Journal
JOURNAL OF FORENSIC SCIENCES
Volume 59, Issue 6, Pages 1541-1551Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/1556-4029.12644
Keywords
forensic science; stable isotope analysis; radiocarbon dating; illicit trade; Encephalartos; conservation; provenance; poaching; strontium; South Africa
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Funding
- South African National Biodiversity Institute
- National Research Foundation
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Cycads in South Africa are facing an extinction crisis due to the illegal extraction of plants from the wild. Proving wild origin of suspect ex situ cycads to the satisfaction of a court of law is difficult, limiting law enforcement efforts. We investigated the feasibility of using multiple stable isotopes to identify specimens removed from the wild. Relocated and wild specimens from two species in the African genus Encephalartos (E. lebomboensis and E. arenarius) were sampled. C-14 analysis indicated that a +/- 30-year chronology could be reliably obtained from the cycads. For E.arenarius, pre-relocation tissue was consistent with a wild origin, whereas tissue grown post-relocation was isotopically distinct from the wild for Sr-87/Sr-86 and N-15. For E.lebomboensis, S-34, O-18, and Sr-87/Sr-86 were different between relocated and control plants, consistent with the >30years since relocation. Our findings demonstrate the potential for a forensic isotope approach to identify illegal ex situ cycads.
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