1. δ H and δ O of human body water: a GIS model to distinguish residents from non-residents in the contiguous USA.
- Author
-
Podlesak, David W., Bowen, Gabriel J., O'Grady, Shannon, Cerling, Thure E., and Ehleringer, James R.
- Subjects
- *
ISOTOPES , *COMPOSITION of water , *GEOGRAPHIC information systems , *ESTIMATION theory , *MATHEMATICAL models , *DRINKING water - Abstract
An understanding of the factors influencing the isotopic composition of body water is important to determine the isotopic composition of tissues that are used to reconstruct movement patterns of humans. The δ2H and δ18O values of body water (δ2Hbw and δ18Obw) are related to the δ2H and δ18O values of drinking water (δ2Hdw and δ18Odw), but clearly distinct because of other factors including the composition of food. Here, we develop a mechanistic geographical information system (GIS) model to produce spatial projections of δ2Hbw and δ18Obw values for the USA. We investigate the influence of gender, food, and drinking water on the predicted values by comparing them with the published values. The strongest influence on the predicted values was related to the source of δ2Hdw and δ18Odw values. We combine the model with equations that describe the rate of turnover to produce estimates for the time required for a non-resident to reach an isotopic equilibrium with a resident population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2012
- Full Text
- View/download PDF