Transfer of 137Cs into fish in small forest lakes

Transfer of 137Cs from water to fish is not linear in two northern lakes

“…Also, the direction of change was not consistent between two types of lakes, with decreasing CR in drainage lakes and increasing CR in seepage lakes. As both Lake Apukka and Lake Inari are drainage lakes, our data showing marked increase of CR values with time was not consistent with the decrease suggested by Saxen et al (2010). Together, ours and Saxen et al's data suggested a relatively constant CR at high water concentrations and enhanced transfer into fish at low concentrations in water.…”

“…The results of the present study did not provide evidence for such differences, as the CR curves were similar in a eutrophic (Lake Apukka) and an oligotrophic (Lake Inari) lake. Also, the transfer functions found in this study seem to be consistent with the data collected by Saxen et al (2010) in four different lakes in southern Finland. However, the processes that determine the accumulation of 137 Cs in fish are complex, and several environmental factors, such as water temperature, pH, water salinity, nutrients in water, organic matter content, potassium content, sedimentation rate, and type of sediment (Rowan & Rasmussen, 1994;Sarkka et al, 1996;Smith et al, 2000Smith et al, , 2002Topcuoglu, 2001;Ilus & Saxen, 2005;Saxen & Koskelainen, 2005;Brittain & Gjerseth, 2010;Saxen et al, 2010;Strand & Dowdall, 2010;Fesenko et al, 2011), may affect Cs uptake.…”

“…Measurements performed simultaneously in other lakes with different 137 Cs concentrations would comprise an independent check for the nonlinear model used in the present study. Such data are available in the study by Saxen et al (2010) who reported CRs for pike and perch from 1987 to 2006 in four southern Finland lakes, in which the 137 Cs activity concentrations were much higher than in the present study (1.4-4.1 Bq l -1 Fig. 4 Water-to-fish concentration ratios (CR) as a function of water 137 Cs concentration in Lake Inari (a, b) and in Lake Apukka (c).…”

Effect of liming on the behaviour of 90Sr and 137Cs in a lake ecosystem

“…However, this was not the case reflecting that pH may not be of such importance in uptake of 137 Cs in fish as suggested and that there must be other factors than low pH contributing to the low CF values reported for the Lake Iso Valkjärvi. Saxén et al (2010) studied the behaviour of 137 Cs in seepage and drainage lakes. They explained that Lake Iso Valkjärvi is a clear-water seepage lake where the CF increased over time following the Chernobyl deposition and therefore the CF was originally lower there than in the other lakes in the study of Smith et al (2002) which were probably drainage lakes.…”