IAP 2017 Activities by Sponsor - Sea Grant College Program

Robert Vincent, Coastal Ecologist, MIT Sea Grant

Enrollment: Unlimited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/06
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions

The use of stable isotopes for investigating past, current, and future environmental conditions has increased in popularity over the last decade.  Applications include climate science, natural resource management, commercial fisheries management, anthropogenic impact assessments, pollution control, habitat restoration, and ecosystem processes, to name a few. 

The course will provide a basic introduction for the use of stable isotopes in ecological assessments.  We will start with a primer on stable isotopes as they occur in natural systems, fractionation, and how environmental conditions can influence the relationship between light and heavy isotopes.  We will discuss how isotopes of multiple elements are used to investigate the trophic transfer of energy through a system, and how computer mixing models are used in food web analysis. Real-world applications of stable isotope analyses in professional settings will also be discussed.  We will prepqare and analyze samples and visit a stable isotope lab.

1. Basic understanding of how stable isotopes  chemistry and how stable isotopes are used in ecological assessments, including trophic transfer, fractionation, and food web modeling
2. Basic understanding of how a stable isotope lab works
3. Basic understanding of stable isotope sample preparation and processing protocols
4. Basic understanding of descriptive statistics and mixing models used to analyze and interpret stable isotope data

 1/10/17-2/2/2017; Tues & Thurs 10 am – 12:00; Rm 4-265

Sponsor(s): Sea Grant College Program
Contact: Robert Vincent, E38-300, 617 252-1741, RVINCENT@MIT.EDU