Characteristics of radionuclide accumulation in benthic organisms and fish of the Barents and Kara Seas
- Murmansk Institute of Marine Biology, Murmansk (Russian Federation)
Artificial radionuclides play a specific role in the hydrochemical, geochemical, and hydrobiological processes that are currently occurring in the western Arctic. The existing data on radioactive contamination of different plant and animal species inhabiting the sea shelf are fragmentary. Hence, it was difficult to follow the transformation of radionuclides during their transmission along food chains, from phyto- and zoo-plankton to benthos, fish, birds, and marine mammals. In 1990-1994, the Murmansk Institute of Marine Biology organized expeditions to collect samples of residues on the sea floor and also of benthos, benthic fish, macrophytes, and other organisms inhabiting the shelf of the Barents and Kara Seas. These samples were tested for cesium-137, cesium-134, strontium-90, plutonium-239, plutonium-240, americium-241, and cobalt-60 in Rovaniemi (Finland) by the regional radiation administration of the Finnish Centre for Radiation and Nuclear Safety. Over 1000 tests were made. Their results provided new data on the content and distribution of these radionuclides among different components of marine ecosystems. 7 refs.
- OSTI ID:
- 96309
- Journal Information:
- Doklady Biological Sciences, Vol. 342; Other Information: PBD: May-Jun 1995; TN: Translated from Doklady Akademii Nauk; 342: No. 1, 134-135(1995)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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