Abstract We present a series of summer air temperature isotherm maps based on chironomid-inferred temperatures from northwest Europe, covering the Lateglacial and early Holocene (15-8 ka BP). These maps are the first of their kind, and use data derived from 22 Lateglacial sites and 34 early Holocene sites. The isotherms are generated by weighted spatial interpolation (kriging). The major patterns of chironomid-inferred summer temperatures are spatially well-resolved in both the Lateglacial and early Holocene. The isotherm maps indicate that there was a strong west to east gradient during the Lateglacial Interstadial (GI-1) due to the influence of thermohaline circulation in the regions bordering the north Atlantic, which diminishes eastwards. A strong north to south temperature gradient is also apparent, particularly in eastern regions, influenced by the extent of the Scandinavian ice-cap. Peak temperatures are achieved early in the Interstadial in the south of the region but occur towards the end of the Interstadial in the north. Holocene warming varies spatially and temporally and is earliest in the south and east, but later in the north and west. During the period covered in our study maximum warmth is reached ca. 10 ka BP. The chironomid-based Lateglacial isotherm maps are compared with previously published isotherm maps from the same region based on beetle-inferred temperatures. While the trends shown in the two datasets are similar, beetle-inferred temperatures are often warmer than chironomid-inferred temperatures. This is especially marked in GI-1e and may be due to microclimatic effects causing the chironomids to underestimate air temperatures and/or the beetles to over-estimate air temperatures. The spatial coherence between sites in both the Lateglacial and early Holocene suggest that the chironomid-based temperature estimates are largely reliable, although data testing suggests that estimates from southern Scandinavia may be less reliable perhaps due to high topographical relief influencing local climate. More data points are required, particularly from northwest Scotland, southwest England and Wales, northeast France, Denmark, Finland and the Baltic States, to confirm trends and provide even coverage and a denser network of sites.

The Bugs database project started in the late 1980s as what would now be considered a relatively simple system, albeit advanced for its time, linking fossil beetle species lists to modern habitat and distribution information. Since then, Bugs has grown into a complex database of fossils records, habitat and distribution data, dating and climate reference data wrapped into an advanced software analysis package. At the time of writing, the database contains raw data and metadata for 1124 sites, and Russell Coope directly contributed to the analysis of over 154 (14%) of them, some 98790 identifications published in 231 publications. Such quantifications are infeasible without databases, and the analytical power of combining a database of modern and fossil insects with analysis tools is potentially immense for numerous areas of science ranging from conservation to Quaternary geology. BugsCEP, The Bugs Coleopteran Ecology Package, is the latest incarnation of the Bugs database project. Released in 2007, the database is continually added too and is available for free download from http://www.bugscep.com. The software tools include quantitative habitat reconstruction and visualisation, correlation matrices, MCR climate reconstruction, searching by habitat and retrieving, among other things, a list of taxa known from the selected habitat types. It also provides a system for entering, storing and managing palaeoentomological data as well as a number of expert system like reporting facilities. Work is underway to create an online version of BugsCEP, implemented through the Strategic Environmental Archaeology Database (SEAD) project (http://www.sead.se). The aim is to provide more direct access to the latest data, a community orientated updating system, and integration with other proxy data. Eventually, the tools available in the offline BugsCEP will be duplicated and Bugs will be entirely in the web. This paper summarises aspects of the current scope, capabilities and applications of the BugsCEP database and software, with special reference to and quantifications of the contributions of Russell Coope to the field of palaeoentomology as represented in the database. The paper also serves to illustrate the potential for the use of BugsCEP in biographical studies, and discusses some of the issues relating to the use of large scale sources of quantitative data. All datasets used in this article are available through the current version of BugsCEP available at http://www.bugscep.com.

Although more than 700 sediment cores exist from the Arctic Ocean, the Plio-Pleistocene evolution of the basin and its marginal seas remains virtually unknown. This is largely due the shallow penetration of most of these records, and difficulties associated with deriving chronologies for the recovered material. The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program's (IODP) Expedition 302 (Arctic Coring Expedition, ACEX) recovered 197 m of Neogene/Quaternary sediment from the circumpolar regions of the Lomonosov Ridge. As detailed analyses of this material emerge, research is beginning to formulate a long-term picture of paleoceanographic changes in the central Arctic Ocean. This paper reviews the ACEX Plio-Pleistocene age model, identifies uncertainties, and addresses ways in which these may be eliminated. Within the established stratigraphic framework, a notable reduction in the abundance of ice rafted debris (IRD) occurs in the early part of the Pleistocene and persists until Marine Isotope Stage 6 (MIS 6). Therefore, while global oceanographic proxies indicate the gradual growth of terrestrial ice-sheets during this time, IRD delivery to the central Arctic Ocean remained comparatively low and stable. Within the resolution of existing data, the Pleistocene reduction in IRD is synchronous with predicted changes in both the inflow of North Atlantic and Pacific waters, which in modern times are known to exert a strong influence on sea ice stability. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.