A late-glacial chironomid record from hawes water, northwest England

This paper presents the results of a high-resolution Late-glacial chironomid stratigraphy from Hawes Water, a small carbonate lake in northern Lancashire. The samples were from a core taken from the terrestrialised margin of the present lake, which represents an intermediate depth between the true littoral and the profundal. The chironomid assemblage showed a high degree of sensitivity to both broad-scale and short-term temperature changes. Comparison with an existing proxy temperature record (delta(18)O) for the site confirmed the presence of four temperature inversions within the Late-glacial Interstadial. A mean July air temperature inference model, derived from acid, soft-water lakes in Norway and Svalbard, was applied to the data. Despite the absence of carbonate lakes within the Norwegian training set, there was a close similarity between trends in estimated July air temperature and the delta(18)O trace, with a particularly strong correspondence in the periods of clay deposition. This suggests that this model is highly robust. The inferred maximum Interstadial temperature was 13.4 degreesC, dropping initially to 7.5 degreesC in the Loch Lomond Stadial. Temperatures reach a maximum of nearly 10 degreesC in this period, cool for a short period before rising rapidly to 13.2 degreesC at the start of the Holocene. These temperatures are similar to but slightly higher than those estimated for Whitrig Bog, southeast Scotland, and lower than those inferred from coleopteran-based models for sites in South Wales. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.