A network of bivalve chronologies from semi-enclosed seas

Abstract

Four chronologies of the bivalve species Glycymeris pilosa have been constructed along a 300 km gradient of the eastern coastal Adriatic Sea, all of which span the common period of 1982–2015. The chronologies are compared to local and remote environmental drivers suspected to influence the biology of the system, including air and seawater temperature, precipitation and freshwater discharge. The Adriatic-Ionian Bimodal Oscillating System (BiOS), a key oceanographic feature quantified by satellite-derived absolute dynamic topography, is also compared to the chronologies. The chronologies at the two southern sites are more strongly influenced by local river discharge, while the two northern chronologies are more strongly influenced by BiOS. These results highlight the broadscale importance of BiOS to the Adriatic system as well as the heterogeneity of nearshore environmental and drivers of growth. These G . pilosa chronologies provide unique multidecadal, continuous, biological time series to better understand the ecology and fine-scale variability of the Adriatic with potential for other shallow, semi-enclosed seas.

Oxygen and carbon isotope variations in Chamelea gallina shells: Environmental influences and vital effects

“…This inconsistency could be attributed to the fact that C. gallina precipitates the shell carbonate preferentially during the warm period, while considerably reducing its activity during the cold season (Cespuglio et al, 1999;Keller et al, 2002). The same seasonality of shell growth in the Adriatic Sea was found in the long-lived bivalve Glycymeris pilosa and in the venerid Callista chione and Venus verrucosa, that showed to be a promising archive for the reconstruction of summer seawater temperatures with the slowest growth during winter (Peharda et al, 2019;Purroy et al, 2018;Uvanović et al, 2021).…”

“…This inconsistency could be attributed to the fact that C. gallina precipitates the shell carbonate preferentially during the warm period, while considerably reducing its activity during the cold season (Cespuglio et al, 1999 ; Keller et al, 2002 ). The same seasonality of shell growth in the Adriatic Sea was found in the long‐lived bivalve Glycymeris pilosa and in the venerid Callista chione and Venus verrucosa , that showed to be a promising archive for the reconstruction of summer seawater temperatures with the slowest growth during winter (Peharda et al, 2019 ; Purroy et al, 2018 ; Uvanović et al, 2021 ). Shell deposition with warm temperatures was reported also for other bivalves from different parts of the globe, such as Mercenaria stimpsoni , Chione cortezi and Phacosoma japonicum , showing that these shells cannot be used as archives of winter temperatures (Goodwin et al, 2001 ; Kubota et al, 2017 ; Tanabe & Oba, 1988 ).…”

Fish and Sclerochronology Research in the Mediterranean: Challenges and Opportunities for Reconstructing Environmental Changes

“…Sclerochronology research has the potential to provide insight into environmental changes in the Mediterranean, both at the local and regional scales (Peharda et al, 2019a). Recent research conducted on bivalves in the Adriatic Sea resulted in a construction of bivalve chronologies (Peharda et al, 2018(Peharda et al, , 2019a and geochemical analysis of shells (Markulin et al, 2019;Peharda et al, 2019b), providing important time-series data for comparative analysis and a multispecies approach. Such a multispecies approach has been very promising in other parts of the world, including the work by Black (2009), who analyzed growth increments in trees, bivalves and fish to identify climate variability signals.…”