137Cs and 90Sr in live and dead reindeer lichens (genera Cladonia) from the “Kraton-3” underground nuclear explosion site

Radioecological studies at the Kraton-3 underground nuclear explosion site in 1978–2007: a review

“…For comparison, the reported background values of activity concentration in plants are also given in Table 1. The maximum contamination levels: 250 000, 240 000 and 7400 Bq kg À1 (d.w.) by 137 Cs, 90 Sr and 239,240 Pu, respectively, were reported for dead epigeic lichens (Gedeonov et al, 2002;Ramzaev et al, 2007b). Among higher vascular plants, maximum levels of contamination were found in twigs of dead larches: 14 000, 44 000 and 90 Bq kg À1 (d.w.) for 137 Cs, 90 Sr and 239,240 Pu, respectively (Ramzaev et al, 2004).…”

“…1). The major part of dead lichens decayed in the period 1993-2007, but some residuals of Cladonia lichens have served as a substrate for the development of regenerating lichens (Ramzaev et al, 2007b).…”

Radiostrontium hot spot in the Russian Arctic: ground surface contamination by 90Sr at the “Kraton-3” underground nuclear explosion site

“…The differences in vertical migration rates, which are often determined with respect to these radionuclides, may be related to a strong fixation of caesium ions in soil matrices, particularly clay (Avery, 1996). For Arctic and subArctic areas, the presence of thick lichen-moss mats on the ground surface prevent a substantial proportion of fallout radionuclides from percolating into the deeper layers of the vegetation-soil carpet; radiostrontium migrates faster from the top to the lower sections of lichens and further down into the soil surface (Hanson, 1967;Mattsson, 1975;Ramzaev et al, 2005Ramzaev et al, , 2007b.…”

Radioactive Contamination in Lichens Collected from Trabzon and Rize in the Eastern Black Sea Region, Turkey, and a Comparison with that of 1995

“…The highest concentration of 137 Cs was detected in samples 4, 5, 6, 7, 11. In general, foliose and fruticose species, which have much more surfaces than those of crustose, absorb and accumulate more radionuclides than the others (Baysal and Yazıcı 1995, Papastefanou et al 1989, Pipiska et al 2007, Puhakainen et al 2007, Ramzaev et al 2007). The lichens, especially foliose lichens of Parmelia, Flavoparmelia and Xanthoria, can be used as bioindicator organisms to determine the radioactive pollution (Monnet et al 2005, Weissman et al 2006.…”