210Po in Marine Organisms: A Wide Range of Natural Radiation Dose Domains

Abstract

Abstract Marine biota is able to concentrate 210Po to high levels, as 103-105 relative to sea water concentration. 210Po concentrations in mixed zooplankton reaches 34-51 Bq.kg-1 (fresh wt), special groups such as copepods reaching even higher concentrations ~90 Bq.kg-1, whereas gelatinous zooplankton display ~1 Bq.kg-1. Epipelagic teleosts feeding on plankton displayed the highest concentrations found in fish muscle, 2-21 Bq.kg-1. Contrasting with this, demersal teleosts and elasmobranchs display lower 210Po concentrations, in the ranges 0.5-7 Bq.kg-1 and 0.2-1.7 Bq.kg-1, respectively. Much higher concentrations can, however, be measured in fish liver, gonad, bone and piloric caecca, and small mesopelagic fish can reach ~800 Bq.kg-1 on a whole-body basis. Due to these 210Po activity concentrations, dose equivalent rates delivered to biological tissues in marine organisms can vary widely, from 0.4 mSv.y-1 in gelatinous plankton up to 5.6 x 103 mSv.y-1 in the gut wall of sardines. It is concluded that in organisms living in the same ocean layer a wide range of internal radiation doses exist and it is essentially sustained by 210Po food-chain transfer.