Evaluating diatom‐derived Holocene pH reconstructions for Arctic lakes using an expanded 171‐lake training set

Abstract

Inference models from diatoms preserved in lake sediments can be used to reconstruct long‐term pH changes to better understand the process of lake ontogeny. An expanded diatom training set was developed using taxonomically harmonized modern assemblages in surface sediments of 171 lakes spanning a variety of geological and climatic settings across the Canadian Arctic. Lake‐water pH emerged as a significant variable and the most influential in structuring diatom assemblages. The resulting two‐component weighted‐averaging partial least squares pH inference model performs strongly, even after identifying effects of spatial autocorrelation at distances

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