Transfer of radiocesium from uncultivated soils to grass after the Chernobyl accident

Ecological half-lives of 90Sr and 137Cs in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems

“…This conclusion is supported by additional evaluations included in Table 5 which for the 0e10 cm layers taken in general show ecological half-lives which are very long, the corresponding loss rates do not differ significantly from zero, implying that there is hardly any loss from the system. There are two exceptions to this general picture in the data reported by Pietrzak-Flis et al (1994). Whereas the evaluation for sand no.…”

Temporal Change in Fallout 137Cs in Terrestrial and Aquatic Systems: A Whole Ecosystem Approach

“…A number of authors (2, 19,28) have suggested that the rate of decline in 137 Cs in vegetation is related to soil type, in particular that rates of decline are higher in vegetation grown on soils containing significant clay fractions. The data we have assembled covers a number of different soil types (sandy soils, loams, clays, and peats), from upland, meadow, and agricultural ecosystems as well as two lysimeter experiments (25,27). Where possible, we have divided soil types into "organic" and "mineral" and compared λ values for vegetation grown on these two different categories of soil.…”

Stable (206Pb, 207Pb, 208Pb) and radioactive (210Pb) lead isotopes in 1year of growth of Sphagnum moss from four ombrotrophic bogs in southern Germany: Geochemical significance and environmental implications

“…In fact, the ability of Sphagnum moss to immobilize ionic forms of metals such as Pb (Rü hling and Tyler, 1968;Brown and Bates, 1972;Gjengedal and Steinnes, 1990) may explain when Sphagnum is so tolerant of potentially toxic metals ions (Simola, 1977). The affinity of cell wall exchange sites for Pb 2+ in Sphagnum is analogous to the process taking place on the surface of bacteria (Tornabene and Edwards, 1972) and the root hairs of higher plants (Athalye et al, 1995;Pietrzak-Flis and Skowroń ska-Smolak, 1995). The very high CEC of mosses has long been invoked to explain the effective retention of metal ions: "biological monitoring of airborne metals has proven to be superior to the traditional physico-chemical and technical methods especially in remote areas and in large-scale investigations.…”