Regression coefficients of thermal gradients in northwestern Europe during the last glacial–Holocene transition using beetle MCR data

Chironomid-inferred Late-glacial air temperatures at Whitrig Bog, Southeast Scotland

“…Atkinson et al (1987) provided a time-smoothed 'best estimate' based on a linear regression between the mid-point of the inferred temperature range and observed temperatures in modern validation data. More recently, median values of the MCR range of estimates have been used as the 'most probable value' or 'best estimate' for mapping purposes , for regression modelling (Witte et al, 1998) and for stratigraphical comparisons (Coope and Lemdahl, 1995;Lowe and Walker, 1997). Although the broad-scale trends suggested by the MCR inferences for T MAX (July) (Coope and Lemdahl, 1995) are generally similar to our chironomidbased reconstruction, the beetle-inferred 'best estimate' for T MAX temperatures are about 2-4°C higher, implying that July temperatures at or near sea-level in Scotland reached 16-17°C early in the interstadial, ranged between 13 and 15°C for much of the interstadial, and declined to 10-12.5°C near its end.…”

“…Fossil coleopteran assemblages in conjunction with the mutual climatic range (MCR) method (Atkinson et al, 1987) have been used to provide estimates of the ranges or the 'most probable value' or 'best estimate' of the mean temperatures of the warmest (T MAX ) and coldest (T MIN ) months (e.g. Coope and Lemdahl, 1995;Coope et al, 1998;Witte et al, 1998). A new and important additional source of palaeoclimatic proxy data is fossil chironomid (non-biting midges) assemblages.…”

The thermal history of human fossils and the likelihood of successful DNA amplification

“…Pleistocene thermal histories of the sites have been reconstructed by applying one of four different regional models, (i) northern France and the Benelux countries, (ii) Germany, (iii) Poland (based on data in Aalbersberg & Litt, 1998;Huijzer & Vandenberghe 1998;Coope et al, 1998;Witte et al, 1998) and (iv) Southern France (Fig. 1).…”

Late‐glacial climate in the Maritimes Region, Canada, reconstructed from mutual climatic range analysis of fossil Coleoptera

“…The MCR data suggest that climate warming in the Maritimes from GS-2 to GI-1e lagged behind amelioration recorded in the GRIP ice core by 200 to 300 years. This may be only partly similar to the same delay recorded in beetle evidence from northern Europe (Witte et al 1998). The authors suggested that in Europe steep thermal gradients developed over the region, with Britain and The Netherlands experiencing warmer conditions as a result of the invasion of warm surface ocean waters following a northward migration of the Polar Front (Fig.…”