Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-mp689 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-17T03:24:31.068Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Activity concentrations of radionuclides in lichens following the Fukushima nuclear accident

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2013

Yoshihito OHMURA ,
Kentaro HOSAKA ,
Taiga KASUYA ,
Junichi P. ABE  and
Makoto KAKISHIMA
Yoshihito OHMURA*
Affiliation:
Department of Botany, National Museum of Nature and Science, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0005, Japan. Email: ohmura-y@kahaku.go.jp
Kentaro HOSAKA
Affiliation:
Department of Botany, National Museum of Nature and Science, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0005, Japan. Email: ohmura-y@kahaku.go.jp
Taiga KASUYA
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental System Science, Faculty of Risk and Crisis Management, Chiba Institute of Science, Choshi, Chiba, 288-0025, Japan
Junichi P. ABE
Affiliation:
Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8572, Japan
Makoto KAKISHIMA
Affiliation:
Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8572, Japan current address: Engineering Research Center of Chinese Ministry of Education for Edible and Medicinal Fungi, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun, Jilin Province, 130118, China
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The activity concentration of 131I, 134Cs and 137Cs radionuclides in lichens was traced one and a half months after the Fukushima nuclear accident. The samples were collected in Tsukuba City, which is located c. 170 km south of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NPP). The activity concentrations differed depending on species and habitat. For example, the maximum activity concentration of 137Cs was 22596 Bq kg–1 dry weight in Physcia orientalis (collected from the trunk of Zelkova serrata on 30 June 2011), and 1928 Bq kg–1 in Hyperphyscia crocata (from the trunk of Quercus myrsinaefolia collected on 8 March 2012). The activity concentration of 137Cs in Dirinaria applanata and Phaeophyscia spinellosa growing on vertical habitats decreased by c. 50% within a year, indicating radionuclides might have been washed off by rain. The radionuclides were apparently derived from the Fukushima NPP accident because: 1) one specimen collected at the same place one year before the accident did not contain radionuclides, 2) high activity concentrations of radionuclides were detected after the accident, 3) 131I, which has a short half-life of 8 days, was detected one and a half months after the accident, and 4) the ratio of 134Cs/137Cs in lichens was 0·90–0·98 on 26 April 2011, which is consistent with the values reported for radiocesium from the Fukushima NPP accident.

Keywords

Cesium 134Cesium 137falloutfoliose lichensIodine 131monitoring
Type
Articles
Information
The Lichenologist , Volume 45 , Issue 5 , September 2013 , pp. 685 - 689
Copyright
Copyright © British Lichen Society 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arvela, H., Markkanen, M. & Lemmelä, H. (1990) Mobile survey of environmental gamma radiation and fall-out levels in Finland after the Chernobyl accident. Radiation Protection Dosimetry 32: 177–184.Google Scholar
De Cort, M., Dubois, G., Fridman, S. D., Germenchuk, M. G., Izrael, Y. A., Janssens, A., Jones, A. R., Kelly, G. N., Kvas-nikova, E. V., Matveenko, I. I., et al. (1998) Atlas of Caesium Deposition on Europe After the Chernobyl Accident. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.Google Scholar
Guillitte, O., Melin, J. & Wallberg, L. (1994) Biological pathways of radionuclides originating from the Chernobyl fallout in a boreal forest ecosystem. Science of the Total Environment 157: 207–215.Google Scholar
Hashimoto, S., Ugawa, S., Nanko, K. & Shichi, K. (2012) The total amounts of radioactively contaminated materials in forests in Fukushima, Japan. Scientific Reports 2: 416.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kinoshita, N., Sueki, K., Sasa, K., Kitagawa, J., Ikarashi, S., Nishimura, T., Wong, Y.-S., Satou, Y., Handa, K., Takahashi, T., et al. (2011) Assessment of individual radionuclide distributions from the Fukushima nuclear accident covering central-east Japan. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 108: 19526–19529.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Masson, O., Baeza, A., Bieringer, J., Brudecki, K., Bucci, S., Cappai, M., Carvalho, F. P., Connan, O., Cosma, C., Dalheimer, A., et al. (2011) Tracking of airborne radionuclides from the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactors by European networks. Environmental Science and Technology 45: 7670–7677.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan) (2013) Monitoring information of environmental radioactivity level. http://radioactivity.mext.go.jp/en/ Google Scholar
Nimis, P. L. (1996) Radiocesium in plants of forest ecosystems. Studia Geobotanica 15: 3–49.Google Scholar
Puhakainen, M., Rahola, T., Heikkinen, T. & Illukka, E. (2007) 134Cs and 137Cs in lichen (Cladonia stellaris) in southern Finland. Boreal Environment Research 12: 29–35.Google Scholar
Seaward, M. R. D. (2002) Lichens as monitors of radioelements. In Monitoring with Lichens: Monitoring Lichens (Nimis, P. L., Scheidegger, C. & Wolseley, P. A., eds): 85–96. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publsihers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, P. A. & Gates, T. E. (1999) Radionuclides in the lichen-caribou-human food chain near uranium mining operations in northern Saskatchewan, Canada. Environmental Health Perspectives 107: 527–537.Google Scholar
Tsukuba City (2013) Measurements of radionuclide contaminations [in Japanese]. http://www.city.tsukuba.ibaraki.jp/14210/14224/index.html Google Scholar
Yamamoto, M., Takada, T., Nagao, S., Koike, T., Shimada, K., Hoshi, M., Zhumadilov, K., Shima, T., Fukuoka, M., Imanaka, T., et al. (2012) An early survey of the radioactive contamination of soil due to the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, with emphasis on plutonium analysis. Geochemical Journal 46: 341–353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar