カテゴリー「ecology・environment」
Title: Application of potassium chloride to a Chernobyl-contaminated lake: modelling the dynamics of radiocaesium in an aquatic ecosystem and decontamination of fish
Author: James T Smith, Anatoly V Kudelsky, Igor N Ryabov, Rolf H Hadderingh, Anatoly A Bulgakov
Reference: Science of The Total Environment, Volume 305, Issues 1–3, 15 April 2003, Pages 217-227
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0048-9697(02)00477-1
Keywords: Chernobyl; Fish; Radiocaesium; Countermeasures
Abstract: This study tests a whole-lake experiment to reduce the bioaccumulation of radiocaesium (137Cs) in fish in lakes contaminated by the Chernobyl accident. In many lakes in the Chernobyl contaminated areas, radiocaesium activity concentrations in fish are still significantly higher (up to 100 times in some species) than acceptable limits for human consumption. Estimates of the long-term rate of decline of 137Cs in fish in these regions, in the absence of countermeasures, show that radioactivity in fish in some lakes may remain above acceptable consumption limits for a further 50–100 years from the present date. In February 1998 we applied 15 t of potassium chloride to Lake Svyatoe, Kostiukovichy. The addition of potassium chloride fertilizer to the lake resulted in a decrease in activity concentration of 137Cs to approximately 40% of pre-countermeasure values in a number of different fish species. In contrast to Lake Svyatoe, 137Cs activity concentrations in fish from four control lakes showed no systematic decrease over the study period. Simplified models for transfers of 137Cs in lakes successfully ‘blind’ predicted the changes in 137Cs in water and fish resulting from this major alteration of the potassium concentration of the lake. The experiment represents the first test of a predictive model for the dynamics of radiocaesium in response to a major perturbation in potassium (its major competitor ion) in a whole lake ecosystem.
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969702004771
Title: Processes, dynamics and modelling of radiocaesium cycling in a chronosequence of Chernobyl-contaminated Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) plantations
Author: François Goor, Yves Thiry
Reference: Science of The Total Environment, Volume 325, Issues 1–3, 5 June 2004, Pages 163-180
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2003.10.037
Keywords: Forest biological cycling; Annual fluxes; Chronosequence; Chernobyl consequences; Wood contamination; Modelling of radiocaesium transfer
Abstract: In a large forested area affected by the Chernobyl radioactive fallout, especially in CIS, the lasting recycling of radiocaesium (137Cs) by the trees is a source of long-term contamination of woody products. The quantitative description of the 137Cs dynamics in contaminated forest is a prerequisite to predictive modelling and further management of such territories. Three even-aged mono-specific Scots pine stands (17, 37 and 57 years old) were selected in a contaminated woodland in southeastern Belarus to constitute an adequate chronosequence. We determined the potassium and radiocaesium annual fluxes involved in the biological cycling in each stand using a well-documented calculation methodology. Qualitatively, 137Cs was shown to be rapidly recycled in trees through the same pathways as K and to redistribute similarly between the tree components. Compared to K, a higher fraction of 137Cs, corresponding to about the half of the annual uptake, is immobilised in perennial organs. With tree development, trunk wood and bark become prevailing sinks for 137Cs since they represent an increasing pool of biomass. In the pine chronosequence, the current root absorption, respectively, mobilizes 0.53, 0.32 and 0.31% year−1 of the total 137Cs pool in soil. Variations in the 137Cs uptake do not reflect differences in the 137Cs balance between stands. In the two older stands, 51 and 71% of the current tree contamination are related to earlier accumulation subsequent to the initial fallout interception and recycling. The soil is the dominant source of long-term tree contamination. A simple modelling based on the measured 137Cs fluxes indicates that, for young stands, radioactive decay-corrected contamination would stabilize after reaching a maximum of 25 years after the 137Cs deposition. Stemwood presents a maximum of 15 years after the deposition and decrease afterwards mainly through radioactive decay. In the older stands, the decontamination is constant without local maximum of 137Cs level in the wood. The 137Cs contamination of tree components is the result of different influential processes like root uptake, internal translocation and immobilisation. For more accurate predictions, the calibration of existing models would be benefited by comparing with the 137Cs annual fluxes instead of the simple transfer factor coefficients. In the perspective of other applications, there is a need of such data for other radionuclides as well as for heavy metals.
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969703006454
Title: The atmospheric long range transport model LORAN and its application to Chernobyl release
Author: S. Galmarini, G. Graziani, C. Tassone
Reference: Environmental Software, Volume 7, Issue 3, 1992, Pages 143-154
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0266-9838(92)90011-R
Keywords: Long range transport; Chernobyl; atmospheric release
Abstract: The computer model LORAN (LOng Range Atmospheric advection of Nuclides) wich includes a recently developed description of the mixing layer growth is described. The model is assessed against measurements of radioactivity in air and soil after the Chernobyl accident. The ATMES data set, together with recently acquired measurements in Italy (Cs-137 air concentration), Russia, Rumania and Norway (cumumulative deposition of Cs-137) are used for the actual field measurements, when the analysed windfields from circulation models are used. This gives an indication of the representativeness of measurements considered in the comparison.
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/026698389290011R
Author: Mel’chenko A.I., Zhivchikov V.G., Mel’chenko E.A.
Reference: Gazette “ТРУДЫ КУБАНСКОГО ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОГО АГРАРНОГО УНИВЕРСИТЕТА“ (Proceedings of Kuban State Agrarian University), 2011
ISSN: 1999-1703
DOI: 504.53.062.4
Keywords: 134cs, 238u, accumulation, agricultural products
Abstract: Article on detailed experiments, as well as its prevention, on accumulation of radionuclides 134cs and 238u in bracts and cabbages.
URL: http://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=17050712
Author: Petrova T.B., Vlasov V.K., Miklyaev P.S.
Reference: Gazette “АНРИ “, 2009
ISSN: 2075-1338
Keywords: introduction of manifold literature, environment, contamination
Abstract: There have been a great amount and range of literature published about “Chernobyl”, from scientific ones to fiction. In this journal we should like to present the manifold of the literature. Nonetheless, we pay special attention to literarute concerning contamination of environment by radionuclides, such as migration of radionuclides, ecologic consequences of the accident etc.
URL: http://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=12873335
Author: Petrova T.B., Vlasov V.K., Miklyaev P.S.
Reference: Gazette “АНРИ “, 2009
ISSN: 2075-1338
Keywords: introduction of manifold literature, environment, contamination
Abstract: There have been a great amount and range of literature published about “Chernobyl”, from scientific ones to fiction. In this journal we should like to present the manifold of the literature. Nonetheless, we pay special attention to literarute concerning contamination of environment by radionuclides, such as migration of radionuclides, ecologic consequences of the accident etc.
URL: http://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=12512487
Author: Geras’kin S. A., Fesenko S. V., Alexakhin R. M.
Reference: ScienceDirect, 2008
ISSN:
DOI: 574.415:539.1.04:[614.876:631.03958]
Keywords: soil, contamination, plants, animals, dose-effect relationship
Abstract: The area affected by the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident in 1986 has become a unique test site where long-term ecological and biological consequences of a drastic change in a range of environmental factors as well as trends and intensity of selection are studied in natural settings. The consequences of the Chernobyl accident for biota varied from an enhanced rate of mutagenesis to damage at the ecosystem level. The review comprehensively brings together key data of the long-term studies of biological effects in plants and animals inhabiting over 20 years the Chernobyl NPP zone. The severity of radiation effects was strongly dependent on the dose received in the early period after the accident. The most exposed phytocenoses and soil animals’ communities exhibited dose dependent alterations in the species composition and reduction in biological diversity. On the other hand, no decrease in numbers or taxonomic diversity of small mammals even in the most radioactive habitat was shown. In a majority of the studies, in both plant and animal populations from the Chernobyl zone, in the first years after the accident high increases in mutation rates were documented. In most cases the dose–effect relationships were nonlinear and the mutation rates per unit dose were higher at low doses and dose rates. In subsequent years a decline in the radiation background rate occurred faster than reduction in the mutation rate. Plant and animal populations have shown signs of adaptation to chronic exposure. In adaptation to the enhanced level of exposure an essential role of epigenetic mechanisms of gene expression regulation was shown. Based on the Chernobyl NPP accident studies, in the present review attempts were made to assess minimum doses at which ecological and biological effects were observed.
URL: http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/~w3bio/bio464/lectures/lectures_assets/ChernobylEffectsonNonhumans.pdf (full dissertation in English available online)
Author: Petin V.G., Dergacheva I.P., Zhurakovskaya G.P.
Reference: Bulletin “РАДИАЦИЯ И РИСК” (Radiation and risk), 2001
ISSN: 0131-3878
Keywords: ionizing radiation, hazardous factors, combined effect environment
Abstract: The Chernobyl accident and other radiation-related accidents are characterized by involvement of a variety of hazardous factors which aggravate the damaging action of ionizing radiation. The synergetic effect of different agents can exacerbate anticipated consequences of an accident. This review attempts to establish regularities in biological responses to the combined effect of ionizing radiation and other hazardous environmental factors of chemical, biological or physical nature. A series of universal features accounting for responses of different cell-systems, animals and people have been identified. These features do not depend on the nature of an agent used in conjunction with ionizing radiation or test-system and biological object under study. A conclusion is made regarding a possible significance of the synergetic effect resulting from interaction of various agents for enhancing consequences of the Chernobyl accident.
URL: http://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=9950605
Author: Balonov M.I.
Reference: Bulletin “РАДИАЦИЯ И РИСК” (Radiation and risk), 2006
ISSN: 0131-3878
Keywords: radiation level in environment, radioecology
Abstract: The Chernobyl Forum (September, 2005) concluded that in 20 years after the Chernobyl accident along with reduction of radiation levels and accumulation of humanitarian consequences severe social and economic depression of the affected regions and associated serious psychological problems became the most significant problems. The majority of the 600000 emergency and recovery operation workers and five million residents of the contaminated areas in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine received relatively minor radiation doses which are comparable with the natural levels. An exception is a cohort of several hundred emergency and recovery operation workers who received high radiation doses, of whom 28 died in 1986 due to acute radiation sickness and it consequences. Except dramatic increase in thyroid cancer morbidity in those exposed to radioiodine in their childhood and some increase in leukaemia and solid cancer morbidity among emergency and recovery operation workers with high radiation dose no evident growth of radiation-associated cancer diseases and leukaemia was detected in other groups of population. Radiation levels in the environment have reduced by a factor of several hundred since 1986, this ensures that the majority of the previously contaminated land in now safe for life and economic activities. Despite unprecedented scale and character of the Chernobyl accident its consequences for health and life of the affected population are significantly less compared with A-bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Findings of research of consequences of the Chernobyl accident made invaluable contribution to the development of nuclear technology and safety, radioecology, radiation medicine, radiological protection and social sciences. The Chernobyl accident initiated development of the global nuclear safety and radiation protection regime.
URL: http://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=11730468
Author: Perevolotskaya T.V., Bulavik I.M., Perevolotsky A.N.
Reference: Gazette “РАДИАЦИОННАЯ БИОЛОГИЯ. РАДИОЭКОЛОГИЯ “ (Radiation Biology, Radioecology), 2009
ISSN: 0869-8031
DOI: 10.1134/S0869803109030059
Keywords: 137cs, 90sr, ground water, phytomass
Abstract: The distribution of 137Cs and 90Sr in oak, pine and hornbeam stands at different levels of groundwater is analyzed. It is proven that the scale of migration of 137Cs and 90Sr in the vertical profile of the soils is determined by level of ground water in the experimental field: closer to the surface the ground water is found, the less radionuclides is contained on the surface of the soil, and vice versa. Coefficients are determined by “fast” and “slow” quasidiffusion of 137Cs and 90Sr. Description of the contribution of these components to the overall migration of radionuclide transport in the vertical profile of the soil. Coefficients of decreasing of 137Cs and increasing of 90Sr, for the element of overground phytomass by the decreasing of groundwater, is observed.
URL: http://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=12450575
