Fossil midges (Diptera: Chironomidae) as palaeoclimatic indicators for the Eurasian region

Chironomids (non-biting midges) have been used in palaeoenvironmental studies in Eurasia since the 1920s. Initially changes in chironomid assemblages were largely interpreted as a response to changes in trophic status or water depth. It was only with the advent of chironomid-temperature inference models in the early 1990s that their potential as palaeoclimatic indicators was fully exploited. This paper provides a brief review of the pioneering studies but focuses on the most recent advances. Better taxonomic resolution of fossil midges, expansion of modern training sets, use of air temperature data derived from meteorological stations rather than surface-water temperature data, and Bayesian statistical approaches have lead to improvements in the performance of chironomid-temperature transfer functions. Applications of these transfer functions to derive chironomid-inferred temperature estimates from Lateglacial (ca 15,000–11,200 cal. yr BP) and Holocene (11,200 cal. yr BP to Present) sequences from throughout Eurasia are reviewed in this paper. Chironomid-inferred Lateglacial reconstructions closely reflect oxygen isotope records from Greenland ice cores. Holocene reconstructions are less consistent. Some closely follow instrumental records or corroborate other proxy data, while other reconstructions are less successful. As a result of soil development during the Holocene, changes in pH, nutrients, DO and DOC had a greater influence than temperature on the composition of some midge assemblages. One way to mitigate this is through consensus temperature reconstructions from several sites in the same region. The challenge for future workers is for further improvement in taxonomic resolution of sub-fossil chironomid larvae, to improve further the performance of chironomid-temperature inference models, to develop training sets for southern Europe and Russia and to improve our understanding of the ecological responses of chironomids.