Dr Amy Styring

amystyring
Associate Professor of Archaeological Science
+44 (0)1865 278308
amy.styring@arch.ox.ac.uk

Research Interests

Isotopic analysis of plant, animal and human remains, reconstruction of past subsistence practices and land use

 

Geographic Areas

Previous archaeological projects in: Germany, Sweden, Poland, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Burkina Faso

Working with smallholder farmers in: France, Romania, Morocco and Senegal

Research Profile

As an archaeological chemist, I am interested in advancing scientific methods that reveal a direct and detailed picture of everyday life in the past, particularly in relation to food production and consumption practices and associated land use change.

My recent Humboldt Research Fellowship (2017–2019) at the University of Frankfurt used isotopic analysis of modern and archaeological crops to explore manuring practices during the first two millennia AD in Burkina Faso. I was involved in an ERC funded project at the University of Oxford (2013–2017), which assessed the role of changing agricultural practices in the emergence of urban centres in central Europe, the Aegean and southwest Asia. I obtained my PhD in Chemistry from the University of Bristol (2007–2012), applying nitrogen isotopic analysis of amino acids as a novel approach for the reconstruction of past diet and agricultural practices.

Listen to Amy discuss her research interests in this podcast recorded with St Cross College

Research activities

Publications

  • Seed size, number and strategies in annual plants: a comparative functional analysis and synthesis.

    Hodgson, JG, Marti, GM, Sera, B, Jones, G, Bogaard, A, Charles, M, Font, X, Ater, M, Taleb, A, Santini, BA, Hmimsa, Y, Palmer, C
    ,
    et al
    2020
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    Journal article
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    Annals of botany
    BACKGROUND AND AIMS:Plants depend fundamentally on establishment from seed. However, protocols in trait-based ecology currently estimate seed size but not seed number. This can be rectified. For annuals, seed number should simply be a positive function of vegetative biomass and a negative one of seed size. METHODS:Using published values of comparative seed number as the 'golden standard' and a large functional database, comparative seed yield and number per plant and per m2 were predicted by multiple regression. Subsequently, ecological variation in each was explored for English and Spanish habitats, newly-calculated CSR strategies and changed abundance in the British flora. KEY RESULTS:As predicted, comparative seed mass yield per plant was consistently a positive function of plant size and competitive ability and largely independent of seed size. Regressions estimating comparative seed number included, additionally, seed size as a negative function. Relationships differed numerically between regions, habitats and CSR strategies. Moreover, some species differed in life history over their geographical range. Practically, comparative seed yield per m 2 was positively correlated with FAO crop yield, and increasing British annuals produced numerous seeds. Nevertheless, predicted values must be viewed as comparative rather than absolute: they varied according to the 'golden standard' predictor used. Moreover, regressions estimating comparative seed yield m -2 achieved low precision. CONCLUSIONS:For the first time, estimates of comparative seed yield and number for over 800 annuals and their predictor equations have been produced and the ecological importance of these regenerative traits has been illustrated. 'Regenerative trait-based ecology' remains in its infancy with work needed on determinate versus indeterminate flowering ('bet-hedging'), C-S-R methodologies, phylogeny, comparative seed yield per m 2 and changing life-history. Nevertheless, this has been a positive start and readers are invited to use estimates for >800 annuals, in the Supplementary Data, to help advance 'regenerative trait-based ecology' to the next level.

  • Nitrogen isotope values of Pennisetum glaucum (pearl millet) grains: towards a reconstruction of past cultivation conditions in the Sahel, West Africa

    2019
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    Journal article
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    Vegetation History and Archaeobotany

  • Spatial and temporal patterns in Neolithic and Bronze Age agriculture in Poland based on the stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic composition of cereal grains

    Mueller-Bieniek, A, Nowak, M, Styring, A, Lityńska-Zając, M, Moskal-del Hoyo, M, Sojka, A, Paszko, B, Tunia, K, Bogaard, A
    2019
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    Journal article
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    Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
    © 2019 Elsevier Ltd In this study the stable nitrogen (δ15N) and carbon (δ13C) isotopic compositions of carbonized cereal grains from 18 archaeological sites in Poland, dating from the Early Neolithic to the turn of the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, were determined. There were two main aims of this study. The first aim was to test the archaeologically accepted model of a change from intensive ‘horticulture’ in the Early Neolithic in Lesser Poland to more extensive cultivation in the Middle Neolithic, which is expected to be evidenced by decreasing levels of manuring and labour input, reflected especially in a shift to lower cereal grain δ15N values. The second aim was to assess how cereal grain δ13C values reflect crop watering conditions and landscape openness regionally and through time. Despite the limited plant material, the study showed that all cereal plots potentially received some inputs of manure (including household waste), but there seems to be a clear regional difference in the intensity of manuring practice in the Early Neolithic, with greater manure application on plots in southern Poland than in northern Poland. Moreover, cereal plots in southern Poland in the Early Neolithic seem to have been located on soils with higher water retention and/or within denser vegetation than plots in northern Poland. In the Middle Neolithic, however, plots in southern Poland seemed to have expanded into areas with lower water availability or that were more open, supporting the evidence from former archaeological interpretations that agriculture spread into different, usually elevated areas at this time.

  • Direct evidence for agricultural intensification during the first two millennia AD in northeast Burkina Faso

    Styring, AK, Hoehn, A, Linseele, V, Neumann, K
    2019
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    Journal article
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    JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE
    West Africa, Pearl millet, Nitrogen isotopes, Manuring, delta N-15, Pastoralism

  • Compound-specific δ15N values express differences in amino acid metabolism in plants of varying lignin content.

    Kendall, IP, Woodward, P, Clark, JP, Styring, AK, Hanna, JV, Evershed, RP
    2019
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    Journal article
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    Phytochemistry
    Amino acid δ15N values of foliage of various plant taxa, grown at the experimental farm stations of North Wyke, UK and Bad Lauchstädt, Germany were determined by GC-C-IRMS. The difference between δ15N values of glutamate (Glx) and phenylalanine (Phe) were found to differ significantly between woody and herbaceous plants, with mean Δ15NGlx-Phe (i.e. δ15NPhe - δ15NGlx) values of -9.3 ± 1.6‰ and -5.8 ± 2.1‰, respectively. These differences in values are hypothesised to be due to the involvement of Phe in the phenylpropanoid pathway, by which lignin and other phenolic secondary metabolites are produced, leading to isotopic fractionation and enrichment of the remaining Phe pool available for protein biosynthesis. This results in the more negative Δ15NGlx-Phe values observed in woody plants relative to herbaceous plants, as the former are assumed to produce more lignin. To test this assumption, plant leaf tissue lignin concentrations were estimated by solid state 13C cross-polarisation, magic-angle-spinning (CPMAS) NMR spectroscopy for a subset of plants, which showed that tree foliage has a higher concentration of lignin (12.6 wt%) than herbaceous foliage (6.3 wt%). The correlation of lignin concentration with Δ15NGlx-Phe values demonstrates that the difference in these values with plant type is indeed due to differential production of lignin. The ability to estimate the lignin content of plants from amino acid δ15N values will, to give one example, allow refinement of estimates of herbivore diet in present and past ecosystems, enabling more accurate environmental niche modelling.
    Poa, Tilia, Nitrogen Isotopes, Lignin, Amino Acids, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular, Molecular Structure
    • More
Teaching

Undergraduate teaching

Undergraduate lecturer for:

  • Honour Moderations Paper 4 – The Nature of Archaeological & Anthropological Enquiry
  • FHS option paper – Science-Based Methods in Archaeology

 

Postgraduate teaching

Postgraduate taught course options in:

Bioarchaeology