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Tracing strontium from soil to plant to body and beyond: Aligning measurement, baseline, and applications for provenance

par Sengelov, Amanda
Président du jury Hermans, Christian
Promoteur Mattielli, Nadine
Co-Promoteur Vercauteren, Martine
Publication Non publié, 2026-02-23

Thèse de doctorat

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Résumé :

Strontium isotopes (87Sr/86Sr) are central to provenance studies in archaeology, forensics, ecology and food authentication, yet Belgium has lacked a modern plant-based baseline. This thesis traces the journey from plant to measurement, measurement to baseline, and baseline to applications, asking how plants record bioavailable strontium (BASr) and how those measurements can be turned into national maps that improve interpretation in practice.From plant to measurement, this thesis combines field collections of 734 plants, controlled growing experiments and targeted laboratory tests to characterise how plants record BASr. Urban woodland surveys show within-site variation consistent with mixed soil and atmospheric inputs. A preliminary Unified BARGE Method (UBM) gastrointestinal extraction suggests that whole-plant total digests may include strontium not mobilised during human digestion, indicating that the bioaccessible – and consequently bioavailable – signal in humans can differ from plant BASr, with implications for baselines and provenance assignments. Controlled growing experiments shows that roots generally track local soils, whereas aerial organs (leaves, stems, storage tissues) tend to be more radiogenic due to foliar deposition from dust and other external inputs, with consistent offsets across species.From measurement to baseline, a grid-based strategy with 10×10 km cells assembles an evenly distributed dataset of modern plants. Two Belgian BASr map releases are produced. The first applies Empirical Bayesian Kriging (EBK) to more than six hundred plant measurements. After an expansion of about two hundred samples, a second release is built by comparing different modelling techniques on the same empirical grid. EBK within domains, with unsupported areas left blank, is selected because it avoids the over-smoothing and maintains realistic geological gradients.From baseline to applications, Belgian case studies at Wanzoul, Herstal and Court-Saint-Étienne, re-evaluated against the updated map, show greater local BASr variability that matches the spread in human assemblages and points to a varied use of the surrounding landscape. For ancient Satricum (Italy), an EBK baseline for Lazio and Campania provides a site-specific reference and supports spatial assignment of individuals within their regional context.Within and beyond Belgium, the thesis provides an evidence-led approach to building region-specific plant baselines which supports more consistent spatial assignment across disciplines.