water use efficiency (wue, the ratio of total dry matter to water use) became a breeding target only when it was found that carbon stable isotopes were inversely related to wue. the current study conducted under well-watered and drought conditions in the field over two years at broom’s barn research station, uk, was undertaken to investigate the extent of genotypic differences for water use, yi...

Drought down-regulates above- and belowground carbon fluxes, however, the resilience of trees to drought will also depend on the speed and magnitude of recovery of these above- and belowground fluxes after re-wetting. Carbon isotope composition of above- and belowground carbon fluxes at natural abundance provides a methodological approach to study the coupling between photosynthesis and soil re...

Stable isotope analysis has provided insights into the trophic ecology of a wide diversity of animals. Knowledge about isotopic incorporation rates and isotopic discrimination between the consumer and its diet for different tissue types is essential for interpreting stable isotope data, but these parameters remain understudied in many animal taxa and particularly in aquatic invertebrates. We pe...

The measurement of carbon isotope discrimination (∆) provides an integrated insight into theresponse of plants to environmental change. To investigate the potential use of ∆ for identifyingshade tolerance in rice, five rice varieties were selected and artificially shaded (53% lightreduction) during the grain-filling period in 2010 and 2011, in Sichuan, China. Shadingtreatment had a significant ...

Perennial species with the C(4) pathway hold promise for biomass-based energy sources. We have explored the extent that CO(2) uptake of such species may be limited by light in a temperate climate. One energetic cost of the C(4) pathway is the leakiness () of bundle sheath tissues, whereby a variable proportion of the CO(2), concentrated in bundle sheath cells, retrodiffuses back to the mesophyl...

We examine inherent variation in carbon and nitrogen stable isotope values of multiple soft tissues from a population of captive green turtles Chelonia mydas to determine the extent of isotopic variation due to individual differences in physiology. We compare the measured inherent variation in the captive population with the isotopic variation observed in a wild population of juvenile green tur...

The diet-tissue discrimination factor is the amount by which a consumer's tissue varies isotopically from its diet, and is therefore a key element in models that use stable isotopes to estimate diet composition. In this study we measured discrimination factors in blood (whole blood, red blood cells and plasma), liver, muscle and feathers of Double-crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) for ...

The indication of origin of sesame seeds and sesame oil is one of the important factors influencing its price, as it is produced in many regions worldwide and certain provenances are especially sought after. We joined stable carbon and hydrogen isotope analysis with DNA based molecular marker analysis to study their combined potential for the discrimination of different origins of sesame seeds....

Seedlings of a conifer (Pinus radiata D. Don) and a broad leaf angiosperm (Eucalyptus globulus Labill.) were grown for 100 days in two growth cabinets at 45 or 65% relative humidity. The seedlings were exposed to treatments designed to modify carbon assimilation rates and capacities, stomatal conductance and transpiration to test conceptual models that attempt to clarify the interpretation of c...