The calcareous shells secreted by bivalve molluscs display diverse and species specific structural compositions, which indicates possible divergent biomineralization processes. Thus, studying multiple mollusc species will provide a more comprehensive understanding of shell formation. Here, the transcriptomes of the mantle tissues responsible for shell deposition were characterized in three comm...

Suspension-feeding bivalves couple pelagic and benthic processes because they consume seston from the water column, and their biodeposits (feces and pseudofeces) settle on the sediment surface. Abundant stocks of bivalves can exert grazer control on phytoplankton; in the process, nitrogen and phosphorus are regenerated to the water column as excreta and via microbial decomposition of their biod...

Soft bottom bivalve mollusc assemblages were sampled along a depth gradient (10 to 100 m) on the northern São Paulo shelf during the austral summer and winter. A one-way analysis of similarity permutation test revealed there was no seasonal difference in the structure of the bivalve assemblages in the area. A clustering analysis indicated 3 groups of stations corresponding to the bathymetric gr...

Molluscan bivalve hinge ligaments are composed of long needle-shaped aragonite crystals embedded in a protein matrix. These crystals are twinned and, in general, the twin forms a thin lamella through the center of the crystal.

Barium/Calcium profiles of bivalve shells are characterized by flat background signals periodically interrupted with sharp peaks, with the background signals correlated with water Ba/Ca. To test if the peaks are an environmental signal related to productivity, we analyzed high resolution Ba/Ca profiles in bivalve shells that grew adjacent to one another. Two aragonitic Saxidomus giganteus show ...

Caribbean reef corals have declined sharply since the 1980s, but the lack of prior baseline data has hindered identification of drivers of change. To assess anthropogenic change in reef environments over the past century, we tracked the composition of subfossil assemblages of bivalve and gastropod mollusks excavated from pits below lagoonal and offshore reefs in Bocas del Toro, Panama. The high...