Cesium-137 monitoring using mosses from W. Macedonia, N. Greece

137Cs activities in mosses and substrate (soil, bark) collected from W. Macedonia, Greece were measured 20 years after the Chernobyl reactor accident. Archive material from previous studies was also used for comparison and diachronic estimation of the radio-contamination status. A gradual decrease w...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of environmental management 2009-06, Vol.90 (8), p.2620-2627
Main Authors: Sawidis, Thomas, Tsikritzis, Lazaros, Tsigaridas, Konstantinos
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
137Cs
Accidents
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Applied ecology
Bark
bioaccumulation
Biological and medical sciences
Bryophyta - metabolism
cesium
Cesium Radioisotopes - analysis
Cesium Radioisotopes - metabolism
Chernobyl
Chernobyl Nuclear Accident
Conifers
Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife
Contamination
Environmental impact
Environmental management
Environmental Monitoring - methods
Fagus
Fallout
Flora
Flowers & plants
forest trees
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
Greece
indicator species
Indicators
Management
Metals
Monitoring
Moss
Mosses
mosses and liverworts
Nuclear accidents
Nuclear accidents & safety
Pinus
polluted soils
Radiation
Radioactivity
Radionuclides
Reactors
soil pollution
temporal variation
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:137Cs activities in mosses and substrate (soil, bark) collected from W. Macedonia, Greece were measured 20 years after the Chernobyl reactor accident. Archive material from previous studies was also used for comparison and diachronic estimation of the radio-contamination status. A gradual decrease was detected which depended on various factors such as the collected species, location, growth rate and substrate. Maximum accumulation capacity of 137Cs was observed in the epilithic mosses in comparison to the epiphytic ones. The 137Cs content in the bark of the two broad-leaved species (oak and fagus) was higher than that of the conifer (pinus). Bark specimens of about 50 cm height were in general more contaminated than those of 200 cm. Autoradiography revealed an amount of 137Cs distributed more or less uniformly in moss thalli. The high 137Cs activities found in mosses 20 years after Chernobyl suggest that these primitive plants are effective, suitable and inexpensive biological detectors of the distribution and burden of radionuclide fallout pattern.
ISSN:0301-4797
1095-8630
DOI:10.1016/j.jenvman.2009.02.010