Detecting environmental change using stable isotopes

Changing land use is one of the primary causes of increased sedimentation and nutrient levels in aquatic systems, resulting in contamination and reduction of biodiversity. Detecting and quantifying these inputs is the first step of remediation, to enable targeted reduction of transport processes into waterways from human impacted land surfaces. More recently, stable isotope analyses are being used as a detection and quantification tool in aquatic environments. Carbon and nitrogen isotopes of sediments, algae and invertebrates from aquatic systems can be used as proxies to record both short and long term environmental change. Excess nutrients derived from urbanization, industry, forestry, farming and agriculture increase the bio-availability of nitrogen to aquatic organisms, changing their natural ¹⁵N isotopic signatures. Allochthonous (terrestrial) input from soil destabilization and human activity in surrounding catchments changes the ¹³C isotope ratios and increases the C:N ratio of sediments. Heavy metal and other organic pollutants can also be used to indicate urbanization and industrial contamination. The combined use of carbon and nitrogen isotopes, C:N ratios and heavy metals are powerful environmental monitoring tools which are useful indicators of source and transport pathways of terrestrial derived material and anthropogenic pollutants into streams, rivers and estuaries. (author).