How are stable isotopes used in ecology?

Stable isotopes can be used as biological tracers in the following ways: (1) to identify sources, for instance in determining the identity of basal carbon in a food web; (2) to distinguish sources, for example to determine whether a breeding animal is using local resources or its own reserves, or when an animal …

What is stable isotope research?

Definition. Stable isotopes are alternative forms of elements with different molecular weights that are found naturally and do not decay radioactively. Stable isotope analysis of elements such as carbon, nitrogen and sulphur is used in ecology to trace the flow of nutrients through food webs and assess trophic levels.

What is stable isotope analysis used for?

Stable isotope analysis allows researchers to identify isotopic markers of certain foods in human bone and teeth, which can be used to reconstruct ancient diet and population movements.

What are 3 applications of stable isotopes?

Stable isotopes are non-radioactive forms of atoms. Although they do not emit radiation, their unique properties enable them to be used in a broad variety of applications, including water and soil management, environmental studies, nutrition assessment studies and forensics.

Why are isotopes important in environmental science?

The environmental isotopes are a subset of isotopes, both stable and radioactive, which are the object of isotope geochemistry. They are primarily used as tracers to see how things move around within the ocean-atmosphere system, within terrestrial biomes, within the Earth’s surface, and between these broad domains.

How do stable isotopes help us reconstruct past environments and lifestyles?

Stable isotopes have a stable nucleus that does not decay. Their abundance, therefore, stays the same over time, which allows for many useful applications in archaeology (and other disciplines like ecology or forensic science).

What is stable isotopes with examples?

Commonly analysed stable isotopes include oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and sulfur. These isotope systems have been under investigation for many years in order to study processes of isotope fractionation in natural systems because they are relatively simple to measure.

How do stable isotopes help us to reconstruct past environments and lifestyles?

What is isotope ratio analysis?

Stable Isotope Ratio Analysis (SIRA) testing uses isotopes of certain elements that are naturally occurring. An isotope is an atom of the same chemical element that has the same number of protons but a different number of neutrons in their nuclei.

Which isotopes are used in climate studies?

The stable isotope variations most frequently applied in climatological investigations are those of the heavy isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen, i.e. hydrogen-2 (or deuterium) and oxygen-18, which allow the effective tracing of climate-induced changes in the hydrological cycle.

What are isotope ratios used for?

Ratios of a radiogenic isotope (e.g., 143Nd) to a stable isotope (e.g., 144Nd) are used in geochronology; ratios of stable isotopes provide information about temperatures and sources.