Cesium levels in water, plankton baffle scientists
The Japan Times | 2013/05/22
..."Plankton are thought to play a key role in the dispersion of the cesium because they are eaten by bigger fish. We want to study further what is influencing the accumulation of radioactive cesium," said Minoru Kitamura, a marine ecologist and senior researcher at the Japan Agency for Marine Earth Science and Technology...
...Kitamura said they haven’t figured out why the concentrations of contamination differed in plankton and seawater.
"Our concern is the high level of (radioactive cesium found in plankton) taken from waters around latitude 25 degrees north, and we don’t know why the level got high around that area," Kitamura said. "We need to study whether the concentration will decline, or stay the same."
The finding was released at the Japan Geoscience Union at the Makuhari Messe international convention center in Chiba Prefecture on Tuesday.
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