Abstract
The oxygen and carbon stable-isotope ratios from fossil snail shells within a small intramontane lake in southwest Turkey are used to highlight the potential, and problems, of using freshwater snail carbonate as a palaeoenvironmental proxy. Two species (Gyraulus piscinarum and Valvata cristata) yielded different isotope ratios at the same sampling intervals, probably due to differences in water-isotope composition between different microhabitats. Isotope ratios from a number of individual shells from the same sampling intervals (representing similar to7-25 years), show large ranges (up to 8parts per thousand for delta(18)O) for each species. Only by analysis of a significant number of species-specific shells (>5) from each sampling interval can a true understanding of environmental change be obtained. Averages of the data provide an insight into longer-term climatic variation while the ranges provide an estimate of short-term (decadal) environmental variability.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 629-634 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | The Holocene |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Sept 2002 |
Keywords
- lakes
- Turkey
- freshwater snails
- oxygen isotopes
- Mollusca
- lacustrine carbonate
- Holocene
- carbon isotopes