[ RadSafe ] Birds and radioactivity

Tue Mar 6 10:50:27 CST 2012

Ed

FYI, his son worked for me at PNL (now PNNL).

John
On Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 7:25 AM, <edmond0033 at comcast.net> wrote:

> For those who knew Dade, he has passed away.  His son works for Dade's
> company.
>
> Ed Baratta
>
> edmond0033 at comcast.net
>
> -----Original Message----- From: John R Johnson
> Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2012 9:34 AM
> To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Birds and radioactivity
>
>
> Karen
>
> Is this Moeller one of the Moeller who belong to the HPS?
>
> John
>
> On Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 5:52 AM, Karen Street <Karen_Street at sbcglobal.net>*
> *wrote:
>
>  Bjorn,
>>
>> I'll be interested if you learn more, and if the authors respond. Here is
>> some added perspective—
>>
>> Moeller has run into trouble before, according to a Scientific American
>> blogger (
>> http://www.scientificamerican.**com/blog/post.cfm?id=**
>> scientific-meltdown-at-**chernobyl-2009-03-24<http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=scientific-meltdown-at-chernobyl-2009-03-24>
>> ).
>> And one of the participants in their Chernobyl study said that they
>> ignored
>> big variations from region to region in habitat. And Moeller manages to
>> acquire boucoup data and write a lot, 30 articles in 2008. My guess is
>> that
>> all of his work is in fields where others are unlikely to run confirming
>> experiments, because bird brain size is not of major interest to most
>> researchers.
>>
>>
>> Science has a better track record and more respect in fields where people
>> care a great deal about the numbers and check them extensively (physics
>> and
>> climate change), not so much in fields where a single person or group
>> follows its bliss with no check from the greater community.
>>
>>
>> >
>> > When I saw this paper last week I first noted that the article mentioned
>> that 14 bird species were common for Chernobyl and Fukushima. The article
>> did not give the species names however. Instead they appear in an attached
>> appendix (separate file).
>> > The appendix triggered my attention further because it was a long list
>> of bird names in Latin. I decided to go through the list and see which the
>> 14 species were. Numbers in parenthesis below = the number of
>> observations,
>> "neg" means negative slope = decline, I have here added the names in
>> English:
>> > Acrocephaus arundinaceus (17, neg), great reed warbler
>> > Aegithalos caudatus (46), long-tailed tit
>> > Alauda arvensis (3), skylark
>> > Buteo buteo (10, neg), common buzzard
>> > Corvus corone (103, neg), carrion crow
>> > Delichon urbica (1), common house martin
>> > Garrulus glandarius (8), eurasian jay
>> > Hirundo rustica (144, neg), barn swallow
>> > Motacilla alba (8, neg), white wagtail
>> > Parus ater (17), coal tit
>> > Parus major (56), great tit
>> > Parus montanus (1), willow tit
>> > Passer montanus (294, neg), euroasian tree sparrow
>> > Troglodytes troglodytes (1), eurasian wren
>> >
>> > In other words, six "common" species which have a negative slope
>> dominated by the following three: carrion crow, barn swallow and euroasian
>> tree sparrow. Most of the 14 species above are quite common in northern
>> Europe. In addition, a field sparrow, Emberiza cioides (Meadow Bunting or
>> Siberian Meadow Bunting) and Cetthia cetti (Cettis warbler) showed a
>> decline.
>> >
>> > The first three of these are clearly associated with humans to some
>> extent. I would not be surprised if that also to some extent is true for
>> the Emberiza species whereas I know nothing about the Cetthia except that
>> it is a migratory bird.
>> >
>> > So I have a question here: If people are evacuated from some of these
>> areas - doesn't that then also mean the the life conditions for these
>> birds
>> also change? I doubt that this has anything to do with radiation dose as
>> the doses are far too small to be expected to affect bird behavior. The
>> slope in Fig. 2 in the paper - I wrote one of the authors and asked about
>> the units - it is log(abundance) as a function of log/microSv/hour). From
>> a
>> strict point, the unit should not be in microSv as the sievert only is
>> defined for humans.
>> >
>> > Does RadSafer know anything about the behavior of the Cetthia species?
>> Was it particularly cold in northern Japan last year or just "normal" (I'm
>> thinking about the migratory pattern)? In addition, what does it mean for
>> all these bird species that large areas were flooded?
>> >
>> > I do not have the background material with me at this moment of writing
>> but if I recall correctly, all Parus species and the related Aegithalos
>> caudatus showed an increase in numbers. It may also be commented that the
>> buzzard partly is associated with humans (like waiting along highways etc
>> looking for road kill - something they probably won't do when the car
>> traffic ceases).
>> >
>> > My personal comment only,
>> >
>> > Bjorn Cedervall, Stockholm, Sweden
>> >
>> ------------------------------**------------------------------**
>> --------------
>> >
>> >> From: Karen_Street at sbcglobal.net>
>> >> The Economist has an article saying that more radioactivity, fewer
>> birds, and the problem is twice as bad at Fukushima as Chernobyl.
>> >>
>> >> http://www.economist.com/node/**21548920?frsc=dg|a<http://www.economist.com/node/21548920?frsc=dg%7Ca>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> One problem is that the reason they give at the end is so unlikely
>> (different composition of radionuclides). Another is a question about who
>> is doing the inventory at 35 µSv/hour locations, and how good the
>> inventory
>> is.
>>
>> --
>> Best wishes,
>> Karen Street
>> Friends Energy Project
>> blog http://pathsoflight.us/musing/**index.php<http://pathsoflight.us/musing/index.php>
>>
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