Stable sulfur isotope (δ34S) analysis is an important tool for addressing archaeological and ecological questions about diet and mobility. A growing body of work has underscored the value of δ34S for tracing food sources linked to specific kinds of aquatic primary production, including saltmarshes, freshwater wetlands, seagrass beds, and benthic microalgal communities. Comparatively little work has investigated δ34S variation in other marine vertebrate food webs. This may reflect prevailing assumptions that isotopically homogenous marine sulfates will be the main contributor to consumer δ34S in all marine ecosystems. We explore this assumption through δ34S, δ13C, and δ15N analyses of bone collagen from a taxonomically and ecologically broad cross-section of marine fauna from preindustrial contexts at the archaeological site of Jamestown, near the Chesapeake Bay in present-day Virginia. Results for most taxa show δ34S values that diverge from those expected based on species’ marine ecologies. Benthic primary production, serving as a vector for sulfide-influenced, low-δ34S sulfur entering aquatic food webs, offers the most parsimonious explanation. The ecological diversity represented in these findings, covering a wide range of marine and estuarine habitats, suggests that this phenomenon could be common where benthic algae form an important part of primary production in estuarine and other coastal habitats across the globe. Implications for archaeological and ecological δ34S interpretive frameworks are discussed.

中文翻译：

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海洋意味着什么：历史上切萨皮克湾生态系统中的硫同位素变化

稳定硫同位素 （δ34S） 分析是解决有关饮食和流动性的考古和生态问题的重要工具。越来越多的工作强调了 δ34S 在追踪与特定类型的水生初级生产相关的食物来源方面的价值，包括盐沼、淡水湿地、海草床和底栖微藻群落。相对较少的工作研究了其他海洋脊椎动物食物网中的 δ34S 变化。这可能反映了普遍的假设，即同位素均质海洋硫酸盐将是所有海洋生态系统中消费者 δ34S 的主要贡献者。我们通过对来自前工业化背景的海洋动物群的骨胶原进行 δ34S、δ13C 和 δ15N 分析来探索这一假设，该考古遗址位于今弗吉尼亚州切萨皮克湾附近的詹姆斯敦考古遗址。大多数分类群的结果显示 δ34S 值与基于物种海洋生态学的预期值不同。底栖初级生产是受硫化物影响的低 δ34S 硫进入水生食物网的载体，提供了最简洁的解释。这些发现所代表的生态多样性涵盖了广泛的海洋和河口栖息地，这表明这种现象在底栖藻类构成全球河口和其他沿海栖息地初级生产的重要组成部分的地方可能很常见。讨论了对考古学和生态学 δ34S 解释框架的影响。