Holoceno

Holoceno
Name	Holoceno
Era	Cenozoic
Period	Quaternary
Epoch start	~11,700 years BP
Preceding epoch	Pleistocene

Holoceno Holoceno denotes the current geological epoch characterized by postglacial climate stabilization, rising sea levels, expanding human civilizations and extensive anthropogenic change, overlapping archaeological cultures and modern nation-states. Major frameworks for understanding Holoceno span stratigraphy, paleoclimatology, archaeology, ecology and international policy, involving institutions, museums and scientific programs across continents.

Etymology and definition

The name Holoceno derives from Greek roots adopted in nomenclature debates at forums such as the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA), the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), and discussions involving the Geological Society of London (Geological Society of London), the Royal Society (Royal Society), and national geological surveys including the United States Geological Survey (United States Geological Survey) and the British Geological Survey (British Geological Survey). Definitions have been proposed in reports by the International Stratigraphic Guide, panels convened at conferences like the International Geological Congress and publications in journals associated with the American Geophysical Union, European Geosciences Union, and the National Academy of Sciences. Competing start-points and criteria were discussed by researchers from institutions such as University of Cambridge, Harvard University, Max Planck Society, Smithsonian Institution, University of Oxford and University of California, Berkeley.

Geological context and stratigraphy

Holoceno sits above the Pleistocene within the Quaternary Period as delineated by stratigraphers at the International Commission on Stratigraphy and recorded in stratotype sections and point proposals evaluated by the Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point panels. Key stratigraphic markers considered include oxygen isotope excursions measured in cores from sites like Greenland Ice Sheet Project and EPICA, tephra layers correlated with eruptions from Mount Toba, Mount Mazama, and Laki (volcano), and anthropogenic signatures preserved in lacustrine and marine sediments sampled by teams from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and Alfred Wegener Institute. Chronologies employ radiocarbon calibration curves developed by laboratories at Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, University of Groningen, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory alongside luminescence dating used by researchers at Australian National University and University of Arizona.

Climate and environmental changes

Holoceno climate evolution is reconstructed from records produced by projects like Greenland Ice Core Project and EPICA, borehole networks coordinated by International Heat Flow Commission, and oceanographic surveys by NOAA and Plymouth Marine Laboratory, revealing transitions such as the Younger Dryas, the Holocene Thermal Maximum, the 8.2 kiloyear event, the Medieval Warm Period, and the Little Ice Age. Studies by climate modelers at Met Office Hadley Centre, National Center for Atmospheric Research, IPCC, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and Princeton University link solar forcing analyses tied to Maunder Minimum and volcanic forcing from events like Mount Tambora to regional shifts recorded in proxies from Lake Baikal, Lake Titicaca, Dead Sea, and the Amazon Basin. Recent acceleration of warming and sea-level rise involves datasets managed by NOAA, NASA, European Space Agency, National Oceanography Centre, and policy responses discussed at United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conferences such as COP21.

Human impact and archeological record

Human societies expanded and transformed environments during Holoceno through processes documented at archaeological sites including Çatalhöyük, Göbekli Tepe, Stonehenge, Jōmon period sites, Clovis culture sites, and urban centers like Uruk, Teotihuacan, Angkor, Rome, Xi'an, and Tenochtitlan. Evidence from palaeobotany, zooarchaeology and isotopic studies by teams at British Museum, Field Museum, Peabody Museum, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, and Australian National University trace domestication events involving species linked to Fertile Crescent, Yangtze River, Indus Valley, Mesoamerica, and Andes regions. Technological trajectories encompassed metallurgy dispersals connected to Bronze Age Collapse research, agricultural intensification debated in cores from Loess Plateau and Nile Delta, and urbanization patterns examined alongside demographic estimates by scholars at Columbia University, University of Chicago, University of Tokyo, and Universidade de São Paulo.

Biodiversity and ecosystems

Holoceno ecosystems experienced extinctions and range shifts documented in records from museums and conservation bodies such as IUCN, World Wildlife Fund, Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, Natural History Museum, London, and Australian Museum. Megafaunal extinctions involving taxa studied at institutions including American Museum of Natural History, Royal Ontario Museum, and Museo Nacional de Antropología intersect with human colonization of islands like Madagascar, New Zealand, Tasmania, and Caribbean Islands and with climatic episodes recorded in cores from Cariaco Basin, Baffin Island, and Gulf of Alaska. Modern biodiversity loss, invasive species introductions, and land-use change have been the focus of research by Conservation International, UNEP, BirdLife International, The Nature Conservancy, and university groups at Yale University, Stanford University, and University of California, Davis.

Controversies and usage in scientific literature

Debates on formalizing an anthropogenic-subdivision of Holoceno have engaged communities at International Union for Quaternary Research, International Commission on Stratigraphy, Royal Society, National Academy of Sciences, and activist-scientist coalitions, with proposals for markers such as radionuclide peaks tied to Trinity nuclear test and Chernobyl disaster, microplastics documented by teams at University of Plymouth, and stable isotope shifts from industrialization recorded in archives curated by British Antarctic Survey. Controversies involve competing start-dates and working groups from Cambridge Anthropocene Working Group, critics publishing in Nature, Science, Quaternary Research, and policy discussions at United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The term's usage varies across journals edited by publishers like Elsevier, Springer Nature, and Wiley, and in outreach by museums such as Natural History Museum, London and Smithsonian Institution.

Category:Geological epochs