Tracking the history of Baltic Sea hypoxia with bivalve shells

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Bernd R. Schöne
• Subject Area: Palaeontology ; Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals and Ecosystems, Organismic Interactions ; Oceanography
• Term: from 2018 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 406557478

• Final Report Year: 2023

Final Report Abstract

The project goal was to develop a multiproxy approach for the reconstruction of dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration and apply this technique to infer the history of hypoxia in the Baltic Sea since the onset of the Industrial Revolution with unprecedented temporal resolution. For this purpose, element chemical analyses were performed on three long-lived bivalve species (Arctica islandica, Astarte borealis and A. elliptica) collected from two different localities (Mecklenburg Bight and Fehmarn Belt) by means of a quadrupole LA-ICP-MS. In addition, ultrastructure properties of specimens A. islandica from NE Iceland (>DO) and the Baltic Sea (

Publications

• Mn/Ca in shells of Arctica islandica (Baltic Sea) – A potential proxy for ocean hypoxia?. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 251, 107257.
  Schöne, Bernd R.; Huang, Xizhi; Zettler, Michael L.; Zhao, Liqiang; Mertz-Kraus, Regina; Jochum, Klaus Peter & Walliser, Eric O.
  
• High-Resolution Reconstruction of Dissolved Oxygen Levels in the Baltic Sea With Bivalves – a Multi-Species Comparison (Arctica islandica, Astarte borealis, Astarte elliptica). Frontiers in Marine Science, 9.
  Schöne, Bernd R.; Huang, Xizhi; Jantschke, Anne; Mertz-Kraus, Regina & Zettler, Michael L.
  
• High-resolution history of oxygen depletion in the SW Baltic Sea since the mid-19th century as revealed by bivalve shells. Science of The Total Environment, 888, 164011.
  Huang, Xizhi; Zhao, Liqiang; Zettler, Michael L.; Mertz-Kraus, Regina; Jochum, Klaus Peter & Schöne, Bernd R.