Isoscapes in a Rapidly Changing and Increasingly Interconnected World

“Isoscapes” have recently emerged as a coherent framework for the analysis, visualization, distribution, and application of environmental isotope data and have already created new disciplinary and interdisciplinary research opportunities. The chapters in this volume document the diverse and important roles that spatial monitoring and data analysis play in the application of isotope chemistry within contemporary science. The authors of this volume demonstrate how isoscapes serve as a tool for basic research, a template for data analysis and visualization, and a common platform and language for establishing a dialogue among specialists and non-specialists. The diversity and depth of the work demonstrates the relevance of isoscapes-based research to the needs of science and society in the twenty-first century, especially where problems are recognized to involve complex systems with widely distributed impacts, necessarily studied at large spatial scales (also see Bowen et al. 2009). Many chapters also highlight the significant challenges and gaps in understanding that must be overcome if the potential of these methods are to be realized. These are clear targets for future research that promise to expand discovery through improved understanding and application of spatio-temporal isotope variability.