Syllabus
- Lectures on physicochemical theoretical foundations
- Lectures on instrumental techniques and quality control over analytical performance
- Excursion into a stable isotope lab
- Practicing stable isotope calculations
- Presentation of case studies covering fundamental research as well as practical applications
Topics to be covered: fractionation of C isotopes during photosynthesis, monitoring of C isotope composition of atmospheric CO2, water cycle, Global Network of Isotopes in Precipitation (GNIP), food web studies, provenance analysis, animal and human migration, isoscapes, labelling with stable isotopes, other related tracers like 14C or trace elements.
Annotation
The students will learn what the stable isotopes of biogenic elements are, how they are distributed throughout the world, how their distribution is affected by various processes, how we can measure them and what we can imply from the measurements. It is focused on stable isotopes of light elements (H, C, N, O, S) in ecology, environmental sciences, and forensic analysis.