Factors affecting the transfer of radiocaesium from soil to roe deer in forest ecosystems of southern Germany

Mushrooms: Radioactive Contamination of Widespread Mushrooms in Japan

“…Thus, fungal activity is likely to contribute substantially to the long-term retention of radiocesium in the organic layers of forest soil by recycling and retaining radiocesium between fungal mycelia and soil (Muramatsu and Yoshida 1997 ;Steiner et al 2002 ;Muramatsu 1994 , 1996 ). In fact, some examples have been Cs radioactivity in mushrooms persisted for a long period in forests and was transferred to animals, whereas that in plants had short ecological half-lives (e.g., 3-3.5 years) (Fielitz et al 2009 ;Kiefer et al 1996 ;Zibold et al 2001 ).…”

137Cs activity concentration in wild boar meat may still exceed the permitted levels

“…The radiocaesium concentrations have remained high in natural food products such as game meat, mushrooms and berries. It is postulated that the transfer of radiocaesium from soil via plants and mushrooms to animals is much higher in forest ecosystems than in agricultural environments, and that the radionuclide decrease is very slow [7][8][9]15].…”

Concentrations of 137Cs in lynx (Lynx lynx) in relation to prey choice

“…The calculations applied a concentration of 7000 Bq kg ÿ1 (FW) in reindeer meat, representative of average concentrations in reindeer of Nord-Trøndelag county about 1989-1990(Mehli et al, 2000. For other prey a concentration of 300 Bq kg ÿ1 (FW) was applied, corresponding to data on moose from Nord-Trøndelag county (Ahlin, J.P. Norwegian Food Safety Authority, Namdal office, personal communication) and to estimated concentrations in roe deer in the same area using aggregated transfer coefficients from Johanson and Bergstro¨m (1994) and Kiefer et al (1996). The difference in concentrations in prey determines the range in concentrations in lynx (in this simulation a factor of 23 difference).…”