Isotopic signatures

• Main Authors: Dean, J.R., Leng, M.J., Mackay, A.W.
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2017
• Subjects: Ocean acidification
• Online Access: http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/518688/; https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/518688/1/Isotopic%20signatures%20Dean%20et%20al.%202017.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-409548-9.10023-5

Isotopes record human influence on the Earth System, providing evidence for the Anthropocene. Lead and sulfur isotopes detail pollution histories going back millennia. Carbon and nitrogen isotopes show substantial change since the Industrial Revolution, and especially since the 1950s, related to increased fossil fuel consumption and fertilizer production. Boron isotopes record ocean acidification related to CO2 emissions. Radioisotopes, for example plutonium, have been dispersed across the Earth since the 1950s due to nuclear weapons testing and can be used as stratigraphic markers for the time that carbon and nitrogen isotopes, and non-isotope proxies, show increased human influence on the Earth System.