Responses of Fragilarioid-dominated diatom assemblages in a small Arctic lake to Holocene climatic changes, Russell Island, Nunavut, Canada

Abstract

We present a paleolimnological record spanning the Holocene from a small lake on Russell Island (Lake PW02), in the central Canadian Arctic Archipelago (74.07° N, 97.77° W, 182 m asl). Fragilarioid diatom types in the genera Pseudostaurosira, Staurosira and Staurosirella constitute >90% of valves in fossil samples. Using modern biogeographic data which specify the temperature optima of the Fragilarioid diatom taxa, we present new inferences about the timing of paleoclimatic changes in the central Arctic islands. The early Holocene was characterized by maximum values for sediment organic matter, and lower ratios of Staurosirella pinnata to Staurosira construens v. venter, suggesting warm summer air temperatures between about 9500−6500 cal year BP. Influxes of biogenic silica and diatom valves decreased following 4000 cal year BP, the sediment accumulation rate slowed and diatom taxa of the littoral zone diversified, suggesting cooler summers and more persistent lake ice. Variations in the species composition of the assemblages indicate paleoclimatic changes that are in broad agreement with other paleoenvironmental records from the Arctic including melt records from the Agassiz Ice Cap. Although autecological data remain incomplete for Fragilarioid taxa, our results indicate differences in these taxa in responses to paleoenvironmental change and underline the potential for the increased use of these taxa in paleoenvironmental reconstructions. The record from Lake PW02, as in other records from Arctic lakes with low algal diversity throughout the Holocene, shows a pronounced increase in diatom diversity since the 1920s, and diatom production since the 1970s far exceeds any recorded during the Holocene.