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TECHNICAL REPORTS

Plant and Environment Interactions

Cesium-134 and Strontium-85 in Strawberry Plants following Wet Aerial Deposition

^a Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Chemistry, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Via Emilia Parmense 84, I-29100 Piacenza, Italy
^b Mouchel Consulting Ltd., West Hall, Parvis Road, West Byfleet, Surrey KT14 6EZ, United Kingdom
^c Food Standards Agency, Radiological Protection and Research Management Division, Aviation House, 125 Kingsway, Room 715B, London WC2B 6NH, United Kingdom

^* Corresponding author (franca.carini{at}unicatt.it).

Received for publication December 31, 2002. The understanding of the processes that control the behavior of radionuclides in crops can support policymakers to take actions to protect the environment and safeguard human health. Data concerning the behavior of radionuclides in fruits are limited. Strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duchesne) plants were contaminated on the aboveground part by sprinkling an aqueous solution of ¹³⁴Cs and ⁸⁵Sr at three growing stages: predormancy, anthesis, and beginning of ripening. Intercepted activity was more affected by the posture and physical orientation of leaves rather than by leaf area or biomass. Fruit interception ranges from 0.2 to 1.2% of the sprinkled activity. Translocation coefficients from leaf to fruit are on the order of 10^-4 for ¹³⁴Cs and 10^-5 for ⁸⁵Sr. Translocation reaches its highest intensity between anthesis and ripening. If deposition occurs when plants are bearing fruits, the fruit activity will be affected by the activity initially deposited on the fruit surfaces. This is important for ⁸⁵Sr as it is not translocated in the phloem. The loss of the dead leaves at the resumption of growth causes high plant decontamination, but a fraction of both radionuclides remains in the storage organs, roots, and shoots, which is retranslocated to fruits in the following spring. The values of the environmental half-time, t_w, after deposition at predormancy are 114 d for ¹³⁴Cs and 109 d for ⁸⁵Sr. Cesium-134 tends to be allocated to fruits, while ⁸⁵Sr remains in leaves and crowns. Translocation of radionuclides to roots results in soil contamination.

Abbreviations: RF, residual fraction • TC, translocation coefficient

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This Issue in Journal of Environmental Quality

JEQ 2003 32: 1931-1938. [Full Text]