Abstract
Historic approaches to radiation protection are founded on the conjecture that measures to safeguard humans are adequate to protect non-human organisms. This view is disparate with other toxicants wherein well-developed frameworks exist to minimise exposure of biota. Significant data gaps for many organisms, coupled with high profile nuclear incidents such as Chernobyl and Fukushima, have prompted the re-evaluation of our approach toward environmental radioprotection. Elucidating the impacts of radiation on biota has been identified as priority area for future research within both scientific and regulatory communities. The crustaceans are ubiquitous in aquatic ecosystems, comprising greater than 66,000 species of ecological and commercial importance. This paper aims to assess the available literature of radiation-induced effects within this subphylum and identify knowledge gaps. A literature search was conducted pertaining to radiation effects on four endpoints as stipulated by a number of regulatory bodies: mortality, morbidity, reproduction and mutation. A major finding of this review was the paucity of data regarding the effects of environmentally relevant radiation doses on crustacean biology. Extremely few studies utilising chronic exposure durations or wild populations were found across all four endpoints. The dose levels at which effects occur was found to vary by orders of magnitude thus presenting difficulties in developing phyla-specific benchmark values and reference levels for radioprotection. Based on the limited data, mutation was found to be the most sensitive endpoint of radiation exposure, with mortality the least sensitive. Current phyla-specific dose levels and limits proposed by major regulatory bodies were found to be inadequate to protect species across a range of endpoints including morbidity, mutation and reproduction and examples are discussed within. These findings serve to prioritise areas for future research that will significantly advance understanding of radiation-induced effects in aquatic invertebrates and consequently enhance ability to predict the impacts of radioactive releases on the environment.
Highlights
The renewed interest in nuclear power as a low carbon emission energy source coupled with concern regarding past and potential nuclear accidents dictate that elucidating the impact of radionuclides on the environment is a global issue
This paper aims to review the available literature regarding the biological effects of ionising radiation on the crustacean subphylum, draw comparisons across biomarkers and assess any gaps in knowledge in the context of developing dose levels for radioprotection
The author (Florou et al, 2004) attributed this to increased natural dose rates of gamma and natural alpha emitters, which were increased above background levels in spring areas (14–26 Bq l−1 of 222Rn compared with 1.3–7 Bq l−1 in control areas). These dose values fall significantly below proposed environmental protection benchmark values provided by a number of organisations (See Table 2) suggesting induction of significant biological effects below doses that are considered to have no deleterious effects at the population level
Summary
The renewed interest in nuclear power as a low carbon emission energy source coupled with concern regarding past and potential nuclear accidents dictate that elucidating the impact of radionuclides on the environment is a global issue. The need for environmental radioprotection frameworks has long been established, (Pentreath and Woodhead, 1988; Pentreath, 1998) a lack of scientific consensus regarding the doses at which significant biological effects occur (Beresford & Copplestone, 2011) and the disparity between results of laboratory based exposures and field studies (Garnier-Laplace et al, 2013) have precluded a radiological risk assessment for the environment This provides a contrast with other anthropogenic contaminants wherein protection frameworks and concepts (i.e., the Ecological Risk Assessment concept) are well developed (Bréchignac, 2003). All references within this dataset are subject to review based on the adequacy and reproducibility of the study (Copplestone et al, 2008)
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