The carbon and nitrogen isotopic compositions of fractions of the seagrass Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile in a Mediterranean shallow environment (Stagnone di Marsala, western Sicily) were investigated seasonally throughout 1998. The stable isotope ratios of seagrass leaves (intermediate and adult), rhizomes, leaf litter and aegagropiles were compared over 1 year in order to distinguish between ...

Recent efforts to engineer C4 photosynthetic traits into C3 plants such as rice demand an understanding of the genetic elements that enable C4 plants to outperform C3 plants. As a part of the C4 Rice Consortium's efforts to identify genes needed to support C4 photosynthesis, EMS mutagenized sorghum populations were generated and screened to identify genes that cause a loss of C4 function. Stabl...

To achieve a better understanding of Holocene climate change in the monsoon regions of China, we investigated the molecular distributions and carbon and hydrogen isotope compositions (δ13C and δD values) of long-chain n-alkanes in a peat core from the Shiwangutian (SWGT) peatland, south China over the last 9 ka. By comparisons with other climate records, we found that the δ13C values of the lon...

The use of isotopic signatures in animal tissues provides information on the environment where they are living and, notably, on their diet. Carbon and, whenever possible, nitrogen stable isotope analyses were performed in animal hairs, muscles and fat. Particularly, we analyzed both carbon and nitrogen isotopic compositions (δ13C and δ15N) on wild boar samples across three different areas of ce...

Ecologists have long classified Midwestern prairies based on compositional variation assumed to reflect local gradients in moisture availability. The best known classification is based on Curtis' continuum index (CI), calculated using the presence of indicator species thought centered on different portions of an underlying moisture gradient. Direct evidence of the extent to which CI reflects di...

We analysed 1040 individual trees, located in 62 plots across the Amazon Basin for leaf mass per unit area (MA), foliar carbon isotopic composition (δ13C) and leaf level concentrations of C, N, P, Ca, Mg, K and Al. All trees were identified to the species level with the dataset containing 58 families, 236 genera and 508 species, distributed across a wide range of soil types and precipitation re...

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of vine water status on bouquet typicality, revealed after aging, and the perception of three aromatic notes (mint, truffle, and undergrowth) in bottled fine red Bordeaux wines. To address the issue of the role of vine water deficit in the overall quality of fine aged wines, a large set of wines from four Bordeaux appellations were subjecte...

Theories of large-scale (kilometres) movement of carbon within and from estuaries are often not supported by empirical data, and this provided the basis for a smaller-scale (i.e. <100 m) analysis of carbon movement and assimilation between adjacent habitats. We tested 3 models that potentially explained the movement and assimilation of carbon by resident animals in estuarine habitats at differe...

We investigated how do environmental and climatic factors, but also management, affect the carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) stable isotope composition in bone collagen of the two largest contemporary herbivores: European bison (Bison bonasus) and moose (Alces alces) across Europe. We also analysed how different scenarios of population recovery- reintroduction in bison and natural recovery in m...

We investigated seasonal shifts in diet and distribution of fin whales Bala en optera physalus occurring in the western Mediterranean Sea. For this purpose, we combined carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios (δ13C, δ15N) along 10 baleen plates collected from stranded fin whales between 1975 and 2002 with satellite tag deployments on 11 fin whales during summer 2003. Baleen plate stable isoto...