The wealth of field studies using stable isotopes to make inferences about animal diets require controlled validation experiments to make proper interpretations. Despite several pleas in the literature for such experiments, validation studies are still lagging behind, notably in consumers dwelling in chemosynthesis-based ecosystems. In this paper we present such a validation experiment for the ...

Bivalve molluscs are filter feeders and as a consequence they may bioaccumulate in their tissues viruses that infect humans and higher vertebrates. However, there have also been described mortalities of bivalve molluscs associated with viruses belonging to different families. Mass mortalities of adult Portuguese oysters, Crassostrea angulata, among French livestocks (between 1967 and 1973) were...

1 General Introduction 3 1. Bivalves as environmental proxies: An introduction. 5 2. Materials and Methods: Procedures, equipment, precision and accuracy. 31 3. Validation of LA-ICP-MS results with micromilling and SN-HR-ICP-MS. 59 4. Stable carbon and oxygen isotopes in an aragonitic bivalve (Saxidomus giganteus): assessing the reproducibility and reliability for environmental reconstruction. ...

The ability of bivalve filter feeders to limit phytoplankton biomass in shallow waters is well-documented, but the role of bivalves in shaping phytoplankton communities is not. The coupled effect of bivalve grazing at the sediment-water interface and sinking of phytoplankton cells to that bottom filtration zone could influence the relative biomass of sinking (diatoms) and non-sinking phytoplank...

We describe the composition and distribution of bivalve molluscs from the sandy and rocky intertidal and the shallow subtidal environments of Bahía de Mazatlán, México. The bivalve fauna of the bay is represented by 89 living species in 28 families, including 37 new records and four range extensions: Lithophaga hastasia, Adula soleniformis, Mactrellona subalata, and Strigilla ervilia. The numbe...

Diseases are a critical bottleneck for the culture of bivalves causing important yield losses. The study of bivalve diseases has relied on histological techniques and has focused on pathogen morphology, the effect of external factors on the pathogens and infectivity, and on the development of immune and molecular diagnostic techniques. Recently, significant advances in the study of bivalve path...

Several bivalve species burrow into sandy sediments to reach their living position. There are many hypotheses concerning the functional morphology of the bivalve shell for burrowing. Observational studies are limited and often qualitative and should be complemented by a synthetic approach mimicking the burrowing process using a robotic emulation. In this paper we present a simple mechatronic se...

Cultural eutrophication in estuaries and other coastal systems has increased over the last 50 yr. Some recently proposed strategies to reverse this trend have included the restoration of bivalve suspension feeders as an ecological tool for reducing phytoplankton biomass. The ecological benefits accruing from such bivalve restoration will be dependent on the characteristics of the estuary, as we...

The dinoflagellate Dinophysis spp. is responsible for diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP). In the bivalves exposed to the toxic bloom of the dinoflagellate, dinophysistoxin 3 (DTX3), the 7-OH acylated form of either okadaic acid (OA) or DTX1, is produced. We demonstrated in vitro acylation of OA with palmitoyl CoA in the presence of protein extract from the digestive gland, but not other tissu...

T h e proportion of bivalve shells with drill holes i n fossil assemblages is commonly used as a measure of the intensity of predation by drilling gastropods. Previous studies have assumed that drilled and undrilled bivalve shells have equal preseruat ion wotentials. W e tested this assumption by measuring the mechanical strength of drilled and undrilled valves of the Recent bivalve Mulinia lat...