Investigations of radiocaesium in the natural terrestrial environment in Norway following the Chernobyl accident

Abstract

Radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl accident affected parts of central Norway to a considerable extent, in particular the ¹³⁴Cs +¹³⁷Cs deposition had a significant impact on the natural environment. When this became apparent, a comprehensive radioecological research programme was initiated in order to study the behaviour of radiocaesium in boreal and alpine ecosystems, with emphasis on food-chains leading to exposure of species used for human consumption, i.e., reindeer and freshwater fish. In this paper results from the terrestrial part of this research programme during the period 1986–1990 are presented. The work was mainly confined to the mountain areas of Dovre and Rondane. Parallel studies were performed in eutrophic and strongly oligotrophic communities. The influence of local variations in topography and microclimate on the observed radiocaesium levels in topsoils, lichens and vascular plants was studied in detail. Currently a significant re-distribution of radiocaesium from the originally strongly exposed surfaces to those that were less exposed is observed. In the soil, radiocaesium is strongly retained in the litter and raw humus layers. Current levels in lichens are 1–2 orders of magnitude higher than in vascular plants. This strongly affects the seasonal variation of radiocaesium in reindeer, showing winter maxima of about 5 times higher than the August levels. The radiocaesium levels in reindeer showed a decline of approximately a factor of 3 during the period 1987–1990. Other animal species studied in the programme exhibited substantially lower radiocaesium levels than reindeer, but a considerable interspecies variation was observed.