Assessment of Chronic Radiation Effects on Birds Living within The Chornobyl Zone

Period: since 2003

Customer: University of South Carolina, USA

Project objective: assess chronic radiation effects on the birds living within the Chornobyl Zone and research genetic effects of the birds’ nesting period in particular.

The following were the basic research directions:

• Control of the birds’ nesting process and assessment of reproduction efficiency.
• Biological sampling for genetic research.
• Assessment of morphological characteristics.
• Assessment of radiation impact onto thr state of the birds’ peripheral blood cells.

Research results:

• The differences between the sites characterized by different radiation level with regard to reproduction success factors were revealed for Parus major. Nesting of the birds that have settled within the most contaminated sites was definitely more successful.
• The differences between the sites characterized by different radiation contamination levels in terms of Parus major eggs’ morphological characteristics were established.
• The data demonstrating hemopoiesis pathology signals for the birds from the contaminated sites were obtained.

The genetic research was physically performed in the University of South Carolina.