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The relationship between sedimentary chrysophyte scales (Chrysophyceae and Synurophyceae) and limnological characteristics in 25 Norwegian lakes
Author(s) -
Gumming Brian F.,
Smol John P.,
Birks H. J. B.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
nordic journal of botany
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.333
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1756-1051
pISSN - 0107-055X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1756-1051.1991.tb01825.x
Subject(s) - norwegian , subfossil , paleolimnology , taxon , ecology , bootstrapping (finance) , environmental science , physical geography , regression analysis , canonical correspondence analysis , biology , habitat , geography , geology , statistics , diatom , mathematics , oceanography , philosophy , linguistics , holocene , econometrics
The relationship between 16 taxa of chrysophyte scales (Chrysophyceae and Synurophyceae) from the surface sediments of 25 soft‐water Norwegian lakes and 16 limnological variables from these lakes was examined using canonical correspondence analysis (CCA). The Norwegian chrysophyte flora reported in this study is typical of assemblages described from acidic to circumneutral lakes. Lake‐water pH was the environmental variable that explained the most variation in the weighted averages of the chrysophyte taxa, although total aluminium, colour, and specific conductivity were also important. Predictive models were developed to infer lake‐water pH based on species composition of chrysophyte scales in the 25 lakes, using weighted averaging regression and calibration with and without tolerance down‐weighting. Model performance was evaluated by a computer‐intensive bootstrapping procedure to derive root mean squared errors of predictions. In our data set, tolerance corrected weighted average regression and calibration was shown to be a more reliable predictor of pH than simple weighted averaging. This study shows that the remains of chrysophyte scales in Norway can be used as palaeo‐biological indicators of lake‐water pH.