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OOS-7:
Ecological effects of the Chernobyl disaster: Genes to ecosystems
Endorsed
by the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF)
Monday,
August 8, 1:30 PM - 5 PM, Meeting Rooms 510a and 510c,
Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal
Organizers:
James Morris (morris@biol.sc.edu),
Timothy Mousseau, Miguel Goni
Description: This
organized oral session will highlight ecological research being done in the
contaminated region around the Chernobyl nuclear power station. The environment
around Chernobyl remains highly contaminated after 19 years and will be
uninhabitable for centuries. However, despite levels of radiation dangerous to
human health, most natural areas around Chernobyl have rebounded, and by any
ecological standard are functioning normally. The Chernobyl exclusion zone is
now a natural laboratory, and research is being conducted at multiple levels of
biological organization, from the genetics of populations to the function of
ecosystems. Radioisotopes from the explosion have been incorporated into the
ecosystems around the reactor, and provide useful markers that can be exploited
to study the function of natural ecosystems, such as the cycling of essential
elements. High radiation dosages are ramping up mutation rates and providing
population geneticists with opportunities to study accelerated evolution.
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