim wetland, the changes in manganese, calcium, iron, and aluminum elements along with three sedimentary cores at three stations were studied, and age determination with carbon-14 isotope in Core 3 was applied to determine the sedimentation rate. The depth of the cores taken was 50 cm and the number of specimens in each core was 11; a total of 132 samples were sent to the steel company of Khuzestan, so that the concentration of metals could be measured by ICP-OES. To determine the age of the 15, 30, and 45 cm depths taken from the southernmost core, sediment samples were sent to the Poznan Radiocarbon Laboratory in Poland. The average sedimentation rate in Hoor-Al-Azim wetland is around 0.3 mm per year and the core covers about 1500 years. As calcium, manganese, iron, and aluminum are the important indicators for determining the chronic climatic conditions and are sensitive to the climatic changes, and due to the anomalies of these elements along the cores, about 700 years ago, with decreasing calcium and elevated iron, alumina and manganese elements are the wet climates that have led to the introduc- tion of continental cessation deposits into the basin. After this period, the increase in calcium levels, which indicates an increase in sediment in the basin is considered as the beginning period of dry climate in the region. Of course, the efects of the changes of Karkheh River and the impact of human factors on these changes should not be neglected. Keywords Geochemistry of elements · Ancient climate · Sedimentation rate · Hoor-Al-Azim wetland Introduction Wetlands play a signifcant role in reducing the natural dis- asters, especially foods. Besides, they provide vital habitats for diferent types of animal and plant species, especially aquatic animals and birds (Donato et al. 2011). However, these natural ecosystems are heavily threatened, so that the damage caused to them, whether by direct or indirect human intervention, led them to the brink of a crisis (Heatherington and Bishop 2012). Hoor-Al-Azim is the largest lagoon in Khuzestan prov- ince and one of the most prominent wetlands in Iran, located west of Khuzestan, at the end of the Karkheh River. This wetland is made up of the excess water of the * Abdolreza Karbassi akarbasi@ut.ac.ir 1 Department of Environmental Science, Khoozestan Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz, Iran 2 Department of Environmental Science, Ahvaz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz, Iran 3 School of Environment, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran 4 Department of Environmental Science, Tonekabon Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tonekabon, Iran 5 Department of Geology, Tehran Branch, University of Kharazmi, Tehran, Iran