Radioactive contamination of tropical rainforest soils in Southern Costa Rica

摘要

Radionuclide content in soils from four locations in a tropical rainforest near Golfito in Southern Costa Rica was investigated. For comparison, two nearby locations in open Grassland were also studied. From each site 5 soil cores down to a depth of 15 cm were taken. The median contamination with ~137Cs was 584 Bq m ~-2 (reference date 1 January 1996) and The coefficient of variation (CV) was 50/100. This contamination can be attributed to global Fallout from atmospheric nuclear weapon tests between 1945 and 1980.