Trace elements concentration in ancient and recent mollusks shell and correlation with sea water

• Grant number: 11/06787-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2011
• End date: December 31, 2011
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Analytical Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Paulo Sergio Cardoso da Silva
• Grantee: Mauro Roger Batista Pousada Gomez
• Host Institution: Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares (IPEN). Secretaria de Desenvolvimento Econômico (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The elemental composition of mollusk shells is determined by several factors such as availability of these elements in sea water, salinity, temperature, mineralogy of the shell, etc. Considerable efforts have been made in order to use shells of mollusks as indicators of quality, composition of seawater and paleoenvironmental and paleoecological studies mainly related to temperature and salinity. This study aims to determine the concentration of trace elements in samples of shells, new and old as well as in seawater and to investigate the correlation between these concentrations and, also check whether there are differences between the concentrations of these elements in old shells and current.