Radiation
Ecology
I.
L. Brisbin Jr. and C. E. Dallas
University
of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
Abstract:
Radiation ecology (henceforth 'radioecology') is a hybrid science derived
from the principles of both radiation biology and ecology. The field was
born in the 1940s and the 1950s following the testing and deployment of
nuclear weapons and the consequential concern for the fate and effects
of radioactive materials in the environment. The initial emphasis was
on radiation effects. As the field of ecology grew and began to increase
our understanding of food webs and the natural processes which control
the movements of chemical elements in the environment, concern then developed
for both short- and long-term movements of radioactive contaminants in
natural populations, communities, and ecosystems, as well as in individual
organisms. Radioecology has played a pivotal role in promoting better
understanding of many basic ecological cycling processes through the studies
of radioactive tracers that were either deliberately introduced into natural
food chains, soil, or water, or were incidentally released at sites of
nuclear weapons testing, nuclear accidents, or warfare detonations. In
a sense radioecology may be considered to be a subdiscipline of the broader
field of environmental toxicology, which is concerned with the fate and
effects of all forms of environmental contaminants. Radioecology draws
extensively from the findings of this field of study and applies them
to the specific case of contaminants that emit alpha, beta, or gamma radiation.
SREL Reprint #3096
Brisbin,
I. L., Jr., and C. E. Dallas. 2008. Radiation Ecology. In: S. E. Jorgensen
and B. D. Fath (Eds.). Encyclopedia of Ecology. Oxford, Elsevier. Human
Ecology Number 4: 2956-2959.
