Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Rivers

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Changing Climates, Earth Systems and Society

Part of the book series: International Year of Planet Earth ((IYPE))

Abstract

Quaternary insect subfossils preserved in river deposits allow for the reconstruction of past environmental and climate changes. During the last glacial period, warm climate periods such as Dansgaard/Oeschger events or the Late-Glacial Interstadial have been recorded by the reappearance of temperate faunas, typical of very shallow lakes or low-energy anastomosing rivers. Inference models indicate temperatures reaching values similar to those of the present day. During cold periods such as the Younger Dryas, insect faunas were characterized by the presence of numerous cold-adapted species. Summer air temperatures ranged between 9 and 11°C. Winter temperatures were close to −11 to −12°C. During the early Holocene, temperatures rapidly increased to reach a thermal optimum (about 18–20°C) at around 8,000 year 14C bp. From the Middle Holocene, climate reconstructions are biased by increasing local impact of human activities on river water bodies. In France, cultivation and pastoralism led to the clearance of alluvial forest around 5,000–4,000 bp. This induced the disappearance of riffle beetles due to the rise in load in fines in the stream resulting from soil erosion. The fossil fauna from 2,000 bp to the present is mainly made of ruderal grassland associated taxa, dung-beetles and synanthropic taxa associated with food stored products.

The potential of biological remains in palaeoecological investigations of alluvial sedimentary deposits: with special emphasis to Insect data from France.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Andrieu-Ponel V, Ponel P, Bruneton H, Leveau P, Beaulieu J-L (2000) Palaeoenvironments and cultural landscapes of the last 2000 years reconstructed from pollen and Coleopteran records in the Lower Rhône Valley, southern France. Holocene 10:341–355.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Antoine P, Lautridou JP, Laurent M (2000) Long-term fluvial archives in NW France: Response of the Seine and Somme rivers to tectonic movements, climatic variations and sea-level changes. Geomorphology 33:183–207.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson TC, Briffa KR, Coope GR, Joachim JM, Perry DW (1986) Climatic calibration of Coleopteran data. In BE Berglund (Ed), Handbook of Holocene Palaeoecology and Palaeohydrology (pp. 851–858). Chichester: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson TC, Briffa KR, Coope GR (1987) Seasonal temperatures in Britain during the past 22,000 years, reconstructed using beetle remains. Nature 325:587–592.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barley EM, Walker IR, Kurek J, Cwynar LC, Mathewes RW, Gajewski K, Finney BP (2006) A northwest North American training set: Distribution of freshwater midges in relation to air temperature and lake depth. J Paleolimnol 36:295–314.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bedford A, Jones RT, Lang B, Brooks S (2004) A Late-glacial chironomid record from Hawes Water, N.W. England. J Quat Sci 19:281–291.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berendsen HJA, Stouthamer E (2000) Late Weichselian and Holocene palaeogeography of the Rhine-Meuse delta, The Netherlands. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 161:311–335.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bogaart PW (2003). Process-based modelling of the fluvial response to rapid climate change – With reference to the river Maas during the Last glacial–interglacial transition. Ph.D. thesis, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohncke S, Vanderberghe J, Coope GR, Reiling R (1987) Geomorphology and palaeoecology of the Mark valley (southern Netherlands): Palaeoecology, palaeohydrology and climate during the Weichselian Late Glacial. Boreas 16:69–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bond G, Kromer B, Beer J, Muscheler R, Evans MN, Showers W, Hoffmann S, Lotti-Bond R, Hadjas I, Bonani G (2001) Persistent solar influence on North Atlantic climate during the Holocene. Science 294:2130–2136.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Brodersen KP, Lindegaard C (1999) Classification, assessment and trophic reconstruction of Danish lakes using chironoimids. Freshw Biol 42:143–157.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brooks SJ (2006) Fossil midges (Diptera: Chironomidae) as palaeoclimatic indicators of the Eurasian region. Quat Sci Rev 25:1894–1910.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brooks SJ, Birks HJB (2001) Chironomid-inferred air temperatures from Lateglacial and Holocene sites in north-west Europe: Progress and problems. Quat Sci Rev 20:1723–1741.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brooks SJ, Bennion H, Birks HJB (2001) Tracing lake trophic history with a chironomid-total phosphorus inference model. Freshw Biol 46:1–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brooks SJ, Langdon PG, Heiri O (2007) The Identification and Use of Paleoarctic Chironomidae Larvae in Palaeoecology. Technical Guide No. 10. London: Quaternary Research Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brundin L (1958) The bottom faunistical lake type system and its application to the southern hemisphere. Moreover a theory of glacial erosion as a factor of productivity in lakes and oceans. Verhandlungen der Interntionalen Vereinigung für Theoretische und Angewandte Limnologie 13:288–297.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buckland PC, Coope GR (1991) A Bibliography and Literature Review of Quaternary Entomology. University of Sheffield: J.R. Collis Publications, Department of Archaeology & Prehistory.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carrión JS (2002) Patterns and processes of Late Quaternary environmental change in a montane region of southwestern Europe. Quat Sci Rev 21:2047–2066.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caseldine CJ, Langdon PG, Holmes N (2006) Early Holocene climate variability and the timing and extent of the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM) in Northern Iceland. Quat Sci Rev 25:2314–2331.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coope GR (1986) Coleoptera analysis. In BE Berglund (Ed), Handbook of Holocene Palaeoecology and Palaeohydrology (pp. 703–713). Chichester: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coope GR, Brophy JA (1972) Late glacial environmental changes indicated by a coleopteran succession from NorthWales. Boreas 1:97–142.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coope GR, Lemdahl G, Lowe JJ, Walkling A (1998) Temperature gradients in northern Europe during the last glacial-Holocene transition (14–9 14C kyr BP) interpreted from coleopteran assemblages. J Quat Sci 13:419–433.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elias SA (1994) Quaternary Insects and Their Environments. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elias SA, Webster L, Amer M (2009) A beetle’s eye view of London from the Mesolithic to Late Bronze Age. Geol J DOI 10.1002/gj.1158.

    Google Scholar 

  • Engels S, Bohncke SJP, Heiri O, Nyman M (2008a) Intraregional variability in chironomid-inferred temperature estimates and the influence of river inundations on lacustrine chironomid assemblages. J Paleolimnol 40:129–142.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Engels S, Bohncke SJP, Bos JAA, Heiri O, Vandenberghe J, Wallinga J (2008b) Environmental inferences and chironomid-based temperature reconstructions from fragmentary records of the Weichselian Early Glacial and Pleniglacial periods in the Niederlausitz area (eastern Germany). Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 260:405–416.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Engels S, Bohncke SJP, Bos JAA, Brooks SJ, Heiri O, Helmens KF (2008c) Chironomid-based palaeotemperature estimates for northeast Finland during Oxygen Isotope Stage 3. J Paleolimnol 40:49–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gandouin E, Franquet E, Van Vliet-Lanoë B (2005) Chironomids (Diptera) in river floodplains: Their status and potential use for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction purposes. Archiv für Hydrobiologie 162:511–534.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gandouin E, Maasri A, Van Vliet-Lanoë B, Franquet E (2006) Chironomid (Insecta: Diptera) assemblages from a gradient of lotic and lentic waterbodies in river floodplains of France: A methodological tool for palaeoecological applications. J Paleolimnol 35:149–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gandouin E, Ponel P, Franquet E, Van Vliet-Lanoë B, Andrieu-Ponel V, Keen DH, Brulhet J, Brocandel M (2007) Chironomid responses (Insect: Diptera) to younger Dryas and Holocene environmental changes in a river floodplain from northern France (St-Momelin, St-Omer basin). Holocene 17:333–349.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gandouin E, Ponel P, Andrieu-Ponel V, Guiter F, Beaulieu J-L, Djamali M, Franquet E, Van Vliet-Lanoë B, Alvitre M, Meurisse M, Brocandel M, Brulhet J (2009) 10,000 years of vegetation history of the Aa palaeoestuary, St-Omer Basin, northern France. Rev Palaeobot Palynol 156:307–318.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heinrichs ML, Walker IR, Mathewes RW (2001) Chironomid-based paleosalinity records in southern British Columbia, Canada: A comparison of transfer functions. J Paleolimnol 26:147–159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hofmann W (1986) Chironomid analysis. In BE Berglung (Ed), Handbook of Holocene Palaeoecology and Palaeohydrology (pp. 715–727). Chichester: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huisink M (2000) Changing river styles in response to Weichselian climate changes in the Vecht valley, eastern Netherlands. Sediment Geol 133:115–134.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Isarin RFB, Bohncke SJP (1999) Mean July Temperatures during the Younger Dryas in Northwestern and Central Europe as Inferred from Climate Indicator Plant Species. Quat Res 51:158–173.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Isarin RFB, Renssen H, Vandenberghe J (1998) The impact of the North Atlantic Ocean on the Younger Dryas climate in northwestern and central Europe. J Quat Sci 13:447–453.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kiely G (1999) Climate change in Ireland from precipitation and streamflow observations. Adv Water Resour 23:141–151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klink A (1989) The lower Rhine: Palaeoecological analysis. In GE Petts, H Moller, AL Roux (Eds), Historical Change of Large Alluvial Rivers: Western Europe (pp. 183–201). London: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Langdon PG, Barber KE, Hughes PDM (2003) A 7500-year peat-based palaeoclimatic reconstuction and evidence for an 1100-year cyclicity in bog surface wetness from Temple Hill Moss, Pentland Hills, southeast Scotland. Quat Sci Rev 22:259–274.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larocque I, Grosjean M, Heiri O, Bigler C, Blass A (2009) Comparison between chironomid-inferred July temperatures and meteorological data AD 1850–2001 from varved Lake Silvaplana, Switzerland. J Paleolimnol 41:329–342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larocque I, Hall RI (2003) Chironomids as quantitative indicators of mean July air temperature: Validation by comparison with century-long meteorological records from northern Sweden. J Palaeolimnol 29:475–493.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larocque I, Hall RI, Grahn E (2001) Chironomids as indicators of climate change: A 100-lake training set from a subarctic region of northern Sweden (Lapland). J Palaeolimnol 26:307–322.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maasri A, Dumont B, Claret C, Archambaud-Suard G, Gandouin E, Franquet E (2008) Tributaries under Mediterranean climate: Their role in macrobenthos diversity maintenance. Comptes Rendus Biologie 331:547–558.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Magny M (2001) Palaeohydrological changes as reflected by lake level fluctuations in the Swiss Plateau, the Jura Mountains and the northern French Pre-Alps during the Last Glacial–Holocene transition: A regional synthesis. Global Planet Change 30:85–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Magny M, Bégeot C, Guiot J, Peyron O (2003) Contrasting patterns of hydrological changes in Europe in response to Holocene climate cooling phases. Quat Sci Rev 22:1589–1596.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mousavi SK (2002) Boreal chironomid communities and their relations to environmental factors - the impact of lake depth, size and acidity. Boreal Environ Res 7:63–75.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nesje A, Lie O, Dahl SO (2000) Is the North Atlantic Oscillation reflected in Scandinavian glacier mass balance records? J Quat Sci 15:587–601.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olander H, Birks HJB, Korhola A, Blom T (1999) An expanded calibration model for inferring lakewater and air temperatures from fossil chironomid assemblages in northern Fennoscandia. Holocene 9:279–294.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Osborne P (1988) A Late Bronze Age insect fauna from the river Avon, Warwickshire, England: Its implications for the terrestrial and fluvial environment and for climate. J Archaeol Sci 15:715–727.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Petts GE (1989) Historical analysis of fluvial hydrosystems. In GE Petts, H Moller, AL Roux (Eds), Historical Change of Large Alluvial Rivers: Western Europe (pp. 1–18). London: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poff NL, Tokar S, Johnson P (1996) Stream hydrological and ecological response to climate change assessed with an artificail neural network. Limnol Oceanogr 41:857–863.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ponel P, Coope GR, Antoine P, Limondin-Lozouet L, Leroyer C, Munaut A-V, Pastre J-F, Guiter F (2005) Late-glacial Palaeoenvironments and Palaeoclimates from Conty and Houdancourt, Northern France, reconstructed from Beetle remains. Quat Sci Rev 24:2449–2465.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ponel P, Gandouin E, Coope RG, Andrieu-Ponel V, Van Vliet-Lanöe B, Franquet E, Brocandel M, Brulhet J (2007) Insect evidence for environmental and climate changes from Younger Dryas to Sub-Boreal in a river floodplain at St-Momelin (St-Omer basin, northern France), Coleoptera and Trichoptera. Palaeogeogr, Palaeoclimatol, Palaeoecol 245:483–504.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quinlan R, Smol JP (2002) Regional assessment of long-term hypolimnetic oxygen changes in Ontario (Canada) shield lakes using subfossil chironomids. J Paleolimnol 27:249–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ran ETH (1990) Dynamics of vegetation and environment during the middle pleniglacial in the Dinkel valley (the Netherlands). Mededelingen Rijks Geologische Dienst 44:141–205.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rîmbu N, Boroneant C, Buta C, Dima M (2002) Decadal variability of the Danube river flow in the Lower basin and its relation with the North Atlantic Oscillation. Int J Climatol 22:1169–1179.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rossaro B (1991) Chironomid and water temperature. Aquat Insects 13:87–98.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruiz Z, Brown AG, Langdon PG (2006) The potential of chironomid (Insecta: Diptera) larvae in archaeological investigations of floodplain and lake settlements. J Archaeol Sci 33:14–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith DN (2000) Disappearance of elmid ‘riffle beetles’ from lowland river systems- the impact of alluviation. In AR Nicholson, TP O’Connor (Eds), People as an Agent of Environmental Change (pp. 75–80). Oxford: Oxbow Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith DN, Howard AJ (2004) Identifying changing fluvial conditions in low gradient alluvial archaeological landscapes: Can coleoptera provide insights into changing discharge rates and floodplain evolution? J Archaeol Sci 31:109–120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith DN, Roseff R, Bevan L, Brown AG, Butler S, Hughes G, Monckton A (2005) Archaeological and environmental investigations of a Lateglacial and Holocene river sedimentary sequence on the River Soar at Croft, Leicestershire, UK. Holocene 15:353–377.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Starkel L (1995) Palaeohydrology of the Temperate Zone. In KJ Gregory, L Starkel, VR Backer (Eds), Global Continental Palaeohydrology (pp. 233–257). New York, NY: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stefanova I, Ognjanova-Rumenova N, Hofmann W, Ammann B (2003) Late glacial and Holocene environmental history of the Pirin Mountains (SW Bulgaria): A paleolimnological study of Lake Dalgoto (2310 m). J Paleolimnol 30:95–111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walker MJC, Coope GR, Lowe JJ (1993) The Devensian (Weichselian) Lateglacial palaeoenvironmental record from Gransmoor, East Yorkshire, England. Quat Sci Rev 12:659–680.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walker MJC, Coope GR, Sheldrick C, Turney CSM, Lowe JJ, Blockley SEP, Harkness DD (2003) Devensian Lateglacial environmental changes in Britain: A multi-proxi environmental record from Llanilid, South Wales, UK. Quat Sci Rev 22:475–520.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson RS (1980) Classifying rivers using Chironomid pupal exuviae. In DA Murray (Ed), Chironomidae Ecology, Systematics, Cytology and Physiology (pp. 209–216). Oxford: Pergamon Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut Méditerranéen d’Ecologie et de Paléoécologie, IMEP-CNRS, UMR 6116, Bâtiment Villemin, Domaine du Petit Arbois, Université Paul Cézanne, 13545, Aix-en-Provence Cedex 04, France

    Emmanuel Gandouin & Philippe Ponel

Authors
  1. Emmanuel Gandouin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Philippe Ponel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Emmanuel Gandouin .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Technology Organisation, Div. Environment, Australian Nuclear Science &, Menai, 2234, New South Wales, Australia

    John Dodson

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Gandouin, E., Ponel, P. (2010). Rivers. In: Dodson, J. (eds) Changing Climates, Earth Systems and Society. International Year of Planet Earth. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8716-4_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation