Stable Isotopes in Ecological Research

535 Pages·1989·32.409 MB·English

by  J. R. Ehleringer, P. W. Rundel (auth.), P. W. Rundel, J. R. Ehleringer, K. A. Nagy (eds.)

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P. W. Rundel J .R. Ehleringer K. A. Nagy
Editors
Stable Isotopes in
Ecological Research
With 164 Illustrations
Springer-Verlag
New York Berlin Heidelberg
London Paris Tokyo
P.W. Rundel l.R. Ehleringer K.A. Nagy
Laboratory of Biomedical Department of Biology Laboratory of Biomedical
and Environmental Sciences University of Utah and Environmental Sciences
University of California Salt Lake City, UT 84112 University of California
Los Angeles, CA 90024 USA Los Angeles, CA 90024
USA USA
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stable isotopes in ecological research / P.W. Rundel, J.R. Ehleringer,
K.A. Nagy, editors.
p. cm.- (Ecological studies; v. 68)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
\. Stable isotopes in ecological research. I. Rundel, Philip W.
(Philip Wilson) II. Ehleringer, J.R. III. Nagy, Kenneth A.
IV. Series.
QH541.15.S68S72 1988
574.5'072-dcl9 88-20171
Printed on acid-free paper.
"'1989 by Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
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Preface
In past years, ecologists and environmental biologists have largely equated the
word "isotopes" with short-lived radioactive isotopes useful in tracer studies.
However, virtually all of the elements of biological importance occur naturally
with two or more stable isotopes. There are two stable isotopes of hydrogen,
IH and 0 or deuterium. Similarly, there are two stable isotopes of carbon, two
of nitrogen, three of oxygen, and four of sulfur. These stable isotopes, which
vary in their ratios of natural abundance, offer tremendous potentials for new
approaches to research on a wide range of ecological processes.
Natural differences in the stable isotope composition of biological and abiotic
compounds of ecological interest result from differences in a variety of pre
dictable factors which influence fractionation. These include source effects,
diffusional constraints, enzyme selectivity, and/or interactions between com
pounds. Stable isotope investigations can thus provide new insights into flux
rates among organisms, between organisms and their abiotic environment, and
between compartments of the abiotic environment.
Much of the early research on stable isotope ratios in biological tissues came
from the geological sciences. This work was a logical outgrowth of pioneering
applications of stable isotope analyses to research in geochemistry, sedimen
tology, and oceanography. Applications of stable isotope analyses in environ
mental biology were slow to develop, largely due to a combination of ignorance
in the field and the difficulty of access to isotope ratio mass spectrometers.
Until recently, applications of stable isotope ratios to ecological research were
largely in the novelty or descriptive stage. In the last few years, however, in-
vi Preface
novative applications of stable isotope ratios to physiological and process-level
studies have been expanding rapidly. This increased pace of research has re
sulted from improved access by biologists to the necessary instrumentation,
and reduced costs of analyses. As a result, there is every indication that stable
isotope approaches to ecological research will become increasingly common
and will lead to significant new levels of understanding of physiological processes
and elemental fluxes through biological and abiotic systems.
Our objective in this volume has been to provide both general background
information and illustrative case studies to demonstrate how differences in stable
isotope composition can be used as powerful tools for measuring integrated
physiological responses and elemental fluxes through both abiotic and biotic
compartments of natural ecosystems. Following an introductory chapter of
background material on the history, units, and instrumentation used in stable
isotope research, we have divided our book into three parts. The first of these
deals with ecophysiological studies in plants, focusing on approaches to utilizing
isotopes of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen in research on physiological processes
in plants.
In the second section on animal food webs and feeding ecology, seven chap
ters describe ways in which stable isotope ratios can be used to study food web
dynamics. These contributions add to our understanding of the principles that
"we are what we eat, plus or minus a few parts per million" as originally dem
onstrated by Michael DeNiro and Samuel Epstein. Our focus in this section is
on natural food chains, with only a single chapter on human diet analysis. An
thropologists and archaeologists, nevertheless, should find this section, as well
as other parts of the volume, highly relevant to the rapidly expanding interest
in stable isotope approaches to their fields.
The final section of eleven chapters broadly treats ecosystem process studies
utilizing stable isotope ratios. Aspects of pedogenic processes, nitrogen fixation,
paleoclimate, atmospheric fluxes of gases and particulates, and pollutant trans
fers are all included. While these chapters only highlight the range of potential
applications of stable isotope ratios to investigations of ecosystem-level fluxes,
they should provide a good appreciation of the scope of the promise that such
applications offer to researchers.
Stable Isotopes in Ecological Research is an outgrowth of a workshop on
this subject held at the Lake Arrowhead Conference of the University of Cal
ifornia, Los Angeles, in April 1986. We are indebted to Drs. Helen McCammon
and Janet Dorigan of the Ecological Research Division of the Office of Health
and Environmental Research, U. S. Department of Energy, for sponsoring this
workshop. Cosponsorship was provided by the National Center for Intermedia
Transport Research at UCLA.
P.W. Rundel
J .R. Ehleringer
K.A. Nagy
Contents
Preface V
Contributors XI
1. Stable Isotopes: History, Units, and Instrumentation
l.R. EHLERINGER and P.W. RUNDEL
Section I Ecophysiological Studies in Plants 17
2. Carbon Isotope Fractionation and Plant Water-Use Efficiency 21
G.D. FARQUHAR, K.T. HUBICK, A.G. CONDON, and
R.A. RICHARDS
3. Carbon Isotope Ratios and Physiological Processes
in Aridland Plants 41
l.R. EHLERINGER
4. Stable Carbon Isotope Ratio as an Index of Water-Use
Efficiency in C Halophytes-Possible Relationship to Strategies
3
for Osmotic Adjustment 55
R.D. GUY, P.G. WARNE, and D.M. REID
viii Contents
5. Stable Carbon Isotopes in Vernal Pool Aquatics of Differing
Photosynthetic Pathways 76
J.E. KEELEY
6. Studies of Mechanisms Affecting the Fractionation of Carbon
Isotopes in Photosynthesis 82
J.A. BERRY
c
7. Intertree Variability on,13 in Tree Rings 95
S.W. LEAVITT and A. LONG
8. Hydrogen Isotope Fractionation in Plant Tissues 105
H. ZIEGLER
9. Oxygen and Hydrogen Isotope Ratios in Plant Cellulose:
Mechanisms and Applications 124
L. DA SILVEIRA LOBO STERNBERG
10. Stable Hydrogen Isotope Ratios in Plants: A Review of Current
Theory and Some Potential Applications 142
J.W.c. WHITE
Section II Animal Food Webs and Feeding Ecology 163
11. Stable Carbon Isotopes in Terrestrial Ecosystem Research 167
L.L. TIEszEN and T. W. BOUTTON
12. Ol3C Measurements as Indicators of Carbon Flow in Marine
and Freshwater Ecosystems 196
B. FRY and E.B. SHERR
13. Natural Carbon Isotope Tracers in Arctic Aquatic Food Webs 230
D.M. SCHELL and P.J. ZIEMANN
14. Some Problems and Potentials of Strontium Isotope Analysis for
Human and Animal Ecology 252
J.E. ERICSON
15. Natural Isotope Abundances in Bowhead Whale (Balaena
mysticetus) Baleen: Markers of Aging and Habitat Usage 260
D.M. SCHELL, S.M. SAUPE, and N. HAUBENSTOCK
16. Doubly-Labeled Water Studies of Vertebrate
Physiological Ecology 270
K.A. NAGY
Contents ix
17. A Ol3C and o15N Tracer Study of Nutrition in Aquaculture:
Penaeus vannamei in a Pond Growout System 288
P.L. PARKER, R.K. ANDERSON, and A. LAWRENCE
Section III Ecosystem Process Studies 305
18. Stable Isotope Ratios and the Dynamics of Caliche
in Desert Soils 309
W.H. SCHLESINGER, G.M. MARION, and P.J. FONTEYN
19. The Use of Stable Isotopes in Assessing the Effect of Agriculture
on Arid and Semi-Arid Soils 318
R. AMUNDSON
20. Estimates of N2 Fixation in Ecosystems: The Need for and Basis
of the 15N Natural Abundance Method 342
G. SHEARER and D.H. KOHL
21. The Use of Variation in the Natural Abundance of 15N to Assess
Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation by Woody Plants 375
R.A. VIRGINIA, W.M. JARRELL, P.W. RUNDEL, G. SHEARER,
and D.H. KOHL
22. l3C/l2C Ratios in Atmospheric Methane and Some of Its Sources 395
S.c. TYLER
23. Temperature-Dependent Hydrogen Isotope Fractionation in
Cyanobacterial Sheaths: Applications to Studies of Modern
and Precambrian Stromatolites 410
G.E. STRATHEARN
24. Sulfur Isotope Studies of the Pedosphere and Biosphere 424
H.R. KROUSE
25. Sulfate Fertilization and Changes in Stable Sulfur Isotopic
Compositions of Lake Sediments 445
B. FRY
26. The Use of Stable Sulfur and Nitrogen Isotopes in Studies of
Plant Responses to Air Pollution 454
W.E. WINNER, V.S. BERG, and P.J. LANGSTON-UNKEFER
27. The Use of Stable Sulfur Isotope Ratios in Air Pollution
Studies: An Ecosystem Approach in South Florida 471
L.L. JACKSON and L.P. GOUGH
x Contents
28. 87Srf"Sr Ratios Measure the Sources and Flow of Strontium in
Terrestrial Ecosystems 491
w.e.
GRAUSTEIN
Index 513