The (137)Cs activity and its geographical significance in terrestrial ecosystem of Great Wall Station, Antarctica

• Main Authors: Ye, Zhao, Tianjie, Li, Cuihua, Xu
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Polar Research Institute of China - PRIC 2000
• Subjects: Antarctic; Great Wall Station; Advances in Polar Science; Antarc*; Antarctica; Polar Science
• Online Access: http://library.arcticportal.org/2195/; http://library.arcticportal.org/2195/1/A200001004.pdf

The radioactive isotope (137)Cs is one of the important tracers for studying the physical processes and the human impacts on the environment. Based on the investigation results of the terrestrial ecosystem of Great Wall Station, Antarctica, it was shown that there are some artificial radioactive elements (137)Cs in Antarctic terrestrial ecosystem. The sequence of (137)Cs specific activities is as follows; crustaceous lichen > fruticose lichen > surface-moss > surface-soil, and the crustaceous lichen is one of the most sensitive ways in monitoring the impact of the long-term diffusion of (137)Cs on the environment.