Otolith oxygen isotopes measured by high‐precision secondary ion mass spectrometry reflect life history of a yellowfin sole (Limanda aspera)

Abstract

The ion microprobe produced a high-precision and high-resolution record of the relative environmental conditions experienced by a yellowfin sole that was consistent with population-level studies of ontogeny. Furthermore, this study represents the first time that crossdating has been used to ensure the dating accuracy of δ(18)O measurements in otoliths.

Evaluation of micromilling/conventional isotope ratio mass spectrometry and secondary ion mass spectrometry of δ18O values in fish otoliths for sclerochronology

“…The well‐established relationship between temperature and δ 18 O values has been used in a variety of studies. High‐resolution δ 18 O measurements of marine coral and shells and fish otoliths have proven useful to derive environmental temperature and salinity profiles over the lifetime of an organism . Grossman and Ku documented the relationship between temperature and δ 18 O values in aragonite foraminifera.…”

“…Such mechanical approaches are not without difficulties due to sample mass requirements (>20 μg), the small sizes of some otoliths, and the intricacies of acquiring samples at the spatial or temporal resolution needed to detect clear seasonal variation in δ 18 O values. The second method, secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS, or ion microprobe), has operationally circumvented many of these problems and greatly increased the sampling resolution of otolith δ 18 O chronologies . With a 10 μm diameter spot size (1–2 μm deep) it is possible to analyze 100 discrete spots/mm and since most of the volume of a SIMS pit is concentrated near its center, higher resolution is possible with zig‐zag sampling.…”

Reconstructing larval growth and habitat use in an amphidromous goby using otolith increments and microchemistry

“…In contrast, the δ 18 O measurements from the two post‐larvae otolith domains sampled from the same catchment showed remarkable consistency, differing by only 0·05‰, or roughly 0·25° C assuming that δ 18 O of the water is constant (Table ). This finding suggests that δ 18 O could be a useful index of environmental temperatures if end‐members, including direct δ 18 O measurements of stream water, were thoroughly sampled to derive correction coefficients (Matta et al , ).…”

“…In fishes with fast growing otoliths, SIMS can allow sampling of individual daily growth increments (Weidel et al , ). SIMS can also offer a unique perspective on fish habitat use and migration, as patterns of oxygen isotope ratio in otoliths reflect the δ 18 O and δ 13 C of water and the temperature‐dependent fractionation between water and carbonate (Limberg et al , ; Matta et al , ). Because light isotopes of oxygen ( i .…”

Validation of otolith δ18O values as effective natural tags for shelf-scale geolocation of migrating fish

“…Given the fine-scale spatial and temporal variations in δ 18 O observed, higher otolith sampling resolution, e.g. by using a secondary ion mass spectrometer (SIMS) ion microprobe (Matta et al 2013), could further improve this categorisation. However, the time and cost of SIMS is often currently impractical for large sample sizes.…”