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Committee for Environmental Protection
The Hague, The Netherlands, 11-15 September 2000ENVIRONMENTAL RADIOACTIVITY AND BIOMONITORING

Information Paper submitted by SCAR

1. At CEP II Peru tabled XXIII ATCM WP/29 dealing with radioactivity in the Antarctic and XXIII ATCM WP/30 dealing with the use of lichens for biomonitoring. After discussion at the meeting SCAR was requested to provide CEP III with more information on these topics.

2. Peru indicated that it had begun preliminary studies on environmental radioactivity at its station Macchu Picchu. Research in this field began sometime ago in the Antarctic with initial recognition that fallout from nuclear weapon testing could be detected in ice and snow cores. Since then more detailed investigations have been undertaken by Swedish, Japanese, Italian, Indian, Chilean, Brazilian and Rumanian scientists. Key references are listed in Annex 1.

3. Peru requested details of scientific contacts active in this field and a list is provided in Annex 2.

4. The distribution of artificial radionuclides is still imperfectly known for the continent as a whole and further survey data from areas other than the Antarctic Peninsula and the Ross Sea would be useful. The limited data available at present suggest that there may be differences in the way radionuclides are transferred within the Antarctic food chains compared to other marine food chains. Overall there is a very low level of environmental impact from anthropogenic radioactivity.

5. Peru suggested the establishment of a Working Group on Environmental Biomonitoring using Antarctic lichens to standardize environmental methodologies. The value of organisms as biomonitors was examined in detail by the two SCAR/COMNAP environmental monitoring workshops and was considered again in the planning of the recently issued Antarctic Environmental Monitoring Handbook (COMNAP&emdash;SCAR. 2000. College Station, Texas, Geochemical and Environmental Research Group, xx + 191 pp). There are, at present, no internationally agreed criteria for selecting keystone species for either terrestrial or marine environments, although there are continuing studies on a number of possible species which may prove useful in due course.

6. Although lichens have been used for biomonitoring in many temperate areas there are well established concerns about the types of pollution data they can be used to assess, reliability of such data and the way they can be used for management decisions. In temperate latitudes they are normally used to indicate sulphur pollution or heavy metal contamination but more recently there have been investigations of the ability of particular species to react to traffic emissions, radionuclides and even the effects of increased UVB. At the community level there have been attempts to derive an index of climate change from changes in species diversity and cover.

7. The longest running lichen biomonitoring study in the Antarctic is that undertaken at Rothera over 25 years on the uptake of heavy metals from exhaust emissions. The basic physiological data on Antarctic lichens are very limited and, at present, it is impossible to say what the effects of heavy metals are on particular species.

8. It is envisaged that as more basic data become available on lichen physiology and growth patterns it may become possible to use them more effectively than at present for biomonitoring, despite their low growth rates and apparent high tolerance of environmental stresses. SCAR and the AEON group in COMNAP will continue to look for reliable biomonitors that can be added to the existing range of physical and chemical variables for assessing impacts on the Antarctic environment.

Annex 1

Relevant literature dealing with sources, diversity and
concentration of artificial radio-isotopes in the Antarctic

Battiston, G A, Degetto, S, Gerbasi, R & Sbrignadello, G. 1991. Radionuclide Content in Various Samples Collected Near the Italian Bases in Antarctica. Annali Chimica, 81, 469-475.

Bettoli, M G, Cantelli, L, Tositti, L, Tubertini, O & Valcher, S. 1991. Distribution of 137Cs in lake sediments and surrounding soils at Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica. Annali Chimica, 81, 541-548.

Guogang, J, Triulzi, C, Marzano, F N, Belli, M & Vaghi, M. 2000. The fate of plutonium, 241Am, 90Sr and 137Cs in the Antarctic ecosystem. Antarctic Science, 12, 141-148.

Hashimoto, T, Morimoto, T, Ikeuchi, Y, Yoshimizu, K, Torii, T & Komura, K A. 1989. Survey of artificial radionuclides in the Antarctic. Radioisotopes, 35, 209-218.

Koide, M, Michel, R & Goldberg, E D. 1979. Depositional history of artificial radionuclides in the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica. Earth & Planetary Science Letters, 44, 205-223.

Nonnis Marzano, F & Triulzi, C. 1997. Antarctic marine radioactivity survey at Terra Nova Bay, Ross Sea. Radioprotection Collogues 32, 35-40.

Roos, P, Holm, E, Persson, R B R, Aarkrog, A & Nielsen, S P. 1994. Deposits of 210Pb, 137Cs,239+240Pu, 238Pu and 241Am in the Antarctic Peninsula area. Journal of Environmental radioactivity, 24, 235-251.

Strand, P & Holm, E (Eds). 1993. Environmental radioactivity in the arctic and antarctic. Scientific Committee of the Environmental Radioactivity in the Arctic and Antarctic, Osteras, Norway. 432 pp.

Truilzi, C, Nonnis Marzano, F, Casoli, A, Mori, A & Vaghi, M. 1995. Radioactive and stable isotopes in abiotic and biotic components of Antarctic ecosystems surrounding the Italian base. International Journal of Environmental Analytical Chemistry, 61, 225-230.

Annex 2

Useful contact addresses for radio-isotope research

S K Bartarya
Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun 248001 (U.P.), India

M G Bettolini
Environmental Radiochemistry Centre, Department of Chemistry, University of Bologna, Italy

J M Godoy
Instituto de Radioprotecao e Dosimetria, Commisao Nacional de Energia Nuclear, Calxa Postal 37750, 22793 Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

J Guogang
China Institute of Atomic Energy, PO Box 275-83, Beijing, China

C Triulzi
Department of Evolutive and Functional Biology, Parma University, 43100 Parma, Italy

P Roos
Radiation Physics Department, University of Lund, S-221 85 Lund, Sweden

P Schuller
Universidad Austral de Chile, Casilla 567, Valdivia, Chile