Chironomid Records / Postglacial Southern Hemisphere

Abstract

The analysis of fossil chironomids as a tool for paleoenvironmental and paleoclimate reconstruction has been underway in Australia, New Zealand, and South America since the 1950s. Early studies primarily focused on lake paleoproductivity, providing qualitative reconstructions. Only recently have studies from Australia and South America utilized chironomids as paleoclimate indicators. In Australia, only one study has provided quantitative temperature reconstructions for the Holocene, while paleoclimate chironomid investigations of the Lateglacial–Interglacial transition from South America have remained qualitative in the absence of suitable regional temperature inference models. These studies provide promising results and as more taxonomic and ecological data are gathered, reliable quantitative reconstructions will follow. A focus of future work is to (1) improve taxonomic resolution of subfossil chironomid larva; (2) develop training sets for New Zealand, Australia, and South America to better understand the ecological response of chironomids in these regions, and (3) develop robust temperature/ecological inference models to facilitate reconstructions.