Tracing Origins - Applications of Stable Isotopes of Hydrogen to Advance Ecological and Forensic Research
The Collection contributes to summarize the major challenges found in the development of stable isotope approaches using the stable hydrogen isotope composition of organic materials, which contain exchangeable hydrogen. Analysis of 2H/1H content in animals is widely used in environmental studies to determine the geographical origin of animal and human samples. Non-exchangeable H in the organic sample is derived from water used by organisms, and thus correlated to provenance by using predictable global patters in precipitation water isotopes. However, researchers have found several challenges in their way related to (1) uncontrolled isotope exchange of samples with ambient moisture, (2) differential deuterium incorporation into tissues based on metabolism, sources, uptake and turnover, and (3) spatial geolocation modelling techniques. We selected eleven articles published in Isotopes in Environmental and Health Studies during the past two decades (from 2003) that show how to apply stable isotope of hydrogen for tracing location of origins. The selection is composed by papers dealing with the analytical complexities of hydrogen exchangeability properties and applications in terrestrial and aquatic animal and human forensics. We foresee this collection as a basis to understand the framework of applying these isotopes for provenance for early career researchers and isotope specialists in this field.