Metabolic stable isotope incorporation and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) depth profiling performed on a Cameca NanoSIMS 50 were used to image the (18)O-cholesterol and (15)N-sphingolipid distributions within a portion of a Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cell. Three-dimensional representations of the component-specific isotope distributions show clearly defined regions of (18)O-choles...

Lake Tanganyika, East Africa, has a simple pelagic food chain, and trophic relationships have been established previously from gut-content analysis. Instead of expected isotopic enrichment from phytoplankton to upper level consumers, there was a depletion of 15N in August 1999. The isotope signatures of the lower trophic levels were an indicator of a recent upwelling event, identified by wind s...

We report the first measurements of coupled nitrogen (N) and oxygen (O) isotope fractionation of nitrate by laboratory cultures of denitrifying bacteria. Two seawater strains (Pseudomonas stutzeri, Ochrobactrum sp.) and three freshwater strains (Paracoccus denitrificans, Pseudomonas chlororaphis, Rhodobacter sphaeroides) were examined. Among four strains of facultative anaerobic denitrifiers, N...

The δ(15)N values of organisms are commonly used across diverse ecosystems to estimate trophic position and infer trophic connectivity. We undertook a novel cross-basin comparison of trophic position in two ecologically well-characterized and different groups of dominant mid-water fish consumers using amino acid nitrogen isotope compositions. We found that trophic positions estimated from the δ...

The size of the bioavailable (i.e., “fixed”) nitrogen inventory in the ocean influences global marine productivity and the biological carbon pump. Despite its importance, the pre-industrial rates for the major source and sink terms of the oceanic fixed nitrogen budget, N2 fixation and denitrification, respectively, are not well known. These processes leave distinguishable imprints on the ratio ...

The long-term efficacy of stormwater treatment systems requires continuous pollutant removal without substantial re-release. Hence, the division of incoming pollutants between temporary and permanent removal pathways is fundamental. This is pertinent to nitrogen, a critical water body pollutant, which on a broad level may be assimilated by plants or microbes and temporarily stored, or transform...

Ecological niche theory asserts that invading species become established only if introduced propagules survive stochastic mortality and can exploit resources unconsumed by resident species. Because their transportation is not controlled by plant health or biosecurity regulations, soil macrofauna decomposers, including earthworms are probably introduced frequently into non-native soils. Yet even...

Analysis of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes from soft or mineralized tissues is a direct and widely-used technique for modeling diets. In addition to its continued role in paleodiet analysis, stable isotope analysis is now contributing to studies of physiology, disease, and nutrition in archaeological and living human populations. In humans and other animals, dietary uptake and distribution...

The Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) is a herbivorous marine mammal that occupies freshwater, estuarine and marine habitats. Despite being considered endangered, relatively little is known about its feeding ecology. The present study expands on previous work on manatee feeding ecology by providing critical baseline parameters for accurate isotopic data interpretation. Stable car...