1. Stable Carbon and Oxygen Isotopes in Shell Carbonates of modern Land Snails in China and Their Relation to Environment Variables
- Author
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Wang, Xu, Zhai, Jixuan, Cui, Linlin, Zhang, Shuhua, and Ding, Zhongli
- Abstract
Stable isotopes of land snail fossil shell carbonates (δ13Cshelland δ18Oshell) provide the opportunity to decipher paleodietary and paleoenvironmental changes. However, the environmental meanings of δ13Cshelland δ18Oshellremain elusive especially in the monsoonal climate region. To elucidate this, δ13Cshelland δ18Oshellof the two most common land snails in China, Cathaicaand Bradybaena, were analyzed in this study. Results show that Bradybaenahas a wider distribution than Cathaicaand provides considerable potential for use in paleoenvironmental reconstruction. In addition, δ13Cshellof Bradybaenaincreases with altitude and temperature, decreases with mean annual precipitation, and reflects the isotopic signal of C3plants. In contrast, Cathaicaδ13Cshelldocuments a C3/C4mixing signal and exhibits only a strong altitude effect. δ18Oshellof Bradybaenadecreases with mean annual precipitation in the Indian monsoon and westerlies regions but increases with mean annual temperature in the East Asian monsoon region; as a strong correlation exists between the two variables, they could thus potentially be used to reconstruct paleotemperatures. However, uncertainties should be recognized due to the complexity of the land‐snails' ecophysiological responses to environmental changes. Cathaicahas slightly lower δ18Oshellthan Bradybaena, which suggests that the two land snails have different ecophysiological traits, and the δ18Oshellof Cathaicafollows mean annual temperature in northeast China. This study lays a ground for explaining land snail stable isotopes in paleorecord in China and reasserts the importance of different ecophysiological traits of land snails in paleoclimatic research. Stable isotopes and snail shell‐dimension studies suggest Bradybaenaand Cathaicahave different ecophysiological traitsδ13Cshellis a tracer of dietary vegetation and can be used to monitor rainfall in the region dominated by C3plantsδ18Oshellof Bradybaenarises with temperature in East Asia monsoon region but declines with rainfall in Indian monsoon and westerlies areas
- Published
- 2019
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