title: Size effect on the mineralogy and chemistry of Mytilus trossulus shells from the southern Baltic Sea: implications for environmental monitoring.
abstract: Mussels have the ability to control biomineral production and chemical composition, producing shells with a range of functions. In addition to biological control, the environment also seems to influence the process of biomineralization; thus, shells can be used as archives of ambient water parameters during the calcium carbonate deposition. Past and present environmental conditions are recorded in the shells in the form of various proxies including Mg/Ca or Sr/Ca ratios. For such proxies to be accurate and robust, the influence of biological effects including the size of studied organism must be examined and eliminated or minimized, so that the environmental signal can be efficiently extracted. This study considers mineralogy and elemental composition of shells representing four size classes of Mytilus trossulus from the Baltic Sea. Obtained results suggest that mineralogy and chemical composition change throughout the shell development due to most likely a combination of environmental and biological factors. The content of aragonite increases with increasing shell size, while the bulk concentrations of Na, Cd, Cu, U, V, Zn and Pb were found to decrease with increasing height of the shells. Therefore, using mussels for environmental monitoring requires analysis of individuals in the same size range.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Powstańców Warszawy 55, 81-712, Sopot, Poland. apiwoni@iopan.gda.pl.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Piwoni-Piórewicz
authors.affiliation: Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Powstańców Warszawy 55, 81-712, Sopot, Poland.|Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK.
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kukliński
authors.affiliation: Imaging and Analysis Centre, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK.
authors.forename: Stanislav
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Strekopytov
authors.affiliation: Imaging and Analysis Centre, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK.
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Humphreys-Williams
authors.affiliation: Imaging and Analysis Centre, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK.
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Najorka
authors.affiliation: Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Powstańców Warszawy 55, 81-712, Sopot, Poland.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Iglikowska
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001454:Baltic States; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D049878:Mytilus / Q000737:chemistry*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Geochemistry; ICP-MS; Mineralogy; Monitoring; Mytilus; Shell size