Sulphur isotopes in animal hair track distance to sea

Stable sulphur isotope ratios (S-34/S-32) in animal tissues have been suggested as a tracer of coastal residency of terrestrial animals, but data are lacking that quantify the inland range of the sulphur coastal signal and the effects of seasonality. Here, we present delta S-34 measurements of sheep wool collected seasonally on eight farms across Ireland and wool samples collected opportunistically along the west and east coasts. We observed large (>10 parts per thousand) delta S-34 differences across the island and we show that wool delta S-34 values were negatively correlated with distance to the west coast. We propose that this is due to the predominantly (south-)westerly airflow, possibly combined with the influence of anthropogenic sulphur deposited from the east. While essentially all the sulphur contained in west-coast wool is of marine origin, relatively high d34S values were still measured >100km inland, suggesting that marine sulphur can be carried over long distances. Seasonal variations are small at the individual level for sedentary grazing animals. We conclude that sulphur isotopes ratios measured in archival keratinous tissues can be used to describe regional delta S-34 isoscapes primarily defined by distance to coasts and thus provide a tool to detect short-term movements of domestic, feral and wild animals within such isoscapes. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.