137Cs and K annual fluxes in a cropland and forest ecosystems twenty-four years after the Chernobyl accident

Publication date: December 2018

Source: Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, Volume 195

Author(s): Ol'ga Tsvetnova, Alexey Shcheglov, Alexey Klyashtorin

Abstract

Biological cycles of the Chernobyl originated cesium-137 (¹³⁷Cs, radiocesium) and the natural potassium (K) in oak, birch, and pine forest, and wheat cropland in Russian Federation, approximately 500 km northeast of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, were subject to a multiyear monitoring. By 2010, the annual return of ¹³⁷Cs from forest vegetation to the soil in dead tree components still exceeds its annual accumulation in the tree phytomass by a factor of 4–6, apparently due to residual surface contamination in the external bark and the ongoing process of tree stand decontamination following the initial fallout. In the cropland, both ascending and descending fluxes of ¹³⁷Cs are close to the steady state. The annual accumulation of ¹³⁷Cs in the tree biomass was the highest in the oak forest and the lowest in the pine forest. The annual K accumulation was the highest in the cropland and the lowest in the pine forest.

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