Natural and Chernobyl-caused radioactivity in mushrooms, mosses and soil-samples of defined biotops in SW Bavaria

Abstract

Different mushrooms, mosses and corresponding soil samples have been collected mainly from two sites in the alpine region of southwestern Bavaria. At the end of the growthseason, September 1986, gamma spectroscopic analysis showed that the moss-, mould, and needle-layer contained considerably more ¹³⁴Cs and ¹³⁷Cs activity per unit fresh weight than eight different species of mushroom. These two isotopes were carried into the biotop mainly as a consequence of the Chernobyl accident. ¹³¹J could not be found any more in the samples ca. 5–6 months after the catastrophe. The activity of the cesium isotopes decreased with increasing soil depth. In the mushrooms the activity was relatively high in Xerocomus badius and surprisingly low in Boletus edulis; samples of the latter and of Cantharellus cibarius collected in September 1985 (before the accident) and kept deep frozen contained almost identical amounts of ¹³⁷Cs as those collected from August to October 1986. Mushrooms contained considerably more of the natural isotope ⁴⁰K than the needlelayers and the soil samples in the neighbourhood. In all mushrooms except Xerocomus badius the activity of ⁴⁰K was generally higher than the ¹³⁷Cs activity. The results indicate that except Xerocomus badius the analyzed mushrooms do not actively take up Cs from the soil, in contrast to K.