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Concept
Δ13C
Summary
DISPLAYTITLE:δ13C
In geochemistry, paleoclimatology, and paleoceanography δ13C (pronounced "delta c thirteen") is an isotopic signature, a measure of the ratio of the two stable isotopes of carbon—13C and 12C—reported in parts per thousand (per mil, ‰). The measure is also widely used in archaeology for the reconstruction of past diets, particularly to see if marine foods or certain types of plants were consumed.
The definition is, in per mille:
where the standard is an established reference material.
δ13C varies in time as a function of productivity, the signature of the inorganic source, organic carbon burial, and vegetation type. Biological processes preferentially take up the lower mass isotope through kinetic fractionation. However some abiotic processes do the same. For example, methane from hydrothermal vents can be depleted by up to 50%.
The standard established for carbon-13 work was the Pee Dee Belemnite (PDB) and was based on a Cretaceous marine fossil, Belemnitella americana, which was from the Peedee Formation in South Carolina. This material had an anomalously high 13C:12C ratio (0.0112372), and was established as δ13C value of zero. Since the original PDB specimen is no longer available, its 13C:12C ratio can be back-calculated from a widely measured carbonate standard NBS-19, which has a δ13C value of +1.95‰. The 13C:12C ratio of NBS-19 was reported as . Therefore, one could calculate the 13C:12C ratio of PDB derived from NBS-19 as . Note that this value differs from the widely used PDB 13C:12C ratio of 0.0112372 used in isotope forensics and environmental scientists; this discrepancy was previously attributed by a wikipedia author to a sign error in the interconversion between standards, but no citation was provided. Use of the PDB standard gives most natural material a negative δ13C. A material with a ratio of 0.010743 for example would have a δ13C value of −44‰ from . The standards are used for verifying the accuracy of mass spectroscopy; as isotope studies became more common, the demand for the standard exhausted the supply.
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Reference materials for stable isotope analysis
Isotopic reference materials are compounds (solids, liquids, gasses) with well-defined isotopic compositions and are the ultimate sources of accuracy in mass spectrometric measurements of isotope ratios. Isotopic references are used because mass spectrometers are highly fractionating. As a result, the isotopic ratio that the instrument measures can be very different from that in the sample's measurement. Moreover, the degree of instrument fractionation changes during measurement, often on a timescale shorter than the measurement's duration, and can depend on the characteristics of the sample itself.
Isotopic signature
An isotopic signature (also isotopic fingerprint) is a ratio of non-radiogenic 'stable isotopes', stable radiogenic isotopes, or unstable radioactive isotopes of particular elements in an investigated material. The ratios of isotopes in a sample material are measured by isotope-ratio mass spectrometry against an isotopic reference material. This process is called isotope analysis. The atomic mass of different isotopes affect their chemical kinetic behavior, leading to natural isotope separation processes.
Isotope geochemistry
Isotope geochemistry is an aspect of geology based upon the study of natural variations in the relative abundances of isotopes of various elements. Variations in isotopic abundance are measured by isotope ratio mass spectrometry, and can reveal information about the ages and origins of rock, air or water bodies, or processes of mixing between them. Stable isotope geochemistry is largely concerned with isotopic variations arising from mass-dependent isotope fractionation, whereas radiogenic isotope geochemistry is concerned with the products of natural radioactivity.