Abstract
To clarify the behavior of 137Cs absorbed in the stem wood 5 years after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, 137Cs concentration was measured in a radial direction, from sapwood to heartwood, in the stem wood of 33-year-old sugi (Cryptomeria japonica) trees. Understanding the mechanism of absorption and movement of 137Cs to stem wood is necessary while searching for clues that may help to predict the transit of 137Cs into the xylem tissues. Therefore, we investigated the radial variation in 137Cs concentration in sugi, trees, and then we tried to elucidate the relationship between 137Cs concentration and potassium (K) content. A group of trees with a high heartwood:sapwood 137Cs concentration ratio showed significantly higher K and moisture contents and lower lightness value (L∗) than those of another group of trees, which showed lower K concentrations in the wood. Heartwood:sapwood 137Cs concentration ratio was significantly and positively correlated with heartwood:sapwood K content ratio. Based on these results, we propose that the translocation of 137Cs from sapwood to heartwood is related to the heartwood:sapwood K content ratio in sugi trees.
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Acknowledgment
This research was financially supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant numbers 24110001, 15K07496, and 17K00635. We would like to thank our many collaborators, Center for Bioscience Research and Education, and University Forest, Utsunomiya University, for assistance in this experiment.
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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Iizuka, K. et al. (2019). Translocation of 137Cs in the Woody Parts of Sugi (Cryptomeria japonica). In: Takenaka, C., Hijii, N., Kaneko, N., Ohkubo, T. (eds) Radiocesium Dynamics in a Japanese Forest Ecosystem. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8606-0_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8606-0_5
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