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Toward more accurate temperature reconstructions based on oxygen isotopes of subfossil chironomid head‐capsules in Australia
Author(s) -
Chang Jie C.,
Shulmeister James,
Gröcke Darren R.,
Woodward Craig A.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 197
eISSN - 1939-5590
pISSN - 0024-3590
DOI - 10.1002/lno.10630
Subject(s) - subfossil , chironomidae , environmental science , ecology , geology , biology , oceanography , larva , holocene
This study investigates the potential of applying stable oxygen isotopes (δ 18 O) from head capsules (HCs) of subfossil chironomids (subfamily Tanypodinae) to reconstruct past temperature changes from south‐eastern Australia. The study reports δ 18 O results from Tanypodinae HCs in nine lakes. The relationship between δ 18 O values of Tanypodinae HCs in lakes and summer (February) air temperature is robust ( r = 0.84) supporting its potential to be applied as a temperature proxy in the Australian region. The comparison of these results with the δ 18 O values measured on Chironomus spp. HCs from the same lakes reveals differences between the two groups. δ 18 O values of Tanypodinae HCs have a stronger correlation with the δ 18 O of lake water, δ 18 O of precipitation and air temperature as compared with Chironomus δ 18 O values. This suggests that Tanypodinae HCs are superior targets to Chironomus spp. for temperature reconstructions. Our data indicate that the δ 18 O of Tanypodinae HCs could perform as well as the assemblage based chironomid transfer function from the Australian mainland. We recommend analysis of HCs from additional lakes to develop a more robust calibration curve relating Tanypodinae HC δ 18 O to temperature.