 Arctic Bivalves as Indicators of Climatic Variation
Bivalves are
widely distributed in Arctic seas, often comprising a large proportion
of the biomass of bottom communities. Many species live for several
decades, and some for more than a century, move very little as adults,
and record environmental information in their shells. Bivalves,
therefore, have great potential to provide continuous time-series
information of biological responses to climate changes over large scales
of time and space.
By analyzing different shell constituents from
individuals from different locations, we are reconstructing regional
patterns of bio-physical linkages over scales from days to decades, thus
providing a “big picture” of the effects of climate change to the Arctic
marine system.
Our current investigations focus on growth variability in
different Barents Sea bivalve species (Serripes groenlandicus, Arctica
islandica). The investigation relies on contemporary as well as archived
sample material collected from different locations in the Barents Sea,
Svalbard, the Pechora Sea, and the Kara Seas over the past 100 years.
Combining the spatial and temporal span of the collections will allow
reconstructions of general environmental conditions over the past
150-200 years, as well as the inherent regime of environmental
variability in these regions over time.
Financed by Norsk Hydro.
“Bivalves as indicators of environmental variation from annual to
centennial timescales: Analysis of archived material to reconstruct the
marine environmental conditions over the past century”
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