JAPAN’S birds can breathe a little easier: the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident might not have a lasting impact on breeding patterns.
A 2011 study of birds near Chernobyl in Ukraine found that their sperm is being damaged by harmful reactive oxygen species, which may have been created by radiation from the country’s nuclear disaster in 1986. But according to calculations by Jim Smith at the University of Portsmouth, UK, the radiation at Chernobyl couldn’t have produced enough reactive oxygen species to explain the observed harm (Biology Letters, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2012.0150). The same is true for Fukushima, he says.
The fall in barn swallows in Chernobyl could be due to a decline in farming, rather than radiation released
The biggest effects at Chernobyl are seen in barn swallows, which rely on farming activities for their food. Smith thinks the evacuation of the area may instead explain the swallows’ plight.
That doesn’t convince Anders Møller at the University of Paris-South, France, an author on the 2011 study. He points to studies that suggest declines in farming affect barn swallows but don’t stop them reproducing.
A final answer may come next year from the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety, which has launched its own study of birds in the Fukushima contamination zone.
But the birds aren’t home free: radiation harms wildlife in other ways, such as damaging DNA.
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