Carbon isotopes refer to the different forms or types of carbon atoms found in the environment. Carbon has three isotopes: carbon-12, carbon-13, and carbon-14. These isotopes have slightly different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei, resulting in different atomic weights. Studying
carbon isotopes helps scientists understand various processes like carbon cycling, climate change, and tracking the movement of carbon in living organisms and the environment.
Full definition
A study published last month in Quaternary International analyzed the ratio of
carbon isotopes in Gigantopithecus teeth, and found that the 10 - foot - tall apes ate mostly forest fruit.
Comparison of stable
carbon isotope ratios in the whole wood, cellulose and lignin of oak tree - rings Dr. Ron Towner from the Laboratory of Tree - Ring Research at the University of Arizona explains the principles behind dendrochronology and why this dating
Change of diet of the Greenland Vikings determined from
stable carbon isotope analysis and 14C dating of their bones.
Cerling3
used carbon isotope ratios in soil carbonate minerals to constrain atmospheric PCo2m portions of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras.
In a paper published online this week by the journal Quaternary International, 26 members of the working group point roughly to 1950 as the starting point, indicated by a variety of markers, including the global spread of
carbon isotopes from nuclear weapon detonations starting in 1945 and the mass production and disposal of plastics.
By
measuring carbon isotope ratios in the nodules, the researchers found that during each 1,500 - year carbon release, the ratio of carbon - 13 to carbon - 12 in the atmosphere declined, indicating two large releases of carbon dioxide or methane, both greenhouse gases from plant material.
Mean values ± standard deviation of methane concentrations (as milligrams of CH4 L - 1) and
carbon isotope composition in methane in shallow groundwater δ13C - CH4 sorted by aquifers and proximity to gas wells (active vs. nonactive)
The metabolic processes of modern methane - producing bacteria tend to preferentially use
lighter carbon isotopes such as carbon - 12.
Oxygen isotopes are used to distinguish water sources such as groundwater or rainfall, while
carbon isotopes reveal how efficiently trees are using that water — a calculation of photosynthesis versus water loss.
For myself, I draw the line
at carbon isotope studies and anything older than the last glacial period in paleoclimate (with a couple of exceptions).
Evidence from
carbon isotope records from both soil carbonates [18]--[20] and biomarkers (n - alkanes) extracted from deep - sea sediments [21] provide clear evidence of a progressive vegetation shift from C3 (∼ trees and shrubs) to C4 (∼ tropical grasses) plants during the Plio - Pleistocene.
This scenario is consistent with altered PETM circulation patterns inferred from benthic
carbon isotope data and the intensity of deep - sea carbonate dissolution in the South Atlantic.
Because cells incorporate carbon from the atmosphere into their DNA as they divide, the proportion of carbon - 14 to the more stable
carbon isotope carbon - 12 acts as a time stamp for when a cell was born.
There's the 13C /
12C carbon isotope ratios from tree rings and high resolution ice cores that show a clear downward trend starting early in the 19th century consistent with the rise in atmospheric CO2 starting about the same time which some consider indicative of an anthropogenic contribution by that time period.
They exploit the fact that the PETM
carbon isotope curve recorded in land sediments is consistently larger that in marine sediments.
Subsequent labeling experiments using the stable
carbon isotope 13C demonstrated that wild - type L. japonicus hosts indeed directly provide the fungus with the required lipids.
The only previously known
radioactive carbon isotope at the time was carbon - 11, which had a half - life of only 21 minutes (half the isotope's radioactivity will decay in that time).
Next, she sent the purified genetic material to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, where it was reduced to pure carbon pellets and split into
different carbon isotopes by weight in a particle accelerator, allowing the researchers to calculate the ratio between carbon - 12 and carbon - 14.
Studies of the common mineral goethite (α - FeOOH) have shown that it contains small quantities of a carbonate component (Fe (CO3) OH), the concentration and
carbon isotope content of which preserves a record of ambient PCo2at the time of formation4 — 7.
His 1982 paper «On the relationship
between carbon isotope discrimination and the intercellular carbon dioxide concentration in leaves» passed its 1,
The carbon budget for the 1980s was analysed not only from bottom - up emissions estimates, but also from a top - down approach
including carbon isotopes.
Quantitative trait loci for water - use efficiency in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) measured by
carbon isotope discrimination under rain - fed conditions on the Canadian Prairies, Theoretical and Applied Genetics 125: 71 — 90.
Core PS51 / 038 -3: MIS 6 and MIS 5 (5e) have mainly been identified by oxygen and
carbon isotope stratigraphy, paleomagnetostratigraphy, and abundances of planktic foraminifers and coarse fraction (Supplementary Fig. 3) 56.
The cause of the Paleocene - Eocene thermal
maximum carbon isotope excursion remains speculative, primarily due to uncertainties in the timing and duration of the Paleocene - Eocene thermal maximum.
An international team of researchers studying globally declining shark populations report today that they used
carbon isotopes as biochemical markers in shark muscle tissue...
The fractionation of
carbon isotopes during photosynthesis causes the carbon products used to synthesize leaf tissue to be relatively depleted in the heavier 13C isotope [Farquhar et al., 1989].
It was claimed the portion in the atmosphere from combustion of fossil fuels was known from the ratio of
carbon isotopes C13 / C12.