Publikationen

Assessing the uncertainties of delta13C- and delta15N-values determined by EA-IRMS for palaeodietary studies

Autor(en)
Kerstin Rumpelmayr, Andreas Pavlik, Eva Maria Wild, Maria Teschler-Nicola
Abstrakt

At the beginning of a program on palaeodiet, interest arose in how various uncertainty components propagate throughout the process of delta-value determination and how they affect the final uncertainties of the delta-values. The uncertainty components considered in this investigation arise from the precision of the measurement and from the uncertainties of the used isotope standards’ delta-values. In the uncertainty analysis, correlations were also taken into account, since they most often lead to an increase of the final uncertainties. The applied procedure permits not only to calculate the overall uncertainty of the normalized delta-values, but also to estimate the contributions of the various sources of uncertainties to the final uncertainty value. It was therefore possible to trace the different uncertainty components throughout the entire evaluation process. The uncertainties of the delta13C-values determined in this study were mainly caused by the respective statistical components resulting from the measurement process, since the uncertainties of the certified delta13C-values of the used international reference materials are small compared to the measurement uncertainty. In contrast, the delta15N values of the available nitrogen reference materials are less precise than those of the carbon isotope standards and thus more strongly affect the uncertainties of the determined delta15N-values. Consequently the uncertainties of delta15N-values can be underestimated, when only the statistical component is considered. Nevertheless, the final uncertainties obtained in this analysis are small in magnitude compared to the variation in delta-values relevant for diet interpretation. Although the investigated correlations had an enlarging effect on the uncertainties of the normalized delta-values, it could be shown that this effect is small and can be neglected in most palaeodietary studies.

Organisation(en)
Isotopenphysik
Externe Organisation(en)
Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (NHM)
Journal
Quaternary International
Band
245
Seiten
307-314
Anzahl der Seiten
8
ISSN
1040-6182
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2011.05.008
Publikationsdatum
2011
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
1030 Physik, Astronomie, 101018 Statistik
Link zum Portal
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/assessing-the-uncertainties-of-delta13c-and-delta15nvalues-determined-by-eairms-for-palaeodietary-studies(3a4bba25-b517-4e37-9aeb-ff0ce87f86f2).html