Stable isotope analyses of lacustrine chitinous invertebrate remains: Analytical advances, challenges and potential

Abstract

This review examines recent developments in the application of stable isotope analyses (δ¹⁸O, δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N, δD) to lacustrine invertebrate remains. These remains are ubiquitous in lacustrine sediments and thus provide an opportunity to measure changes in stable isotope ratios across a range of timescales and environments and allow interpretive power beyond taxonomic studies. To date they have been relatively understudied in comparison to carbonate fossils and offer both opportunities and challenges and we explore both themes in this review. This review will explore improvements to analytical instrumentation and the opportunities that this presents, it will look at a range of new studies of the modern lacustrine environment and how these studies allow a more nuanced palaeoenvironmental approach. We review recent studies that have used these advancements in understanding to help to reveal new knowledge of past climates, environments and ecology. In addition, we explore new studies that help to elucidate the role of methane-derived carbon to lacustrine food webs and the drivers behind this, including new data to estimate the contribution of methane derived carbon to an arctic lake. We conclude that major progress is currently being made in invertebrate-isotope analyses, and we expect this to continue apace.