Inferences about how an ecosystem has changed through time often rely on longitudinal records of species characteristics or niche parameters, and stable isotope analysis is a common tool employed to study changes in an organism’s niche. One of the most frequently used stable isotope measures is δ13C, a ratio of 13C to 12C. However, applying δ13C to historical samples comes with some methodological hurdles. One such hurdle is correcting for the 13C Suess effect or the change in atmospheric δ13C due to increased anthropogenic CO2 emissions. The change in the amount of carbon isotopes in the atmosphere through time can confound the study of historical shifts in species characteristics. No standard way of correcting for the 13C Suess effect has been suggested despite this problem. Here, I propose a standard 13C Suess correction model for the past ~1000 years using three prehistoric/historic records of atmospheric δ13C.
AshtonTS (1997) The Industrial Revolution: 1760-1830. New York: Oxford University Press.
2.
BauskaTKJoosFMixACet al. (2015) Links between atmospheric carbon dioxide, the land carbon reservoir and climate over the past millennium. Nature Geoscience8: 383–387.
3.
BernerRA (2003) The long-term carbon cycle, fossil fuels and atmospheric composition. Nature426: 323–326.
4.
BocherensHDruckerD (2003) Trophic level isotopic enrichment of carbon and nitrogen in bone collagen: Case studies from recent and ancient terrestrial ecosystems. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology13: 46–53.
5.
BrajeTJRickTCSzpakPet al. (2017) Historical ecology and the conservation of large, hermaphroditic fishes in Pacific coast Kelp forest ecosystems. Science Advances3: e1601759.
6.
CerlingTEEhleringerJRHarrisJM (1998) Carbon dioxide starvation, the development of C4 ecosystems, and mammalian evolution. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences353: 159–171.
7.
ChamberlainCPWaldbauerJRFox-DobbsKet al. (2005) Pleistocene to recent dietary shifts in California condors. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America102: 16707–16711.
8.
ClevelandWS (1979) Robust locally weighted regression and smoothing scatterplots. Journal of the American Statistical Association74: 829–836.
9.
ClevelandWSGrosseEShyuWM (2017) Local regression models. In: ChambersJMHastieTJ (eds) Statistical Models in S. New York: Routledge, pp. 309–376.
10.
CullenJTRosenthalYFalkowskiPG (2001) The effect of anthropogenic CO2 on the carbon isotope composition of marine phytoplankton. Limnology and Oceanography46: 996–998.
11.
EhleringerJRCerlingTEHellikerBR (1997) C4 photosynthesis, atmospheric CO2, and climate. Oecologia112: 285–299.
12.
EideMOlsenANinnemannUSet al. (2017) A global estimate of the full oceanic 13C Suess effect since the preindustrial. Global Biogeochemical Cycles31: 492–514.
13.
Fox-DobbsKBumpJKPetersonROet al. (2007) Carnivore-specific stable isotope variables and variation in the foraging ecology of modern and ancient wolf populations: Case studies from Isle Royale, Minnesota, and La Brea. Canadian Journal of Zoology85: 458–471.
14.
FryB (2007) Stable Isotope Ecology. New York, NY: Springer.
15.
GrimsteadDNQuadeJStinerMC (2016) Isotopic evidence for long-distance mammal procurement, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, USA. Geoarchaeology31: 335–354.
16.
HofmanCARickTCMaldonadoJEet al. (2016) Tracking the origins and diet of an endemic island canid (Urocyon littoralis) across 7300 years of human cultural and environmental change. Quaternary Science Reviews146: 147–160.
17.
KeelingCD (1979) The Suess effect: 13Carbon-14Carbon interrelations. Environment International2: 229–300.
18.
KeelingCDMookWGTansPP (1979) Recent trends in the 13C/12C ratio of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Nature277: 121–123.
19.
KochABrierleyCMaslinMMet al. (2019) Earth system impacts of the European arrival and great dying in the Americas after 1492. Quaternary Science Reviews207: 13–36.
20.
KochPLFox-DobbsKNewsomeSD (2017) The isotopic ecology of fossil vertebrates and conservation paleobiology. In: DietlGPFlessaKW (eds) Conservation Paleobiology: Science and Practice. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, pp. 101–118.
21.
LongESSweitzerRADiefenbachDR, et al. (2005) Controlling for anthropogenically induced atmospheric variation in stable carbon isotope studies. Oecologia146: 148–156.
22.
NewsomeSDCollinsPWRickTCet al. (2010) Pleistocene to historic shifts in bald eagle diets on the Channel Islands, California. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United State of America107: 9246–9251.
23.
NewsomeSDEtnierMAGifford-GonzalezDet al. (2007a) The shifting baseline of northern fur seal ecology in the northeast Pacific Ocean. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States America104: 9709–9714.
24.
NewsomeSDMartinez del RioCBearhopSet al. (2007b) A niche for isotopic ecology. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment5: 429–436.
25.
O’LearyMH (1988) Carbon isotopes in photosynthesis. Bioscience38: 328–336.
26.
ReidREBGifford-GonzalezDKochPL (2018) Coyote (Canis latrans)use of marine resources in coastal California: A new behavior relative to their recent ancestors. The Holocene28: 1781–1790.
27.
RubinoMEtheridgeDMTrudingerCMet al. (2013) A revised 1000 year atmospheric δ13C-CO2 record from law dome and south pole, Antarctica. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres118: 8482–8499.
28.
SageRF (2004) The evolution of C4 photosynthesis. New Phytologist161: 341–370.
29.
SchellDM (2000) Declining carrying capacity in the Bering Sea: Isotopic evidence from whale baleen. Limnology and Oceanography45: 459–462.
30.
SchellDM (2001) Carbon isotope ratio variations in Bering Sea biota: The role of anthropogenic carbon dioxide. Limnology and Oceanography46: 999–1000.
31.
SchelskeCLHodellDA (1995) Using carbon isotopes of bulk sedimentary organic matter to reconstruct the history of nutrient loading and eutrophication in Lake Erie. Limnology and Oceanography40: 918–929.
32.
SchidlowskiMAharonP (1992) Carbon cycle and carbon isotope record: Geochemical impact of life over 3.8 Ga of earth history. In: SchidlowskiMGolubicSKimberleyMMet al (eds) Early Organic Evolution: Implications for Mineral and Energy Resources. Berlin; Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 147–175.
33.
SharpZD (2017) Principles of Stable Isotope Geochemistry. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
34.
WhiteJWCVaughnBHMichelSE (2015) Stable isotopic composition of atmospheric carbon dioxide (13C and 18O) from the NOAA ESRL carbon cycle cooperative global air sampling network, 1990-2014. Version: 2015-10-26, Path. Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR), University of Colorado. Available at: ftp://aftp.cmdl.noaa.gov/data/trace_gases/co2c13/flask/
35.
WilliamsBHalfarJSteneckRSet al. (2011) Twentieth century δ13C variability in surface water dissolved inorganic carbon recorded by coralline algae in the northern North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. Biogeosciences8: 165–174.
36.
WolvertonSDombroskyJLymanRL (2016) Practical significance: Ordinal scale data and effect size in Zooarchaeology. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology26: 255–265.
37.
YakirD (2004) The stable isotopic composition of atmospheric CO2. In: KeelingRK (ed.) Treatise on Geochemistry. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 175–212.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
