Chironomids Research Paper

1111 Words3 Pages

With global warming occurring and the climate changing it is important to be able to predict the changes that will occur and the effect that they will have. To forecast the change in temperature that will occur it is useful to understand previous temperatures. In high latitude climates humans only have short term temperature records so the distribution of chironomids is used to figure out the previous climate. The chironomids are non-biting two-winged flies (Insecta: Diptera: Chironomidae 7) that spend much of their life cycle as aquatic larva and are abundant in fresh water ecosystems. Chironomids are used in paleoecological studies as they have a relatively short life cycle, the adults are mobile, and have a head capsule that is preserved …show more content…

Whether it was the history of northern American lakes, the tree line that previously existed, or the previous temperature of the lake chironomids represented the previous climate very accurately. It was found in one study that 67-76% of the chironomid’s distribution was determined by the surface water temperature (Lotter el al., 1999). This shows that temperature is the main factor that influences the population of different types of chironomids. The other factors that were examined were lake productivity, oxygen content of the hypolimnion and sediments, water properties and water temperature (Walker, 1987). All these dimensions of chironomids habitat effected their population at the different lakes each study tended to look at. As well as different amounts of chironomids being found at each lake, different species would be found as well. By understanding which chironomids were in which lakes, scientists can then understand the environmental factors at the time that permitted the species to live in the abundance it was found to be …show more content…

They were chosen to be here as the temperature is cold enough to affect the range in which the different species of chironomids could live. Most of the research of the distribution of chironomids has taken place in the northern United States and northern Europe. While some studies have been conducted in Canada more are needed, as this is an area of interest for predicting climate effects on the United States lakes when colder climate existed. As well as a lack of research in Canada more can be done in the United States and Europe as more data will allow for more accurate models to be constructed off the effect of temperature and other climate effects on the chironomids spices present. With better models then more accurate inferences on the climate can be made and applied to provide researchers with a better understanding of the previous climate conditions.
The areas that have been studied have often been chosen due to the lakes and the surroundings. Different types of vegetation allowed aspects such as the tree line to show how they effected the chironomids populations compared to tundra. Another aspect of the lakes that have been examined was the fact that they did not stratify. Due to this trait the surface temperature will reflect the overall temperature of the

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