Radionuclides in sea turtles at the Montebello Islands former nuclear test sites: Current and historical dose rates for adults and embryos

Johansen, Mathew P.; Child, David; Hotchkis, M.A.C.; Johansen, Andrea; Thiruvoth, Sangeeth; Whiting, Scott D.

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111390

Cited by 9 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Embryos obtain elemental constituents from the parent during egg formation—these elements are drawn from whole-body bulk tissues and reflect long periods of deposition (i.e. not routed through a single feeding event)—and previous research indicates that contamination and pollutants are passed through eggshells to offspring (( 39 ); see related ( 40 )). We therefore suspect that the neonatal scute signature records the contamination experienced by the mother turtle over a period of her lifetime.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropogenic uranium signatures in turtles, tortoises, and sea turtles from nuclear sites

Conrad,

Inglis,

Wende

et al. 2023

PNAS Nexus

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Chelonians (turtles, tortoises, and sea turtles) grow scute keratin in sequential layers over time. Once formed, scute keratin acts as an inert reservoir of environmental information. For chelonians inhabiting areas with legacy or modern nuclear activities, their scute has the potential to act as a time-stamped record of radionuclide contamination in the environment. Here, we measure bulk (i.e. homogenized scute) and sequential samples of chelonian scute from the Republic of the Marshall Islands and throughout the United States of America, including at the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range, southwestern Utah, the Savannah River Site, and the Oak Ridge Reservation. We identify legacy uranium (235U and 236U) contamination in bulk and sequential chelonian scute that matches known nuclear histories at these locations during the 20th century. Our results confirm that chelonians bioaccumulate uranium radionuclides and do so sequentially over time. This technique provides both a time series approach for reconstructing nuclear histories from significant past and present contexts throughout the world and the ability to use chelonians for long-term environmental monitoring programs (e.g. sea turtles at Enewetok and Bikini Atolls in the Republic of the Marshall Islands and in Japan near the Fukushima Daiichi reactors).

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%