Radiation affect Chernobyl wildlife
Working in forests around the power plant over three springs between 2006 and 2008, Dr Anders Møller of the University of Paris-Sud, France, and Professor Timothy Mousseau of the University of South Carolina, USA, surveyed the number of butterfl ies, grasshoppers, dragonfl ies and spider webs present in more than 600 contaminated sites.
‘We found strong decreases in abundance of all taxa with increasing radiation, even when controlling statistically for the habitat, weather and other confounding variables,’ said Møller.
They discovered that because most of the radiation is in the top layer of soil, invertebrates, which tend to live in and around this level, struggled to survive and reproduce. The
findings support previous research into the effect of radiation on birds in the area. ‘There is a strong disruption in abundance of many functionally important groups of animals, with potential consequences for ecosystem functioning,’ said Møller.
The researchers believe that this study, the most comprehensive to date, refutes other accounts, which claim that the lack of human intervention in Chernobyl means wildlife has thrived there. ‘This so-called counter research is anecdotal,’ said Møller. ‘It has never been published and it has never passed peer review.’
June 2009
‘We found strong decreases in abundance of all taxa with increasing radiation, even when controlling statistically for the habitat, weather and other confounding variables,’ said Møller.
They discovered that because most of the radiation is in the top layer of soil, invertebrates, which tend to live in and around this level, struggled to survive and reproduce. The
findings support previous research into the effect of radiation on birds in the area. ‘There is a strong disruption in abundance of many functionally important groups of animals, with potential consequences for ecosystem functioning,’ said Møller.
The researchers believe that this study, the most comprehensive to date, refutes other accounts, which claim that the lack of human intervention in Chernobyl means wildlife has thrived there. ‘This so-called counter research is anecdotal,’ said Møller. ‘It has never been published and it has never passed peer review.’
June 2009
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