Isotopes

Collect Water Samples for the Alaska Stable Isotope Study

The Project

This project seeks off-road, Alaskan water samples from around the state for a stable isotope study. Stable hydrogen and oxygen isotopes from water are used by earth scientists to create “isoscapes” that can be used for a variety of conservation and climate projects, such as detecting where specific bird and other animal populations migrate to and from and detecting and quantifying the effects of climate change. Because Alaska has so few roads, most of the state has been under-sampled.

How will the data be used?

Water samples will be analyzed for their isotopic concentrations and an isoscape constructed and published when enough samples from a board enough region are collected.

How Can You  Participate?

Samples of falling rain and snow, as well as river, creek, lake, and pond water collected with a GPS location and date marked by source (i.e. falling precipitation, river/creek, lake/pond) in an unused 25 ml nalgene container would be ideal.