Transfer and assimilation of radionuclides in marine ecosystems

Abstract

How rates of biological and physico-chemical factors influence self-purification processes of marine ecosystems is a key aspect in understanding the problem of Arctic Ocean and North Atlantic anthropogenic radioactivity. This complex radioecological problem has previously been outlined from a theoretical standpoint by many radioecologists (Vernadsky 1926, 1929; Peredelsky 1957; Shvedov end Patin 1968; Kuznetsov 1971; Gromov end Spitsyn 1975; Alexakhin 1982; Gromov et al. 1985; Izrael end Tsyban 1989; Golubchikov 1993; Braginsky et al. 1994; Kuzmenko 1998). As a result, a conceptual model of assimilation capacity exists today. The model is used to describe the main processes and to determine quantitative estimates for the output and transformation of contaminants in the marine environment (Izrael end Tsyban 1989; Izrael 1998). According to this approach, every marine ecosystem contains a determinable volume of material (e.g. seawater, sediment, biota) and, therefore, the assimilation capacity of each ecosystem is also finite.