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Diatom transfer-functions for quantifying past air temperature, pH and total organic carbon concentration from lakes in northern Sweden

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Abstract

The relationships between diatoms (Bacillariophyceae) in surface sediments of lakes and summer air temperature, pH and total organic carbon concentration (TOC) were explored along a steep climatic gradient in northern Sweden to provide a tool to infer past climate conditions from sediment cores. The study sites are in an area with low human impact and range from boreal forest to alpine tundra. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) constrained to mean July air temperature and pH clearly showed that diatom community composition was different between lakes situated in conifer-, mountain birch- and alpine-vegetation zones. As a consequence, diatoms and multivariate ordination methods can be used to infer past changes in treeline position and dominant forest type. Quantitative inference models were developed to estimate mean July air temperature, pH and TOC from sedimentary diatom assemblages using weighted averaging (WA) and weighted averaging partial least squares (WA-PLS) regression. Relationships between diatoms and mean July air temperature were independent of lake-water pH, TOC, alkalinity and maximum depth. The results demonstrated that diatoms in lake sediments can provide useful and independent quantitative information for estimating past changes in mean July air temperature (R2 jack = 0.62, RMSEP = 0.86 °C; R2 and root mean squared error of prediction (RMSEP) based on jack-knifing), pH (R2 jack = 0.61, RMSEP = 0.30) and TOC (R2 jack = 0.49, RMSEP = 1.33 mg l-1). The paper focuses mainly on the relationship between diatom community composition and mean July air temperature, but the relationships to pH and TOC are also discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, SE-901 87, Umeå, Sweden

    Peter Roseacute;n & Roland Hall

  2. Abisko Scientific Research Station, Climate Impacts Research Centre, Box 62, SE-981 07, Abisko, Sweden

    Peter Roseacute;n & Roland Hall

  3. Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, SE-901 87, Umeå, Sweden

    Tom Korsman

  4. Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, SE-901 87, Umeå, Sweden

    Ingemar Renberg

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  1. Peter Roseacute;n
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  4. Ingemar Renberg
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Roseacute;n, P., Hall, R., Korsman, T. et al. Diatom transfer-functions for quantifying past air temperature, pH and total organic carbon concentration from lakes in northern Sweden. Journal of Paleolimnology 24, 109–123 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008128014721

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