0000000000625505
AUTHOR
Thomas Brey
Oxygen microoptodes: a new tool for oxygen measurements in aquatic animal ecology
We describe two applications of a recently introduced system for very precise, continuous measurement of water oxygen saturation. Oxygen microoptodes (based on the dynamic fluorescence quenching principle) with a tip diameter of similar to50 mum, an eight-channel optode array, an intermittent flow system, and online data registration were used to perform two types of experiments. The metabolic activity of Antarctic invertebrates (sponges and scallops) was estimated in respiration experiments, and, secondly, oxygen saturation inside living sponge tissue was determined in different flow regimes. Even in long-term experiments (several days) no drift was detectable in between calibrations. Data…
The effects of environment on Arctica islandica shell formation and architecture
Mollusks record valuable information in their hard parts that reflect ambient environmental conditions. For this reason, shells can serve as excellent archives to reconstruct past climate and environmental variability. However, animal physiology and biomineralization, which are often poorly un- derstood, can make the decoding of environmental signals a challenging task. Many of the routinely used shell-based proxies are sensitive to multiple different environmental and physiological variables. Therefore, the identification and in- terpretation of individual environmental signals (e.g., water temperature) often is particularly difficult. Additional prox- ies not influenced by multiple enviro…
El Niño in the Eocene greenhouse recorded by fossil bivalves and wood from Antarctica
[1] Quasi-periodic variation in sea-surface temperature, precipitation, and sea-level pressure in the equatorial Pacific known as the El Nino – Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is an important mode of interannual variability in global climate. A collapse of the tropical Pacific onto a state resembling a so-called ‘permanent El Nino’, with a preferentially warmed eastern equatorial Pacific, flatter thermocline, and reduced interannual variability, in a warmer world is predicted by prevailing ENSO theory. If correct, future warming will be accompanied by a shift toward persistent conditions resembling El Nino years today, with major implications for global hydrological cycles and consequent impact…
A low seasonality scenario in the Mediterranean Sea during the Calabrian (Early Pleistocene) inferred from fossil Arctica islandica shells
Understanding past seasonal temperature variability in the ocean is essential to evaluate the effects of future climate change on marine ecosystems. Here, we estimate seasonal water temperature amplitudes from stable oxygen isotope (δ18Oshell) values of fossil shells of Arctica islandica (assuming δ18Owater= + 0.9 ± 0.1â° V-SMOW). Specimens were collected from three Pleistocene successions (Emilian and Sicilian substages of the Calabrian) in Central and Southern Italy (i.e., Rome, Lecce and Sicily). Biostratigraphic analyses from Rome Quarry deposits indicate an age between 1.6 and 1.2 Ma, whereas Sicily and Lecce successions are slightly more recent (between 1.1 and 0.62 Ma). Prior to …
The seasonal water temperature cycle in the Arctic Dicksonfjord (Svalbard) during the Holocene Climate Optimum derived from subfossil Arctica islandica shells
Future climate change will have significant effects on ecosystems worldwide and on polar regions in particular. Hence, palaeo-environmental studies focussing on the last warmer-than-today phase (i.e. the early Holocene) in higher latitudes are of particular importance to understand climate development and its potential impact in polar systems. Molluscan bivalve shells constitute suitable bio-archives for high-resolution palaeo-environmental reconstructions. Here, we present a first reconstruction of early Holocene seasonal water temperature cycle in an Arctic fjord based on stable oxygen isotope (δ18Oshell) profiles in shells of Arctica islandica (Bivalvia) from raised beach deposits in Di…