From tangled banks to toxic bunnies; a reflection on the issues involved in developing an ecosystem approach for environmental radiation protection

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to present the results of discussions at a workshop held as part of the International Congress of Radiation Research (Environmental Health stream) in Manchester UK, 2019. The main objective of the workshop was to provide a platform for radioecologists to engage with radiobiologists to address major questions around developing an Ecosystem approach in radioecology and radiation protection of the environment. The aim was to establish a critical framework to guide research that would permit integration of a pan-ecosystem approach into radiation protection guidelines and regulation for the environment. The conclusions were that the interaction between radioecologists and radiobiologists is useful in particular in addressing field versus laboratory issues where there are issues and challenges in designing good field experiments and a need to cross validate field data against laboratory data and vice versa. Other main conclusions were that there is a need to appreciate wider issues in ecology to design good approaches for an ecosystems approach in radioecology and that with the capture of ‘Big Data’, novel tools such as machine learning can now be applied to help with the complex issues involved in developing an ecosystem approach.

Keywords:

• Ecosystem approach
• radiation protection
• radioecology
• radiobiology
• systems biology

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge support for the workshop from the International Union of Radioecologists and from the organisers of the International Congress of Radiation Research held in Manchester UK in August 2019.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Carmel E. Mothersill

Carmel Mothersill is a professor and Canada Research Chair in Environmental Radiobiology at McMaster University, Canada. Her research interests include low dose radiation effects on plants and animals with a focus on non-targeted effects.

Deborah H. Oughton

Deborah Oughton, PhD, is Head of the Center for Environmental Radioactivity (CERAD) at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), and Professor in Nuclear/Environmental Chemistry. She is also adjunct Professor at the University of Oslo, where she teaches Research Ethics to PhD students at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences.

Paul N. Schofield

Paul N. Schofield is the University Reader in Biomedical Informatics at the University of Cambridge and an Adjunct Professor at The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, USA . His research focus is on experimental and informatic approaches to understanding human disease using model organisms. He has a long-standing interest in mammalian epigenetics and the biological effects of low dose ionizing radiation.

Michael Abend

Michael Abend, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Radiobiology and a MSc in Epidemiology. He is a Senior Researcher as well as Deputy Head of the Bundeswehr Institute of Radiobiology, Genomics I, Munich, Germany.

Christelle Adam-Guillermin

Christelle Adam-Guillermin, PhD, is the research director on the effects of ionizing radiation on the environment and human health at IRSN, France.

Kentaro Ariyoshi

Kentaro Ariyoshi, is an associate professor at the Integrated Center for Science and Humanities in the Fukushima Medical University. His research interests include non-targeted effects of radiation and radiation effects on various biological networks.

Nicholas A. Beresford

Nick Beresford leads the Environmental Contaminants Group at UK Center for Ecology & Hydrology. Hi is a radioecologist of over 30 years’ experience and has worked in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone since the mid-1990’s. He is an Honorary Professor at the University of Salford and the European Radioecology Alliance lead for the Chernobyl Observatory.

Andrea Bonisoli-Alquati

Andrea Bonisoli Alquati, is Assistant Professor of Environmental Toxicology in the Department of Biological Sciences at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, in Pomona, USA. His research aims at explaining variation among individuals and across species in their physiological and genetic responses to environmental contamination, especially in the context of nuclear accidents and oil spills.

Jason Cohen

Jason Cohen works in the Medical Physics Department at the Carlo Fidani Peel Regional Cancer Center in Ontario, Canada. His research interests include low-dose radiobiology and its effects on human cancers, as well as any applications that tie together the fields of radiobiology, radiation protection, and the clinical relevance of cellular responses to radiation.

Yuri Dubrova

Yuri E. Dubrova is Professor of Genetics in the Department of Genetics and Genome Biology, University of Leicester, UK. His research interest involves mutation induction in the mammalian germline and transgenerational effects of parental exposure to mutagens.

Stanislav A. Geras’kin

Stanislav A. Geras’kin, DS in Radiobiology, Professor, Head of Plant Radiobiology and Ecotoxicology Laboratory, Russian Institute of Radiology and Agroecology, Obninsk, Russian Federation.

Tanya Helena Hevrøy

Tanya Helena Hevrøy has a PhD in molecular biology and currently works as a research scientist studying radioecology, in addition to working with radiation protection regulations and environmental monitoring at the Norwegian Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority.

Kathryn A. Higley

Kathryn A. Higley is Professor in the School of Nuclear Science and Engineering at Oregon State University. A certified Radiation Health Physicist, her research involves the transfer, uptake, and dose from radionuclides released to the environment.

Nele Horemans

Nele Horemans, PhD, is head of the research unit Biosphere Impact Studies at the Belgian Nuclear Research Center (SCK CEN), Mol, Belgium and guest Professor (docent) radiotoxicity and ecotoxicology at the Center of Environmental Sciences (CMK) of the University of Hasselt, Diepenbeek, Belgium.

Awadhesh N. Jha

Awadhesh N. Jha, is a Professor of Genetic Toxicology and Ecotoxicoloy in the School of Biological and Marine Sciences, University of Plymouth, UK. His research interest involves elucidation of interactions of environmental agents including radiations with the genomes and its potential impact on the health of humans and wild species.

Lawrence A. Kapustka

Lawrence (Larry) A. Kapustka, PhD, operates an independent sole proprietor consulting business LK Consultancy in Alberta, Canada. He is recognized as an Emeritus Senior Ecologist by the Ecological Society of America and a Fellow by the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry and is a member of the International Union of Radioecology. The primary focus of work in on Ecological Risk Assessment, Ecosystem Services, and Sustainability.

Juliann G. Kiang

Juliann G. Kiang is Principal Investigator of the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, Professor (Adjunct) of the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Therapeutics, and Professor (Adjunct) of the Department of Medicine, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the US Department of Defense.

Balázs G. Madas

Balázs G. Madas is the leader of the Radiation Biophysics Group at the Center for Energy Research, Budapest, Hungary. He develops and applies mathematical and biophysical models to study how radiation induced cell death affects tissue architecture and mutation rate.

Gibin Powathil

Gibin G. Powathil, PhD, is an Associate Professor in Applied Mathematics at the Department Mathematics, Computational Foundry, Swansea University, Wales, United Kingdom. His research interest is the application of mathematical modeling techniques in cancer biology.

Elena I. Sarapultseva

Elena I. Sarapultseva, Dr Bio Sci, Professor, Department of Biotechnology, National Research Nuclear University MEPhI and Senior Researcher of A.Tsyb Medical Radiological Research Center, Obninsk, Russian Federation.

Colin B. Seymour

Colin B. Seymour is a Professor of Radiobiology in the Department of Biology at McMaster University, Canada. His research interest is low dose radiation mechanisms including bystander effects and lethal mutations.

Nguyen T. K. Vo

Nguyen T. K. Vo, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Lecturer, Department of Biology and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Science, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.

Michael D. Wood

Michael D. Wood is Professor of Applied Ecology at the University of Salford, UK. A Chartered Radiation Protection Professional, his radioecological research focuses on the behavior, fate and impacts of radionuclides in the environment. Professor Wood also has expertise in science and risk communication, including the use of virtual reality to engage audiences with his Chernobyl-based research.