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Metabolic effects on stable carbon isotopic composition of freshwater bivalve shell Corbicula fluminea

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Abstract

The stable isotopic composition of the bivalve shell has been widely used to reconstruct the palaeo-climate and palaeo-environment. The climatic and environmental significance of carbon isotopic composition of the bivalve shell is still in dispute, and incorporation of metabolic carbon can obscure carbon isotope records of dissolved inorganic carbon. This study deals with freshwater bivalve, Corbicula fluminea aragonite shell. The results indicated that the δ13C values of bivalve shells deposited out of equilibrium with the host water and showed an ontogenic decrease, indicating that there are metabolic effects and more metabolic carbon is incorporated into larger shells. The proportion of metabolic carbon of shells varies between 19.8% and 26.8%. However, δ13CS can still be used as qualitative indicators of δ13CDIC and environmental processes that occurred during shell growth.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Urban Planning and Environment Science, Xuchang University, Xuchang, 461000, China

    Hui Yan, Zhongxuan Li & Jie Chen

  2. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang, 550002, China

    Hui Yan, Xinqing Lee, Hui Zhou & Hongguang Cheng

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  1. Hui Yan
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  2. Zhongxuan Li
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  3. Xinqing Lee
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Correspondence to Hui Yan.

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Yan, H., Li, Z., Lee, X. et al. Metabolic effects on stable carbon isotopic composition of freshwater bivalve shell Corbicula fluminea . Chin. J. Geochem. 31, 103–108 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11631-012-0555-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11631-012-0555-5

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