Morphological and chemical characterization of mineral concretions in the freshwater bivalve Anodonta cygnea (Unionidae).

The freshwater mussel Anodonta cygnea is commonly used as a model organism for biomineralization studies, its peculiar morphofunctional properties also make it an excellent environmental biomonitor. The first detailed on the calcareous concretions from gill and mantle tissue, as well as fluids of the freshwater bivalve A. cygnea, supported by histological, scanning, spectrometry, and spectroscopy analyses.

Biomineralization studies on cellulose membrane exposed to biological fluids of Anodonta cygnea.

The present work proposes to analyse the results obtained under in vitro conditions where cellulose artificial membranes were incubated with biological fluids from the freshwater bivalve Anodonta cygnea. The membranes were mounted between two half 'Ussing chambers' with different composition solutions in order to simulate epithelial surfaces separating organic fluid compartments. The membrane surfaces were submitted to two synthetic calcium and phosphate solutions on opposite sides, at pH 6.

Comparison of adipocere formation in four soil types of the Porto (Portugal) district.

Four typical soils of the Porto (Portugal) area were characterized and used to study the decomposition of buried pieces of pork meat under controlled laboratory experiments (an 8 month experiment with a relatively high soil moisture and a 1 month experiment with relatively low soil moisture). The soils types were: organic, sandy, gravel and clay-gravel soils. Soils were characterized for their grain size distribution, pH, water content, organic matter percentage and mineral composition.