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GEOLOGY / ECOLOGY
Hydrogen and oxygen isotope ratios in human hair are related to geography

James R. Ehleringer^*,,, Gabriel J. Bowen^,, Lesley A. Chesson^*,, Adam G. West^,¶, David W. Podlesak^*, and Thure E. Cerling^*,,,||

*IsoForensics, Inc., 423 Wakara Way, Suite 205, Salt Lake City, UT 84108; Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112; ^||Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112; Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907; and ^¶Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720

Contributed by Thure E. Cerling, December 28, 2007 (sent for review October 15, 2007)

Abstract

We develop and test a model to predict the geographic region-of-origin of humans based on the stable isotope composition of their scalp hair. This model incorporates exchangeable and nonexchangeable hydrogen and oxygen atoms in amino acids to predict the ²H and ¹⁸O values of scalp hair (primarily keratin). We evaluated model predictions with stable isotope analyses of human hair from 65 cities across the United States. The model, which predicts hair isotopic composition as a function of drinking water, bulk diet, and dietary protein isotope ratios, explains >85% of the observed variation and reproduces the observed slopes relating the isotopic composition of hair samples to that of local drinking water. Based on the geographical distributions of the isotope ratios of tap waters and the assumption of a "continental supermarket" dietary input, we constructed maps of the expected average H and O isotope ratios in human hair across the contiguous 48 states. Applications of this model and these observations are extensive and include detection of dietary information, reconstruction of historic movements of individuals, and provision of region-of-origin information for unidentified human remains.

stable isotopes | water | anthropology | forensics | meteoric water

Author contributions: J.R.E., G.J.B., A.G.W., D.W.P., and T.E.C. designed research; J.R.E., G.J.B., L.A.C., A.G.W., D.W.P., and T.E.C. performed research; J.R.E., G.J.B., L.A.C., A.G.W., D.W.P., and T.E.C. analyzed data; and J.R.E. wrote the paper.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

To whom correspondence may be addressed. E-mail: ehleringer{at}biology.utah.edu or thure.cerling{at}utah.edu

© 2008 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA

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