IES webinar - Tracing environmental processes with light stable isotope fingerprints

Isotope fingerprints in the natural environment are powerful tracers and give insights to spatiotemporal processes in nature. This webinar explored basic principles in stable isotopes and examples of how they can trace biogeochemical processes. During the webinar, Christopher explained how light stable isotope distributions change in the natural environment through space and time (fundamental processes referred to as fractionation and/or mixing), and how these changes in natural isotope distributions are detected using isotope ratio mass spectrometry. The stable isotope systems of carbon, nitrogen, sulphur, oxygen, and hydrogen will be in focus. The webinar explored isotope variations in plant, soil, and water systems, and give an overview of fundamental isotope fractionation processes in biogeochemical cycles. This foundation provided a framework to understand how stable isotopes can trace pollution (air and water), identify the origin of natural material, and reconstruct past environments and climate states. The webinar briefly touched on a wider application area in criminal forensics.