The impact of the Fukushima nuclear accident on marine biota: Retrospective assessment of the first year and perspectives

Batlle, J. Vives i; Aono, Tatsuo; Brown, Justin; Hosseini, A.; Garnier‐Laplace, Jacqueline; Сазыкина, Т. Г.; Steenhuisen, Frits; Strand, P.

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.03.137

Cited by 50 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…From the dynamic modeling calculations, maximum dose rates ( 131 I and 134,137 Cs combined) for fish of approximately 140 μGy h −1 occurred within the first month in the closest vicinity of the FDNPS (North drainage channel), leading to an accumulated dose over 1 y of approximately 0.32 Gy. Maximum calculated exposures for macroalgae (exceeding 20 mGy h −1 ) occurred at day 23 after the accident, decreasing to less than 10 mGy h −1 by the 32 nd day due to the decreasing contribution of 131 I and giving an accumulated dose of 6.8 Gy over the first 90 d. Farther away (Iwasawa shore), maximum dose rates were <3 μGy h −1 except for seaweed in which a maximum 131 I dose rate of 633 μGy h −1 was recorded 30 d postaccident, decreasing 2 orders of magnitude a month afterwards (Vives i Batlle et al ).…”

Section: Initial Studies Of Impact To Nonhuman Biotasupporting

confidence: 80%

Impact of the Fukushima accident on marine biota, five years later

Batlle

2016

Integr Environ Assess Manag

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In a previous commentary written in 2011 in the aftermath of the Fukushima accident in Japan, I summarized what was then understood about the effects of accidental radioactive discharges to marine life and forecasted into the future how the marine environment would likely be affected. Since that time, several studies have been conducted on the impact of the accident on marine organisms, and radiation doses arising thereof. I developed a dynamic transfer model for studying the bioaccumulation of Fukushima radionuclides in marine biota and assessed the impact and likelihood of effects to marine life. In the present article, I highlight the lessons learned over the past 5 years. I address whether the environmental consequences in the marine environment are as significant as initially feared and, with respect to the current situation, what remains to be investigated as the radioactivity continues to spread in the marine environment. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2016;12:654-658. © 2016 SETAC.

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Section: Initial Studies Of Impact To Nonhuman Biotasupporting

confidence: 80%

Impact of the Fukushima accident on marine biota, five years later

Batlle

2016

Integr Environ Assess Manag

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“…Similar estimates based on calculated mean internal and external dose rates are reported for a comprehensive dataset consisting of over 500 sediment, 6000 seawater and 5000 biota data points representative of the geographically relevant area during the first year after the Fukushima nuclear accident (May 2011 to August 2012). The standard deviation for the dose rates was typically higher than the average values by a factor of 2–3, masking any discernible time trend 31 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Decline in intertidal biota after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear disaster: field observations

Horiguchi

Yoshii²,

Mizuno

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

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In 2011, 2012, and 2013, in the intertidal zones of eastern Japan, we investigated the ecological effects of the severe accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant that accompanied the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. The number of intertidal species decreased significantly with decreasing distance from the power plant, and no rock shell (Thais clavigera) specimens were collected near the plant, from Hirono to Futaba Beach (a distance of approximately 30 km) in 2012. The collection of rock shell specimens at many other sites hit by the tsunami suggests that the absence of rock shells around the plant in 2012 might have been caused by the nuclear accident in 2011. Quantitative surveys in 2013 showed that the number of species and population densities in the intertidal zones were much lower at sites near, or within several kilometers south of, the plant than at other sites and lower than in 1995, especially in the case of Arthropoda. There is no clear explanation for these findings, but it is evident that the intertidal biota around the power plant has been affected since the nuclear accident.

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“…The release of a massive amount of radioactive materials from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant (FNPP) to the surrounding environment on 15 March 2011 and afterwards resulted in large-scale radioactive pollution worldwide and especially severe pollution in the Tohoku and Kanto districts of Japan [ 1 , 2 ]. Both marine and forest ecosystems have been heavily polluted [ 3 , 4 ], but scientific studies on biological impacts of this accident are still scarce. Yet, such studies are gradually accumulating now, which includes changes in abundance of animals, especially birds and butterflies, in the polluted areas [ 5 , 6 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal abnormality dynamics of the pale grass blue butterfly: three years of monitoring (2011–2013) after the Fukushima nuclear accident

et al. 2015

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BackgroundLong-term monitoring of the biological impacts of the radioactive pollution caused by the Fukushima nuclear accident in March 2011 is required to understand what has occurred in organisms living in the polluted areas. Here, we investigated spatial and temporal changes of the abnormality rate (AR) in both field-caught adult populations and laboratory-reared offspring populations of the pale grass blue butterfly, Zizeeria maha, which has generation time of approximately one month. We monitored 7 localities (Fukushima, Motomiya, Hirono, Iwaki, Takahagi, Mito, and Tsukuba) every spring and fall over 3 years (2011–2013).ResultsThe adult ARs of these localities quickly increased and peaked in the fall of 2011, which was not observed in non-contaminated localities. In the offspring generation, the total ARs, which include deaths at the larval, prepupal, and pupal stages and morphological abnormalities at the adult stage, peaked either in the fall of 2011 or in the spring of 2012, with much higher levels than those of the parent field populations, suggesting that high incidence of deaths and abnormalities might have occurred in the field populations. Importantly, the elevated ARs of the field and offspring populations settled back to a normal level by the fall of 2012 and by the spring of 2013, respectively. Similar results were obtained not only in the spatiotemporal dynamics of the number of individuals caught per minute but also in the temporal dynamics of the correlation coefficient between the adult abnormality rate and the ground radiation dose or the distance from the Power Plant.ConclusionsThese results demonstrated an occurrence and an accumulation of adverse physiological and genetic effects in early generations, followed by their decrease and leveling off at a normal level, providing the most comprehensive record of biological dynamics after a nuclear accident available today. This study also indicates the importance of considering generation time and adaptive evolution in evaluating the biological impacts of artificial pollution in wild organisms.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12862-015-0297-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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The impact of the Fukushima nuclear accident on marine biota: Retrospective assessment of the first year and perspectives

Cited by 50 publications

References 39 publications

Impact of the Fukushima accident on marine biota, five years later

Impact of the Fukushima accident on marine biota, five years later

Decline in intertidal biota after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear disaster: field observations

Spatiotemporal abnormality dynamics of the pale grass blue butterfly: three years of monitoring (2011–2013) after the Fukushima nuclear accident

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