Global oxygen isoscapes for barnacle shells: Application for tracing movement in oceans

Area of Science:

• Marine Ecology
• Biogeochemistry
• Conservation Science

Background:

• Understanding animal and object movement is crucial for conservation and environmental management, such as tracing marine debris origins.
• Current tagging methods track future movement, but historical movement prior to encounter remains challenging to determine.
• Stable isotope analysis of animal tissues or barnacle shells offers a method to reconstruct past movement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the applicability of barnacle shell isotope analysis for identifying the origin and travel pathways of marine animals and objects.
• To create global isoscapes for barnacle shell calcite to determine regions offering the finest spatial resolution for origin tracing.
• To demonstrate the use of isoscapes for back-tracing animal migrations and identifying marine debris origins.

Main Methods:

• Utilized global datasets to develop the first global isoscapes for barnacle shell calcite.
• Applied isoscapes to real-world case studies of sea turtle and whale migrations.
• Analyzed successive barnacle shell samples to identify migration pathways.

Main Results:

• Identified coastal areas and mid-latitude oceanic regions as providing the best spatial resolution for isotope analysis.
• Successfully demonstrated the ability to trace migration pathways using barnacle shell isotope data.
• Showcased the potential for identifying the origin of marine debris through barnacle shell analysis.

Conclusions:

• Barnacle shell isotope analysis is a powerful and applicable technique for reconstructing historical movement of marine fauna and objects.
• Global isoscapes provide essential frameworks for precise application of this method.
• This research enables more efficient and accurate tracing of movement and origins, significantly benefiting marine conservation and environmental management efforts.