The ecosystem study on Rongelap Atoll.
During the 1950's and 1960's, the Laboratory of Radiation Biology at the University of Washington carried out an intensive study of this Atoll, which was contaminated with radioactive fallout from the "Bravo shot" in 1954. This study involved many aspects of the environment and the plant and animal life: soils, land plants, marine life, birds, geology and hydrology, and human diets as well. In much of the research, the fortuitiously present radioactive isotopes, especially 137Cs and 90Sr, were tracers. Although the term "ecosystem study" was not in vogue at that time, it is clear that this was an early use of the ecosystem approach. Soil types and their development, the distribution of mineral elements in plants and soils, including predominant radionuclides, distribution and growth of native terrestrial plants in relation to topography and salinity, some aspects of the human diets, micronutrient nutrition of the coconut palm, island and islet development and stability, were given attention in the studies. Some of the findings in the various areas of study will be presented and discussed.
Walker
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University of Washington, Botany Department, Seattle 98195, USA.
Gessel
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Held
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D000818:Animals; D017753:Ecosystem; D006801:Humans; D008849:Micronesia; D009689:Nuclear Warfare; D010944:Plants; D012990:Soil Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
D012990:Soil Pollutants, Radioactive; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical