Abstract
Protected species are the focus of many radiological environmental assessments. However, the lack of radioecological data for many protected species presents a significant international challenge. Furthermore, there are legislative restrictions on destructive sampling of protected species to obtain such data. Where data are not available, extrapolations are often made from ‘similar’ species but there has been little attempt to validate this approach.In this paper we present what, to our knowledge, is the first study purposefully designed to test the hypothesis that radioecological data for unprotected species can be used to estimate conservative radioecolgical parameters for protected species; conservatism being necessary to ensure that there is no significant impact.The study was conducted in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Consequently, we are able to present data for Pu isotopes in terrestrial wildlife. There has been limited research on Pu transfer to terrestrial wildlife which contrasts with the need to assess radiation exposure of wildlife to Pu isotopes around many nuclear facilities internationally.Our results provide overall support for the hypothesis that data for unprotected species can be used to adequately assess the impacts for ionising radiation on protected species. This is demonstrated for a range of mammalian and avian species. However, we identify one case, the shrew, for which data from other ground-dwelling small mammals would not lead to an appropriately conservative assessment of radiation impact. This indicates the need to further test our hypothesis across a range of species and ecosystems, and/or ensure adequate conservatism within assessments.The data presented are of value to those trying to more accurately estimate the radiation dose to wildlife in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, helping to reduce the considerable uncertainty in studies reporting dose-effect relationships for wildlife.A video abstract for this paper is available from: http://bit.ly/1JesKPc.
Highlights
A necessary component of the tools (e.g. Brown et al, 2008; Copplestone et al, 2001, 2003; USDoE, 2002) established to estimate the exposure of wildlife to ionising radiations is an ability to predict wholebody activity concentrations of radionuclides in a wide range of biota
Given the limited sample numbers of some species we have not attempted any statistical comparison at the species level, focussing instead on group-level comparisons (‘bird’, ‘bat’ and ‘ground dwelling small mammal’) (Table 3)
The data presented in this paper provide an opportunity to test the hypothesis that sampling unprotected species and determining activity concentrations in these will allow a conservative estimate of activity
Summary
A necessary component of the tools (e.g. Brown et al, 2008; Copplestone et al, 2001, 2003; USDoE, 2002) established to estimate the exposure of wildlife to ionising radiations is an ability to predict wholebody activity concentrations of radionuclides in a wide range of biota. N.A. Beresford et al / Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 153 (2016) 231e236 for use in dose assessment tools (Beresford et al, 2008b; Brown et al, 2013). Protected species are the focus of many assessments Transfer data are lacking and there are legislative restrictions on destructive sampling to obtain data (Wood et al, 2011). For some radionuclides there are many CRwo-soil data for other animals within the class mammalia and the extent to which these data are applicable to bats needs to be established. At many ecologically important sites requiring assessment (e.g. Natura 2000 sites), the most prevalent protected organisms are aves (bird) species (Copplestone et al, 2003). There are very few CRwo-media values for birds (e.g. ICRP, 2009)
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