Great news for ZANBA – the first batch of botanical samples for isotope mapping central Sardinia is on its way to Cardiff! Davide has done an impressive job with the fieldwork, already collecting material for 31 of the 137 total points to be sampled.
Each of the 137 points is inside a particular lithological zone, with larger zones being represented by greater numbers of points. When Davide samples, he takes leaves from trees and large bushes: three different plants representing three different species (when possible) located within a 500 meter radius of each point. Taking multiple samples per point allows us to do homogenized sampling. In homogenized sampling, the leaves from the three samples will be freeze-dried, ground up, and carefully mixed to create a laboratory sample that captures the variability in the area around each point. Homogenized sampling helps us create a more representative isoscape – one that’s less negatively affected if any of the plants Davide samples happen to be outliers.
The samples should arrive sometime next week, and I can’t wait to get into the lab to start processing them!
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