Toward more accurate temperature reconstructions based on oxygen isotopes of subfossil chironomid head-capsules in Australia

Chang, Jie C.; Shulmeister, James; Gröcke, Darren R.; Woodward, Craig A.

doi:10.1002/lno.10630

Toward more accurate temperature reconstructions based on oxygen isotopes of subfossil chironomid head-capsules in Australia

Chang, Jie C.; Shulmeister, James; Gröcke, Darren R.; Woodward, Craig A.

Authors

Jie C. Chang

James Shulmeister

Professor Darren Grocke d.r.grocke@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Craig A. Woodward

Abstract

This study investigates the potential of applying stable oxygen isotopes (δ18O) from head capsules (HCs) of subfossil chironomids (subfamily Tanypodinae) to reconstruct past temperature changes from south-eastern Australia. The study reports δ18O results from Tanypodinae HCs in nine lakes. The relationship between δ18O 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 δ18O values measured on Chironomus spp. HCs from the same lakes reveals differences between the two groups. δ18O values of Tanypodinae HCs have a stronger correlation with the δ18O of lake water, δ18O of precipitation and air temperature as compared with Chironomus δ18O values. This suggests that Tanypodinae HCs are superior targets to Chironomus spp. for temperature reconstructions. Our data indicate that the δ18O 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 δ18O to temperature.

Citation

Chang, J. C., Shulmeister, J., Gröcke, D. R., & Woodward, C. A. (2018). Toward more accurate temperature reconstructions based on oxygen isotopes of subfossil chironomid head-capsules in Australia. Limnology and Oceanography, 63(1), 295-307. https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.10630

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jun 20, 2017
Online Publication Date	Jul 31, 2017
Publication Date	Jan 1, 2018
Deposit Date	Feb 2, 2018
Publicly Available Date	Jul 31, 2018
Journal	Limnology and Oceanography
Print ISSN	0024-3590
Electronic ISSN	1939-5590
Publisher	Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO)
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	63
Issue	1
Pages	295-307
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.10630
Public URL	https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1335601

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Copyright Statement
This is the accepted version of the following article: Chang, J. C., Shulmeister, J., Gröcke, D. R. and Woodward, C. A. (2018), Toward more accurate temperature reconstructions based on oxygen isotopes of subfossil chironomid head-capsules in Australia. Limnology and Oceanography, 63(1): 295-307, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.10630. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.