Major postglacial summer temperature changes in the central coniferous boreal forest of Quebec (Canada) inferred using chironomid assemblages

Abstract

ABSTRACT Chironomid head capsules preserved in lake sediments were used to reconstruct 8200 years of summer temperatures in the boreal forest of north‐eastern Canada. Two training sets were used derived from Canadian and Eastern Canadian transfer functions. Both models reconstructed similar climate patterns, but the Canadian model provided temperatures generally 2–3 °C lower than the Eastern Canadian model. Three main thermal changes inferred by chironomids were: (i) the Holocene Thermal Maximum, which occurred between 8 and 5k cal a BP, with temperatures generally higher than today's, maximum temperatures between 8 and 6.5k cal a BP, and an average of + 0.9 °C; (ii) the Medieval Climate Anomaly around 1.1–1.2k cal a BP with an amplitude of + 0.7 °C; and (iii) a colder period reconstructed between the 14th and 19th centuries, corresponding to the Little Ice Age, with summer temperatures on average −0.5 °C lower than the climate normal. For each of these three climatic events, the timing and the amplitude of changes were similar with other published regional, North American and Northern Hemisphere records.