A review of the deposition and uptake of stable and radioactive elements in forests and other natural ecosystems for use in predictive modeling

To understand the behavior of radionuclides in forests, we require information on the processes which govern the interaction of elements in these ecosystems. The basic questions we ask are: (1) What is the residence time of any element in a forest? (2) What are the dominant rate determining processes responsible for uptake? (3) What are the important radionuclide pathways through the forest to man? (4) How long does the contamination remain a risk to man? (5) What chemical complexing species are responsible for element uptake by the roots. Such questions must be answered to define better the processes which are responsible for the distribution and fate of trace elements and radionuclides in forest and natural ecosystems, and to develop predictive models for radiological assessment purposes.