ENVIRONMENTAL CONSTRAINTS ON GROWTH, AGE AND LIFETIME METABOLIC BUDGETS OF THE BIVALVE ARCTICA ISLANDICA SALMA BEGUM 2009 ENVIRONMENTAL CONSTRAINTS ON GROWTH, AGE AND LIFETIME METABOLIC BUDGETS OF THE BIVALVE ARCTICA ISLANDICA Doctoral thesis By

• Main Author: Salma Begum
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: the North East Atlantic Ocean (i.e. Norwegian coast; Kattegat; Kiel Bay (Baltic Sea; Salma; Arctica islandica; North Atlantic; North East Atlantic; Ocean quahog
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.427.8014; http://elib.suub.uni-bremen.de/diss/docs/00011567.pdf

In order to understand the present, environmental knowledge from the past is important. Observational records of environmental data are spatiotemporally incomplete and extremely scarce prior to AD 1860. Large scale environmental variability can be well represented by integrating data from a limited number of geographically scattered indicators or ‘proxies ’ of past climate. This is partly achieved by the analysis of tree rings and of marine sediments cores. Long term environmental reconstruction with high resolution can be achieved by the calcareous skeleton of long lived invertebrates. In the last decade the ocean quahog Arctica islandica has attracted increasing interest among marine biologists owing to its extremely long life span approaching 400 y, and occurrence along the entire North Atlantic Ocean margins. But even more important is that its calcareous shell archives information on past environmental conditions in the morphological growth patterns and biogeochemical properties. The Ocean quahog A. islandica may become an important proxy in environmental change research, although until now the full capabilities of this species have not yet been