[ RadSafe ] Article on Chernobyl

[Maury Siskel]

Has anyone thought to investigate possible parallel changes  in 
populations of natural predators of the species thought to be in decline 
as a function of radioactivity or other Chernobyl contamination?  
Natural equilibria are not instantaneous phenomena ....  just wondering 
-- there just might be a lot of hungry birds flying around that area ......
Best,
Maury&Dog  [MaurySiskel  maurysis at peoplepc.com]

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Peter Bossew wrote:

>Here is the abstract:
>
>  
>
>Reduced abundance of insects and spiders linked to radiation at Chernobyl
>20 years after the accident
>   1. Anders Pape Møller1,* and
>   2. Timothy A Mousseau2  
>
> 1 Laboratoire d'Ecologie, Systématique et Evolution, Université Paris-Sud
>      CNRS UMR 8079, Bâtiment 362, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France
>      
>2 Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina
>      Columbia, SC 29208, USA
>
>   1. Author for correspondence (anders.moller at u-psud.fr)
>
>Abstract
>
>Effects of low-level radiation on abundance of animals are poorly known.
>We conducted standardized point counts and line transects of bumble-bees,
>butterflies, grasshoppers, dragonflies and spider webs at forest sites
>around Chernobyl differing in background radiation by over four orders of
>magnitude. Abundance of invertebrates decreased with increasing radiation,
>  
>
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