témavezető: Kovács Tibor
társ-témavezető: Hegedűs Miklós
helyszín (magyar oldal): Pannon Egyetem helyszín rövidítés: PE
A kutatási téma leírása:
Several countries are suffering from problems related to soil contamination (radiological, chemical or mixture of both problems) related to industries that produce by-products containing elevated levels of naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM), such as ore-exploitation and processing, alumina production, coal fired power plants. The presence of natural ore deposits can cause natural higher than average activity concentration areas, while accidents, nuclear weapons tests aand similar events can cause contamination with artifitial radionuclides.
Trees have been used for the biomonitoring of airborn heavy metal pollution previously, and they have seen some limited use for radionuclides as well. They have multiple parts that might be suitable for biomonitoring, such as fruits, leaves, bark and bole wood, if proper protocols are established. Some species can be widely found in the world, for example members of the Acacia and Vachellia genus and Robinia pseudoacacia colloquially called acacia trees can be found all over the world either deliberately planted or as an invasive species. In addition they are fast growing as well. However to be able to properly compare and use the data there needs to be some knowledge on the characteristics of each species, or the comparison will be somewhat arbitrary and conclusions will hard to draw.
Trees interact with their environment with multiple ways, they collect fallout on their leaves and bark, the leaves form litter according to the life-cycle of the plants, which can be a cause of secondary contamination for saprophytic animals, or for the local catchment area through surface runoff. They form fresh shoots, leaves and fruits which might concentrate certain ekements due to their intensive growth. Trees are also harvested for their wood for both building materials and for firewood purposes, as well as having uses in food production, paper production, medicine production, land reclamation and so on.
The tasks of the applicant:
1. to determine the suitability of using tree bark, tree leaves and bole wood for biomonitoring
2. to study the variability of the parameters of the transition of various radionuclides in the trees, the dependence on various factors, such as the soil type, climate, species, presence of other elements
3. compare the use of trees to other existing biomonitoring and instrumental monitoring methods
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