Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content

Data release for Oxygen isotopes in terrestrial gastropod shells track Quaternary climate change in the American Southwest

Metadata Updated: July 6, 2024

Recent studies have shown the oxygen isotopic composition (δ18O) of modern terrestrial gastropod shells is determined largely by the δ18O of precipitation. This implies that fossil shells could be used to reconstruct the δ18O of paleo-precipitation as long as the hydrologic pathways of the local watershed and the shell isotope systematics are well understood. In this study, we measured the δ18O values of 456 individual gastropod shells collected from paleowetland deposits in the San Pedro Valley, Arizona that range in age from ~29.1 to 9.8 ka. Isotopic differences of up to 2‰ were identified between the four taxa analyzed (Succineidae, Pupilla hebes, Gastrocopta tappaniana, and Vallonia gracilicosta), with Succineidae shells yielding the highest values and V. gracilicosta shells exhibiting the lowest values. We used these data to construct an isotopic record that incorporates these taxonomic offsets, and found shell δ18O values increased by ~4‰ between the last glacial maximum and early Holocene, similar to the magnitude, direction, and rate of isotopic changes recorded by speleothems in the region. These results suggest the terrestrial gastropods analyzed here may be used as a proxy for past climate in a manner that is similar to speleothems, but with potentially much greater spatial coverage.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/c4b6724b6cd4c7dd25e8d8143055312c
Identifier USGS:602c2e85d34eb12031143bd6
Data Last Modified 20210521
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://datainventory.doi.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id ed201748-14aa-4207-a6df-094186936194
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -110.1904,31.55183,-110.13401,31.60116
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 89316bd7630851de3550dddc77139a63ee6dce00de8af6400099dd812dd4e6dd
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -110.1904, 31.55183, -110.1904, 31.60116, -110.13401, 31.60116, -110.13401, 31.55183, -110.1904, 31.55183}

Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.