A midge-based late-glacial temperature reconstruction from southwestern Nova Scotia
A midge-based late-glacial temperature reconstruction from southwestern Nova Scotia
Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences = Revue Canadienne des Sciences de la Terre (November 2005) 42 (11): 2051-2057
- absolute age
- Arthropoda
- C-14
- Canada
- carbon
- Cenozoic
- climate change
- cooling
- cores
- dates
- Eastern Canada
- glacial environment
- Insecta
- Invertebrata
- isotopes
- lacustrine environment
- lake sediments
- late-glacial environment
- Mandibulata
- Maritime Provinces
- miospores
- Nova Scotia
- paleoclimatology
- paleoecology
- paleolimnology
- paleotemperature
- palynomorphs
- Plantae
- Pleistocene
- pollen
- pollen analysis
- Quaternary
- radioactive isotopes
- reconstruction
- regression analysis
- sediments
- statistical analysis
- thermal regime
- upper Pleistocene
- vegetation
- southwestern Nova Scotia
- Lac a Magie
We present a quantitative reconstruction of the thermal regime spanning the late-glacial period of Nova Scotia (14 700 to 11 600 BP) as inferred by analyzing fossil midges from a small lake (Lac a Magie) in southwestern Nova Scotia. The GS-1 event (equivalent to the Younger Dryas, dating from 12 700 to 11 600 BP in Maritime Canada) was marked by a 5 degrees C decline in inferred mean July surface-water temperatures and a 15% Drop in organic content. Previous pollen and plant macrofossil analyses of this site demonstrate a response of vegetation to GS-1 cooling. These data, coupled with a midge-inferred temperature reconstruction from a nearby site, suggest that late-glacial climate change was less pronounced in southern Nova Scotia than in other sites in Maritime Canada and adjacent eastern North America.
