Chironomid-inferred Late-glacial air temperatures at Whitrig Bog, Southeast Scotland

Abstract

This paper presents the first chironomid-inferred mean July air temperature reconstruction for the Late-glacial in Britain. The reconstruction suggests that the thermal maximum occurred early in the interstadial, with temperatures reaching about 12°C. There was then a gradual downward trend to about 11°C, punctuated by four distinct cold oscillations of varying intensity. At the beginning of the Younger Dryas, mean July temperatures fell to about 7.5°C but gradually increased to about 9°C before a rapid rise at the onset of the Holocene. The chironomid-inferred temperature curve agrees closely, both in general trends and in detail, with the GRIP ice-core oxygen-isotope curve. The reconstructed temperatures are 2–4°C lower than coleopteran-inferred temperatures but are closer to those inferred from plant macrofossils and glacial equilibrium-line altitudes during the Younger Dryas. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.