Description Table of Contents Details Editors Reviews

Description

Tropical Radioecology is a guide to the wide range of scientific practices and principles of this multidisciplinary field. It brings together past and present studies in the tropical and sub-tropical areas of the planet, highlighting the unique aspects of tropical systems. Until recently, radioecological models for tropical environments have depended upon data derived from temperate environments, despite the differences of these regions in terms of biota and abiotic conditions. Since radioactivity can be used to trace environmental processes in humans and other biota, this book offers examples of studies in which radiotracers have been used to assess biokinetics in tropical biota.

Key Features

  • Features chapters, co-authored by world experts, that explain the origins, inputs, distribution, behaviour, and consequences of radioactivity in tropical and subtropical systems.
  • Provides comprehensive lists of relevant data and identifies current knowledge gaps to allow for targeted radioecological research in the future.
  • Integrates radioecological information into the most recent radiological consequences modelling and best-practice probabilistic ecological risk analysis methodology, given the need to understand the implications of enhanced socio-economic development in the world’s tropical regions.

Readership

Nuclear laboratories; environment and health departments of countries with tropical regions or responsibilities; health physicists; international NGOs; nuclear reactor engineering firms; mining industry, particularly U-mines, mineral sands mining, mines with NORMS or generating TENORMS; environmental pathway modelers; biokineticists; general and tropical ecologists

Table of Contents

  • Foreword
  • Contributors
  • Chapter 1. The Scientific Basis
    • 1.1 Introduction
    • 1.2 Radioactivity
    • 1.3 Radiation science
    • 1.4 Environmental radioactivity
    • 1.5 Concluding comments
    • References
  • Chapter 2. Radionuclide Behaviour and Transport in the Tropical Atmospheric Environment
    • 2.1 Introduction
    • 2.2 The large-scale structure and transport processes in the tropics
    • 2.3 Cosmogenic and anthropogenic radionuclides
    • 2.4 Terrigenic radionuclides
    • 2.5 Conclusions
    • Acknowledgments
    • References
  • Chapter 3. Mobility of Radionuclides in Tropical Soils and Groundwater
    • 3.1 Introduction and scope
    • 3.2 General principles
    • 3.3 Properties of tropical soils
    • 3.4 Case studies of radionuclide mobility in tropical environments
    • 3.5 Factors of significance in the migration of radionuclides in the tropical environment
    • 3.6 Overall conclusion
    • References
  • Chapter 4. Tropical Radiochemical Oceanography
    • 4.1 Introduction
    • 4.2 Biogeochemical behaviour of radionuclides in marine systems
    • 4.3 Sources and sinks of radionuclides to the tropical oceans
    • 4.4 Radionuclides in tropical marine environments
    • 4.5 Marine radioactivity databases
    • 4.6 Case studies
    • 4.7 Summary and conclusions
    • References
  • Chapter 5. Terrestrial Radioecology in Tropical Systems
    • 5.1 Introduction
    • 5.2 Tropical soil systems
    • 5.3 Agricultural systems
    • 5.4 Radioecological concepts and modelling
    • 5.5 Compilation and evaluation of TFs for tropical and subtropical systems
    • 5.6 Tropical crops
    • 5.7 Tropical animals
    • 5.8 Summary and conclusions
    • Acknowledgments
    • References
    • Furthe

Details

No. of pages:
365
Language:
English
Copyright:
© 2012
Published:
Imprint:
Elsevier
eBook ISBN:
9780080914305
Print ISBN:
9780080450162
Print ISBN:
9780080975108

About the editor

J.R. Twining

Affiliations and Expertise

Austral Radioecology, Oyster Bay, Australia

Reviews

Tropical Radioecology is a guide to the wide range of scientific practices and principles of this multidisciplinary field. It brings together past and present studies in the tropical and sub-tropical areas of the planet, highlighting the unique aspects of tropical systems. Until recently, radioecological models for tropical environments have depended upon data derived from temperate environments, despite the differences of these regions in terms of biota and abiotic conditions. Since radioactivity can be used to trace environmental processes in humans and other biota, this book offers examples of studies in which radiotracers have been used to assess biokinetics in tropical biota.

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