The Holocene

 

Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Wolfe, A. P.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
GeoRef
Right arrow GeoRef Citation
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
The Holocene, Vol. 13, No. 1, 29-37 (2003)
DOI: 10.1191/0959683603hl592rp

Diatom community responses to late-Holocene climatic variability, Baffin Island, Canada: a comparison of numerical approaches

Alexander P. Wolfe

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E3, Canadaa, awolfe{at}ualberta.ca

A high-resolution diatom stratigraphy from the late-Holocene sediments of a small Arctic lake on Baffin Island (Nunavut, Canada) has been analysed by several numerical methods and considered in relation to independent palaeoclimatic proxies to enable an objective assessment of the response of freshwater diatom communities to climatic change. Diatom relative frequencies and absolute abundances were subjected to several manipulations, including application of a weighted-averaging transfer function for summer water temperature, conversion of valve concentrations to cell biovolumes, biostratigraphic rate-of-change, and taxonomic richness estimated by rarefaction analysis. The major directions of variability within the derived diatom data were explored using principal components analysis. Diatom-inferred lakewater temperatures and indices of diatom palaeoproductivity declined during late-Holocene cooling, and they faithfully record post-‘Little Ice Age’ warming. Between ~2000 cal. BP and the ‘Little Ice Age’, which includes the coldest intervals of the Neoglacial, diatom assemblages diversified and destabilized, reflecting a state of intermediate disturbance. Together, these results examine different methods of interpreting freshwater diatom stratigraphic data with the objective of gaining palaeoclimatic insights from fossil assemblages.

Key Words: Diatoms • palaeolimnology • palaeoclimate • Neoglacial • numerical methods • principal components analysis • late Holocene • Baffin Island • Canadian Arctic


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 The HoloceneHome page
S. A. Finkelstein and K. Gajewski
A palaeolimnological record of diatom-community dynamics and late-Holocene climatic changes from Prescott Island, Nunavut, central Canadian Arctic
The Holocene, September 1, 2007; 17(6): 803 - 812.
[Abstract] [PDF]