Electron probe analysis of strontium in mussel (Bivalvia, Mytilidae) shells: Feasibility of estimating water temperature

Electron microprobe step-scan analyses across the inner nacreous layer of a sectioned Mytilus edulis shell revealed no long-term periodic (e.g., seasonal) variation in the concentration of strontium. Similarly, no significant difference was found between a specimen sampled in February (water temperature = 1.3 °C) and one sampled in August (water temperature = 18.0 °C) with regard to the concentration of strontium within the most recently deposited aragonite. Correlation of the amount of strontium within various nacreous regions of the shells of living or fossil mytilids with water temperatures (present or past) is probably not possible through the use of an electron probe, at least to the extent that strontium variation within the nacre of Mytilus edulis is representative of that in nacreous layers of all mytilids.