Post Chernobyl surveys of radiocaesium in soil, vegetation, wildlife and fungi in Great Britain

[THIS DATASET HAS BEEN WITHDRAWN]. Please note - this dataset is not current. For the most recent version, please search for the dataset titled 'Post Chernobyl surveys of radiocaesium in soil, vegetation, wildlife and fungi in Great Britain'. Data comprise radiocaesium concentrations in soil, vegetation, wildlife and fungi analysed from samples collected from throughout Great Britain after the 1986 Chernobyl accident by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH), formerly the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (ITE). National level vegetation surveys were conducted in May 1986, October 1986 and Spring 1987. More intensive surveys of vegetation (grass and heather) and wildlife (grouse, fox, etc.) in restricted areas were carried out in Cumbria, Wales and North Yorkshire in 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1993. Surveys of fungi were carried out between 1994 and 1997. The data are suitable for interpolation to create spatially variable surfaces suitable for input into models. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/7a5cfd3e-0247-4228-873d-5be563c4ee3b

Identification info

Metadata Language: English (en)

Character set: utf8

Dataset Reference Date (): 2014-09-25

Identifier: https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/7a5cfd3e-0247-4228-873d-5be563c4ee3b

Identifier: doi: / 10.5285/7a5cfd3e-0247-4228-873d-5be563c4ee3b

Other citation details: Chaplow, J.S., Beresford, N.A., Barnett, C.L. (2014). Post Chernobyl surveys of radiocaesium in soil, vegetation, wildlife and fungi in Great Britain. NERC Environmental Information Data Centre 10.5285/7a5cfd3e-0247-4228-873d-5be563c4ee3b

UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology - Professor Nick Beresford

Centre for Ecology & Hydrology - Chaplow, J.S.

Centre for Ecology & Hydrology - Beresford, N.A.

Centre for Ecology & Hydrology - Barnett, C.L.

NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre

NERC Environmental Information Data Centre

UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

Maintenance and update frequency: notPlanned

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0 ()

Environmental Monitoring Facilities

Keywords

Pollution
Radioecology
Radioecology
deposition
radioactive
contamination
radionuclide
accident
radiocaesium
Chernobyl
North Wales
Yorkshire
Great Britain
fungi
soil
vegetation
wildlife
grass
grasses
heather

Limitations on Public Access: otherRestrictions

Other constraints: no limitations

Use constraints: otherRestrictions

Other constraints: This resource is made available under the terms of the Open Government Licence

Use constraints: otherRestrictions

Other constraints: © UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

Use constraints: otherRestrictions

Other constraints: If you reuse this data, you should cite: Chaplow, J.S., Beresford, N.A., Barnett, C.L. (2014). Post Chernobyl surveys of radiocaesium in soil, vegetation, wildlife and fungi in Great Britain. NERC Environmental Information Data Centre https://doi.org/10.5285/7a5cfd3e-0247-4228-873d-5be563c4ee3b

Spatial representation type: textTable

Topic category

Environment

Begin date: 1986-05-01

End date: 1997-12-31

Code: OSGB 1936 / British National Grid

Distribution Information

Data format

Comma-separated values (CSV) ()

Quality Scope: dataset

Other: dataset

Report

Dataset Reference Date (): 2010-12-08

Statement: This dataset has been superseded by an updated version due to formatting requirements of the Data Journal Earth System Science Data (ESSD). Vegetation was clipped from 1 metre squared quadrats to a height of 1 centimetre above ground level. Samples were dried at 80 degrees centigrade, weighed, ground and counted in plastic containers (130 millilitre) on a NaI(T1) detector to determine the radiocaesium activity. The most active samples were recounted on a high resolution germanium detector. Soil type was noted at each site (Soil survey 1983). Soil samples were allocated to a series of textural categories (Clay (particles of less than 2 m in diameter); Silt (particles of 2-40 micron diameter); Sand (particles of 50 micron -2millimetre diameter); Organic (humified plant material); Loam (significant quantities of material from 3 or more categories). Soil pH was determined using an antimony electrode pH meter. Animal samples consisted of necks and rumen contents from 70 red deer (Cervus elaphus), whole bodies of three species of lagomorphs (25 rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and 2 black hares (Lepus capensis), two species of grouse (13 red grouse (Lagopus lagopus), 4 black game (Tetrao tetrix), and 22 foxes (Vulpes vulpes) totalling 141 flesh and 94 gut samples. Samples of flesh were removed from the neck of the deer, from the legs and back of the hares, rabbits and foxes, and from the breast muscle of the grouse. These were weighed fresh and placed in standard counting containers which were kept in a deep freeze until required for analysis. Each sample was thawed for 24 hours prior to counting. Samples were analysed by high resolution gamma spectrometry using either hyperpure germanium or germanium lithium detectors with relative efficiencies of 20 to 25 percent. Counting times varied between 25k to 80k seconds. Detectors were calibrated. The column headings for Easting, Northing and Sampling_date' in dataset 4 are labelled incorrectly. The correct order should be column C Sampling_date, column D Easting, column E Northing.

Metadata

File identifier: 7a5cfd3e-0247-4228-873d-5be563c4ee3b XML

Metadata Language: English (en)

Character set: ISO/IEC 8859-1 (also known as Latin 1)

Resource type: dataset

Hierarchy level name: dataset

Metadata Date: 2022-04-01T11:11:53

Metadata standard name: UK GEMINI

Metadata standard version: 2.3

Environmental Information Data Centre

Lancaster Environment Centre, Library Avenue, Bailrigg , Lancaster , LA1 4AP , UK

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