Ecological Impacts of Ionizing Radiation: Follow-up Studies of Nonhuman Species at Fukushima

Studies of the biological effects of radiation are often long-term projects, as radioisotopes that produce ionizing radiation that impacts organisms tend to have long half-lives. Seven years have passed since the Fukushima, Japan, nuclear power plant accident caused by the Tohoku Earthquake. Following that event, several researchers reported on their studies of some of the biological effects of radiation on wild plant and animal species in a special Journal of Heredity collection, "Outcomes of Fukushima: Biological Effects of Radiation on Nonhuman Species" (Hayashi et al. 2014; Mousseau and Moller 2014; Steen and Mousseau 2014; Taira et al. 2014). Here, we provide a second set of reports focused on further studies on these organisms, as well as descriptions of new research directions.

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