Microstructural mapping of Arctica islandica shells reveals environmental and physiological controls on biomineral size

The shells of long-lived bivalves record environmental variability in their geochemical signatures and are thus used extensively in marine high-resolution paleoclimate studies. To possibly overcome the limitations of the commonly employed temperature proxy, the δ18Oshell value, which requires knowle...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Höche, Nils, Walliser, Eric O., Schöne, Bernd R.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:https://openscience.ub.uni-mainz.de/handle/20.500.12030/8885
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12030/8885
https://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-8869
id ftunivmainzpubl:oai:openscience.ub.uni-mainz.de:20.500.12030/8885
record_format openpolar
spelling ftunivmainzpubl:oai:openscience.ub.uni-mainz.de:20.500.12030/8885 2023-05-15T15:22:36+02:00 Microstructural mapping of Arctica islandica shells reveals environmental and physiological controls on biomineral size Höche, Nils Walliser, Eric O. Schöne, Bernd R. 2021 https://openscience.ub.uni-mainz.de/handle/20.500.12030/8885 https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12030/8885 https://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-8869 eng eng Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-8869 https://openscience.ub.uni-mainz.de/handle/20.500.12030/8885 2296-6463 CC BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ openAccess CC-BY Frontiers in Earth Science. 9. -. 2021. -. -. 781305 ddc:550 Zeitschriftenaufsatz publishedVersion Text doc-type:article 2021 ftunivmainzpubl https://doi.org/20.500.12030/8885 https://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-8869 2023-03-05T23:38:30Z The shells of long-lived bivalves record environmental variability in their geochemical signatures and are thus used extensively in marine high-resolution paleoclimate studies. To possibly overcome the limitations of the commonly employed temperature proxy, the δ18Oshell value, which requires knowledge of the seawater δ18O signature and is prone to diagenetic overprint, the shell microstructures and the morphological properties of individual biomineral units (BMUs) recently attracted research interest as an alternative paleoclimate proxy. In shells of A. islandica, one of the most extensively used and best studied sclerochronological archives, the size of the BMUs increases in warmer temperatures under laboratory circumstances. This study assesses whether this relationship persists under natural growth conditions or whether additional environmental and physiological factors control the BMU size and bias temperature reconstructions. For this purpose, shells from the surface waters of NE Iceland and the Baltic Sea, as well as from deeper waters of the North Sea (100 and 243 m) were analyzed by means of SEM. The BMU sizes were measured by means of image processing software. Results demonstrate a strong effect of temperature on the BMU size at NE Iceland and in the North Sea at 100 m depth. At 243 m depth, however, temperature variability was likely too low (1.2°C) to evoke a microstructural change. At the Baltic Sea, the BMUs remained small, possibly due to physiological stress induced by low salinity and/or hypoxia. Thus, the size of BMUs of A. islandica shells only serves as a relative temperature indicator in fully marine habitats, as long as seasonal temperature amplitudes exceed ca. 1°C. Furthermore, BMU size varied through lifetime with the largest units occurring during age seven to nine. This pattern is possibly linked to the shell growth rate or to the amount of metabolic energy invested in shell growth. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctica islandica Iceland Gutenberg Open Science (Open-Science-Repository of the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz)
institution Open Polar
collection Gutenberg Open Science (Open-Science-Repository of the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz)
op_collection_id ftunivmainzpubl
language English
topic ddc:550
spellingShingle ddc:550
Höche, Nils
Walliser, Eric O.
Schöne, Bernd R.
Microstructural mapping of Arctica islandica shells reveals environmental and physiological controls on biomineral size
topic_facet ddc:550
description The shells of long-lived bivalves record environmental variability in their geochemical signatures and are thus used extensively in marine high-resolution paleoclimate studies. To possibly overcome the limitations of the commonly employed temperature proxy, the δ18Oshell value, which requires knowledge of the seawater δ18O signature and is prone to diagenetic overprint, the shell microstructures and the morphological properties of individual biomineral units (BMUs) recently attracted research interest as an alternative paleoclimate proxy. In shells of A. islandica, one of the most extensively used and best studied sclerochronological archives, the size of the BMUs increases in warmer temperatures under laboratory circumstances. This study assesses whether this relationship persists under natural growth conditions or whether additional environmental and physiological factors control the BMU size and bias temperature reconstructions. For this purpose, shells from the surface waters of NE Iceland and the Baltic Sea, as well as from deeper waters of the North Sea (100 and 243 m) were analyzed by means of SEM. The BMU sizes were measured by means of image processing software. Results demonstrate a strong effect of temperature on the BMU size at NE Iceland and in the North Sea at 100 m depth. At 243 m depth, however, temperature variability was likely too low (1.2°C) to evoke a microstructural change. At the Baltic Sea, the BMUs remained small, possibly due to physiological stress induced by low salinity and/or hypoxia. Thus, the size of BMUs of A. islandica shells only serves as a relative temperature indicator in fully marine habitats, as long as seasonal temperature amplitudes exceed ca. 1°C. Furthermore, BMU size varied through lifetime with the largest units occurring during age seven to nine. This pattern is possibly linked to the shell growth rate or to the amount of metabolic energy invested in shell growth.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Höche, Nils
Walliser, Eric O.
Schöne, Bernd R.
author_facet Höche, Nils
Walliser, Eric O.
Schöne, Bernd R.
author_sort Höche, Nils
title Microstructural mapping of Arctica islandica shells reveals environmental and physiological controls on biomineral size
title_short Microstructural mapping of Arctica islandica shells reveals environmental and physiological controls on biomineral size
title_full Microstructural mapping of Arctica islandica shells reveals environmental and physiological controls on biomineral size
title_fullStr Microstructural mapping of Arctica islandica shells reveals environmental and physiological controls on biomineral size
title_full_unstemmed Microstructural mapping of Arctica islandica shells reveals environmental and physiological controls on biomineral size
title_sort microstructural mapping of arctica islandica shells reveals environmental and physiological controls on biomineral size
publisher Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
publishDate 2021
url https://openscience.ub.uni-mainz.de/handle/20.500.12030/8885
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12030/8885
https://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-8869
genre Arctica islandica
Iceland
genre_facet Arctica islandica
Iceland
op_source Frontiers in Earth Science. 9. -. 2021. -. -. 781305
op_relation http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-8869
https://openscience.ub.uni-mainz.de/handle/20.500.12030/8885
2296-6463
op_rights CC BY
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
openAccess
op_rightsnorm CC-BY
op_doi https://doi.org/20.500.12030/8885
https://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-8869
_version_ 1766353234951143424