How Chernobyl Affected Nutrient Cycles
Water CycleIn a matter of hours the radioisotopes had already leached into some of the water reservoirs near the Chernobyl Power Plant following the explosion. The river Desna that was located within a few short miles of the plant received large amounts of radioactive material and particles in the water. These contaminating and highly dangerous particles would spread throughout the river, infecting all of the rivers ecosystems as currents brought the radioactive isotopes further downstream. Also, steam released into the atmosphere by the explosion itself carried minute traces of radiation and by evaporating into the clouds the radioisotopes caused acid rain to fall to the ground, only furthering the contamination of the ground water below the surface of the earth. With the ground water itself contaminated all of the producers in the area would take in the radiation through their roots and slowly kill them off. It would unbalance the entire biome of the European continent.
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Nitrogen CycleThe reservoirs that contain nitrogen would end up becoming contaminated with radioisotopes due to the fact that any plants would absorb them along with minerals from the soil through their roots. Also the radioactive particles could destroy some of the bacteria in the biome that fixed the nitrogen for the environment, effectively limiting the nitrogen cycle from producing enough of the nutrient to sustain the plant and animal life inside the biome.
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