A northwest North American training set: distribution of freshwater midges in relation to air temperature and lake depth

Abstract

Freshwater midges, consisting of Chironomidae, Chaoboridae, and Ceratopogonidae, were assessed as a biological proxy for palaeoclimate in eastern Beringia. The northwest North American training set consists of midge assemblages and data for 17 environmental variables collected from 145 lakes in Alaska, British Columbia, Yukon, Northwest Territories, and the Canadian Arctic Islands. Canonical correspondence analyses (CCA) revealed that mean July air temperature, lake depth, arctic tundra vegetation, alpine tundra vegetation, pH, dissolved, organic carbon, lichen woodland vegetation, and surface are contributed significantly to explaining midge distribution. Weighted averaging partial least squares was used to develop midge inference models for mean July air temperature and transformed depth.

Citation

Barley, Erin M.; Walker, Ian R.; Kurek, Joshua; Cwynar, Les C.; Mathewes, Rolf W.; Gajewski, Konrad; Finney, Bruce P. 2006. A northwest North American training set: distribution of freshwater midges in relation to air temperature and lake depth. Journal of Paleolimnology. 36: 295-314.