[Reader-list] Birds thriving with fewer humans

[Nagraj Adve]

Wildlife thriving after Chernobyl’s nuclear disaster – study
Yahoo! NewsBy Gaby Leslie | Yahoo! News – Wed, Apr 11, 2012

When dangerously high levels of radiation spewed from the Chernobyl
nuclear plant in 1986 after an explosion in one of the reactors the
effects were devastating.

Not only was the accident responsible for the deaths of thousands of
people in the following years, scientists also feared the worst for
Chernobyl’s surrounding wildlife.

But ground-breaking research conducted by two UK universities has
revealed the effects of the nuclear disaster may not have been as
harmful on wildlife as previously thought.

The study has been shedding light on the real impact of radiation on
birds living in Chernobyl’s exclusion zone – and it shows they have
been thriving without humans.

Experts believe the results in Chernobyl could also apply to wildlife
at Fukushima in Japan following last year's tsunami and subsequent
nuclear crisis.


Professor Jim Smith has been leading the studyUntil now it was
believed that radiation would cause irreparable damage to a bird's
antioxidant defence mechanisms, but the study by the University of
Portsmouth and the University of West England suggests high density
radiation levels similar to those seen at Chernobyl and Fukushima
would not present a danger.

Professor Jim Smith, an environmental physicist at the School of Earth
and Environmental Sciences at the University of Portsmouth, who has
studied contamination at Chernobyl for more than 20 years said: “We
can’t rule out some effect on wildlife of the radiation, but wildlife
populations in the exclusion zone around Chernobyl have recovered and
are actually doing well and even better than before because the human
population has been removed.

“We showed that changes in anti-oxidant levels in birds in Chernobyl
could not be explained by direct radiation damage. We would expect
other wildlife to be similarly resistant to oxidative stress from
radiation at these levels.

He added: “It is well-known that immediately after the Chernobyl
accident, extremely high radiation levels did damage organisms. But
now, radiation levels at Chernobyl are hundreds of times lower and,
while some studies have apparently seen long-term effects on animals,
others have found no effect."

The new findings are published in the Royal Society journal ‘Biology Letters’.