|
Scientists Find The Effects
of Radiation Cause Birds in Chernobyl’s Most Affected Areas
to Sing More
Fukushima Nuclear Crisis
EMF Computer Protection
Magnetic Field Detector
April 15, 2012
One of the major assumptions made by the nuclear
industry is, that there are no significant indicators of
health or environmental consequences associated with “low
doses” of radiation, or the ingestion of small amounts of
radionuclides.
The impacts of releases of radionuclides from the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster remain unclear.
Extreme caution is required to not confuse the
vague term, “low doses” with “safe doses” of radiation.
A new study in PLoS ONE finds that three decades
after Chernobyl’s nuclear disaster gives new perspective to
the hypothesis that an area exceeding 30,000 km2 in
Chernobyl’s surroundings constitutes an ecological trap that
causes dramatic excess mortality.
The authors write that their findings are
consistent with the hypothesis that the adult survival rate
of female birds is particularly susceptible to the effects
of low-dose radiation, resulting in male skewed sex ratios
at high levels of radiation:
Between 2006 and 2009 the authors of the study
used nets to capture birds in Chernobyl’s most affected
areas. The research found that age ratios were skewed
towards younger yearling birds—meaning older birds were
dying—especially in the most contaminated areas.
The research data implies that the bird populations were
only being maintained by immigration of young birds from
uncontaminated areas nearby.
Other Findings:
Higher rates of mortality in female birds led to
a sex ratio strongly skewed towards males in the most
contaminated areas.
Adult survival rate for male barn swallows in
areas of Ukraine impacted by the Chernobyl accident was
0.327, while it was 0.431 in uncontaminated control areas,
equaling a reduction by 24%
For females the corresponding estimates were
0.233 and 0.542, respectively, or a reduction by 57%. This
sex by radiation effect was highly significant implying that
females suffered disproportionately from high levels of
radiation.
These males then sang disproportionately more
frequently, presumably because they had difficulty finding
and acquiring mates.
The results were not caused by permanent
emigration by females from the most contaminated areas.
These results suggest significant mortality
costs of low-dose radiation with severe consequences for
breeding populations of birds in vast areas of contamination
in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, exampled by the behavior of
male birds who live in Chernobyl’s most contaminated areas,
who sing more often because there’s hardly a female to be
found.
Comparisons to the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster –
In July of 2011, scientists in Japan identified and counted
birds at 300 locations in Fukushima Prefecture between 15
and 30 miles (25 and 48 km) from the nuclear complex. Most
of these areas were still open to human occupation and were
experiencing external radiation levels from 0.5 to 35
microsieverts per hour.
The team compared the results to their similar
investigation in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone between 2006
and 2009, 20 to 23 years after that nuclear disaster.
The findings showed, just as in the Ukraine, the
bird community in Fukushima declined significantly in the
more contaminated areas.
For 14 species of birds that appeared in both
Fukushima and Chernobyl, the decline in population size was
more pronounced at Fukushima than Chernobyl.
The scientists hypothesized that the Fukushima birds have
never experienced radiation of this intensity before and may
therefore be especially sensitive to radioactive
contaminants.
http://www.emfnews.org/store |
