Carbon isotope signatures from land snail shells: Implications for palaeovegetation reconstruction in the eastern Mediterranean

Prendergast, Amy; Stevens, Rhiannon E.; Hill, Evan; Hunt, Chris; O’Connell, Tamsin C.; Barker, Graeme

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2014.12.053

Cited by 33 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 52 publications

(59 reference statements)

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“…Yanes et al (2018) also observed little difference in offsets of δ 13 C shell -δ 13 C SBOM and δ 13 C shell -δ 13 C body for the snail, Neohelix, in North Carolina (USA), and their CIF values were +14.1‰ and +14.5‰, respectively. A similar positive offset of 14.5‰ was determined for δ 13 C shell relative to δ 13 C body of Helix melanostoma in the eastern Mediterranean (Prendergast et al, 2017). In addition, the regression line between δ 13 C shell and δ 13 C SBOM /δ 13 C body for Cathaica in this study and that of Liu, Gu, et al (2007) are indistinguishable from that for Helix aspersa developed in a culturing study (Stott, 2002).…”

Section: Journal Of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciencessupporting

confidence: 78%

“…The shallower slope at higher rainfall levels is in accordance with the changing pattern of C 3 plant δ 13 C with precipitation on a global scale (Kohn, ). The inference that water stress (water use efficiency) in plants is recorded in snails (determined using snail δ 13 C shell ) has previously been confined to only C 3 ‐plant dominated landscapes (e.g., Colonese et al, ; Prendergast et al, ; Yanes, ). We extended it to different landscapes in this study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Stable Carbon and Oxygen Isotopes in Shell Carbonates of modern Land Snails in China and Their Relation to Environment Variables

et al. 2019

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Stable isotopes of land snail fossil shell carbonates (δ 13 C shell and δ 18 O shell ) provide the opportunity to decipher paleodietary and paleoenvironmental changes. However, the environmental meanings of δ 13 C shell and δ 18 O shell remain elusive especially in the monsoonal climate region. To elucidate this, δ 13 C shell and δ 18 O shell of the two most common land snails in China, Cathaica and Bradybaena, were analyzed in this study. Results show that Bradybaena has a wider distribution than Cathaica and provides considerable potential for use in paleoenvironmental reconstruction. In addition, δ 13 C shell of Bradybaena increases with altitude and temperature, decreases with mean annual precipitation, and reflects the isotopic signal of C 3 plants. In contrast, Cathaica δ 13 C shell documents a C 3 /C 4 mixing signal and exhibits only a strong altitude effect. δ 18 O shell of Bradybaena decreases with mean annual precipitation in the Indian monsoon and westerlies regions but increases with mean annual temperature in the East Asian monsoon region; as a strong correlation exists between the two variables, they could thus potentially be used to reconstruct paleotemperatures. However, uncertainties should be recognized due to the complexity of the land-snails' ecophysiological responses to environmental changes. Cathaica has slightly lower δ 18 O shell than Bradybaena, which suggests that the two land snails have different ecophysiological traits, and the δ 18 O shell of Cathaica follows mean annual temperature in northeast China. This study lays a ground for explaining land snail stable isotopes in paleorecord in China and reasserts the importance of different ecophysiological traits of land snails in paleoclimatic research.

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Section: Journal Of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciencessupporting

confidence: 78%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stable Carbon and Oxygen Isotopes in Shell Carbonates of modern Land Snails in China and Their Relation to Environment Variables

et al. 2019

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“…δ 13 CTOC values range from -22.8 ‰ to -25.5 ‰. These values are similar to topsoils dominated by C3 vegetation in the Mediterranean region (e.g., Hartman and Danin, 2010;Prendergast et al, 2017). Through the core δ 13 CTOC range from -26‰ to -34 ‰.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 61%

Evidence for carbon cycling in a large freshwater lake in the Balkans over the last 0.5 million years using the isotopic composition of bulk organic matter

Zanchetta

Baneschi

Boschi

et al. 2018

Quaternary Science Reviews

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In the DEEP core from the Lake Ohrid ICDP drilling project, the carbon isotope composition of bulk organic matter (δ 13 CTOC) over the last 516 ka shows a negative correlation with total 2 organic carbon (TOC) and total inorganic carbon (TIC). This relationship is marked by periods of lower δ 13 CTOC values corresponding to higher TIC and TOC. Along with TOC/TN, the correlation between δ 13 CTOC and δ 13 CTIC suggests that most of the organic matter in the core is from aquatic primary production within the lake. The combination of TOC, TIC, and δ 13 CTOC is able to disentangle long-term glacial/interglacial cycles and, to a lesser extent, millennial scale climate variability. Over the longer term, δ 13 CTOC shows modest variability, indicating that the δ 13 C of the dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) pool is stabilised by the supply of karst spring water characterised by δ 13 CDIC influenced by the bedrock δ 13 C value, and the long residence time of the lake water and well mixed upper water column promoting equilibration with atmospheric CO2. However, comparison between arboreal pollen (AP%), TIC and TOC data indicates that the δ 13 CTOC signal is modulated by the leaching of soil CO2 through runoff and spring discharge, changes in primary productivity, and recycling of organic matter within the lake, all affecting δ 13 CDIC. Exceptionally low δ 13 CTOC during some interglacial periods (e.g. MIS7 and MIS9) possibly indicate rapid intensification of organic matter recycling and/or increasing stratification and enhanced methanogenesis, even if the latter process is not supported by the sedimentological data.

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“…Surveys we conducted across the Gebel Akhdar demonstrated that settlement increasingly concentrated in the better watered more forested parts of the landscape (Jones et al 2016). Isotope analysis of land snails supports the conclusion that the Gebel Akhdar was a refugium for plants, animals and people at this time as the Sahara became desert (Prendergast et al 2016b(Prendergast et al , 2017. The use of the cave appears to have intensified significantly with deglaciation after the LGM, by people using Oranian or Iberomaurusian backed blade technologies that were increasingly microlithic.…”

Section: Approximate Depth (M)supporting

confidence: 53%

Libyan landscapes in history and prehistory

Barker¹

2019

Libyan Stud

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As a contribution to the Society for Libyan Studies’ 50th anniversary, the paper discusses three projects in which the author has been involved, with a focus on their different contributions to our understanding of Libya's landscape prehistory and history. The deep stratigraphy of the Haua Fteah cave in three projects are described in chronological order, but they contribute in reverse order to our understanding of how Libyans have changed and been changed by their landscapes. The deep stratigraphy of the Haua Fteah cave in Cyrenaica represents an intermittent history of landscape use, and the way people dealt with climate change impacts, from some 150,000 years ago to the Graeco-Roman period. The faunal assemblage from Sidi Khrebish, Benghazi, provides insights into how Graeco-Roman city-dwellers interacted with the people of the countryside. The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey changes the perspective, showing how tribal people in the pre-desert were drawn into the ambit of the coastal cities and the economy of imperial Rome, before returning to semi-mobile pastoral/arable lifeways not so dissimilar to the lives of many Libyans before the oil revolution. The principal linking finding is that there are no simple stories from the past in terms of people's relations to their landscape: the mix of structure and agency embodied in the archaeological record can be a record of failures, misguided decisions, bad luck etc. as much as of successful responses and adaptations to opportunities and challenges.

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Carbon isotope signatures from land snail shells: Implications for palaeovegetation reconstruction in the eastern Mediterranean

Abstract: In this study we compare carbon isotope values in modern Helix melanostoma shell carbonate (δ 13

Cited by 33 publications

References 52 publications

Stable Carbon and Oxygen Isotopes in Shell Carbonates of modern Land Snails in China and Their Relation to Environment Variables

Stable Carbon and Oxygen Isotopes in Shell Carbonates of modern Land Snails in China and Their Relation to Environment Variables

Evidence for carbon cycling in a large freshwater lake in the Balkans over the last 0.5 million years using the isotopic composition of bulk organic matter

Libyan landscapes in history and prehistory

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