Food availability and temperature optima shaped functional composition of chironomid assemblages during the Late Glacial–Holocene transition in Northern Europe

Abstract Non-biting midges (Chironomidae) are the most diverse and abundant invertebrate group in boreal lakes and are strongly responsive to climate change, thus they are a valuable palaeoecological proxy for studying aquatic biodiversity response in the face of climate change. Here, we aim to decipher the influence of climate-induced changes on temporal patterns in chironomid assemblages. We apply a novel approach combining traditional taxon-based analysis and species-trait framework to subfossil chironomid assemblages in a sediment core covering the Late Glacial–Holocene transition in Northern Europe. We produce pollen-based July and January temperature reconstructions to characterize pa…