Lack of Cesium Bioaccumulation
in Gelatinous Marine Life in the Pacific
Northwest Pelagic Food-Web
Delvan R. Neville and Kathryn A. Higley
Abstract Bioaccumulation of cesium with increasing trophic position is well
known across nearly every ecosystem for most organisms. In the marine environmental, typical (concentration ratios (Bq/kg in tissue: Bq/kg in seawater) range
from 50–100 in lower trophic levels to 300–10,000+ for apex predators. Recent
surveys of 7 gelatinous organisms off the coast of Oregon ranging in trophic
position from 1.0 to 3.0 revealed a concentration ratio maximum of 12.5 and typical
concentration ratios no higher than 4.4. The implications on human diets and
ecosystem shifts for large radiocesium releases are discussed.
Keywords Cesium bioaccumulation Á Marine life Á Pacific Ocean Á Pelagic
food-web
1 Introduction
Accumulation of radiocesium with increasing trophic position has been well known
since the 1960s. Most radioecological assessments at that time were driven by
nuclear weapons testing, and concerned with human food safety in Western diets
rather than ecosystem effects, which come from trophic levels of *2.7 (e.g. pandalid shrimp, forage fish) up to and exceeding 4+ (e.g. older large tunas) [6]. In
pelagic marine environments like those sampled in this study, the preferential
retention of Cs with respect to K has been shown to increase by a factor of 2.4 per
trophic step [3]. Recommended concentration ratios (CRs) for Cs vary by species to
some degree, from 50 in crustaceans to 100 in fish [1], although observed CRs in
higher predators can range much higher (*200–300 in albacore, 400–500 in sharks
analyzed alongside the gelatinous organisms reported here). Cephalopod molluscs,
however, break this trend with CRs typically closer to 10–20.
In the years following the release of substantial quantities of Cs-137 and Cs-134
(among other radionuclides) from reactors at the Fukushima Daiichii Nuclear Power
D.R. Neville (&) Á K.A. Higley
Oregon State University, Corvallis, USA
e-mail: dnevill@gmail.com
© The Author(s) 2017
J. Ahn et al. (eds.), Resilience: A New Paradigm of Nuclear Safety,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-58768-4_27
311
in Gelatinous Marine Life in the Pacific
Northwest Pelagic Food-Web
Delvan R. Neville and Kathryn A. Higley
Abstract Bioaccumulation of cesium with increasing trophic position is well
known across nearly every ecosystem for most organisms. In the marine environmental, typical (concentration ratios (Bq/kg in tissue: Bq/kg in seawater) range
from 50–100 in lower trophic levels to 300–10,000+ for apex predators. Recent
surveys of 7 gelatinous organisms off the coast of Oregon ranging in trophic
position from 1.0 to 3.0 revealed a concentration ratio maximum of 12.5 and typical
concentration ratios no higher than 4.4. The implications on human diets and
ecosystem shifts for large radiocesium releases are discussed.
Keywords Cesium bioaccumulation Á Marine life Á Pacific Ocean Á Pelagic
food-web
1 Introduction
Accumulation of radiocesium with increasing trophic position has been well known
since the 1960s. Most radioecological assessments at that time were driven by
nuclear weapons testing, and concerned with human food safety in Western diets
rather than ecosystem effects, which come from trophic levels of *2.7 (e.g. pandalid shrimp, forage fish) up to and exceeding 4+ (e.g. older large tunas) [6]. In
pelagic marine environments like those sampled in this study, the preferential
retention of Cs with respect to K has been shown to increase by a factor of 2.4 per
trophic step [3]. Recommended concentration ratios (CRs) for Cs vary by species to
some degree, from 50 in crustaceans to 100 in fish [1], although observed CRs in
higher predators can range much higher (*200–300 in albacore, 400–500 in sharks
analyzed alongside the gelatinous organisms reported here). Cephalopod molluscs,
however, break this trend with CRs typically closer to 10–20.
In the years following the release of substantial quantities of Cs-137 and Cs-134
(among other radionuclides) from reactors at the Fukushima Daiichii Nuclear Power
D.R. Neville (&) Á K.A. Higley
Oregon State University, Corvallis, USA
e-mail: dnevill@gmail.com
© The Author(s) 2017
J. Ahn et al. (eds.), Resilience: A New Paradigm of Nuclear Safety,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-58768-4_27
311