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February 1998 - present
Publications
Publications (138)
Aquatic organisms are natural data loggers and record chemical variations within hardened accretionary structures like shells and teeth. Chemical sclerochronology is the study of these chemical variations through time and how they are used to understand environmental change and the physiology and ecology of species. While sclerochronology research...
Understanding the age structure and growth patterns of freshwater bivalve species is crucial for their conservation, and these data are still lacking for many species and locations. The main objective of this study was to gain insight into the age structure and growth patterns of the endangered mussel Unio crassus at the unpolluted and polluted sit...
Despite the wide geographic distribution of mussels and their importance in fisheries and aquaculture, understanding of temporal and spatial variations of their growth is still limited. This can be, at least partly, attributed to the lack of distinct growth lines in their shells. Our study uses geochemical properties of shells, particularly oxygen...
The impact of climate warming on coastal benthic fauna is already observed, but forecasting their long‐term fate remains challenging. This study uses δ¹⁸Oshell data of specimens of five bivalve species collected at six locations and results from kilometer‐scale atmosphere–ocean climate model for the time intervals of 1987–2017 and 2070–2100, to est...
Polar regions are warming faster than the world average and are profoundly affected by changes in the spatio-temporal dynamics of sea ice, with largely unknown repercussions on the functioning of marine ecosystems. Here, we investigated the impacts of interannual sea-ice variability on coastal benthic communities in Antarctica, focusing on a close-...
Callista chone samples were live collected at three localities in the Adriatic Sea: Gulf of Venice, Italy, Pag Bay and Pašman Channel, Croatia. Acetate peel replicas were prepared and the Image Pro Primer program was used to measure increment widths in samples that had clear boundaries. Visual cross-dating of the images was performed using list-yea...
Banded murex, Hexaplex trunculus, is a marine gastropod whose reproductive fitness can be severely affected by very low concentrations of antifouling compound tributyltin (TBT). TBT has strong xenoandrogen impacts on snails, causing the development of imposex (e.g., the superimposition of male sexual characteristic in females), thereby affecting th...
To understand the response of marine species to a changing environment, it is crucial to have deep insight into their main biological traits. This study used a multi-species approach to comparatively analyse the reproductive and growth strategies of three commercially important scallop species. Target taxa were larger sized Mediterranean scallop Pe...
The article aims to quantify a multiyear ocean temperature change at a shallow (5 m) coastal site in the northeastern Adriatic. Measurements were taken between May 2014 and May 2021 with an hourly resolution, allowing for an extraction of temperature variations over longer-term, seasonal, synoptic, quasi-diurnal and hourly timescales. As expected f...
Pinna nobilis is a large bivalve endemic to the Mediterranean Sea that lives in shallow coastal areas. Due to its size and relatively fast shell growth rates, it is an interesting taxon for high-resolution study of nitrogen isotopes of carbonate bound organic matter (δ¹⁵NCBOM). In this study we tested if P. nobilis shells can be used as an indicato...
This study aims to determine if otolith chemistry can differentiate between coastal lagoons and shallow coves and if it can effectively re-assign Sparus aurata specimens to the nearest nurseries. Young-of-the-year (Y-O-Y) and young adults were collected at fifteen sites within three nurseries along the eastern Adriatic. LA-ICP-MS was used to quanti...
Integrated otolith chemistry and muscle tissue stable isotope analyses were performed to allocate juvenile Diplodus puntazzo and Diplodus vulgaris to nurseries in the Adriatic Sea. Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) was used to quantify the concentrations of chemical elements in the otoliths. Fish muscle samples...
Over the past decade, sclerochronological research has continued to develop rapidly and is diversifying with respect to methods, taxa, geographic coverage as well as temporal depth. Chonologically aligned environmental records from bivalves, gastropods, coralline algae, corals, and many other periodically formed biogenic hard parts are integrated t...
Coastal ecosystems are increasingly threatened by a wide range of human activities. Fish otolith chemistry, by
creating a unique specific signature, can be used as a natural tag for determining life stage dispersal, spatial
connectivity and population structure. In this study, we tested whether differences in otolith composition among
juveniles of...
High-resolution stable isotope data (δ18O, δ13C) were used to study growth strategies of the bivalve Venus verrucosa collected from three sites of the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. The principal objectives of this study were to identify the main growing season and to evaluate the potential applicability of δ18Oshell values to reconstruct the s...
Horizon scanning is an increasingly common strategy to identify key research needs and frame future agendas in science. Here, we present the results of the first such exercise for the field of sclerochronology, thereby providing an overview of persistent and emergent research questions that should be addressed by future studies. Through online corr...
In order to detect the possible regulatory effect of non-native C. gigas on the native O. edulis, under aquaculture conditions, feeding interactions between them were investigated in a highly productive environment of Lim Bay (Adriatic Sea). The present study uses a multi-methodological approach, including stomach content, DNA barcoding and stable...
The long living Glycymeris pilosa bivalve is an interesting target species for the sclerochronological research in the Mediterranean Sea. In this study, Ba/Cashell and Mg/Cashell variations were studied along the coast of the eastern Adriatic Sea. Specimens were collected alive by SCUBA and skin diving during several occasions in 2014, 2015 and 201...
The Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas has been introduced for the aquaculture purposes in many different parts of the world. However, the species has never been officially introduced for commercial farming in the Croatian coast of the Adriatic Sea. Interestingly , in the 1970s, the Pacific oyster was reported in the natural habitats of Lim Bay, Croa...
Over the past two decades, the field of sclerochronology has been rapidly developing, with scientists devoting significant efforts to studying the physical and chemical variations in hard tissues of aquatic organisms. Most of this research has been limited to certain taxa and geographic areas. Although growth increments in fish otoliths are used fo...
Fish otoliths pose increasing interest due to their potential
of rendering information about environmental changes, underlined in their non-linear time-dependent biogenic crystal growth. Otoliths are acellular, metabolically inert and continuously grow in a complex process which still needs to be understood. In the present work confocal Raman micro...
Bivalve shells are among the most promising archives for high-resolution seawater temperature reconstructions. However, despite major research advances in bivalve sclerochronology over the past decades, estimating water temperature from shells remains a challenging task. This is largely because the most frequently used and widely accepted temperatu...
Aim
Previous analyses of marine fish species richness based on presence‐absence data have shown changes with latitude and average species size, but little is known about the underlying processes. To elucidate these processes we use metabolic, neutral and descriptive statistical models to analyse how richness responds to maximum species length, fish...
Introduction
Bivalve shells are increasingly exploited as high-resolution paleoclimate
archives. These mollusks are globally distributed in aquatic ecosystems,
occur in large numbers and individuals of some species are very long-lived.
Periodic growth patterns can be used to precisely date each shell portion.
Furthermore, the shells form in equilib...
A reconstruction of sea surface temperature (SST) spanning 45 years (1966–2011) was developed from δ18O obtained from the aragonitic shells of Glycymeris glycymeris, collected from the Bay of Brest, France. Bivalve sampling was undertaken monthly between 2014 and 2015 using a dredge. In total, 401 live specimens and 243 articulated paired valves fr...
Four chronologies of the bivalve species Glycymeris pilosa have been constructed along a 300 km gradient of the eastern coastal Adriatic Sea, all of which span the common period of 1982–2015. The chronologies are compared to local and remote environmental drivers suspected to influence the biology of the system, including air and seawater temperatu...
Due to its outstanding longevity (decades), the shallow-water bivalve Glycmeris pilosa represents a prime target for sclerochronological research in the Mediterranean Sea. In the present study, we analyzed the microgrowth patterns and the stable carbon (δ13Cshell) and oxygen (δ18Oshell) isotopes of the outer shell layer of live-collected G. pilosa...
Understanding variations in the reproductive cycle of commercial and ecologically important bivalve species is essential to address fisheries management and climate oscillation issues. Spatial and temporal trends in the reproductive cycle of Callista chione were analysed using standard histological procedures and gonadosomatic index (GSI) for two c...
As recently demonstrated, shell microstructure properties can potentially serve as a proxy for
ambient water temperature. For example, Cerastoderma edule forms larger and more elongated
biomineral units (BMUs) in warmer waters. Before this method can be broadly applied, it needs to
be validated in different species with the same microstructure and...
Investigation of the geochemical composition of bivalve shells can provide information on changes in the marine environment occurring during the lifespan of an organism. Three species, locally abundant in the Adriatic Sea, were chosen in this study, namely Glycymeris pilosa, Callista chione, and Venus verrucosa. Of these, G. pilosa has the longest...
This study combines radiocarbon ( ¹⁴ C) analysis and sclerochronology research, an approach that to the best of our knowledge, has not yet been applied using bivalves from the Mediterranean Sea. We analyzed shells from the North Adriatic Sea: live- and dead-collected specimens of the infaunal bivalve Glycymeris pilosa and two dead-collected specime...
The trophic ecology of two bivalves, the clam Callista chione and the cockle Glycymeris bimaculata was studied using environmental and biochemical variables of the suspended particulate matter and the sediment. Samples were collected from two shallow sites, Pag and Cetina, in the coastal oligotrophic Mediterranean Sea, during a 17 month period. The...
The human-mediated introduction of marine non-indigenous species is a centuries- if not millennia-old phenomenon, but was only recently acknowledged as a potent driver of change in the sea. We provide a synopsis of key historical milestones for marine bioinvasions, including timelines of (a) discovery and understanding of the invasion process, focu...
Concentrations of 23 trace elements (TEs; essential: Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mo, Se, V, Zn; non-essential: Ag, Al, As, Ba, Cd, Cr, Cs, Li, Ni, Pb, Rb, Sr, Ti, Tl, U) in whole soft tissues of Noah's Ark shell (Arca noae) were determined monthly during one year (March 2013-February 2014) at two sampling sites in the central part of the Eastern Adriatic Sea....
Potentially important species in shellfish aquaculture, cockle Acanthocardia tuberculata and sweet clam Calista chione are widespread in the Croatian Adriatic Sea. Assessment of the potential toxin profile of the natural populations of cockle and sweet clam were monitored from March 2009 to February 2010, one per month, with the purpose of a prelim...
Small-scale fisheries (SSF) in Croatia and Montenegro have a long tradition, similar to those of SSFs in other parts of the coastal Mediterranean. In order to improve fisheries management and save the cultural heritage of fishing traditions on the eastern Adriatic coast, scientists and fisheries managers, from these two countries, made an effort, t...
Annual growth increments formed in bivalve shells are increasingly used as proxies of environmental variability and change in marine ecosystems, especially at higher latitudes. Here, we document that well-replicated and exactly dated chronologies can also be developed to capture oceanographic processes in temperate and semi-enclosed seas, such as t...
Seasonal shell growth patterns were analyzed using the stable oxygen and carbon isotope values of live-collected specimens of the bivalve Callista chione from two sites in the Adriatic Sea (Pag and Cetina, Croatia). Micromilling was performed on the shell surface of three shells per site and shell oxygen isotopes of the powder samples were measured...
A crossdated, replicated, chronology of 114 years (1901–2014) was developed from internal growth increments in the shells of Glycymeris glycymeris samples collected monthly from the Bay of Brest, France. Bivalve sampling was undertaken between 2014 and 2015 using a dredge. In total 401 live specimens and 243 articulated paired valves from dead spec...
Correlation matrix of annual averaged environmental data.
(PDF)
Loadings of the environmental data on principal components.
(PDF)
pMC, Fraction modern and Δ14C of four G. glycymeris shells.
(PDF)
High-resolution stable-isotope ratio data (δ¹⁸O, δ¹³C) were used to study growth strategies of two bivalve species, Pecten jacobaeus (calcitic shell) and Glycymeris pilosa (aragonitic shell) from the North Adriatic Sea. The principal objectives of this study were to identify the period of the year when the growth line is formed in the shell of two...
The aim of this study was to evaluate the post-legislation change in tributyltin (TBT) pollution at Croatian Adriatic coast. Gastropod Hexaplex trunculus and sediments were collected, nearly 10years after TBT based antifouling paints were banned, at 12 locations along the coast where a previous study was conducted in 2005. The study showed a declin...
Morphological and molecular tools were combined to resolve the misidentification between Glycymeris glycymeris and Glycymeris pilosa from Atlantic and Mediterranean populations. The ambiguous literature on the taxonomic status of these species requires this confirmation as a baseline to studies on their ecology and sclerochronology. We used classic...
Bayesian posterior probabilities and bootstrap support for MrBayes and Maximum Likelihood analyses.
Illustration of tree topology based on ITS haplotypes of G. glycymeris (Gg), G. pilosa (Gp), G. nummaria (Gn) and G. bimaculata (Gb). Posterior probabilities followed by bootstrap values are included at the nodes. The origin of the haplotypes (H) is...
LDA biplot of the previous PCA.
Symbols are assigned to each population: Glycymeris glycymeris (black inverted triangle, UK; grey inverted triangle, France) and Glycymeris pilosa (black circle, Pag; grey circle, Pašman).
(PNG)
Other material of Glycymeris pilosa and Glycymeris glycymeris from National Museum of Wales collection used for rib count measurements.
(DOC)
Descriptive statistics of genetic diversity and demographic history of Glycymeris glycymeris and Glycymeris pilosa, based on COI and ITS2 sequence data.
N is number of analysed sequences, h is haplotype diversity (±SD), π is nucleotide diversity (±SD) and S is number of segregating sites.
(DOC)
Evolutionary time tree of Glycymeridae relationships inferred from Bayesian inference analyses with BEAST of COI gene.
Text adjacent to selected nodes indicates median ages. Blue bars indicate 95% highest posterior density intervals for nodes of interest. Text below selected nodes indicates posterior probabilities.
(TIF)
Number of COI and ITS2 haplotypes obtained in each population of G. glycymeris and G. pilosa.
Pop 1 in G. glycymeris stands for population sampled in United Kingdom, while Pop 2 stands for population sampled in France. For G. pilosa Pop 1 was sampled near the Island of Pag and Pop 2 in vicinity of the Island of Pašman, both in the Adriatic Sea.
(DO...
We evaluated the potential of G. pilosa as an environmental indicator for the Mediterranean region by applying sclerochronological techniques on a sample set collected from Pašman Channel in the middle Adriatic Sea. Maximal longevity of analyzed shells was 69 years. Growth increments in acetate peels of the hinge region had clear boundaries, and th...
Seasonal changes of food sources were investigated by analysing the fatty acid profiles of digestive gland and muscle tissues of the naturally occurring clams Glycymeris nummaria in Mali Ston Bay, Croatia. Total lipids in the digestive gland and the adductor muscle showed parallel changes, with a maximum after the main spawning event in September....
Longevity of bivalves has been an intriguing issue, especially for those species of interest for human consumption. Reliable age and growth estimates often require the combination of several methods. In this study, we analyzed changes in shell structure including ridges on the external shell surface and growth lines observed in acetate peel replica...
The growth and longevity of commercially important arcid Arca noae collected from the marine protected area
Telaščica Bay, Croatia was studied using shell-sectioning techniques. Ten large specimens with shell length ranging from
85.2 to 120.3 mm were collected by SCUBA. In laboratory, shells were embedded in epoxy resin, cut along height axis and
a...
The age and shell growth patterns in populations of Patella rustica in the Adriatic Sea were determined by analyzing the inner growth lines visible in shell sections. Marginal increment analysis showed annual periodicity with the annual growth line being deposited in May. The growth analysis of 120 individual shells showed that 90.8 % of collected...
The present study analyzed growth and longevity of the endemic cave dwelling bivalve Congeria kusceri obtained from the pit Jama u Predolcu, Croatia. A water temperature of 13–14°C constituted the lower limit for shell growth of C. kusceri. Obtained data also indicated that enhanced calcium uptake by C. kusceri during its summer growth and reproduc...
Biochemical and fatty acid composition of the bivalve Arca noae were investigated in the Mali Ston Bay in relation to environmental conditions. Sampling was carried out monthly, from December 2001 to November 2002. Wet shellfish meat consists on average of 77.61% water and 22.39% dry matter, while dry shellfish meat consists on average of 89.04% or...
Glycymeris bimaculata is one of the largest (up to ~ 115 mm) bivalves in the Mediterranean Sea, yet there is a paucity of information about the biology, ecology and growth of the species. Maximum longevity, growth and periodicity of internal shell growth line formation were assessed in individuals collected from Pag Bay in the Adriatic Sea. We vali...
In support of aquaculture development and sustainable fisheries, survival, condition index, and stable isotope composition of the commercially important bivalve species Arca noae were investigated on individuals suspended in the water column at 2 distances from fish cages and those collected from natural populations. Significant differences were re...
The feeding ecology of four bivalve species co-occurring in the Mali Ston Bay, the most important bivalve aquaculture area of the Eastern Adriatic, were investigated by analysing the stable isotope composition and lipid content in two tissue types. Analyses included two cultured species: Mytilus galloprovincialis and Ostrea edulis, and two naturall...
Endolith microboring infestation in bearded horse mussel Modiolus barbatus collected from Mali Ston Bay, Croatia during 2010 was studied for incidence and distribution of damage in bivalve shells and in relation to shell length and condition index. Macroscopic changes in colour and thickness of the inner shell surface were investigated in order to...
In support of aquaculture development and sustainable fisheries, survival, condition index, and stable isotope
composition of the commercially important bivalve species Arca noae were investigated on individuals suspended in the water column at 2 distances from fish cages and those collected from natural populations. Significant differences were re...
The reproductive cycle of the dog cockle, Glycymeris nummaria (Glycymerididae), was studied using specimens collected monthly from Mali Ston Bay, southeastern Adriatic Sea over the period from January to December 2010. We analysed sex ratios, gonad developmental stages, and oocyte diameters using standard histological techniques. There were no diff...