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Publicatie Laka-bibliotheek:
Reduced Abundance of insects and spiders linked to radiation at Chernobyl 20 years after the accident (2009)

Auteur	Moeller, Mousseau
	-
Datum	maart 2009
Classificatie	2.34.8.11/34 (TSJERNOBYL - ONGELUK & OMGEVING - MEDISCH/MUTATIES)
Voorkant

1. INTRODUCTION

The ecological consequences of radiation from Chernobyl are poorly known 
(Møller & Mousseau 2006).Surprisingly, there are few data on the abundance
of animals in relation to radiation, and there have been no efforts to extensively 
census invertebrates in relation to radiation. The few studies published are
mainly based on sampling in a few locations, making it difficult to generalize 
about the effects of radiation when compared with other factors (Krivolutsky &
Pokarshevsky 1992; Sokolov et al. 1994; Maksimova 2002; Jackson et al. 2005).

The objectives of this study were to assess the abundance of invertebrate taxa in 
relation to background radiation. These were insect pollinators (bumble-bees and 
butterflies), an important taxon of herbivores (grasshoppers) and predators 
(dragonflies: and spiders). We conducted two kinds of census: point counts 
covering more than 700 sites during 3 years and line transects. This is by far the 
mostextensive dataset on the abundance of animals from Chernobyl. Abundance 
can be affected by environmental factors other than radiation, and, therefore, we 
controlled statistically for potentially confounding variables that could affect the 
relationship between abundance and level of radiation. Line transects provided a 
powerful within-site experimental design controlling for many confounding 
variables because neighbouring sites that differ in the level of radiation by 
definition are similar in most respects, including soil type, habitat and other 
features.

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