Only one in Belarus after the Chernobyl accident, radioactive contamination was subjected to 17,000 square kilometers of forests and 18 000 sq km of farmland. In Ukraine, the figure was 35,000 square kilometers of forest and 15,000 square kilometers of fields and pastures, respectively.

What consequences had the accident at the Chernobyl reactor plant world?

Coniferous and deciduous trees in the forests as filters absorbed radiation. Dropped out in the form of precipitation radiation initially concentrated in them. To date, the radionuclides already moved into the soil with dead leaves and pine needles. Over the next decade they will accumulate in the wood. To date, most infected are typical forest plants like berries and mushrooms, heather, ferns and lichens. This also applies to less contaminated areas with contamination level of 1-2 Ci / sq.km. The level of contamination of other plants in the forest is different and depends on the type of plant, type of root system and soil composition. Plants whose roots lie in the surface layer of soil, infected more than plants with sheath root system where roots in deep soil layers for the absorption of nutrients. Where soils are poor in minerals, plants soak up particularly large amounts of cesium, because they did not differ from potassium. Obviously the degree of soil also plays a role. For example, the vegetation of meadows and pastures where the soil is not plowed, polluted by a factor of 3-5 times more than potatoes and wheat in the fields, which are grown annually. Genetic consequences of radioactive contamination to the plants is estimated today in many ways. "Most of the plants in the contaminated areas are not genetically changed." - Assesses the situation as the Belarusian State Committee on Problems of the Consequences of the Chernobyl disaster. But at the same time, the Committee does not exclude the possibility that selection has occurred and is dominated by the most resistant to radiation of the plant. It also reported that a decreased ability to germinate. There is information about deviations in the processes of photosynthesis and the formation of the protein. Scientists of the Basel Institute. Friedrich Mishera 14 years after the crash landed near the reactor and the 30-kilometer zone of wheat seeds. Already after 10 months (one generation), mutation rate of these plants was 6.63 ppm. On the control section, this figure had reached only 1.03 ppm (number of mutations per thousand units).

What consequences had the accident at the Chernobyl reactor to the animal world?

Among livestock, most radionuclides accumulate in the body (in meat and milk), herbivorous animals such as cows and goats. Also in the forest areas there is a practice of livestock grazing on forest pastures, which are even more polluted than the meadows. Wild animals in the contaminated forests still accumulate a large number of radionuclides, as feed contaminated with lichens, berries and mushrooms. Among the wild animals of forest carnivores such as wolves and foxes are accumulating doses up to 12 times higher than the corresponding values of herbivores on which they feed. The rivers and lakes in the contaminated territories radionuclides are concentrated mainly in the sediments. Here, there are levels of contamination up to 1 million becquerels per cubic meter of silt. Because Fish find food in the mud, then the level of pollution is also very high.