{"id":41017,"date":"2014-03-17T12:00:38","date_gmt":"2014-03-17T12:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=41017"},"modified":"2015-05-05T22:10:57","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T21:10:57","slug":"forests-around-chernobyl-arent-decaying-properly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/03\/forests-around-chernobyl-arent-decaying-properly\/","title":{"rendered":"Forests around Chernobyl Aren\u2019t Decaying Properly"},"content":{"rendered":"

It wasn’t just people, animals and trees that were affected by radiation exposure at Chernobyl, but also the decomposers: insects, microbes, and fungi.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Fallen<\/a>

Fallen trees in Chernobyl’s infamous red forest.
Photo: T.A.Mousseau & A.P. M\u00f8ller<\/p><\/div>\n

Nearly 30 years have passed since the Chernobyl plant<\/a> exploded and caused an unprecedented nuclear disaster. The effects of that catastrophe, however, are still felt today. Although no people live in the extensive exclusion zones around the epicenter, animals and plants still show signs of radiation poisoning.<\/p>\n

Birds around Chernobyl have significantly smaller brains<\/a> that those living in non-radiation poisoned areas; trees there grow slower<\/a>; and fewer spiders and insects<\/a>\u2014including bees, butterflies and grasshoppers\u2014live there. Additionally, game animals such as wild boar caught outside of the exclusion zone\u2014including some bagged as far away as Germany<\/a>\u2014continue to show abnormal and dangerous levels of radiation.<\/p>\n

However, there are even more fundamental issues going on in the environment. According to a new study published in Oecologia<\/em><\/a>, decomposers\u2014organisms such as microbes, fungi and some types of insects that drive the process of decay\u2014have also suffered from the contamination. These creatures are responsible for an essential component of any ecosystem: recycling organic matter back into the soil. Issues with such a basic-level process, the authors of the study think, could have compounding effects for the entire ecosystem.<\/p>\n

The team decided to investigate this question in part because of a peculiar field observation. \u201cWe have conducted research in Chernobyl since 1991 and have noticed a significant accumulation of litter over time,\u201d the write. Moreover, trees in the infamous Red Forest\u2014an area where all of the pine trees turned a reddish color and then died shortly after the accident\u2014did not seem to be decaying, even 15 to 20 years after the meltdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cApart from a few ants, the dead tree trunks were largely unscathed when we first encountered them,\u201d says Timothy Mousseau<\/a>, a biologist at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, and lead author of the study. \u201cIt was striking, given that in the forests where I live, a fallen tree is mostly sawdust after a decade of lying on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wondering whether that seeming increase in dead leaves on the forest floor and those petrified-looking pine trees were indicative of something larger, Mousseau and his colleagues decided to run some field tests. When they measured leaf litter in different parts of the exclusion zones, they found that the litter layer itself was two to three times thicker in the \u201chottest\u201d areas of Chernobyl, where radiation poisoning was most intense. But this wasn\u2019t enough to prove that radiation was responsible for this difference.<\/p>\n

To confirm their hunch, they created around 600 small mesh bags and stuffed them each with leaves, collected at an uncontaminated site, from one of four different tree species: oak, maple, birch or pine. They took care to ensure that no insects were in the bags at first, and then lined half of them with women\u2019s pantyhose to keep insects from getting in from the outside, unlike the wider mesh-only versions.<\/p>\n

Like a decomposer Easter egg hunt, they then scattered the bags in numerous locations throughout the exclusion zone, all of which experienced varying degrees of radiation contamination (including no contamination at all). They left the bags and waited for nearly a year\u2014normally, an ample amount of time for microbes, fungi and insects to make short work of dead organic material, and the pantyhose-lined bags could help them assess whether insects or microbes were mainly responsible for breaking down the leaves.<\/p>\n

The results were telling. In the areas with no radiation, 70 to 90 percent of the leaves were gone after a year. But in places where more radiation was present, the leaves retained around 60 percent of their original weight. By comparing the mesh with the panty hose-lined bags, they found that insects play a significant role in getting rid of the leaves, but that the microbes and fungi played a much more important role. Because they had so many bags placed in so many different locations, they were able to statistically control for outside factors such as humidity, temperature and forest and soil type to make sure that there wasn\u2019t anything besides radiation levels impacting the leaves\u2019 decomposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe gist of our results was that the radiation inhibited microbial decomposition of the leaf litter on the top layer of the soil,\u201d Mousseau says. This means that nutrients aren\u2019t being efficiently returned to the soil, he adds, which could be one of the causes behind the slower rates of tree growth surrounding Chernobyl.<\/p>\n

\"Stars<\/a>

Stars mark sites where the researchers put the leaf bags, with colors corresponding to levels of radiation.
Photo: Mousseau et al., Oecologia<\/p><\/div>\n

Other studies<\/a> have found that the Chernobyl area is at risk of fire, and 27 years\u2019 worth of leaf litter, Mousseau and his colleagues think, would likely make a good fuel source for such a forest fire. This poses a more worrying problem than just environmental destruction: Fires can potentially redistribute radioactive contaminants to places outside of the exclusion zone, Mousseau says. \u201cThere is growing concern that there could be a catastrophic fire in the coming years,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, there\u2019s no obvious solution for the problem at hand, besides the need to keep a stringent eye on the exclusion zone to try to quickly snuff out potential fires that breaks out. The researchers are also collaborating with teams in Japan, to determine whether or not Fukushima is suffering from a similar microbial dead zone.<\/p>\n

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