Minimizing the edge-effect in environmental reconstructions by trimming the calibration set: Chironomid-inferred temperatures from Spitsbergen

Autor: H. John B. Birks, Gaute Velle, Katrine Kongshavn
Rok vydání: 2011
Předmět:
Zdroj: The Holocene. 21:417-430
ISSN: 1477-0911
0959-6836
Popis: A core from Lake Skardtjørna on western Spitsbergen was analysed for subfossil chironomids with the aim of inferring past temperatures. The core spans the last 1760 years and has a low concentration and low diversity of chironomids. Three taxa dominate the record: Oliveridia tricornis, Micropsectra radialistype, and M. insignilobus-type, the latter not previously recorded on Svalbard. Compared with the full Norwegian modern climate—chironomid calibration data set, Skardtjørna is at the coldest end of the modern temperature gradient. In an attempt to decrease potential bias caused by the numerical edge-effect and to improve the taxon response functions, the training set was trimmed by excluding lakes dissimilar to the study site. Two trimming approaches are tested. In the first, lakes at the warm end of the gradient are excluded. In the second, the calibration data-set lakes are partitioned by TWINSPAN on the basis of their modern chironomid assemblages, and lakes most dissimilar to Skardtjørna are excluded. According to the training-set performance diagnostics, a WA-PLS inference model excluding lakes >9°C has the most promising results (component 1, R2 = 0.85, maximum bias = 0.58°C, RMSEP= 0.73°C). The performance diagnostics based on the trimmed inference model out-performs the performance diagnostics from the full model, and the reconstructed temperatures indicate different trends. According to the
Databáze: OpenAIRE