Principles and practices of countermeasures to be carried out following radioactive contamination of forest areas

An earlier article [1] featured a comprehensive list of specific measures aimed at reducing radiation levels within forest ecosystems. All these measures were assessed globally in terms of their expected effectiveness and practical limitations. This study considers the same measures but focuses on differences between three widely distributed forest ecosystems in Europe: Mediterranean calcicolous evergreen forest, temperate mesotrophic deciduous forest and boreal acidophilous coniferous forest. From this analysis, it emerges that the relatively wide range of countermeasures which, in theory, could be applied to forest ecosystems is much more limited when considering specific ecosystems and the variation between ecosystems.