Using ocean quahog (Arctica islandica) shells to reconstruct palaeoenvironment in Öresund, Kattegat and Skagerrak, Sweden

Abstract

Shells of Arctica islandica collected between 1884 and 2004 from Ö resund, Kattegat and Skagerrak (Swedish West Coast) were used to monitor local climate variations and the influence of human activities on the local environment. For this purpose, we analysed the growth, structure and chemical composition of these shells and compared them with shells collected from Kiel Bay, Norway and Iceland. The growth rate of the studied shells registers an NAO periodicity of ca 8 years. However, the observed signal is weak because of other environmental interferences that are either of natural or anthropogenic origin. For example, the oxygen isotope ratios show temperature fluctuation, but also the influx of low salinity water. Higher contents of S, N, Cu, Zn, As, Cd and P in shell portions formed during the last century are related to human activities such as mining and industrial development. Our study indicates that in order to use Arctica shells as archives of climate change it is necessary to study the full range of environmental data that is recorded in the shells by using a multi element and isotope approach in combination with different analytical techniques including investigation of growth rates and shell structure.

A novel method for imaging internal growth patterns in marine mollusks: A fluorescence case study on the aragonitic shell of the marine bivalve Arctica islandica (Linnaeus)

“…Currently, the source of the intrinsic fluorescence of A. islandica shells is unknown; A. islandica is known to precipitate its aragonite shell within an organic polymer matrix, which likely includes chitin polysaccharides and proteins (e.g., Addadi et al 2006;Cusack and Freer 2008;Dunca et al 2009). Perez-Huerta et al (2008) suggested that organic macromolecules associated with chitin polysaccharides and proteins in calcitic brachiopods (Terebratalia transversa and Novocrania anomala) are the likely cause of shell fluorescence in these species.…”

The effects of environment on <i>Arctica islandica</i> shell formation and architecture

“…The organization lacks of specific structural arrangement typical of other types of microstructures such as the crossed-lamellar and crossed-acicular microstructures. The latter are the main component characterizing the iOSL and ISL (Dunca et al, 2009). Here, elongated units are arranged with two main dip directions, resulting in a relative oblique alignment.…”

Short-term fluctuations in vegetation and phytoplankton during the Middle Eocene greenhouse climate: a 640-kyr record from the Messel oil shale (Germany)

“…First, we applied the Morlet wavelets (Morlet 1983; Torrence and Compo 1998), a continuous wavelet transform, proven and tested in climate time series analysis (Lau and Weng 1995;Dunca et al 2009;Schöne and Fiebig 2009;Wanamaker et al 2009). The transform was based on the method described in Torrence and Compo (1998) by means of Wavelet software provided by these authors.…”