Applications of stable isotopes in environmental studies at the University of Liege

• Main Authors: Sturaro, Nicolas, Borges, Alberto, Das, Krishna, Dauby, Patrick, Gobert, Sylvie, Mascart, Thibaud, Michel, Loïc, Remy, François, Lepoint, Gilles
• Other Authors: MARE - Centre Interfacultaire de Recherches en Océanologie - ULiège, AFFISH-RC - Applied and Fundamental FISH Research Center - ULiège
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: Stable isotopes; Marine ecosystems; Trophic ecology; Ecotoxicology; Biogeochemistry; Life sciences; Environmental sciences & ecology; Aquatic sciences & oceanology; Zoology; Sciences du vivant; Sciences de l’environnement & écologie; Sciences aquatiques & océanologie; Zoologie; Antarc*; Antarctic; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/181083; https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/181083/1/Sturaro%20et%20al%20%282015%29%20BASIS.pdf

Measurement and use of stable isotope ratios have a long history at the University of Liege (Belgium). Since at least 30 years, applications of stable isotopes in marine ecosystems have been developed within the Laboratory of Oceanology and, more recently, within the Chemical Oceanography Unit. In the Laboratory of Oceanology, one research axis is the measurement of stable isotope composition (C, N, S) in organic matter to delineate trophic web structure and to study animal diet, their trophic niches and their alteration by human activities. This methodology has been successively applied worldwide in different habitats and ecosystems (marine, freshwater, terrestrial) in temperate and tropical areas. Mediterranean food web and fish trophic ecology have received a particular attention. Coupling between trophic ecology and ecotoxicology is another area of investigation. This has been applied mainly to marine vertebrates and freshwater ecosystems. Stable isotope labelling is also used in our laboratory to study and quantify various ecological processes such as inorganic nitrogen incorporation and trophic transfers. The laboratory facilities, renewed in 2012 and managed by Dr. Gilles Lepoint, are composed of an elemental analyser (EA, vario MICRO cube, Elementar) and a gas chromatography (GC, Agilent) coupled to an isotope ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS, Isoprime 100). The GC is also equipped with a quadrupole mass spectrometer. In 2014, the Chemical Oceanography Unit, headed by Dr. Alberto Borges, has acquired and implemented an off-axis cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) for the measurements of δ15Nα, δ15Nβ, δ18O of N2O. This enables characterization of the N2O origin in a variety of aquatic environments including groundwater in Wallonia, rivers and lakes in Wallonia and Africa, coastal environments (Scheldt estuary, Lake Grevelingen, North Sea), Mediterranean seagrass beds, and Antarctic and Arctic sea-ice.