Comparison between strip sampling and laser ablation methods to infer seasonal movements from intra-tooth strontium isotopes profiles in migratory caribou

Mael Le Corre; Vaughan Grimes; Rebecca Lam; Kate Britton

doi:10.1038/s41598-023-30222-w

Comparison between strip sampling and laser ablation methods to infer seasonal movements from intra-tooth strontium isotopes profiles in migratory caribou

Mael Le Corre^* (Corresponding Author), Vaughan Grimes, Rebecca Lam, Kate Britton^* (Corresponding Author)

^*Corresponding author for this work

Archaeology

Memorial University of Newfoundland

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

4 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Strontium isotopes analysis is a powerful tool in the study of past animal movements, notably the sequential analysis of tooth enamel to reconstruct individual movements in a time-series. Compared to traditional solution analysis, high resolution sampling using laser-ablation multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-MC-ICP-MS) has the potential to reflect fine scale mobility. However, the averaging of the 87Sr/86Sr intake during the enamel mineralization process may limit fine scale inferences. We compared solution and LA-MC-ICP-MS 87Sr/86Sr intra-tooth profiles from the second and third molars of 5 caribou from the Western Arctic herd, Alaska. Profiles from both methods showed similar trends, reflecting the seasonal migratory movements, but LA-MC-ICP-MS profiles showed a less damped 87Sr/86Sr signal than solution profiles. Geographic assignments of the profile endmembers to the known summer and winter ranges were consistent between methods and with the expected timing of enamel formation but showed discrepancy at a finer scale. Variations on LA-MC-ICP-MS profiles, consistent with expected seasonal movements, suggested more than an admixture of the endmember values. However, more work in understanding enamel formation in Rangifer, and other ungulates, and how 87Sr/86Sr daily intake translates into enamel are needed to assess the real resolution that can be achieved with LA-MC-ICP-MS.

Original language	English
Article number	3621
Number of pages	15
Journal	Scientific Reports
Volume	13
Issue number	1
Early online date	3 Mar 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-30222-w
Publication status	Published - 3 Mar 2023

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgements
This research was funded by The Leverhulme Trust (Ref: RPG-2017-410 to KB) and, in the case of the initial solution study, by the Natural Environmental Research Council (Ref: NER/S/A/2006/14004 to KB), and the Max Planck Society. Special thanks to James Dau and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game for sampling permissions. A Philip Leverhulme Prize (Ref: PLP-2019-284 to KB) provided support to KB during the production of this manuscript.

Data Availability Statement

Data availability
Isotope data described in the manuscript and R code are provided in the Supplementary Information ESM2 and ESM3 respectively. Strontium isoscape and associated error map are available from Bataille et al.14.

Keywords

Geochemistry
Palaeoecology
stable isotope analysis

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Cite this

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title = "Comparison between strip sampling and laser ablation methods to infer seasonal movements from intra-tooth strontium isotopes profiles in migratory caribou",

abstract = "Strontium isotopes analysis is a powerful tool in the study of past animal movements, notably the sequential analysis of tooth enamel to reconstruct individual movements in a time-series. Compared to traditional solution analysis, high resolution sampling using laser-ablation multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-MC-ICP-MS) has the potential to reflect fine scale mobility. However, the averaging of the 87Sr/86Sr intake during the enamel mineralization process may limit fine scale inferences. We compared solution and LA-MC-ICP-MS 87Sr/86Sr intra-tooth profiles from the second and third molars of 5 caribou from the Western Arctic herd, Alaska. Profiles from both methods showed similar trends, reflecting the seasonal migratory movements, but LA-MC-ICP-MS profiles showed a less damped 87Sr/86Sr signal than solution profiles. Geographic assignments of the profile endmembers to the known summer and winter ranges were consistent between methods and with the expected timing of enamel formation but showed discrepancy at a finer scale. Variations on LA-MC-ICP-MS profiles, consistent with expected seasonal movements, suggested more than an admixture of the endmember values. However, more work in understanding enamel formation in Rangifer, and other ungulates, and how 87Sr/86Sr daily intake translates into enamel are needed to assess the real resolution that can be achieved with LA-MC-ICP-MS.",

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note = "Acknowledgements This research was funded by The Leverhulme Trust (Ref: RPG-2017-410 to KB) and, in the case of the initial solution study, by the Natural Environmental Research Council (Ref: NER/S/A/2006/14004 to KB), and the Max Planck Society. Special thanks to James Dau and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game for sampling permissions. A Philip Leverhulme Prize (Ref: PLP-2019-284 to KB) provided support to KB during the production of this manuscript.",

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AU - Grimes, Vaughan

AU - Lam, Rebecca

AU - Britton, Kate

N1 - Acknowledgements This research was funded by The Leverhulme Trust (Ref: RPG-2017-410 to KB) and, in the case of the initial solution study, by the Natural Environmental Research Council (Ref: NER/S/A/2006/14004 to KB), and the Max Planck Society. Special thanks to James Dau and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game for sampling permissions. A Philip Leverhulme Prize (Ref: PLP-2019-284 to KB) provided support to KB during the production of this manuscript.

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N2 - Strontium isotopes analysis is a powerful tool in the study of past animal movements, notably the sequential analysis of tooth enamel to reconstruct individual movements in a time-series. Compared to traditional solution analysis, high resolution sampling using laser-ablation multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-MC-ICP-MS) has the potential to reflect fine scale mobility. However, the averaging of the 87Sr/86Sr intake during the enamel mineralization process may limit fine scale inferences. We compared solution and LA-MC-ICP-MS 87Sr/86Sr intra-tooth profiles from the second and third molars of 5 caribou from the Western Arctic herd, Alaska. Profiles from both methods showed similar trends, reflecting the seasonal migratory movements, but LA-MC-ICP-MS profiles showed a less damped 87Sr/86Sr signal than solution profiles. Geographic assignments of the profile endmembers to the known summer and winter ranges were consistent between methods and with the expected timing of enamel formation but showed discrepancy at a finer scale. Variations on LA-MC-ICP-MS profiles, consistent with expected seasonal movements, suggested more than an admixture of the endmember values. However, more work in understanding enamel formation in Rangifer, and other ungulates, and how 87Sr/86Sr daily intake translates into enamel are needed to assess the real resolution that can be achieved with LA-MC-ICP-MS.

AB - Strontium isotopes analysis is a powerful tool in the study of past animal movements, notably the sequential analysis of tooth enamel to reconstruct individual movements in a time-series. Compared to traditional solution analysis, high resolution sampling using laser-ablation multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-MC-ICP-MS) has the potential to reflect fine scale mobility. However, the averaging of the 87Sr/86Sr intake during the enamel mineralization process may limit fine scale inferences. We compared solution and LA-MC-ICP-MS 87Sr/86Sr intra-tooth profiles from the second and third molars of 5 caribou from the Western Arctic herd, Alaska. Profiles from both methods showed similar trends, reflecting the seasonal migratory movements, but LA-MC-ICP-MS profiles showed a less damped 87Sr/86Sr signal than solution profiles. Geographic assignments of the profile endmembers to the known summer and winter ranges were consistent between methods and with the expected timing of enamel formation but showed discrepancy at a finer scale. Variations on LA-MC-ICP-MS profiles, consistent with expected seasonal movements, suggested more than an admixture of the endmember values. However, more work in understanding enamel formation in Rangifer, and other ungulates, and how 87Sr/86Sr daily intake translates into enamel are needed to assess the real resolution that can be achieved with LA-MC-ICP-MS.

KW - Geochemistry

KW - Palaeoecology

KW - stable isotope analysis

U2 - 10.1038/s41598-023-30222-w

DO - 10.1038/s41598-023-30222-w

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JO - Scientific Reports

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ER -

Comparison between strip sampling and laser ablation methods to infer seasonal movements from intra-tooth strontium isotopes profiles in migratory caribou

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Data Availability Statement

Keywords

Access to Document

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