Late-Holocene temperature and precipitation changes in Vindelfjällen, mid-western Swedish Lapland, inferred from chironomid and geochemical data

Abstract

In this article, we present results from a palaeolimnological study from Lake Vuoksjávrátje in the mountain tundra region in the Vindelfjällen Mountains, northwest Sweden. We suggest that the influence of precipitation may be one of the factors causing discrepancies between chironomid-based late-Holocene July temperature (JulyT) reconstructions from Fennoscandia. We combine quantitative temperature reconstruction using chironomids for the last 5100 years with qualitative analysis of chironomid composition and geochemical analyses, such as x-ray fluorescence (XRF), total organic carbon (TOC) and C/N analysis. The studied sequence is dated by 210Pb, 137Cs and 11 14C datings from terrestrial macrofossils. The aim of the study was to use chironomids to reconstruct late-Holocene summer temperature variation on a multi-centennial to centennial timescale and to use geochemical data to identify periods during which the changes in chironomid composition might have been forced by environmental variables other than temperature, such as within lake processes or precipitation. Based on ordination techniques, and a comparison between chironomid-inferred JulyTs and changes in minerogenic sedimentation with regional temperature and wetness records, it is concluded that the JulyT signal was modulated by precipitation. The proxies indicate that both JulyT and annual precipitation have influenced the chironomid communities in Lake Vuoksjávrátje, and that catchment-related processes caused by enhanced precipitation have overridden the summer temperature signal between 3000 and 2200 cal. yr BP, and between 1050 and 100 cal. yr BP.