Root uptake of super(137)Cs by natural and semi-natural grasses as a function of texture and moisture of soils

This work studies the dependence of super(137)Cs root uptake on the structure of landscape, especially on texture and moisture of soils, under natural conditions, on abandoned radiopolluted lands in Northern Ukraine. Researches were carried out on a wide range of landscape conditions, at various levels of super(137)Cs contamination (from 20 up to 5000 kBq m super(-2)), with different types of soils (approx. 20 soil varieties), which differ in texture, granulometric composition, degrees of gleyization and water regime, and anthropogenic transformation. The results showed that transfer factor (TF) values of super(137)Cs differ 50 times for the natural grassy coenoses and 8 times for the semi-natural ones. The lowest super(137)Cs TF values were measured in the herbages of dry meadows at automorphous loamy soils, while the highest were observed in wetland meadows at organic soils. Finally, the correlation between super(137)Cs TF values and granulometric composition of soil was determined for both automorphic and hydromorphic mineral soils.