Unsatisfactory field data in a calibration model for inferring past temperatures from chironomid assemblages in northern Fennoscandia

Olander et al. (1999) used single temperature measurements of surface water to represent mean July temperatures of lake waters in Lapland. It is emphasized that this is not an appropriate basis for calibration of temperatures indicated by chironomid assemblages and to draw conclusions about past air temperatures. Air temperatures at the study sites were estimated and calculated yet the role of variations in topography has been omitted. The parameters used, such as lake depth, distance beyond tree-line and pH look good but are inaccurate and therefore problematic in statistical evaluations. The authors have not considered the role of the ice cover on the lakes

Calibration · Climate change · Geography · Physical geography · Statistics · Tree line · Environmental Science · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics · Tree-ring climate responses · Geology · Oceanography

• Chironomids, temperature and numerical models

  Open Access•Atte Korhola, H J B Birks et al.•The Holocene•2001

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• Holocene lake-level changes in the Fennoscandian tree-line region, western Finnish Lapland

  Open Access•Hannu Hyvärinen, Pentti Alhonen•The Holocene•1994

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• An expanded calibration model for inferring lakewater and air temperatures from fossil chironomid assemblages in northern Fennoscandia

  Open Access•Heikki Olander, H J B Birks et al.•The Holocene•1999

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• Holocene humidity changes in northern Finnish Lapland inferred from lake sediments and submerged Scots pines dated by tree-rings

  Open Access•Matti Eronen, Hannu Hyvärinen et al.•The Holocene•1999

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