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On the ordered nature of redistribution of technogenic elements in undisturbed elementary landscape-geochemical systems of the temperate zone on the example of the Chernobyl 137Cs fallout

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Abstract

The study is aimed at identifying patterns in distribution of pollutants in the elementary landscape-geochemical systems (ELGS) of the temperate zone. The study used 137Cs as a tracer, which allows a highly detailed analysis of the nature of the heterogeneity of secondary migration in the toposequence: summit—slope—closing depression, treated as the elementary landscape-geochemical system. The study site was located in the Bryansk region in the Chernobyl abandoned area with an initial level of 137Cs contamination exceeding 1480 kBq/m2 (40 Ci/km2). An original technique of repeated 137Cs measurements along cross-sections accompanied by topographic survey and soil cores sampling has been applied. The obtained results showed a complete absence of constant increase of 137Cs concentration downslope but revealed a steady regular variability of 137Cs activity of a cyclical type. Given uniformity of the initial 137Cs fallout within a small-sized plot, variation of 137Cs due to its secondary distribution in ELGS was 2–2.7-fold according to field gamma-spectrometry data which corresponded to the radionuclide contamination density of the top 20-cm layer of the soil containing 96–99% of the total radionuclide amount (correlation between the parameters equaled to r0.01 = 0.782, n = 20). A specifically regular structure obviously formed under the set of radionuclide water migration processes seems to be inherent in all systems of the studied type. The results obtained are believed to be of both theoretical and practical importance, since they can contribute to making decisions on the precise monitoring of zones of technogenic accumulation, as well as solving fundamental problems of soil formation and its restoration after technogenic pollution.

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Acknowledgements

The work was carried out in the laboratory of environmental biogeochemistry of the Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry named after V.I. Vernadsky, together with research under an agreement with the UE "Geographic Information Systems." We are grateful to Dr. Linnik for kindly providing the survey data of the plot in 1993. We are extremely grateful to our colleagues, Dr. V. Samsonov, S. Kirov, and Dr. F. Moiseenko (deceased), who participated in the selection of appropriate sites for research and topographic and gamma-spectroscopic measurements. Analysis of the data and article preparation were partially supported by the grant of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research No. 19-05-00816.

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  1. Geochemical Dept, Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences (GEOKHI RAS), Moscow, Russian Federation

    Elena Korobova, Victor Berezkin, Denis Dolgushin, Vladimir Baranchukov & Nikolay Dogadkin

  2. UE Geographic Information Systems, Minsk, Belarus

    Sergey Romanov

  3. University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Jaume B. Bech

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  1. Elena Korobova
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Korobova, E., Romanov, S., Bech, J.B. et al. On the ordered nature of redistribution of technogenic elements in undisturbed elementary landscape-geochemical systems of the temperate zone on the example of the Chernobyl 137Cs fallout. Environ Geochem Health 44, 1537–1549 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-021-00906-1

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