Relationship between the hydrogen and oxygen isotopes of deer bone and their use in the estimation of relative humidity

The hydrogen isotopic ratio of bone collagen (δDb) and the oxygen isotopic ratio of bone phosphate (δ18Ob) from North American white-tailed deer are each related to both the isotopic ratio of local rain and relative humidity during the growing season. The humidity corrected bone δDb and δ18Ob are highly correlated with each other with a correlation coefficient of 0.962. The regression slope of this equation (8.0) reflects the δD vs. δ18O slope …