Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4hhp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-21T04:06:16.969Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Monitoring of radionuclide contamination of plants in the western part of Volyn Polissya (Ukraine) during 1994–2007

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2009

V. A. Hrabovskyy*
Affiliation:
Electronics Department, Lviv Ivan Franko National University 107 Gen. Tarnavsky St., 79017 Lviv, Ukraine
O. S. Dzendzelyuk
Affiliation:
Electronics Department, Lviv Ivan Franko National University 107 Gen. Tarnavsky St., 79017 Lviv, Ukraine
O. S. Kushnir
Affiliation:
Electronics Department, Lviv Ivan Franko National University 107 Gen. Tarnavsky St., 79017 Lviv, Ukraine
Get access

Abstract

We present the main results of our more than decade-long monitoring of 137Cs content in berry plants and medical herbs growing in the Shatsk National Natural Park (Volyn Region, Ukraine). It is shown that the 137Cs content for most of the medical herbs has significantly decreased during the monitoring time period and now it meets the demands of Ukrainian sanitary standards (less than 200 Bq/kg d. w.). The decreasing rate is much higher than that for the corresponding soils. This is because the radionuclide available in the soil becomes less accessible for digesting by the plant rootage in the course of time. The 137Cs content in the vegetative and generative organs of bilberry shows essential seasonal variations. The corresponding content for the foliage reveals almost double decrease during the period when the berries ripen and an increase occurring after fructification.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© EDP Sciences, 2009

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

Aleksakhin~R.M., Vasilyev A.V., Dikaryev V.G., et al. (1992) Agricultural radioecology (Ed. by Aleksakhin~R.M. and Korneyev~N.A.) Moscow: Ekologiya (in Russian).
Krasnov~V.P. (1998) Radioecology of the forests of Ukrainian Polissya. Zhytomyr: Volyn (in~Ukrainian).
Ipatyev~V.A. et al. (1999) Forest. Man. Chernobyl. Forest ecosystems after the failure at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant: state, prognosis, reaction of population and ways for rehabilitation (Ed. by Ipatyev~V.A.). Gomel: Institute of Forestry of Byelorussian National Academy of Sciences (in Russian).
Perevolotskiy~A.N. (2006) 137Cs and 90Sr distribution in the forest biogeocenosis. Gomel: RNIUP “Institute for Radiology” (in Russian).
Kenigsberg Y.E. and Buglova E.E. (1994) Dose formation of internal exposure according to peculiarities of caesium radionuclides transfer by food chain and efficiencies of countermeasures. In: Belarus–Japan Symposium “Acute and Late Consequences of Nuclear Catastrophes: Hiroshima–Nagasaki and Chernobyl” pp. 82–96. Proceedings, Minsk.
Orlov~A.A. (2001) Accumulation of man-caused radionuclides by wild berry plants of forests, Chernobyl Digest'98–2000. Vol.~6. Minsk (in Russian).
Methodical recommendations for evaluating radiation state in the settlements which are situated inside the area of radioactive contamination and have the average density of caesium-137 up to 5Ki/m2. (1991) Kyiv: UMKRK (in Russian).
Prister~B.S., Omelyanenko~N.P. and Perepelyatnikova~L.V. (1990) Migration of radionuclides in soil and their transfer into plants inside the area of disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant~// Pochvovedeniye 10, 51–60 (in Russian).
Kravets~O.P. (2001) Radioecological aspects of formation of radionuclide flowss into “Soil-Plant” system. Abstract of Doctor of Sciences Dissertation in biology. Kyiv (in Ukrainian).
Permissible levels for the content of 137Cs and 90Sr radionuclides in foodstuffs and drinking water. (2006) Kyiv (in Ukrainian).
Korotkova~O.Z. (2000) Accumulation of 137Cs by the primary berry plants of Ukrainian Polissya: Abstract of Candidate of Sciences Dissertation in agriculture, Zhytomyr (in Ukrainian).
Orlov~O.O. and Korotkova~O.Z. (2000) Peculiarities of seasonal dynamics of 137Cs accumulation by phytomass of bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) and red cowberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea L.), Scientific Bulletin of Ukrainian National University of Forestry 10.2, 34–43 (in Ukrainian).
Krasnov~V.P., Orlov~O.O. and Korotkova~O.Z. (1996) Natural occurrence and production of wild berry plants belonging to red cowberry family in the forests of Ukrainian Polissya, Scientific Proceeding of Polissya ALNDS. Zhytomyr, 3, 48–54 (in Ukrainian).
Balonov M.I. and Travnikova I.G. (1990) The role of agricultural and natural ecosystems in the internal dose formation in the inhabitants of controlled area. In: Transfer of radionuclides in natural and semi-natural environments, pp. 419–430, London–New-York: Elsevier Applied Science.
Levchuk~S.E. (1995) The experimental examination and the mathematical modelling of migration processes of Chornobyl fallouts radionuclides in Ukrainian Polissya soils: Abstract of Candidate of Sciences Dissertation in biology, Kyiv (in Ukrainian).