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Comparing and cross-validating lake and bog palaeoclimatic records: a review and a new 5,000 year chironomid-inferred temperature record from northern England

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Abstract

This paper reviews the past history of comparisons between lacustrine records of chironomid-inferred summer temperatures (CI-T) and peat bog-derived records of surface wetness (BSW), and develops a new summer temperature record for the mid-late Holocene for Northern Britain from Bigland Tarn, Cumbria. The CI-T reconstruction is well dated, and corresponds well with the only two other CI-T records for Britain. Comparisons are made with BSW records from northern Britain, which show consistent similarities over centennial to millennial timescales, demonstrating that at this resolution cooler summers equated with a wetter climate, at least during the mid- to late-Holocene.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Rick Battarbee as a source of inspiration and advice on all matters concerning lakes. In particular AB thanks Rick for advice on resolving coring difficulties, and Steve Brooks for assistance with chironomid identification and for running the transfer function on the Bigland data. We are grateful for the support of the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) via grants, studentships and radiocarbon dating. The Bigland Tarn research was carried out while AB held a NERC studentship, supervised by KB and PH, and facilitated by radiocarbon support from the NERC Radiocarbon Laboratory. We thank the Bigland Estate for site access and Michael Grant, Sue Way and Paul Coombes for fieldwork assistance as well as two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Palaeoecology Laboratory (PLUS), Geography and Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK

    Keith Barber, Alastair Brown, Peter Langdon & Paul Hughes

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  1. Keith Barber
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  2. Alastair Brown
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  3. Peter Langdon
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  4. Paul Hughes
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Correspondence to Keith Barber.

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A celebration of Prof Rick Battarbee’s contributions to palaeolimnology, edited by Holmes et al.

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Barber, K., Brown, A., Langdon, P. et al. Comparing and cross-validating lake and bog palaeoclimatic records: a review and a new 5,000 year chironomid-inferred temperature record from northern England. J Paleolimnol 49, 497–512 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-012-9656-8

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