The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Climate of the Little Ice Age and the past 2000 years in northeast Iceland inferred from chironomids and other lake sediment proxies

Climate of the Little Ice Age and the past 2000 years in northeast Iceland inferred from chironomids and other lake sediment proxies
Climate of the Little Ice Age and the past 2000 years in northeast Iceland inferred from chironomids and other lake sediment proxies
A sedimentary record from lake Stora Viðarvatn in northeast Iceland records environmental changes over the past 2000 years. Downcore data include chironomid (Diptera: Chironomidae) assemblage data and total organic carbon, nitrogen, and biogenic silica content. Sample scores from detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) of chironomid assemblage data are well correlated with measured temperatures at Stykkisho´lmur over the 170 year instrumental record, indicating that chironomid assemblages at Stora Viðarvatn have responded sensitively to past temperature changes. DCA scores appear to be useful for quantitatively inferring past temperatures at this site. In contrast, a quantitative chironomid-temperature transfer function developed for northwestern Iceland does a relatively poor job of reconstructing temperature shifts, possibly due to the lake’s large size and depth relative to the calibration sites or to the limited resolution of the subfossil taxonomy. The pre-instrumental climate history inferred from chironomids and other paleolimnological proxies is supported by prior inferences from historical documents, glacier reconstructions, and paleoceanographic studies. Much of the first millennium AD was relatively warm, with temperatures comparable to warm decades of the twentieth century. Temperatures during parts of the tenth and eleventh centuries AD may have been comparably warm. Biogenic silica concentrations declined, carbon:nitrogen ratios increased, and some chironomid taxa disappeared from the lake between the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries, recording the decline of temperatures into the Little Ice Age, increasing soil erosion, and declining lake productivity. All the proxy reconstructions indicate that the most severe Little Ice Age conditions occurred during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a period historically associated with maximum sea-ice and glacier extent around Iceland.
iceland, holocene paleoclimate, little ice age, chironomidae, midges, paleolimnology
0921-2728
7-24
Axford, Yarrow
57d964d8-424f-40ef-a5f8-77fbf5bfe916
Geirsdóttir, Áslaug
b27545c1-b9b8-4b2e-9c3b-f60fed11e346
Miller, Gifford H.
93b3a78d-0515-44d9-a192-d11d0bf420fc
Langdon, Peter G.
95b97671-f9fe-4884-aca6-9aa3cd1a6d7f
Axford, Yarrow
57d964d8-424f-40ef-a5f8-77fbf5bfe916
Geirsdóttir, Áslaug
b27545c1-b9b8-4b2e-9c3b-f60fed11e346
Miller, Gifford H.
93b3a78d-0515-44d9-a192-d11d0bf420fc
Langdon, Peter G.
95b97671-f9fe-4884-aca6-9aa3cd1a6d7f

Axford, Yarrow, Geirsdóttir, Áslaug, Miller, Gifford H. and Langdon, Peter G. (2009) Climate of the Little Ice Age and the past 2000 years in northeast Iceland inferred from chironomids and other lake sediment proxies. Journal of Paleolimnology, 41 (1), 7-24. (doi:10.1007/s10933-008-9251-1).

Record type: Article

Abstract

A sedimentary record from lake Stora Viðarvatn in northeast Iceland records environmental changes over the past 2000 years. Downcore data include chironomid (Diptera: Chironomidae) assemblage data and total organic carbon, nitrogen, and biogenic silica content. Sample scores from detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) of chironomid assemblage data are well correlated with measured temperatures at Stykkisho´lmur over the 170 year instrumental record, indicating that chironomid assemblages at Stora Viðarvatn have responded sensitively to past temperature changes. DCA scores appear to be useful for quantitatively inferring past temperatures at this site. In contrast, a quantitative chironomid-temperature transfer function developed for northwestern Iceland does a relatively poor job of reconstructing temperature shifts, possibly due to the lake’s large size and depth relative to the calibration sites or to the limited resolution of the subfossil taxonomy. The pre-instrumental climate history inferred from chironomids and other paleolimnological proxies is supported by prior inferences from historical documents, glacier reconstructions, and paleoceanographic studies. Much of the first millennium AD was relatively warm, with temperatures comparable to warm decades of the twentieth century. Temperatures during parts of the tenth and eleventh centuries AD may have been comparably warm. Biogenic silica concentrations declined, carbon:nitrogen ratios increased, and some chironomid taxa disappeared from the lake between the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries, recording the decline of temperatures into the Little Ice Age, increasing soil erosion, and declining lake productivity. All the proxy reconstructions indicate that the most severe Little Ice Age conditions occurred during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a period historically associated with maximum sea-ice and glacier extent around Iceland.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Published date: January 2009
Keywords: iceland, holocene paleoclimate, little ice age, chironomidae, midges, paleolimnology

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 64869
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/64869
ISSN: 0921-2728
PURE UUID: 7e4c64c2-cf69-4634-89c5-50d5ea30feec
ORCID for Peter G. Langdon: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-2724-2643

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 20 Jan 2009
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 02:57

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Yarrow Axford
Author: Áslaug Geirsdóttir
Author: Gifford H. Miller

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×