To study the influence of early diagenesis, left valves of fresh cultured bivalves (Mytilus edulis) were deployed in the natural environments (Panama, Barbados and New Brunswick), and right valves were kept in the laboratory as the controls. After 9 days, 8 months and 1 year, the retrieved shells have shown different macroscopic changes in weight, shell area, colour and luster. The microstructure of nacre shows organic matrix maceration, dissolution on the edges of tablets, and abiotic CaC03 reprecipitation on the surface and edges of nacre tablets. High-precision analyses of their carbon and oxygen stable isotope ratios show bulk differences of up to 0.4%o between experimental and control valves within 1 year. Results therefore indicate that early diagenesis can start very quickly post-mortem, and the nature of these changes varies with burial environments.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.98727 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Huang, Zhenzhen, 1982- |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences..) |
| Rights | © Zhenzhen Huang, 2006 |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002481031, proquestno: AAIMR24696, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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