A global assessment of freshwater mollusk shell oxygen isotope signatures and their relation to precipitation and stream water

Abstract

Records of δ 18 O in stream flow are critical for understanding and modeling hydrological, ecological, biogeochemical and atmospheric processes. However, the number of such records are extremely limited globally and the length of such time series are usually less than a decade. This situation severely handicaps their use in model testing and evaluation. Here we present a global assessment of freshwater mollusk (bivalves & gastropods) isotope data from 25 river basins that have stream water isotope values, water temperature data and shell material isotope signatures. Our data span a latitude range of 37.50°S to 52.06°N. We show that δ 18 O signatures in freshwater mollusks are able to explain 95% of the variance of stream water δ 18 O. We use shell δ 18 O values and water temperature data to reconstruct stream water δ 18 O signatures. With freshwater mussel life expectancy ranging from a few years up to 200 years, this translation of mollusk metabolic properties into long term stream water isotope records is a promising approach for substantially extending global stream water isotope records in time and space.