Chornobyl
Chornobyl’s Legacy
To this day, Chornobyl is the most disastrous radioactive accidents in history and the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone remains one of the most radioactive environments worldwide. Our team seeks to determine the effects of long term radiation exposure, from characterizing chronic dose, to molecular and ecosystem level responses.
The Chornobyl Exclusion Zone
Radiation contamination levels across Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia (Nakamura et al. 2019)
In April 1986, the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded, releasing an estimated 50 million curies of radioactive material — atmospherically deposited across much of Europe and the former Soviet Union. More than 200,000 people were evacuated from the most heavily contaminated regions, and a 4,200 km² Chornobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) was established around the reactor. Radionuclides including cesium-137 and strontium-90, with half-lives measured in decades, remain embedded in the soil, vegetation, and food webs of the surrounding landscape.
Scientific understanding of the long-term ecological consequences of this contamination remains incomplete and, in some respects, contested. As nuclear energy production continues to expand globally, with Chornobyl, Fukushima, and Three Mile Island serving as precedents for large-scale environmental release, the need to characterize the biological effects of chronic, low-dose radiation exposure in wildlife and humans is necessary. In the absence of such data, it is impossible to create effective management and remediation plans for the protection of wildlife and humans inhabiting contaminated landscapes.
Przewalsksi’s horses utilizing an abandond barn in the CEZ. (Photo credit P. Schlichting)
Wildlife in Chornobyl
A cow and calf moose grazing in the CEZ. (Photo credit C. Love)
Since the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone was established, the surrounding landscape remains abandoned and void of most human presence. Eurasian lynx, brown bear, Przewalski's horses, and Eurasian bison, including threatened and endangered populations, now roam freely through abandoned infrastructure and regenerating forest. Gray wolf population densities within the exclusion zone are estimated at up to seven times higher than in surrounding protected reserves, suggesting that the exclusion of human disturbance may integral part in species’ use of the exclusion zone, and potentialy interact with radiation responces for some species. Whether these populations are merely persisting, or whether they are undergoing measurable adaptive evolution in response to chronic radiation stress, is a central question driving this research.
How much radiation are they exposed to?
Our team assesses the spatial and temporal variation in radiation levels experienced by wild, free-ranging carnivores in areas surrounding the nuclear accident. We deployed unique GPS collars that recorded geographic location and radiation exposure in real time.
Physiological and immunological consequences of lifelong radiation exposure
Ionizing radiation damages DNA, disrupts cellular repair mechanisms, and can dysregulate immune function. But the nature and magnitude of these effects under chronic, low-dose conditions remain poorly characterized relative to acute exposure. Using a suite of physiological, hematological, and immunological assays, our research works to define what sustained radiation exposure does to the bodies of wild animals living in the CEZ across their entire lifespans, and across multiple generations.
What can we learn from the genomic architecture of populations experiencing multigenerational radiation exposure?
We utilize genomic and transcriptomic techniques to examine this question from many angles. Is there evidence chronic radiation exposure is acting as a selective force on these populations? Does the CEZ act as a barrier to gene flow? Is there evidence that genetic variation within Chornobyl populations allows for increased resilience to radiation exposure?
(Photo credit Dmitry Shamovich)
Translational implications for human medicine and cancer biology
The biological challenges faced by Chornobyl wildlife in the form of chronic genotoxic stress, elevated oxidative damage, and persistent immune modulation, are not unlike those confronted by cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy, or by human populations living in proximity to contaminated environments. In collaboration with academic and private cancer research groups, our work investigates whether the molecular mechanisms underlying radiation resilience in CEZ populations can inform the development of novel therapeutic or protective strategies in human medicine. Animals that have survived and reproduced across multiple generations of radiation exposure may carry biological solutions to problems that remain unsolved in clinical oncology.
This research is part of a large collaborative project. The labs I work most closely with are the Campbell-Staton Lab and Lance Lab. For a full list of collaborators please refer to our publications, or reach out with specific questions.
