Efficiency of different mesh sizes for isolating fossil chironomids for stable isotope and radiocarbon analyses

We examined the effects of sieving with different mesh sizes on the efficiency of processing fossil chironomids from lake sediments for isotope analyses. Results obtained for three different sediments indicate that each of the studied sieve fractions (100-150, 150-200, 200-250, 250-300, >300 μm) contain a similar proportion of the overall mass of chironomid fossils in a sample. However, the sorting time needed to separate chironomids from other sieve residue is disproportionately large for smaller mesh sizes. Employing sieves with a 200-μm rather than the 100-μm mesh commonly used for standard palaeoecological analyses of fossil chironomids decreased processing time for a given mass of fossils by 30-58% in our study. For optimizing the efficiency of chironomid sample processing for stable isotope and radiocarbon analysis we therefore recommend a 200-μm mesh size sieve, although the sorting of all >100-μm fractions may be necessary in sediments with low chironomid abundances. Excluding certain small taxa from isotope analysis, may structurally bias isotope values of samples. Therefore, further studies on taxon-specific isotope analysis are required to quantify these effects.