Sclerochronology-based geochemical studies of bivalve shells: Potential vs reality

Abstract

Since the early 1980s, attempts to develop a method for the retrospective estimation of water chemistry have been increasingly discussed in terms of bivalve sclerochronology. Although the problem with the interpretation of chemical data from shell growth patterns remains unsolved and a method, or at least its concept, has never been proposed, the optimism about the potential of the bivalve shell as a possible tool in retrospective environmental monitoring has reached the apogee nowadays. Here, we provide a review of the changes in the conceptual framework of the bivalve sclerochronology during more than thirty-five years of studies in the field, together with the analysis of the meaning of the key term ‘sclerochronology’. The new term, ‘sclerochronochemistry’ (skleros - hard, chronos - time, and chemistry), is proposed in order to fill a gap between sclerochronology and sclerochemistry.