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North American transect of stable hydrogen and oxygen isotopes in water beetles from a museum collection

van Hardenbroek, Maarten ; Gröcke, Darren ; Sauer, Peter ; Elias, Scott

In: Journal of Paleolimnology, 2012, vol. 48, no. 2, p. 461-470

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    Titre
    • North American transect of stable hydrogen and oxygen isotopes in water beetles from a museum collection
    Auteur
    • van Hardenbroek, Maarten. Institute of Plant Sciences and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, 3013, Bern, Switzerland
    • Gröcke, Darren. Science Laboratories, Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, South Road, DH1 3LE, Durham, UK
    • Sauer, Peter. Department of Geological Sciences, Indiana University, 47405, Bloomington, IN, USA
    • Elias, Scott. Department of Geography, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham Hill, TW20 0EX, Egham, UK
    Type de document
    • Postprint
    Langue
    • Anglais
    Publié dans
    • Journal of Paleolimnology, 2012, vol. 48, no. 2, p. 461-470. Springer Netherlands
    Autre version électronique
    Identifiant OAI-PMH
    • oai:doc.rero.ch:313045
    Summary
    Museum collections contain a wealth of insect remains originating from a wide geographic range, which can be used to investigate their utility as a proxy for environmental isotope ratios. Chitinous remains of insects such as beetles (Coleoptera) are chemically stable and their stable isotope composition is strongly related to that of environmental water in the period of cuticle formation. We present a dataset of chitin δD and δ18O in two genera of water beetles from a museum collection containing 40 locations for Helophorus (water scavenging beetles) and 48 locations for Hydroporus (predaceous diving beetles) that were selected from latitudes 27-82°N in North America. Only two genera were used to minimize inter-sample variation caused by species-specific differences in metabolic effects, feeding strategy, habitat, and life cycle. The isotopic composition of water beetle exoskeletons had a strong latitudinal trend (North-South) from −160 to +65‰ for δD and from 7 to 34‰ for δ18O, paralleling gradients of isotopes in precipitation. Strong relationships were observed between isotopic composition of beetles and modelled July precipitation (0.71