期刊名称：Beiträge aus der Nordwestdeutschen Forstlichen Versuchsanstalt
印刷版ISSN：1865-6994
出版年度：2008
卷号：1
页码：17-17
出版社：Universitäts-Verlag Göttingen
摘要：Most of the chemical elements consist of more than one stable isotope, as the elements which
form the major portion of the biomass (carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulphur). The
composition of the stable isotopes of these elements varies depending on global movements as
e.g. the hydrological cycle or governed by the turnover within the local ecosystems and by the
organisms. As a result the stable isotopes of the elements are fractionated individually and
therefore each environment has its own isotopic composition. The local isotopic composition is
the basis of the synthesis of the biomass at this site. Once synthesised the composition of the
stable isotopes remains stable and is therefore called ¡°isotopic fingerprint¡±. To control the origin
two different questions have to be distinguished: Usually it has to be ensured that the seed has
exactly been harvested from the stand which has been selected and confirmed by documents. The
Southern German quality assurance system Z¨¹F takes a reference sample at the harvest and
compares these results to the material finally distributed commercially. Stable isotopes may be
very useful to support this step of control. More sophisticated is the second question to trace back
the origin of a material. This necessitates a larger data base which has been fed with authentically
drawn samples, but can use global isotopic patterns. This contribution explains the basic
principles of the stable isotope method and illustrates the application with some examples.
