Data from: Nacre microstructure records spatiotemporal variation in temperature in the modern ocean
Data files
Aug 15, 2025 version files 127.07 KB
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global_microstructure_stations.csv
1.01 KB
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Nacre_TT_100-Tablet_data.csv
23.92 KB
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Nacre_TT_data.csv
88.07 KB
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Nacre_TT_metadata.csv
5.88 KB
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README.md
4.33 KB
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sst_data.R
3.86 KB
Abstract
Changing climatic conditions can have complex effects on the biomineralized segments of marine organisms, which in turn may influence individual fitness and survival. In nacreous shells, tablet thickness is one microstructural component that has been observed to positively correlate with ocean temperature, though the strength of this relationship is unclear, leaving unresolved whether temperature is a consistent predictor of tablet thickness and, if so, over what scales. Here we investigate the relationship between tablet thickness and temperature in two nacre-producing marine mollusks in the modern ocean. We explore the relationship between nacre tablet thickness and ocean temperature through a global analysis of present-day abalone (Haliotis) nacre, and a temporal analysis of nut clam (Nucula proxima) nacre using shells from individuals that lived before and after 1950 in two regions of the Gulf of Mexico. We document a positive relationship between tablet thickness and ocean temperature within and among closely-related species. For a given temperature, considerable variation was observed in nacre tablet thickness, indicating that other factors also contribute. While increased temperature is likely to cause larger biomineralized units within the calcified segments of marine organisms, other environmental factors might counter those changes, highlighting the need for work exploring the multimodal impact of anthropogenic climate change on biominerals.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.kd51c5bjb
Description of the data and file structure
Nacre tablet thickness data for specimens of two marine mollusks (Haliotis and Nucula proxima). See Methods for further details.
Files and variables
File: Nacre_TT_metadata.csv
Description: Specimen metadata for all spatial (Haliotis and Nucula proxima) and temporal (Nucula proxima) analyses.
Variables
- Specimen_ID: Unique ID for each specimen
- Region: Geographic region where the specimen was collected
- Class: Class of marine mollusk
- Genus: Genus of marine mollusk
- Species: Species of marine mollusk
- Latitude: Latitude in decimal degrees for specimen location; NA denotes localities for which geographic coordinates were not shared to limit poaching of Haliotis populations
- Longitude: Longitude in decimal degrees for specimen location; NA denotes localities for which geographic coordinates were not shared to limit poaching of Haliotis populations
- Mean_Annual_SST: Mean annual sea surface temperature in degrees centigrade for locations where wild and archival specimens were collected; for aquaculture specimens this value is the temperature of their final growth tank
- 14C_Age: Calibrated radiocarbon age in years before present for specimens of Nucula proxima; 0 = live-collected specimens; NA = all Haliotis specimens, as it is unknown which were alive at the time of collection or were empty shells
- Context: Wild = wild-collected specimens; Archival = specimens from the Colgate University Collections; Aquaculture = specimens grown in aquaculture under different final temperature regimes.
- Institution: Institution that provided the specimens
- Complete_Nacre_Transect: Y = specimens for which a continuous transect of nacre tablets were measured between the nacre-prismatic boundary and shell interior; N = specimens for which a subsample of 100 stacked tablets were measured
File: Nacre_TT_data.csv
Description: Nacre tablet thickness measurements for 55 marine mollusk specimens. Column headers (e.g., NT1) correspond to the Specimen_ID variable in Nacre_TT_metadata.csv. Tablet thickness (µm) measurements for each specimen ID start closer to the interior of the shell (row 2) and extend towards the nacre-prismatic boundary (higher row numbers).
File: Nacre_TT_100-Tablet_data.csv
Description: Nacre tablet thickness measurements for 55 marine mollusk specimens. Column headers (e.g., NT1) correspond to the Specimen_ID variable in Nacre_TT_metadata.csv. 100 tablet thickness (µm) measurements for each specimen ID, which start closer to the interior of the shell (row 2) and extend towards the nacre-prismatic boundary (row 101). These data were used to generate Figure 3 in Carskaddan et al.
File: global_microstructure_stations.csv
Description: Geographic coordinates for locations with associated nacre tablet thickness measurements for one or more specimens which are read into ss_data.R and used to calculate mean annual sea surface temperature. Note, localities are not listed for some specimens analyzed for this study in order to minimize poaching of Haliotis populations; see Methods in Carskaddan et al. for further details.
Variables
- Locale: Geographic region with one or more specimens used for this study
- Latitude: Latitude in decimal degrees for specimen location; NA denotes localities for which geographic coordinates were not shared to limit poaching of Haliotis populations
- Longitude: Longitude in decimal degrees for specimen location; NA denotes localities for which geographic coordinates were not shared to limit poaching of Haliotis populations
- Taxon: Genus of marine mollusk analyzed from this location for this study
File: sst_data.R
Description: R script that: downloads NOAA WOA 2023 SST data; matches the coordinates in global_microstructure_stations.csv with the nearest coordinate in the NOAA datasets, and returns a spreadsheet with sea surface temperature (SST) values
Access information
Other publicly accessible locations of the data:
- n/a
Data was derived from the following sources:
- n/a