Modern influences on chironomid distribution in western Ireland: potential for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction
Ireland provides a unique setting for the study of past climates, as its climate is dominated by westerly airflow from the North Atlantic and readily responsive to changes in North Atlantic circulation patterns. Although there has been substantial research on Ireland’s past environments, quantitativ...
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Online Access: | https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:341863 |
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ftunivqespace:oai:espace.library.uq.edu.au:UQ:341863 2023-05-15T17:31:38+02:00 Modern influences on chironomid distribution in western Ireland: potential for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction Potito, Aaron P. Woodward, Craig A. McKeon, Michelle Beilman, David W. 2014-10-07 https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:341863 eng eng Springer Netherlands doi:10.1007/s10933-014-9800-8 issn:1573-0417 issn:0921-2728 Not set Chironomids Ireland Inference model Temperature Agriculture 1104 Aquatic Science 1904 Earth-Surface Processes Journal Article 2014 ftunivqespace https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-014-9800-8 2020-12-15T02:07:00Z Ireland provides a unique setting for the study of past climates, as its climate is dominated by westerly airflow from the North Atlantic and readily responsive to changes in North Atlantic circulation patterns. Although there has been substantial research on Ireland’s past environments, quantitative palaeolimnological research, especially chironomid-based research, has been lacking. In order to further develop chironomid-based palaeolimnological investigations, a calibration set was constructed to determine the dominant environmental controls on modern chironomids in western Ireland. Chironomid subfossils were collected from surface sediments of 50 lakes. The lakes were characterised with 36 environmental variables, including physical attributes, lake water characteristics, lake sediment characteristics and land cover within each catchment. In this exploratory study, no specific environmental variable was targeted and lakes were chosen to span gradients of latitude, elevation, depth and trophic status. Redundancy analysis showed that six environmental variables—mean July air temperature, lake depth, dissolved organic carbon, and percentage catchment land cover of agriculture, peat bog and scrubland—captured a large and statistically significant portion of the variance in the chironomid data. July temperature and agricultural land cover were the most dominant environmental variables, with July temperature proving the most suitable for inference model development. A classical weighted-averaging model was developed to estimate July air temperature, with a coefficient of determination (r ) of 0.60 and root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 0.57 °C. Results suggest that summer temperature is the dominant influence on chironomid distribution across a wide variety of lake types, and the relatively small RMSEP should allow for more accurate reconstructions of Ireland’s relatively subdued Holocene temperature fluctuations. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic The University of Queensland: UQ eSpace Journal of Paleolimnology 52 4 385 404 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
The University of Queensland: UQ eSpace |
op_collection_id |
ftunivqespace |
language |
English |
topic |
Chironomids Ireland Inference model Temperature Agriculture 1104 Aquatic Science 1904 Earth-Surface Processes |
spellingShingle |
Chironomids Ireland Inference model Temperature Agriculture 1104 Aquatic Science 1904 Earth-Surface Processes Potito, Aaron P. Woodward, Craig A. McKeon, Michelle Beilman, David W. Modern influences on chironomid distribution in western Ireland: potential for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction |
topic_facet |
Chironomids Ireland Inference model Temperature Agriculture 1104 Aquatic Science 1904 Earth-Surface Processes |
description |
Ireland provides a unique setting for the study of past climates, as its climate is dominated by westerly airflow from the North Atlantic and readily responsive to changes in North Atlantic circulation patterns. Although there has been substantial research on Ireland’s past environments, quantitative palaeolimnological research, especially chironomid-based research, has been lacking. In order to further develop chironomid-based palaeolimnological investigations, a calibration set was constructed to determine the dominant environmental controls on modern chironomids in western Ireland. Chironomid subfossils were collected from surface sediments of 50 lakes. The lakes were characterised with 36 environmental variables, including physical attributes, lake water characteristics, lake sediment characteristics and land cover within each catchment. In this exploratory study, no specific environmental variable was targeted and lakes were chosen to span gradients of latitude, elevation, depth and trophic status. Redundancy analysis showed that six environmental variables—mean July air temperature, lake depth, dissolved organic carbon, and percentage catchment land cover of agriculture, peat bog and scrubland—captured a large and statistically significant portion of the variance in the chironomid data. July temperature and agricultural land cover were the most dominant environmental variables, with July temperature proving the most suitable for inference model development. A classical weighted-averaging model was developed to estimate July air temperature, with a coefficient of determination (r ) of 0.60 and root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 0.57 °C. Results suggest that summer temperature is the dominant influence on chironomid distribution across a wide variety of lake types, and the relatively small RMSEP should allow for more accurate reconstructions of Ireland’s relatively subdued Holocene temperature fluctuations. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Potito, Aaron P. Woodward, Craig A. McKeon, Michelle Beilman, David W. |
author_facet |
Potito, Aaron P. Woodward, Craig A. McKeon, Michelle Beilman, David W. |
author_sort |
Potito, Aaron P. |
title |
Modern influences on chironomid distribution in western Ireland: potential for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction |
title_short |
Modern influences on chironomid distribution in western Ireland: potential for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction |
title_full |
Modern influences on chironomid distribution in western Ireland: potential for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction |
title_fullStr |
Modern influences on chironomid distribution in western Ireland: potential for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction |
title_full_unstemmed |
Modern influences on chironomid distribution in western Ireland: potential for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction |
title_sort |
modern influences on chironomid distribution in western ireland: potential for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction |
publisher |
Springer Netherlands |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:341863 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_relation |
doi:10.1007/s10933-014-9800-8 issn:1573-0417 issn:0921-2728 Not set |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-014-9800-8 |
container_title |
Journal of Paleolimnology |
container_volume |
52 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
385 |
op_container_end_page |
404 |
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1766129311273713664 |