Search results for "ISOTOPES"

Invasive catfish in northern Italy and their impacts on waterbirds

2022

Predatory fish have occasionally been observed preying on birds, sometimes repeatedly, but few studies were able to unravel the overall significance of avian prey in fish diet and the predation impacts on bird populations. We used a control/impact study setup, using a Nature Reserve in northern Italy and a nearby control area, to determine: 1) the contribution of waterbirds to wels catfish diet in the Reserve, 2) the population density of wels catfish in the Reserve and control area and 3) the potential impacts of waterbird depredation by wels catfish on waterbird population trends. Our stable isotope Bayesian mixing model indicated that birds contributed 12.2% (5–27.9%, 50% confidence inte…

Gulf of Maine shells reveal changes in seawater temperature seasonality during the Medieval Climate Anomaly and the Little Ice Age

2011

article i nfo In this study, we use subannually resolved oxygen isotope values of fossil (dead-collected) and modern (live- caught) bivalve shells (Arctica islandica L.) from the northwestern Atlantic (Gulf of Maine, USA) to reconstruct past seasonal changes in seawater temperature. Our results indicate decreased seasonal temperature amplitude of about 1.6 °C (or ∼21%) during Medieval times (ca. AD 1033-1062) compared to shells from the early Little Ice Age (ca. AD 1321-1391) and during the late 19th century (AD 1864-1886). Additionally, seasonal oxygen isotope data suggest that summers were cooler and winters were warmer in the Gulf of Maine during the 11th century compared to summers and …

Sclerochronology and geochemical variation in limpet shells (Patella vulgata): A new archive to reconstruct coastal sea surface temperature

2007

[1] Climate archives contained in shells of the European limpet, Patella vulgata, accumulated in archaeological deposits can potentially provide much needed information about Holocene environmental change in midlatitude coastal areas. Before reconstructing climate information preserved in these zooarchaeological records, we studied the controls on oxygen and carbon isotope ratios (δ18O and δ13C, respectively) in modern specimens. We tested the hypothesis that P. vulgata precipitates its shell in isotopic equilibrium with the ambient water by comparing δ18OSHELL with predicted values. Predicted δ18OSHELL was constructed using observed sea surface temperature (SST) records and the equilibrium…

Isotope Fractionation of Selenium During Fungal Biomethylation by Alternaria alternata

2011

The natural abundance of stable Se isotopes may reflect sources and formation conditions of methylated Se. We aimed at (1) quantifying the degree of methylation of selenate [Se(VI)] and (hydro)selenite [Se(IV)] by the fungus Alternaria alternata at pH 4 and 7 and (2) determining the effects of these different Se sources and pH values on 82Se/76Se ratios (δ82/76Se) in methylselenides. Alternaria alternata was incubated with Se(VI) and Se(IV) in closed microcosms for 11-15 days and additionally with Se(IV) for 3-5 days at 30 °C. We determined Se concentrations and δ82/76Se values in source Se(VI) and Se(IV), media, fungi, and trapped methylselenides. In Se(VI) incubations, methylselenide vola…

Eurhomalea exalbida (Bivalvia): A reliable recorder of climate in southern South America?

2012

Abstract Due to the lack of suitable high-resolution archives, regional and continental-scale climate dynamics of southern South America are not well understood. Shells of the long-lived, shallow-marine bivalve mollusk, Eurhomalea exalbida (Dillwyn), are likely to contain information on the past water temperatures. As yet, however, no rigorous calibration study has been presented so that growth history traits and the reliability of shell oxygen isotope-based temperature estimates remain unknown. Shell growth patterns and oxygen isotope ratios of four young specimens of E. exalbida from the Falkland Islands (Southwest Atlantic) were analyzed and cross-calibrated with environmental parameters…

Trophic Transfer of Trace Elements in an Isotopically Constructed Food Chain From a Semi-enclosed Marine Coastal Area (Stagnone di Marsala, Sicily, M…

2012

Trace element accumulation is particularly important in coastal and transitional environments, which act as contaminant buffers between the continental and marine systems. We compared trace element transfer to the biota in two locations with different open-sea exposures in a semi-enclosed marine coastal area (Stagnone di Marsala, Sicily, Italy) using isotopically reconstructed food chains. Samples of sediment, macroalgae, seagrasses, invertebrates, fish, and bird feathers were sampled in July 2006 and analysed for stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes (δ(13)C, δ(15)N) and trace elements (arsenic [As], cadmium [Cd], total mercury [THg], and lead [Pb]). Trophic magnification factors were calcul…

Chemical, mineralogical and isotopic characterization of black crusts and airborne particulate matter in the historical urban area of Palermo

2009

A comparison of the impacts of introduced signal crayfish and native noble crayfish in boreal lake ecosystems

2014

Transport and partitioning of 13C-photoassimilate between peach fruiting shoots

2008

We used a non-intrusive method (13CO2 feeding) and a manipulative approach to see whether fruiting shoots in peach trees are autonomous or may import carbon from neighboring shoots under forced conditions, and whether the degree of autonomy is influenced by the source-sink relationship on the shoot. In three experiments, leaf to fruit ratio (L:F) of selected fruiting shoots was moderately (2005 and 2006) or strongly (extreme enforcing 2006) altered to either encourage or discourage movement of carbon from 13C-labeled sending shoots (SFS) to receiving fruiting shoots (RFS), both located on the same main scaffold of V-shaped peach trees. At stage I and III of fruit growth, fruit and shoot tip…

Modeling of 137Cs migration in soils using an 80-year soil archive: role of fertilizers and agricultural amendments

2008

An 80-year soil archive, the 42-plot experimental design at the INRA in Versailles (France), is used here to study long-term contamination by 137Cs atmospheric deposition and the fate of this radioisotope when associated with various agricultural practices: fallow land, KCl, NH4(NO3), superphosphate fertilizers, horse manure and lime amendments. The pertinence of a simple box model, where radiocaesium is supposed to move downward by convectional mechanisms, is checked using samples from control plots which had been neither amended, nor cultivated since 1928. This simple model presents the advantage of depending on only two parameters: α, a proportional factor allowing the historical atmosph…