TY - JOUR
T1 - Fungal spore involvement in the resuspension of radiocaesium in summer
AU - Igarashi, Yasuhito
AU - Kita, Kazuyuki
AU - Maki, Teruya
AU - Kinase, Takeshi
AU - Hayashi, Naho
AU - Hosaka, Kentaro
AU - Adachi, Kouji
AU - Kajino, Mizuo
AU - Ishizuka, Masahide
AU - Sekiyama, Tsuyoshi Thomas
AU - Zaizen, Yuji
AU - Takenaka, Chisato
AU - Ninomiya, Kazuhiko
AU - Okochi, Hiroshi
AU - Sorimachi, Atsuyuki
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Ms. K. Inukai, Ms. K. Kamioka and Mr. T. Kimura (Atox Co. Ltd.) for assistance with the activity measurements; Ms. K. Yanagida (Meteorological Research Institute; MRI) for logistics help; and Ms. Y. Kamiya (MRI) for help with the manuscript editing. We also acknowledge Mr. T. Kanari (Green Blue Co. Ltd.) for maintaining the measurement sites and Mr. H. Demizu and other members and students of the College of Science and College of Engineering, Ibaraki University, for the maintenance of the tools, special installations in the field and data collection. We also express our thanks to the local governments of Kawamata and Namie and to the Fukushima prefectural government, who kindly provided the monitoring opportunity. Y.I. is grateful to Dr. K. Tagami, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, for discussion of the transfer factor in forests. Ms. M. Nara helped finishing the figure to fulfil the QC requirement. This work was financially supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research in Innovative Areas granted to the A01–2, A03–6 and A04–8 research teams of the “Interdisciplinary Study on Environmental Transfer of Radionuclides from the Fukushima Dai-ichi NPP Accident (ISET-R)” (grant numbers 24110003, 24110007, and 24110009, respectively; PI: Professor Yuichi Onda, University of Tsukuba) and by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Japanese Radioactivity Survey by Technology and Nuclear Regulation Authority, Japan at the MRI. This research was also funded by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) (No. 17H01478), (B) (No. 24340115, 26304003 and 17H01873) and (C) (No. 17K00533 and 26340049). We would like to give our special thanks to the ISET-R PI, Prof. Onda, and his staff.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, The Author(s).
PY - 2019/12/1
Y1 - 2019/12/1
N2 - We observed the atmospheric resuspension of radiocaesium, derived from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, at Namie, a heavily contaminated area of Fukushima, since 2012. During the survey periods from 2012 to 2015, the activity concentrations of radiocaesium in air ranged from approximately 10 −5 to 10 −2 Bq per m 3 and were higher in the warm season than in the cold season. Electron microscopy showed that the particles collected on filters in summer were predominantly of biological origin (bioaerosols), with which the observed radiocaesium activity concentration varied. We conducted an additional aerosol analysis based on fluorescent optical microscopic observation and high-throughput DNA sequencing technique to identify bioaerosols at Namie in 2015 summer. The concentrations of bioaerosols fluctuated the order of 10 6 particles per m 3 , and the phyla Basidiomycota and Ascomycota (true Fungi) accounted for approximately two-thirds of the bioaerosols. Moreover, the fungal spore concentration in air was positively correlated with the radiocaesium concentration at Namie in summer 2016. The bioaerosol emissions from Japanese mixed forests in the temperate zone predominately included fungal cells, which are known to accumulate radiocaesium, and should be considered an important scientific issue that must be addressed.
AB - We observed the atmospheric resuspension of radiocaesium, derived from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, at Namie, a heavily contaminated area of Fukushima, since 2012. During the survey periods from 2012 to 2015, the activity concentrations of radiocaesium in air ranged from approximately 10 −5 to 10 −2 Bq per m 3 and were higher in the warm season than in the cold season. Electron microscopy showed that the particles collected on filters in summer were predominantly of biological origin (bioaerosols), with which the observed radiocaesium activity concentration varied. We conducted an additional aerosol analysis based on fluorescent optical microscopic observation and high-throughput DNA sequencing technique to identify bioaerosols at Namie in 2015 summer. The concentrations of bioaerosols fluctuated the order of 10 6 particles per m 3 , and the phyla Basidiomycota and Ascomycota (true Fungi) accounted for approximately two-thirds of the bioaerosols. Moreover, the fungal spore concentration in air was positively correlated with the radiocaesium concentration at Namie in summer 2016. The bioaerosol emissions from Japanese mixed forests in the temperate zone predominately included fungal cells, which are known to accumulate radiocaesium, and should be considered an important scientific issue that must be addressed.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41598-018-37698-x
DO - 10.1038/s41598-018-37698-x
M3 - Article
C2 - 30760819
AN - SCOPUS:85061495965
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 9
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
IS - 1
M1 - 1954
ER -