Oxygen stable isotopic disparities among sympatric small land snail species from northwest Minnesota, USA

Implications of the apparent 14C age of cultured Achatina fulica and the spatial features of 14C ages among modern land snail shells in China

“…Over the last several decades, stable isotope signatures of the snail shell have been widely used for environmental and palaeoclimatic studies (Yapp, 1979;Magaritz et al, 1981;Heller, 1980, 1983;Lécolle 1985;Goodfriend 1988Goodfriend , 1992Goodfriend , 1999Bonadonna and Leone, 1995;Leng et al, 1998;Goodfriend and Ellis, 2000;Leone et al, 2000Leone et al, , 2002Zanchetta et al, 2005Zanchetta et al, , 2017Balakrishnan et al, 2005a;Colonese et al, 2007Colonese et al, , 2014Li et al, 2007;Liu et al, 2007;Yanes et al, 2008Yanes et al, , 2009Yanes et al, , 2011Yanes et al, , 2012Yanes et al, , 2013Yanes et al, , 2014Yanes et al, , 2017Yanes et al, , 2018aKehrwald et al, 2010;Huang et al, 2012;Yanes 2015;Prendergast et al, 2015Prendergast et al, , 2016Prendergast et al, , 2017Wang et al, 2016;Bao et al, 2018).…”

Overview of the oxygen isotope systematics of land snails from North America

“…Yanes (2015) found that the differences between the δ 18 O values of the shells of modern snails of the genus Succinea retrieved from tropical (San Salvador, the Bahamas) and high (Fairbanks, Alaska) latitudes primarily record the differences in the δ 18 O values of the meteoric waters at the two locales. Yanes et al (2017) observed that small land snails from northwest Minnesota mainly tracked precipitation δ 18 O values; however, coexisting species showed significantly different isotopic values. Finally, Yanes et al (2018) observed that large body-size snails of the genus Neohelix from the Appalachian Mountains primarily record changes in precipitation δ 18 O values and RH along an elevation transect between ~700 and ~1600 meters above sea level (m asl).…”

“…Geographically, one third of the ~71 published articles on stable isotopes of land snail shells have been conducted in Europe (Supplementary Table 1; Fig. 1B), with fewer in North America (Yapp, 1979; Sharpe et al, 1994; Goodfriend and Ellis, 2000, 2002; Balakrishnan and Yapp, 2004; Balakrishnan et al, 2005a, 2005b; Zaarur et al, 2011; Stevens et al, 2012; Paul and Mauldin, 2013; Yanes, 2015; Yanes et al, 2017, 2018; Nash et al, 2018) and the Caribbean (Baldini et al, 2007; Yanes and Romanek, 2013). As stated previously, of the North American studies, only six conducted modern calibration assessments for shell δ 18 O values (Yapp, 1979; Goodfriend and Ellis, 2002; Balakrishnan et al, 2005b; Yanes, 2015; Yanes et al, 2017, 2018), and all of them were limited in scope.…”

“…The extreme conditions at high latitudes characterized by colder temperatures, marked seasonality, and shorter growing seasons, likely result in a decrease in snail metabolic rates and a reduction in annual growth rates (Gaitán-Espitia and Nespolo, 2014). For example, large body-size snails appear to tolerate freezing temperatures (Ansart and Vernon, 2004) and drier conditions (Nevo et al, 1983; Yanes et al, 2012) better than their smaller counterparts, which may result in differing active periods (Yanes et al, 2017). Thus, specific taxa may exhibit different tolerance ranges, activity, and behavior at various latitudes, and possibly within and between microhabitats (Yanes et al, 2017).…”

“…The systematics of oxygen isotopes in land snail shells are more complicated, with at least four environmental variables contributing to shell δ 18 O values: (1) δ 18 O values of local precipitation, (2) RH, (3) temperature, and (4) δ 18 O values of ambient water vapor (Balakrishnan and Yapp, 2004). Shell δ 18 O values thus depend not only on local and regional climate conditions, but also on the interaction of species ecology and behavior with meso- and microclimatic conditions that can vary both between and within sites (Yanes et al, 2017). To accurately interpret shell δ 18 O values, we must understand the impact that each parameter has on the shell δ 18 O value under a variety of environmental and climatic conditions at different spatial scales and for the taxa that are most abundant in the fossil record.…”