Accumulation and long-term decline of radiocaesium contamination in tropical fruit trees

The accumulation of 137Cs, 40K and NH4+ in several organs of tropical plants species were studied through measurements of its concentrations from mango, avocado, guava, papaya, banana and chili pepper trees. Our goal was to infer their differences in the uptake and translocation of such ions to the aboveground plant parts and to establish the suitability of using radiocaesium as a tracer for the plant uptake of nutrients. The results indicate Cs+ is better tracer for K+ as it is for NH4+.