Cesium and strontium in Black Sea macroalgae

• An extraction chromatography method for radiochemical separation of Sr and Cs.
• Assessment of Sr and Cs accumulation capacity of six Black Sea macroalgae species.
• Connection between the isotopes and their stable elements content in algae.
• Assessment of Sr and Cs content in ecosystems along the Bulgarian coast.

The trace level of metals and particularly radioactive ones should be monitored to evaluate the transfer along the trophic chain, assess the risk for biota and can be used for global changes assessment. Plants respond rapidly to all changes in the ecosystem conditions and are widely used as indicators and predictors for changes in hydrology and geology. In this work we represent our successful development and applications of a methodology for monitoring of stable and radioactive strontium and cesium in marine biota (Black Sea algae's). In case of radioactive release they are of high interest. We use ED-XRF, gamma spectrometers and LSC instrumentation and only 0.25 g sample. Obtained results are compared with those of other authors in same regions. The novelty is the connection between the radioactive isotopes and their stable elements in algae in time and space scale. All our samples were collected from Bulgarian Black Sea coast.