0000000000328542
AUTHOR
Karl J. Kreutz
Gulf of Maine shells reveal changes in seawater temperature seasonality during the Medieval Climate Anomaly and the Little Ice Age
article i nfo In this study, we use subannually resolved oxygen isotope values of fossil (dead-collected) and modern (live- caught) bivalve shells (Arctica islandica L.) from the northwestern Atlantic (Gulf of Maine, USA) to reconstruct past seasonal changes in seawater temperature. Our results indicate decreased seasonal temperature amplitude of about 1.6 °C (or ∼21%) during Medieval times (ca. AD 1033-1062) compared to shells from the early Little Ice Age (ca. AD 1321-1391) and during the late 19th century (AD 1864-1886). Additionally, seasonal oxygen isotope data suggest that summers were cooler and winters were warmer in the Gulf of Maine during the 11th century compared to summers and …
Annually resolved δ13Cshell chronologies of long-lived bivalve mollusks (Arctica islandica) reveal oceanic carbon dynamics in the temperate North Atlantic during recent centuries
Abstract The ability of the ocean to absorb carbon dioxide is likely to be adversely affected by recent climate change. However, relatively little is known about the spatiotemporal variability in the oceanic carbon cycle due to the lack of long-term, high-resolution dissolved inorganic carbon isotope ( δ 13 C DIC ) data, especially for the temperate North Atlantic, which is the major oceanic sink for anthropogenic CO 2 . Here, we report shell carbon isotope values ( δ 13 C shell ), a potential proxy for δ 13 C DIC , of old-grown specimens of the long-lived bivalve mollusk, Arctica islandica . This paper presents the first absolutely dated, annually resolved δ 13 C shell record from surface …