Skip to main content
OSTI.GOVU.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
 

Addressing ecological effects of radiation on populations and ecosystems to improve protection of the environment against radiation: Agreed statements from a Consensus Symposium

Journal Article · · Journal of Environmental Radioactivity
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [10];  [11];  [12];  [13];  [14];  [15];  [16];  [17];  [18];  [19];  [20] more »;  [21];  [22];  [23];  [24];  [25];  [26];  [27];  [26] « less
  1. Institute for Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), Centre of Cadarache, St Paul-lez-Durance, Cedex (France); DOE/OSTI
  2. Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Aas (Norway). Center for Environmental Radioactivity (CERAD)
  3. Institut Symlog de France, Paris (France)
  4. LWB Environmental Services, Inc., Hamilton, OH (United States)
  5. Univ. of Georgia, Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River Ecology Lab. (SREL)
  6. Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge, LA (United States). School of renewable Natural Resources
  7. Stockholm Univ. (Sweden). Dept. of Ecology. Environment and Plant Sciences
  8. Norwegian Radiation protection Authority (NRPA), Osteras (Norway)
  9. Univ. de Lyon (France); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Villeurbanne (France). Lab. de Biometrie et Biologie Evolutive
  10. Russian Inst. of Radiology and Agroecology, Obninsk (Russian Federation)
  11. Univ. of Georgia, Athens, GA (United States). Dept. of Environmental Health Science
  12. Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States). School of Nuclear Science and Engineering
  13. Univ. of Tokyo (Japan). Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences
  14. LK Consultancy, Alberta (Canada)
  15. Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co., Stockholm (Sweden)
  16. Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River National Lab. (SRNL)
  17. Indiana Univ., Bloomington, IN (United States). Dept. of Biology
  18. Univ. of Jyvaskyla (Finland). Dept. of Biological and Environmental Science
  19. Russell, ON (Canada)
  20. Univ. Paris-Sud, Orsay (France). CNRS. AgroParisTech. Ecologie Systematique Evolution
  21. McMaster Univ., Hamilton, ON (Canada). Dept. of medical Physics and Applied Radiation Sciences
  22. Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (United States). Dept. of Biological Sciences. School of Earth, Ocean and Environment
  23. Univ. of the Ryukyus, Okinawa (Japan). Faculty of Science. Dept of Chemistry, Biology and Marine Science. BCPH Unit of Molecular Physiology
  24. Urals Research Center for Radiation Medicine, Chelyabinsk (Russian Federation)
  25. Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River Ecology Lab. (SREL)
  26. Fukushima Univ. (Japan). Inst. of Environmental Radioactivity
  27. Norwegian Univ. of Life Sciences (NMBU), As (Norway)
+ Show Author Affiliations
This paper reports the output of a consensus symposium organized by the International Union of Radioecology in November 2015. The symposium gathered an academically diverse group of 30 scientists to consider the still debated ecological impact of radiation on populations and ecosystems. Stimulated by the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters' accidental contamination of the environment, there is increasing interest in developing environmental radiation protection frameworks. Scientific research conducted in a variety of laboratory and field settings has improved our knowledge of the effects of ionizing radiation on the environment. However, the results from such studies sometimes appear contradictory and there is disagreement about the implications for risk assessment. The Symposium discussions therefore focused on issues that might lead to different interpretations of the results, such as laboratory versus field approaches, organism versus population and ecosystemic inference strategies, dose estimation approaches and their significance under chronic exposure conditions. The participating scientists, from across the spectrum of disciplines and research areas, extending also beyond the traditional radioecology community, successfully developed a constructive spirit directed at understanding discrepancies. From the discussions, the group has derived seven consensus statements related to environmental protection against radiation, which are supplemented with some recommendations. Each of these statements is contextualized and discussed in view of contributing to the orientation and integration of future research, the results of which should yield better consensus on the ecological impact of radiation and consolidate suitable approaches for efficient radiological protection of the environment.
Research Organization:
Savannah River National Lab (SRNL), Aiken, SC (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
Research Council of Norway; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC09-08SR22470
OSTI ID:
1623692
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 22578986
Journal Information:
Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, Journal Name: Journal of Environmental Radioactivity Journal Issue: C Vol. 158-159; ISSN 0265-931X
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (30)

Effects of ionizing radiation on wildlife: What knowledge have we gained between the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents? journal June 2011
Long-term census data reveal abundant wildlife populations at Chernobyl journal October 2015
Radiation effects in wild terrestrial vertebrates – the EPIC collection journal January 2006
The development and purpose of the FREDERICA radiation effects database journal September 2008
Abundance and diversity of aquatic macroinvertebrate communities in lakes exposed to Chernobyl-derived ionising radiation journal July 2011
Are radiosensitivity data derived from natural field conditions consistent with data from controlled exposures? A case study of Chernobyl wildlife chronically exposed to low dose rates journal July 2013
Effects of long-term chronic exposure to radionuclides in plant populations journal July 2013
Using an Ecosystem Approach to complement protection schemes based on organism-level endpoints journal October 2014
Characterization of biocenoses in the storage reservoirs of liquid radioactive wastes of Mayak PA. Initial descriptive report journal January 2016
Are Organisms Adapting to Ionizing Radiation at Chernobyl? journal April 2016
Protection of the environment from ionising radiation: ethical issues journal January 2003
EPIC database on the effects of chronic radiation in fish: Russian/FSU data journal January 2003
Strong effects of ionizing radiation from Chernobyl on mutation rates journal February 2015
Radiological dose reconstruction for birds reconciles outcomes of Fukushima with knowledge of dose-effect relationships journal November 2015
Effects of ionising radiation exposure on plants, fish and mammals: relevant data for environmental radiation protection journal December 2004
Fukushima's Biological Impacts: The Case of the Pale Grass Blue Butterfly journal August 2014
Genetic and Ecological Studies of Animals in Chernobyl and Fukushima journal August 2014
A Critical Assessment of the Ecological Risk Assessment Process: A Review of Misapplied Concepts journal January 2005
The Mesocosm journal October 1984
Recommendations from the international union of radioecology to improve guidance on radiation protection journal June 2011
Cumulative effects of radioactivity from Fukushima on the abundance and biodiversity of birds journal March 2015
Protection of the environment from ionising radiation: ethical issues journal January 2003
EPIC database on the effects of chronic radiation in fish: Russian/FSU data journal January 2003
Mechanistic modelling of daphnid-algae dynamics within a laboratory microcosm journal January 2016
Response to authors' reply regarding “Abundance of birds in Fukushima as judged from Chernobyl” by Møller et al. (2012) journal October 2012
The biological impacts of the Fukushima nuclear accident on the pale grass blue butterfly journal August 2012
Radiological protection of the environment from an NGO perspective journal January 2009
Effects of ionising radiation exposure on plants, fish and mammals: relevant data for environmental radiation protection journal December 2004
Concerns about the use of ecosystem services as a tool for nature conservation: From misleading concepts to providing a “price” for nature, but not a “value” journal December 2015
A Critical Assessment of the Ecological Risk Assessment Process: A Review of Misapplied Concepts journal January 2005

Cited By (10)

Haematological analysis of Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) in the area affected by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident journal November 2018
Reducing the ionizing radiation background does not significantly affect the evolution of Escherichia coli populations over 500 generations journal October 2019
An Overview of the Cellular Mechanisms of Flavonoids Radioprotective Effects journal December 2019
Use of Agricultural land Contaminated with Radionuclides Based on Ecological and Landscape Approach journal March 2018
Child and Adult Morrbidity in the Bryansk Region by the Level of Radiatoactive, Chemical and Combined Contamination: an Ecological Study journal August 2020
Tolerance of High Oral Doses of Nonradioactive and Radioactive Caesium Chloride in the Pale Grass Blue Butterfly Zizeeria maha journal September 2019
Fukushima's lessons from the blue butterfly: A risk assessment of the human living environment in the post-Fukushima era: Lessons Learned from an Indicator Species, Post-Fukushima journal September 2016
The need to integrate laboratory- and ecosystem-level research for assessment of the ecological impact of radiation: Integrating Research to Assess Impact of Radiation journal September 2016
Towards a strategic research agenda for social sciences and humanities in radiological protection journal June 2019
Towards a strategic research agenda for social sciences and humanities in radiological protection. text January 2019

Similar Records

Integration of ecosystem science into radioecology: A consensus perspective
Journal Article · Mon Jun 08 20:00:00 EDT 2020 · Science of the Total Environment · OSTI ID:1649304
EDITORIAL HPJ SPECIAL ISSUE INTRODUCTION
Journal Article · Sat Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · HEALTH PHYSICS JOURNAL · OSTI ID:1024200
Priorities for the next decade of research in radiation ecology
Conference · Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1987 · Bull. Ecol. Soc. Am.; (United States) · OSTI ID:5901751

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Consensus development
Ecological risk assessment
Ecosystems
Environmental protection
Environmental sciences & ecology
Populations
Radiation effects