Experimental determination of salinity, temperature, growth, and metabolic effects on shell isotope chemistry ofMytilus eduliscollected from Maine and Greenland

[1] To study the effects of temperature, salinity, and life processes (growth rates, size, metabolic effects, and physiological/genetic effects) on newly precipitated bivalve carbonate, we quantified shell isotopic chemistry of adult and juvenile animals of the intertidal bivalveMytilus edulis(Blue mussel) collected alive from western Greenland and the central Gulf of Maine and cultured them under controlled conditions. Data for juvenile and adultM. edulisbivalves cultured in this study, and previously by Wanamaker et al. (2006), yielded statistically identical paleotemperature relationships. On the basis of these experiments we have developed a species-specific paleotemperature equation for the bivalveM. edulis[T! C=1 6.28 (±0.10)!4.57 (±0.15) {d 18 O c VPBD! d 18 O w VSMOW} + 0.06 (±0.06) {d 18 O c VPBD!d 18 O w VSMOW} 2 ;r 2 =0 .99; N=3 23; p