Thure E. Cerling

Thure E. Cerling received his Bachelor of Science degree in geology and chemistry from Iowa State University, in Ames, Iowa, in 1972, and, in 1973, his Master of Science in geology from Iowa State. In 1977 he was awarded a Ph.D. in geology from the University of California at Berkeley. From 1977 to 1979 he worked as a research scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and, from 1979 he has been a member of the University of Utah's faculty.

With the publication of "Expansion of C4 ecosystems as an indicator of global ecological change in the late Miocene" in 1993, Cerling, helped by Yang Wang and Jay Quade, made relevant studies relatively to carbon isotopes. Thanks to a deep analysis of palaeovegetation from palaeosols and palaeodiet measured in fossil tooth enamel, was demonstrated a global increase in the biomass of plants using C4 photosynthesis between 7 and 5 million years ago. The decrease of atmospheric CO2 concentrations over the history below a threshold that favored the C3-photosynthesizing plants was considered as a valid reason for the global expansion of C4 biomass. The publication "Global vegetation change through the Miocene/Pliocene boundary" in 1997 confirmed these results, demonstrating even how at lower latitudes the change appeared to occur earlier because of the threshold for C3 photosynthesis is higher at warmer temperatures.

Thure Cerling and James Ehleringer, a biology professor at the University of Utah, founded Isoforensics in 2003, a company with the aim of interpreting the stable isotope composition of various biological and synthetic materials. This was the first step for the discovery they made which was first published on February 25, 2008, by the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" with the title "Hydrogen and oxygen isotope ratios in human hair are related to geography". To know where people have been and where they lived for a while are information that became available by analyzing the stable isotope composition of their scalp hair. Cerling discovered that a strand of hair could provide valuable clues about a person's travels by studying the variation of hydrogen-2 (δ2H) and oxygen-18 (δ18O) isotopes and comparing them to the ones in the drinking water. The extent of the information that can be deduced depends on the length of the hair: the longer is the hair, the greater is the extraction of information. The variation with geography of isotope concentrations is linked with precipitations, cloud temperatures and with the amount of water that evaporates from soil and plants. When clouds move off the ocean towards inland the ratios of oxygen-18 to oxygen-16 and hydrogen-2 to hydrogen-1 tend to decrease because of the rain water with oxygen-18 and hydrogen-2, being heavier, tends to fall first. Samples of tap water were collected from more than 600 cities across the United States as well as hair samples from the barbershops in 65 cities in 20 states. The comparison showed that both hair and drinking water samples had the same isotopic variations. In order to display these information, the scientists produced color-coded maps based on the correlation of the isotopes in hair to those in drinking water. This maps show how ratios of hydrogen and oxygen isotopes in scalp hair vary in different areas of the United States. It was so proved that the water drank by a human being leaves in the hair an evidence which contain oxygen and hydrogen isotopes equal to the ones in the tap water. This technique would have been a new tool for policemen, anthropologists, archaeologists and doctors.

Professor Cerling, helped by James Ehleringer and Christopher Remien (two University of Utah colleagues), George Wittemyer of Colorado State University and member of "Save the Elephants" in Nairobi, and Iain Douglas-Hamilton, who founded the association "Save the Elephants", conducted a research around the Samburu and Buffalo Springs national reserves in northern Kenya analyzing carbon and other stable isotopes in elephant tail hair to discover where and what Victoria, Anastasia and Cleopatra, three daughters of a mother elephant named Queen Elizabeth, usually eat over a six-years period (2000–2006). In order to monitor their life, the elephants were equipped with a Global Positioning System that recorded their positions every hour for the whole research period. For getting the sample of tail hair, elephants were immobilized with drug-filled dart guns when necessary. Considering that the hair grows about an inch per month, a single hair contained isotopic information to diet during an 18-month period.

• Cerling, T. E.; Wang, Y.; Quade, J. (1993). "Expansion of C4 ecosystems as an indicator of global ecological change in the late Miocene". Nature. 361 (6410): 344. Bibcode:1993Natur.361..344C. doi:10.1038/361344a0.
• Cerling, T. E.; Harris, J. M.; MacFadden, B. J.; Leakey, M. G.; Quade, J.; Eisenmann, V.; Ehleringer, J. R. (1997). "Global vegetation change through the Miocene/Pliocene boundary". Nature. 389 (6647): 153. Bibcode:1997Natur.389..153C. doi:10.1038/38229.
• Ehleringer, J. R.; Bowen, G. J.; Chesson, L. A.; West, A. G.; Podlesak, D. W.; Cerling, T. E. (2008). "Hydrogen and oxygen isotope ratios in human hair are related to geography". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 105 (8): 2788–93. Bibcode:2008PNAS..105.2788E. doi:10.1073/pnas.0712228105. PMC 2268538. PMID 18299562.
• Cerling, T. E.; Wittemyer, G.; Rasmussen, H. B.; Vollrath, F.; Cerling, C. E.; Robinson, T. J.; Douglas-Hamilton, I. (2006). "Stable isotopes in elephant hair document migration patterns and diet changes". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 103 (2): 371–3. Bibcode:2006PNAS..103..371C. doi:10.1073/pnas.0509606102. PMC 1326175. PMID 16407164.
• Cerling, T. E.; Harris, J. M.; Leakey, M. G. (1999). "Browsing and Grazing in Elephants: The Isotope Record of Modern and Fossil Proboscideans". Oecologia. 120 (3): 364–374. Bibcode:1999Oecol.120..364C. doi:10.1007/s004420050869. PMID 28308013.
• Thure Cerling; Iain Douglas-Hamilton; Lee Siegel: "Elephant Tracks" University of Utah News Release, January 2, 2006.