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"Isotopes provide a chemical fingerprint of a consumer's diet and can be compared with those from potential diet items to estimate the proportional contribution of different diet items," said Mat Wooller, an author on the study and director of the Alaska Stable Isotope facility at UAF.

In a previous collaboration with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Curtin research team obtained a unique chemical 'fingerprint' of the spilled oil, which enabled them to confirm its presence in the mangrove sediments.

"With a much higher salinity than the surrounding environment, the discharged water has a different chemical fingerprint than what the mussels are used to," said Nathaniel Warner, professor of CEE and corresponding author on the paper.

And could they identify a kind of chemical fingerprint unique to the contamination from Dumpsite 2 and other offshore dump sites that could be used to distinguish them from pollutants emanating from the Palos Verdes Shelf?

In the present study, the team tested for this larger suite of DDT-related chemicals, known as DDT+, in hopes that it could help develop a chemical fingerprint for Dumpsite 2 and the other offshore dump sites used by Montrose.