STRONTIUM IN TREES

Strontium in trees as indicator of geographic origin of tree



Strontium in trees as indicator of geographic origin of tree

Introduction

Strontium is a gray and soft, silvery metal with an atomic number of 38. It has four naturally occurring isotopes 88Sr, 87Sr, 86Sr, and 84Sr with abundances of 82.53%, 7.04%, 9.87%, and 0.54% respectively. Strontium is divalent in all compounds, which are, as hydroxide, fluoride and sulfate, completely soluble. Strontium is weaker complexing calcium, forming a few weak complexes with oxy-tartrates, citrates, etc (English et al, 2001). The primary contribution of 87Sr is the beta-minus decay of radiogenic parent atom 87Rb (t = 4.88(1010 yr) in a given system. Strontium in its elemental form occurs naturally in many compartments of the environment, including rocks, soil, water and air. Strontium compounds can move through the environment fairly easily, because many of the compounds are soluble in water (Faure & Powell, 1972). All strontium eventually ends up in soil or in the bottoms of water bodies where it is mixed with strontium that is already present.

The objective of the study

The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether measurement of the variation in 87Sr/86Sr ratio could be used as a reliable and practical method of different weathering and geographic regions. Therefore, isotopic composition of strontium is one of method and materials, which can powerful tracer of environmental studies. This study was performed to use strontium ration (87Sr/86Sr) as indicator of geographic origin of tree.

This paper brings a discussion about strontium isotopic analysis in wood samples and if can we use isotopes ratio of strontium as indicator of geographic origin of tree? Do we observe 87Sr/86Sr variations within a given region greater than over several regions?

Methodology

Wood samples were taken from light ranges of different period of Indian rose taken ...