Ricerc@Sapienza

Stable isotope analysis has become known as an important approach in ecological science but also in Geology, Biology, Climate, Organic chemistry, Botany and Zoology. The stable isotopes of Nitrogen (δ15N) and Carbon (δ13C) enable powerful tools for evaluating the origins of Nitrogen pollution in water systems and, associated to Bayesian Mixing Models, are the elective method to assess the trophic positions of the different taxa in food webs. Nowadays, stable isotope analysis is utilized to address questions about human diets around the world. The main purposes of this paper are to give a simple description of stable isotope concept, applications, and measurement method also for the animal food habits determination.