Impact of Chernobyl disaster recorded in regional trees

By Park Sae-jin Posted : August 16, 2013, 14:44 Updated : August 16, 2013, 14:44
Professor Tim Mousseau of the University of South Carolina, the United States, stated in his report, “Most of the trees and plant life nearby the affected area are showing signs of vulnerability resulting in the death of many plant cells.”

Professor Mousseau holds 12 sites which are around the disaster area, that took place in 1986. His field study involves research on 100 pine trees on a large scale.

After analyzing them meticulously, he said, “A similar study has been performed before, but it was not found too effective just because of the reason that the research involved participation of limited trees.”

Further, he added, “I and my team are looking forward to perform a field research at Fukushima, Japan where the pine trees used to be in high density, but now are hard to find. Some observations performed earlier reflect that the condition of pines of Chernobyl is pretty different from that of Fukushima.”

The red forest, which was largely affected by the disaster and turned red due to radioactive exposure, lies under the first observation area. Also the trees present they have some abnormal structure (mutation), which shows that they are still getting affected by 1986 explosion and also predicting the threat for upcoming young trees.

By Ruchi Singh

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