Rare earth elements in oyster shells: provenance discrimination and potential vital effects

Abstract

Abstract. Rare earth elements (REEs) and yttrium in seawater originate from atmospheric fallout, continental weathering, and transport from rivers, as well as hydrothermal activity. Previous studies have reported the use of REE and Y measurements in biogenic carbonates as a means to reconstruct these surface processes in ancient times. As coastal seawater REE and Y concentrations partially reflect those of nearby rivers, it may be possible to obtain a regional fingerprint of these concentrations from bivalve shells for seafood traceability and environmental monitoring studies. Here, we present a dataset of 297 measurements of REE and Y abundances by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) from two species (Crassostrea gigas and Ostrea edulis). We measured a total of 49 oyster specimens from six locations in France (Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea). Our study reports that there is no significant difference in concentrations from shell parts corresponding to winter and summer periods for both species. Moreover, interspecific vital effects are reported from specimens from both species and from the same locality. REE and Y profiles as well as t-distributed stochastic neighbour embedding processing (t-SNE; a discriminant statistical method) indicate that REE and Y measurements from C. gigas shells can be discriminated from one locality to another, but this is not the case for O. edulis, which presents very similar concentrations in all studied localities. Therefore, provenance studies using bivalve shells based on REEs and Y have to first be tested for the species. Other methods have to be investigated to be able to find the provenance of some species, such as O. edulis.

Rare Earth Elements in oyster shells: provenance discrimination and potential vital effects

“…The data used in this manuscript have been deposited on the Zenodo data repository (Mouchi et al, 2019).…”

A step towards measuring connectivity in the deep sea: elemental fingerprints of mollusk larval shells discriminate hydrothermal vent sites

“…, temperature; Thorrold et al 2007) and metabolism ( e.g. , Mouchi et al, 2020) have been reported to modify the exact seawater composition reflection in biominerals. In species that produce calcified structures at the larval stage, like fish (otoliths) or molluscs (shells), the elemental fingerprint of the larval structure preserved in later developmental stages therefore allows for the determination of their natal geographic origin, provided that the larval calcified structures have been built in sites with differing compositions (Becker et al, 2007; Thorrold et al, 2007).…”

“…Deep-sea hydrothermal activity produces massive polymetallic sulphide deposits from the ascent and precipitation of hydrothermal fluids enriched in metals originating from the oceanic crust (Fouquet et al, 1991;Binns and Scott, 1993;Humphris et al, 1995;Hannington et al, 2011). Vent sites are economically interesting to mining companies (Hoagland et al, 2010;Radziejewska et al, 2022), which initiatives are currently under evaluation worldwide (Boschen environmental conditions (e.g., temperature: Thorrold et al, 2007) and animal metabolism (Mouchi et al, 2020). In fish and molluscs, calcified structures produced during the early larval stage and preserved thereafter can be used to infer their natal geographic origin, provided that they have been built in chemically contrasting sites (Becker et al, 2007;Thorrold et al, 2007).…”

“…This approach relies on the record in calcified structures of the chemical composition of the water in which they have formed (Thorrold et al, 2007). When spatial differences occur in seawater composition, these can be imprinted in the biominerals of organisms living there, with potential modifications due to environmental conditions (e.g., temperature: Thorrold et al, 2007) and animal metabolism (Mouchi et al, 2020). In fish and molluscs, calcified structures produced during the early larval stage and preserved thereafter can be used to infer their natal geographic origin, provided that they have been built in chemically contrasting sites (Becker et al, 2007; Thorrold et al, 2007).…”

REE Analyses in Some Geological Standard Reference Materials utilizing LA-ICP-MS and ICP-MS Techniques

“…Using LA-ICP-MS, we measured rare earth elements and yttrium in oyster shells, as well as their provenance and the potential essential implications of those quantities [15]. An examination utilizing LA-ICP-MS was carried out on 37 blue glass drips unearthed from a tomb in the southern Faiyum district of Egypt [16].…”