Changing ecosystems in the CEZ

A demonstration of changing ecosystems in the CEZ

 

This photograph, taken in the summer of 1993, shows a site used for early EURATOM funded research in the CEZ (studying the transfer of radionuclides to dairy cattle, see: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0265-931X(99)00037-5 & http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2007.01.032). The site is approximately 3.5 km from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The power plant is behind where the photographer was stood and was clearly visible.

This second photograph was taken twenty years later in 2013. The photographer is now stood on the other side of the animal shelter which can be seen in the first photograph, looking towards where the 1993 photograph was taken from. The meadow is now ‘young forest’ and the nuclear power plant is no longer visible (the corrugated metal on the floor is the animal shelter which has now collapsed).