DOI: 10.5061/dryad.kd51c5bjb
title: Data from: Nacre microstructure records spatiotemporal variation in temperature in the modern ocean

description: 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.
description: # Data from: Nacre microstructure records spatiotemporal variation in
 temperature in the modern ocean Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.kd51c5bjb](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