HR: 17:45h
AN: B44C-07    [Abstracts]
TI: Mg isotopes in biocarbonates: new insight into vital effects associated to echinoderms and bivalves calcification
AU: * Planchon, F
EM: frederic.planchon@africamuseum.be
AF: Royal Museum For Central Africa, Leuvensesteenweg 13, Tervuren, 3080, Belgium
AU: Hermans, J
AF: Marine Biology Laboratory, ULB, Brussels, 1050, Belgium
AU: Borremans, C
AF: Marine Biology Laboratory, ULB, Brussels, 1050, Belgium
AU: Dubois, P
AF: Marine Biology Laboratory, ULB, Brussels, 1050, Belgium
AU: Poulain, C
AF: LEMAR, IUEM, Plouzane, 29280, France
AU: Paulet, Y
AF: LEMAR, IUEM, Plouzane, 29280, France
AU: Andre, L
AF: Royal Museum For Central Africa, Leuvensesteenweg 13, Tervuren, 3080, Belgium
AB: Mg isotopes can be helpful tracers to reveal the fundamental pathways of Mg incorporation during biomineralisation. We report in this study a detailed characterisation of the Mg isotopic signatures of different biominerals: high magnesium calcitic skeletons of selected echinoderms (sea urchins and starfish) and low magnesium aragonitic shells of a bivalve species (clam). State of the art analytical procedures were applied including sample purification step followed by high precision measurements using MC-ICP-MS (Nu instrument) in dry plasma conditions. 26Mg/24Mg and 25Mg/24Mg are expressed as per mil deviations from the DSM3 (Dead Sea Metal 3) reference standard in delta notation (d26Mg and d25Mg). For echinoderms, we considered: (a) adult specimens of six starfish species (Asteria r., Marthasterias g., Anseropoda p., Asterina g., Echinaster s. and Henricia o.), sampled in Brittany (France); (b) a sea urchin species (Paracentrotus lividus) with field samples (Mediterranean Sea, Marseille, France) and culture specimen under T and S controlled conditions. In vivo endoskeletons display negative, but different d26Mg values of -3.06 for starfish (with uniform interspecies signatures) and -2.65 for sea urchin. Relative to seawater signature (-0.82), all echinoderms favour the incorporation of light isotopes during biocalcification. The d26Mg depletion is lower than theoretically expected from a inorganic calcite precipitation from seawater (at -3.5). These differences suggest that on its route from seawater to the shell, Mg isotopes are partly biologically fractionationated through "vital effects" leaving heavier Mg isotopic signatures. Taken into account that calcification in echinoderms is an intra- cellular process involving transient amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) phase, the observed bio-fractionation factors can be related to: (1) changes in the isotopic composition of the precipitating intracellular fluids due to active pumping in and out of the cell; (2) a specific control of isotopic exchange by ACC. For bivalves, we considered one clam species (Ruditapes Philippinarum) from two different sampling sites in the gulf of Morbihan (Brittany, France). One site (Locmariaquer, Loc) is coastal and marine while the other (Le bono, BO) located upstream in the Auray river. For each site and specimen, we considered all reservoirs involved in the shell build-up: seawater, internal fluids with hemolymph (H) and extrapaleal fluid (EPF), soft tissues with mantle, muscle and remaining part (R) and finally aragonitic shells. Water d26Mg are -0.82 at Loc and -0.79 at BO and appear to be highly similar to internal fluids values (EPF and H), -0.6 for Loc and -0.8 for BO. The soft tissues with mean values of -2.7 (Mantle), -2.1 (Muscle), -2.8 (R) at both sites, show pronounced enrichments in the light isotopic fraction of Mg. The shells display the widest range of Mg isotopic signatures with -1.9 at Loc and -4.2 at BO suggesting that different routes of fractionation are acting. The shell signature at Loc similar to aragonitic coral (-1.9) suggests that moderate biological effects have influenced the shell composition at this site. In contrast, at BO, the very light signature of the shell suggests that a significant fraction of Mg has been internally recycled by the clam and used for the building of the shell.
DE: 0419 Biomineralization
DE: 0424 Biosignatures and proxies
DE: 0454 Isotopic composition and chemistry (1041, 4870)
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting