Radiation Doses Sustained by Lizards in a Continuously Irradiated Natural Enclosure

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc

E-ISSN: 1939-9170|49|3|548-551

ISSN: 0012-9658

Source: Ecology, Vol.49, Iss.3, 1968-05, pp. : 548-551

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Abstract

Desert lizards occupying a 20—acre experimental facility continuously exposed to gamma radiation sustain tissue doses which are less than the cumulative free—air dose. Vegetation and terrain afford some shielding, but time spent below ground is the major source of protection. We estimate that, in the course of a year, tissue doses sustained by Uta stansburiana are from 0.3 to 0.6 of the cumulative free—air dose, and that about 1/3 of the total dose is experienced between June and August. Cnemidophorus tigris spends less time above ground, and sustains annual doses representing only about 0.1 to 0.2 of total incident gamma radiation. The dose experience of Crotaphytus wislizeni is intermediate to the other two species. Dose regimes experienced by Uta stansburiana in the experimental area are not acutely lethal.