Advances in Earth Science ›› 2004, Vol. 19 ›› Issue (5): 782-788. doi: 10.11867/j.issn.1001-8166.2004.05.0782
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CHEN Jian-hui, CHEN Fa-hu, ZHAO Yan, HUANG Xiao-zhong
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CHEN Jian-hui, CHEN Fa-hu, ZHAO Yan, HUANG Xiao-zhong. A POWERFUL INDICATOR FOR QUANTITATIVE RECONSTRUCTION OF PALEOTEMPERATURE— ADVANCES IN THE STUDY OF SUBFOSSIL CHIRONOMID IN LAKE SEDIMENT[J]. Advances in Earth Science, 2004, 19(5): 782-788.
Chironomidae (Diptera) is sensitive to environmental change and its larvae possesses a chitinized head capsule whichis resistant to decomposition. This kind of invertebrate is usually used as a proxy of paleoenvironmental change. Because different chironomid taxa have different environmental optima and tolerance, and the ecological magnitude of many chironomid species isvery narrow, the change of chironomid composition in lake sediments can be used to reconstruct paleoenvironment. In Europe and North America, many researches have testified that chironomid is a very effective indicator for paleotemperature, especially for the reconstruction of summer temperature. It has some advantages over other proxies used to indicate climatic change and has potential to become the principal biological proxy in quantitative paleotemperature reconstruction. In western countries, the research in this field has developed fast in recent years. In China where there are many lakes located in different temperature zones, however, little progress has been made now in the utilization of chironomids for reconstruction of paleoclimate or paleoenvironment. Obviously, there are great potentials to use fossil chironomid in the Lakes of China as an indicator for paleotemperature.