Freshwater shelled invertebrate indicators of paleoclimate in northwestern Canada during late glacial times

Abstract

Paleoclimatic interpretations based on shelled invertebrates from four sites in the northwest corner of the Northwest Territories, Canada, during the time interval 14 410–6820 years BP, indicate that the mean annual temperature was about 8.2–11.6 °C higher than at present, and that the annual precipitation was about 55–234 mm greater than at the present time. Based on potential evapotranspiration, it can be computed that the length of the growing season was about 156 days long as compared to between 90 and 135 growing days at the present time for the same area.