δ
18O or written as ‘delta-O-18’. Delta-O-18 is a measure of the ratio of the stable isotopes oxygen-18 (
18O) and oxygen-16. It is commonly used as a measure of the temperature of precipitation, as a measure of groundwater and mineral interactions, and as an indicator of processes that show isotopic fractionation. The latter is an important tool to understand geochemical and biological systems. For example, biochemical processes cause changes in ratios of stable carbon isotopes in biomass.
This is what scientists from the Institute of Geography at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen in Germany, World Agroforestry (ICRAF), and the Department of Forestry and Environmental Science at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology in Bangladesh used in an experiment with three South Asian tree species. Their findings were published in the journal,