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Vulnerability of Canadian aquatic ecosystems to nuclear accidents

Several cesium and strontium bioaccumulation models are used widely in national and international guidance for ecological and human health risk assessments for radiocesium ((134)Cs and (137)Cs) and radiostrontium ((90)Sr), but have not been used to make predictions of radiological risk from nuclear...

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Autores principales: Brinkmann, Lars, Rowan, David J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Netherlands 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6072634/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29188441
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13280-017-0995-6
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author Brinkmann, Lars
Rowan, David J.
author_facet Brinkmann, Lars
Rowan, David J.
author_sort Brinkmann, Lars
collection PubMed
description Several cesium and strontium bioaccumulation models are used widely in national and international guidance for ecological and human health risk assessments for radiocesium ((134)Cs and (137)Cs) and radiostrontium ((90)Sr), but have not been used to make predictions of radiological risk from nuclear accidents under variable environmental conditions on broad geographical scales. In this paper, we first present models for predicting the bioaccumulation of cesium and strontium by aquatic biota based on ambient concentrations of dissolved potassium and calcium, respectively, and then test these models using independent data from aquatic ecosystems at Canadian nuclear sites. Secondly, models yielding the best predictions across a wide range of input parameters were selected to estimate bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) for cesium and strontium in aquatic ecosystems across Canada, using trophic level of organisms and dissolved potassium for cesium and calcium concentrations for strontium as predictor variables, and presented as contour maps of radiological risk. The models show that risk from bioaccumulation of cesium and strontium can vary by several orders of magnitude depending on site-specific environmental conditions and trophic ecology. Overall, our results suggest that single-parameter approaches taken by regulatory standards may either over- or under-predict radiological risk at many locations, and are thus not readily suitable to inform siting decisions for new nuclear developments.
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spelling pubmed-60726342018-08-16 Vulnerability of Canadian aquatic ecosystems to nuclear accidents Brinkmann, Lars Rowan, David J. Ambio Perspective Several cesium and strontium bioaccumulation models are used widely in national and international guidance for ecological and human health risk assessments for radiocesium ((134)Cs and (137)Cs) and radiostrontium ((90)Sr), but have not been used to make predictions of radiological risk from nuclear accidents under variable environmental conditions on broad geographical scales. In this paper, we first present models for predicting the bioaccumulation of cesium and strontium by aquatic biota based on ambient concentrations of dissolved potassium and calcium, respectively, and then test these models using independent data from aquatic ecosystems at Canadian nuclear sites. Secondly, models yielding the best predictions across a wide range of input parameters were selected to estimate bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) for cesium and strontium in aquatic ecosystems across Canada, using trophic level of organisms and dissolved potassium for cesium and calcium concentrations for strontium as predictor variables, and presented as contour maps of radiological risk. The models show that risk from bioaccumulation of cesium and strontium can vary by several orders of magnitude depending on site-specific environmental conditions and trophic ecology. Overall, our results suggest that single-parameter approaches taken by regulatory standards may either over- or under-predict radiological risk at many locations, and are thus not readily suitable to inform siting decisions for new nuclear developments. Springer Netherlands 2017-11-29 2018-09 /pmc/articles/PMC6072634/ /pubmed/29188441 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13280-017-0995-6 Text en © The Author(s) 2017 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
spellingShingle Perspective
Brinkmann, Lars
Rowan, David J.
Vulnerability of Canadian aquatic ecosystems to nuclear accidents
title Vulnerability of Canadian aquatic ecosystems to nuclear accidents
title_full Vulnerability of Canadian aquatic ecosystems to nuclear accidents
title_fullStr Vulnerability of Canadian aquatic ecosystems to nuclear accidents
title_full_unstemmed Vulnerability of Canadian aquatic ecosystems to nuclear accidents
title_short Vulnerability of Canadian aquatic ecosystems to nuclear accidents
title_sort vulnerability of canadian aquatic ecosystems to nuclear accidents
topic Perspective
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6072634/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29188441
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13280-017-0995-6
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