Spatial analysis, modeling, and interpretation of stable isotope data is supporting research in a diverse array of fields. These research activities are linked in that they employ comment dataset, statistical tools, and theoretical frameworks. Moreover, the production and application of isoscapes routinely involves cross-disciplinary collaboration merging data, theory and models from multiple fields. The Isoscapes conference attempts to build bridges that will facilitate and advance such work by bringing together a diverse array of researchers who are modeling and applying isoscapes in numerous Earth systems. Some relevant areas of research include:
Spatio-temporal variation in meteoric and surface waters yields information on atmospheric dynamics, including vapor sources and changing climatic patterns. Precipitation, surface, and ground water isoscapes continue to yield insights to these processes, as well as serve as platforms for numerous additional efforts (Bowen and Revenaugh 2003, Darling et al. 2003, Dutton et al. 2005, LeGrande and Schmidt 2006, Bowen 2008, Pfahl and Wernli 2008, Gonzalez et al. 2009, Wassenaar et al. 2009, Brooks et al. 2010, Gastmans et al. 2010, Liu et al. 2010, Zhao et al. 2011).
It is becoming increasingly clear that the interpretation of terrestrial and perhaps aquatic isotopic proxies will necessitate understanding how spatially varying processes, especially climatic drivers of plant-derived and animal-derived proxies, but also including hydrologic processes, affect proxy isotope ratios (e.g., Bentley and Knipper 2005, Levin et al. 2006, Yadava and Ramesh 2006, Leavitt et al. 2007, Li et al. 2007, Baldini et al. 2008, Polissar et al. 2009, Buzon and Bowen 2010, Henderson and Shuman 2010, Speelman et al. 2010, Kahmen et al. 2011, Leavitt et al. 2011).
The isotopic composition of many gases in the atmosphere responds to variation in terrestrial productivity, including the δ13C and δ18O of CO2 (Farquhar et al. 1993, Suits et al. 2005). Given the isotopic exchange between CO2 and water and higher δ18O values in leaf water, the balance of terrestrial and oceanic productivity is reflected in the oxygen isotope ratios of atmospheric CO2. Spatial and temporal variation in leaf water largely drives the inter-annual changes in atmospheric CO2 δ18O and remains an important uncertainty in interpreting atmospheric CO2 δ18O variation. New approaches to modeling spatial variation in leaf water δ18O should accelerate advances in understanding (Farquhar et al. 1993, Ciais et al. 1997, Cuntz et al. 2003, Eiler and Schauble 2004, West et al. 2008, Wingate et al. 2009, Wingate et al. 2010).
Spatially varying processes are archived at various scales in soil organic matter isotopic composition. Recent work at the landscape scale shows isoscapes reveal patterns and rates of vegetation change (Bai et al. 2009). Human alteration of the nitrogen cycle is significant in magnitude and spatially extensive yet its net effect on terrestrial ecosystem structure and function remains unclear. Spatiotemporal variation in nitrogen isotope ratios in a variety of systems promises to yield insights to the fate and influence of anthropogenic N additions (Amundson et al. 2003, Nardoto et al. 2008, Selmants and Hart 2008, Dixon et al. 2010, McKinney et al. 2010).
Spatial variation in water vapor and precipitation isotopes is yielding insights to land-atmosphere interactions (Martinelli et al. 1996), in particular probing the magnitude of the evapotranspirational flux to atmospheric vapor (McGuffie and Henderson-Sellers 2004, Gat and Alrey 2006, Price et al. 2008, West et al. 2009, Hurley et al. 2010)
In the past decade there has been an explosion of work on the use of isoscapes for inferring migratory pathways, connectivity, and other aspects of animal behavior. Work continues to increase the resolution and mechanistic understanding of underlying "base" isoscapes and the fractionations associated with animal tissue productions (Hobson and Wassenaar 1997, Hobson 1999, Rossmann 2001, Bowen et al. 2005, LeGrande and Schmidt 2006, O'Brien and Wooller 2007, Ehleringer et al. 2008, Hobson et al. 2009, Wang and Pataki 2010).
There has also been a significant increase in the use of spatial isotopic variation to understand better agricultural markets. Much of this work is directed at detecting fraudulent or misleading claims of origin, but other efforts are also underway to understand underlying patterns in food transportation and consumption in human populations (Ciais et al. 1997, Costanzo et al. 2001, Rossmann 2001, Umezawa et al. 2002, Savage and Elmgren 2004, Bush et al. 2007, Bottcher et al. 2010, Buzon and Bowen 2010, Yi et al. 2011).
Reconstructing geographic origins or movement patterns is a key component of many forensic investigations. Information on the movement of people inferred from isotopic analysis of hair and comparison with an appropriate isoscape offers the potential to reconstruct movement patterns of victims of crimes, or perhaps those suspected of wrongdoing. In addition, an understanding of the spatial variation in plant isotopes leads to the potential for plant isoscapes to be utilized to infer origins of drugs or other materials of interest (Ehleringer et al. 2000, Montgomery et al. 2006, O'Brien and Wooller 2007, Ehleringer et al. 2008, West et al. 2009, Hurley et al. 2010, Thompson et al. 2010, Holobinko et al. 2011, Valenzuela et al. 2011).
Spatial variation of both carbon and nitrogen isotopes can be used to understand and map the spatial extent and ecological impact of atmospheric and aquatic pollution. Here as well, efforts continue to refine our understanding of fractionation processes and increase both the spatial resolution and extent of isoscapes for pollution studies (Costanzo et al. 2001, Umezawa et al. 2002, Savage and Elmgren 2004, Bush et al. 2007, Balasooriya et al. 2009, Bottcher et al. 2010, Wang and Pataki 2010, Yi et al. 2011).
West, JB, GJ Bowen, TE Dawson, KP Tu (editors). 2010. Isoscapes: Understanding movement, pattern, and process on Earth through isotope mapping, 487 pgs. Springer, Dordrecht.
Amundson, R., A. T. Austin, E. A. G. Schuur, K. Yoo, V. Matzek, C. Kendall, A. Uebersax, D. Brenner, and W. T. Baisden. 2003. Global patterns of the isotopic composition of soil and plant nitrogen. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 17.
Bai, E., T. W. Boutton, X. Ben Wu, F. Liu, and S. R. Archer. 2009. Landscape-scale vegetation dynamics inferred from spatial patterns of soil delta C-13 in a subtropical savanna parkland. Journal Of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences 114.
Balasooriya, B., R. Samson, F. Mbikwa, U. W. A. Vitharana, P. Boeckx, and M. Van Meirvenne. 2009. Biomonitoring of urban habitat quality by anatomical and chemical leaf characteristics. Environmental and Experimental Botany 65:386-394.
Baldini, L. M., F. McDermott, A. M. Foley, and J. U. L. Baldini. 2008. Spatial variability in the European winter precipitation delta O-18-NAO relationship: Implications for reconstructing NAO-mode climate variability in the Holocene. Geophysical Research Letters 35.
Bentley, R. A. and C. Knipper. 2005. Geographical patterns in biologically available strontium, carbon and oxygen isotope signatures in prehistoric SW Germany. Archaeometry 47:629-644.
Bottcher, M. E., M. Voss, D. Schulz-Bull, R. Schneider, T. Leipe, and K. Knoller. 2010. Environmental changes in the Pearl River Estuary (China) as reflected by light stable isotopes and organic contaminants. Journal of Marine Systems 82:S43-S53.
Bowen, G. J. 2008. Spatial analysis of the intra-annual variation of precipitation isotope ratios and its climatological corollaries. Journal Of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres 113.
Bowen, G. J. and J. Revenaugh. 2003. Interpolating the isotopic composition of modern meteoric precipitation. Water Resources Research 39.
Bowen, G. J., L. I. Wassenaar, and K. A. Hobson. 2005. Global application of stable hydrogen and oxygen isotopes to wildlife forensics. Oecologia 143:337-348.
Brooks, R. J., H. R. Barnard, R. Coulombe, and J. J. McDonnell. 2010. Ecohydrologic separation of water between trees and streams in a Mediterranean climate. Nature Geosci 3:100-104.
Bush, S. E., D. E. Pataki, and J. R. Ehleringer. 2007. Sources of variation in delta C-13 of fossil fuel emissions in Salt Lake City, USA. Applied Geochemistry 22:715-723.
Buzon, M. R. and G. J. Bowen. 2010. Oxygen and carbon isotope analysis of human tooth enamel from the new kingdom site of tombos in Nubia. Archaeometry 52:855-868.
Ciais, P., A. S. Denning, P. P. Tans, J. A. Berry, D. A. Randall, G. J. Collatz, P. J. Sellers, J. W. C. White, M. Trolier, H. A. J. Meijer, R. J. Francey, P. Monfray, and M. Heimann. 1997. A three-dimensional synthesis study of δ18O in atmospheric CO2 1. Surface fluxes. Journal of Geophysical Research 102:5857-5872.
Costanzo, S. D., M. J. O'Donohue, W. C. Dennison, N. R. Loneragan, and M. Thomas. 2001. A new approach for detecting and mapping sewage impacts. Marine Pollution Bulletin 42:149-156.
Cuntz, M., P. Ciais, G. Hoffmann, and W. Knorr. 2003. A comprehensive global three-dimensional model of δ18O in atmospheric CO2: 1. Validation of surface processes. Journal of Geophysical Research 108.
Darling, W. G., A. H. Bath, and J. C. Talbot. 2003. The O & H stable isotopic composition of fresh waters in the British Isles. 2. Surface waters and groundwater. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 7:183-195.
Dixon, E. R., M. S. A. Blackwell, M. S. Dhanoa, Z. Berryman, N. D. Martinez, D. Junquera, A. Martinez, P. J. Murray, H. F. Kemp, W. Meier-Augenstein, A. Duffy, and R. Bol. 2010. Measurement at the field scale of soil delta C-13 and delta N-15 under improved grassland. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 24:511-518.
Dutton, A., B. H. Wilkinson, J. M. Welker, G. J. Bowen, and K. C. Lohmann. 2005. Spatial distribution and seasonal variation in O-18/O-16 of modern precipitation and river water across the conterminous USA. Hydrological Processes 19:4121-4146.
Ehleringer, J. R., G. J. Bowen, L. A. Chesson, A. G. West, D. W. Podlesak, and T. E. Cerling. 2008. Hydrogen and oxygen isotope ratios in human hair are related to geography. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 105:2788-2793.
Ehleringer, J. R., J. F. Casale, M. J. Lott, and V. L. Ford. 2000. Tracing the geographical origin of cocaine. Nature 408:311-312.
Eiler, J. M. and E. Schauble. 2004. (OCO)-O-18-C-13-O-16 in Earth's atmosphere. Geochimica Et Cosmochimica Acta 68:4767-4777.
Farquhar, G. D., J. Lloyd, J. A. Taylor, L. B. Flanagan, J. P. Syvertsen, K. T. Hubick, S. C. Wong, and J. R. Ehleringer. 1993. Vegetation effects on the isotope composition of oxygen in atmospheric CO2. Nature 363:439-443.
Gastmans, D., H. K. Chang, and I. Hutcheon. 2010. Stable isotopes (H-2, O-18 and C-13) in groundwaters from the northwestern portion of the Guarani Aquifer System (Brazil). Hydrogeology Journal 18:1497-1513.
Gat, J. R. and P. L. Alrey. 2006. Stable water isotopes in the atmosphere/biosphere/lithosphere interface: Scaling-up from the local to continental scale, under humid and dry conditions. Global and Planetary Change 51:25-33.
Gonzalez, M., C. Dapena, B. Cerne, O. Sanchez-Ccoyllo, S. Freitas, P. L. S. Dias, and H. Panarello. 2009. Verification of the geographical origin of modeled air-mass trajectories by means of the isotope composition of rainwater during the SALLJEX experiment. Environmental Fluid Mechanics 9:409-425.
Henderson, A. K. and B. N. Shuman. 2010. Differing controls on river- and lake-water hydrogen and oxygen isotopic values in the western United States. Hydrological Processes 24:3894-3906.
Hobson, K. A. 1999. Tracing origins and migration of wildlife using stable isotopes: a review. Oecologia 120:314-326.
Hobson, K. A., S. L. Van Wilgenburg, K. Larson, and L. I. Wassenaar. 2009. A feather hydrogen isoscape for Mexico. Journal of Geochemical Exploration 102:63-70.
Hobson, K. A. and L. I. Wassenaar. 1997. Linking brooding and wintering grounds of neotropical migrant songbirds using stable hydrogen isotopic analysis of feathers. Oecologia 109:142-148.
Holobinko, A., W. Meier-Augenstein, H. F. Kemp, T. Prowse, and S. M. Ford. 2011. H-2 stable isotope analysis of human tooth enamel: a new tool for forensic human provenancing? Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 25:910-916.
Hurley, J. M., J. B. West, and J. R. Ehleringer. 2010. Stable isotope models to predict geographic origin and cultivation conditions of marijuana. Science & Justice 50:86-93.
Kahmen, A., D. Sachse, S. K. Arndt, K. P. Tu, H. Farrington, P. M. Vitousek, and T. E. Dawson. 2011. Cellulose delta O-18 is an index of leaf-to-air vapor pressure difference (VPD) in tropical plants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 108:1981-1986.
Leavitt, S. W., R. F. Follett, J. M. Kimble, and E. G. Pruessner. 2007. Radiocarbon and delta C-13 depth profiles of soil organic carbon in the US Great Plains: A possible spatial record of paleoenvironment and paleovegetation. Quaternary International 162:21-34.
Leavitt, S. W., C. A. Woodhouse, C. L. Castro, W. E. Wright, D. M. Meko, R. Touchan, D. Griffin, and B. Ciancarelli. 2011. The North American monsoon in the US Southwest: Potential for investigation with tree-ring carbon isotopes. Quaternary International 235:101-107.
LeGrande, A. N. and G. A. Schmidt. 2006. Global gridded data set of the oxygen isotopic composition in seawater. Geophysical Research Letters 33.
Levin, N. E., T. E. Cerling, B. H. Passey, J. M. Harris, and J. R. Ehleringer. 2006. A stable isotope aridity index for terrestrial environments. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 103:11201-11205.
Li, H. C., T. L. Ku, D. X. Yuan, N. J. Wan, Z. B. Ma, P. Z. Zhang, M. Bar-Matthews, A. Ayalon, Z. H. Liu, M. L. Zhang, Z. Y. Zhu, and R. M. Wang. 2007. Stable isotopic compositions of waters in the karst environments of China: Climatic implications. Applied Geochemistry 22:1748-1763.
Liu, Z. F., G. J. Bowen, and J. M. Welker. 2010. Atmospheric circulation is reflected in precipitation isotope gradients over the conterminous United States. Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres 115.
Martinelli, L. A., R. L. Victoria, L. S. L. Sternberg, A. Ribeiro, and M. Z. Moreira. 1996. Using stable isotopes to determine sources of evaporated water to the atmosphere in the Amazon basin. Journal of Hydrology 183:191-204.
McGuffie, K. and A. Henderson-Sellers. 2004. Stable water isotope characterization of human and natural impacts on land-atmosphere exchanges in the Amazon Basin. Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres 109.
McKinney, R. A., A. J. Oczkowski, J. Prezioso, and K. J. W. Hyde. 2010. Spatial variability of nitrogen isotope ratios of particulate material from Northwest Atlantic continental shelf waters. Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science 89:287-293.
Montgomery, J., J. A. Evans, and G. Wildman. 2006. Sr-87/Sr-86 isotope composition of bottled British mineral waters for environmental and forensic purposes. Applied Geochemistry 21:1626-1634.
Nardoto, G. B., J. Ometto, J. R. Ehleringer, N. Higuchi, M. M. D. Bustamante, and L. A. Martinelli. 2008. Understanding the Influences of Spatial Patterns on N Availability Within the Brazilian Amazon Forest. Ecosystems 11:1234-1246.
O'Brien, D. M. and M. J. Wooller. 2007. Tracking human travel using stable oxygen and hydrogen isotope analyses of hair and urine. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 21:2422-2430.
Pfahl, S. and H. Wernli. 2008. Air parcel trajectory analysis of stable isotopes in water vapor in the eastern Mediterranean. Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres 113.
Polissar, P. J., K. H. Freeman, D. B. Rowley, F. A. McInerney, and B. S. Currie. 2009. Paleoaltimetry of the Tibetan Plateau from D/H ratios of lipid biomarkers. Earth And Planetary Science Letters 287:64-76.
Price, R. M., P. K. Swart, and H. E. Willoughby. 2008. Seasonal and spatial variation in the stable isotopic composition (delta(18) O and delta D) of precipitation in south Florida. Journal of Hydrology 358:193-205.
Rossmann, A. 2001. Determination of stable isotope ratios in food analysis. Food Reviews International 17:347-381.
Savage, C. and R. Elmgren. 2004. Macroalgal (fucus vesiculosus) delta N-15 values trace decrease in sewage influence. Ecological Applications 14:517-526.
Selmants, P. C. and S. C. Hart. 2008. Substrate age and tree islands influence carbon and nitrogen dynamics across a retrogressive semiarid chronosequence. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 22.
Speelman, E. N., J. O. Sewall, D. Noone, M. Huber, A. von der Heydt, J. S. Damste, and G. J. Reichart. 2010. Modeling the influence of a reduced equator-to-pole sea surface temperature gradient on the distribution of water isotopes in the Early/Middle Eocene. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 298:57-65.
Suits, N. S., A. S. Denning, J. A. Berry, C. J. Still, J. Kaduk, J. B. Miller, and I. T. Baker. 2005. Simulation of carbon isotope discrimination of the terrestrial biosphere. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 19.
Thompson, A. H., L. A. Chesson, D. W. Podlesak, G. J. Bowen, T. E. Cerling, and J. R. Ehleringer. 2010. Stable Isotope Analysis of Modern Human Hair Collected From Asia (China, India, Mongolia, and Pakistan). American Journal of Physical Anthropology 141:440-451.
Umezawa, Y., T. Miyajima, M. Yamamuro, H. Kayanne, and I. Koike. 2002. Fine-scale mapping of land-derived nitrogen in coral reefs by delta N-15 in macroalgae. Limnology and Oceanography 47:1405-1416.
Valenzuela, L. O., L. A. Chesson, S. P. O'Grady, T. E. Cerling, and J. R. Ehleringer. 2011. Spatial distributions of carbon, nitrogen and sulfur isotope ratios in human hair across the central United States. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 25:861-868.
Wang, W. W. and D. E. Pataki. 2010. Spatial patterns of plant isotope tracers in the Los Angeles urban region. Landscape Ecology 25:35-52.
Wassenaar, L. I., S. L. Van Wilgenburg, K. Larson, and K. A. Hobson. 2009. A groundwater isoscape (delta D, delta O-18) for Mexico. Journal of Geochemical Exploration 102:123-136.
West, J. B., J. M. Hurley, F. O. Dudas, and J. R. Ehleringer. 2009. The Stable Isotope Ratios of Marijuana. II. Strontium Isotopes Relate to Geographic Origin. Journal of Forensic Sciences 54:1261-1269.
West, J. B., A. Sobek, and J. R. Ehleringer. 2008. A simplified GIS approach to modeling global leaf water isoscapes. PLoS ONE 3:e2447.
Wingate, L., J. Ogee, R. Burlett, and A. Bosc. 2010. Strong seasonal disequilibrium measured between the oxygen isotope signals of leaf and soil CO2 exchange. Global Change Biology 16:3048-3064.
Wingate, L., J. Ogee, M. Cuntz, B. Genty, I. Reiter, U. Seibt, D. Yakir, K. Maseyk, E. G. Pendall, M. M. Barbour, B. Mortazavi, R. Burlett, P. Peylin, J. Miller, M. Mencuccini, J. H. Shim, J. Hunt, and J. Grace. 2009. The impact of soil microorganisms on the global budget of delta O-18 in atmospheric CO2. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 106:22411-22415.
Yadava, M. G. and R. Ramesh. 2006. Stable oxygen and carbon isotope variations as monsoon proxies: A comparative study of speleothems from four different locations in India. Journal of the Geological Society of India 68:461-475.
Yi, P., A. Aldahan, V. Hansen, G. Possnert, and X. L. Hou. 2011. Iodine Isotopes (I-129 and I-127) in the Baltic Proper, Kattegat, and Skagerrak Basins. Environmental Science & Technology 45:903-909.
Zhao, L., H. Xiao, M. Zhou, G. Cheng, L. Wang, L. Yin, and J. Ren. 2011. Factors controlling spatial and seasonal distributions of precipitation δ18O in China. Hydrological Processes.
IsoMAP is a dynamic, online workspace for spatial analysis, modeling and prediction of stable isotope ratio variation in the natural environment. The initial realease of the IsoMAP gateway is now live and supports precipitation isotope ratio modeling and geographic assignment using H and O isotopes. Visit IsoMAP to learn more or to start making isoscapes today!
