Identification of stress from incremental dentine stable isotope trends using linear enamel hypoplasia
- 1School of History Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- 2National Environmental Isotope Facility, British Geological Survey, Nottingham, United Kingdom
- 3Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
High-precision sampling of dentine serial increments facilitates analysis of short-term variations in stable isotope ratios. Temporal resolution of micro-sampled increments is sufficiently high that the impact of short-term periods of physiological stress, which have well-described effects on stable isotope ratios, may be captured. However, distinguishing the effects of diet vs physiological effects on δ13C and δ15N is non-trivial. This study presents a comparative analysis of one manifestation of physiological stress, linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH), and incrementally sampled dentine stable isotope ratios. Incidence and age at formation of LEH of 32 permanent canines from two medieval Croatian populations (13th–16th centuries CE cemeteries at Dugopolje and Udbina) were recorded. The canines were subsequently micro-sampled for δ13C and δ15N measurement. Intra-observer tests of δ13C and δ15N scatterplot interpretation were undertaken to investigate consistency in the identification of stress vs diet effects on stable isotope ratio trends. A strong relationship was found between stress-related variation in stable isotope trends and LEH. It is therefore proposed here that evaluation of teeth for LEH, and where identified, the recording of age of formation, become a standard component of incremental dentine stable isotope analysis pre-treatment protocols to improve stress identification in serially sampled dentine stable isotope ratio trends to enhance interpretations of past diet and individual isotope biographies.
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BibTeX
@article{smith2026identification,
title = {{Identification of stress from incremental dentine stable isotope trends using linear enamel hypoplasia}},
author = {Emma Smith and Angela Lamb and Linda Fibiger and Mario Šlaus and Anita Adamić Hadžić and Catriona Pickard},
journal = {PLOS One},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0359651},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0359651},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Identification of stress from incremental dentine stable isotope trends using linear enamel hypoplasia
AU - Emma Smith
AU - Angela Lamb
AU - Linda Fibiger
AU - Mario Šlaus
AU - Anita Adamić Hadžić
AU - Catriona Pickard
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/09
JO - PLOS One
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0359651
UR - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0359651
AB - High-precision sampling of dentine serial increments facilitates analysis of short-term variations in stable isotope ratios. Temporal resolution of micro-sampled increments is sufficiently high that the impact of short-term periods of physiological stress, which have well-described effects on stable isotope ratios, may be captured. However, distinguishing the effects of diet vs physiological effects on δ13C and δ15N is non-trivial. This study presents a comparative analysis of one manifestation of physiological stress, linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH), and incrementally sampled dentine stable isotope ratios. Incidence and age at formation of LEH of 32 permanent canines from two medieval Croatian populations (13th–16th centuries CE cemeteries at Dugopolje and Udbina) were recorded. The canines were subsequently micro-sampled for δ13C and δ15N measurement. Intra-observer tests of δ13C and δ15N scatterplot interpretation were undertaken to investigate consistency in the identification of stress vs diet effects on stable isotope ratio trends. A strong relationship was found between stress-related variation in stable isotope trends and LEH. It is therefore proposed here that evaluation of teeth for LEH, and where identified, the recording of age of formation, become a standard component of incremental dentine stable isotope analysis pre-treatment protocols to improve stress identification in serially sampled dentine stable isotope ratio trends to enhance interpretations of past diet and individual isotope biographies.
SN - 1932-6203
ER -