Past and recent trends in radioecology

The development of radioecology may be characterized by a number of nuclear events over the past fifty years. Radioecology was born in the midforties and developed rapidly during the fifties and sixties when nuclear weapons testing in the atmosphere was at its height. In the seventies and early eighties, marine radioecology came into focus due to the notable discharges of water-borne radionuclides from nuclear reprocessing in western Europe. The Chernobyl accident in 1986 changed the interest back to terrestrial radioecology. In the nineties, the political changes in the former Soviet Union have made possible international radioecological studies of contaminated terrestrial and marine sites in Russia. Future objectives for radioecology may be found in subtropical and tropical environments.