Cesium-137 monitoring using lichens from W. Macedonia, N. Greece

137Cs content in lichens and substrate (soil, bark) collected from W. Macedonia, Greece was measured 20 years after the Chernobyl reactor accident. Archive material from previous collections was also used for comparison and a diachronic estimation of the radio-contamination status. A gradual decrease was detected which depended on various factors such as the collected species, location, growth rate and substrate. Maximum accumulation capacity of 137Cs was observed in epilithic lichens in comparison to epigeic or epiphytic ones. Furthermore, foliose or crustose lichens such as Parmelia sulcata, Xanthoria parietina, Xanthoria calcicola, Xanthoparmelia somloensis were more contaminated than filamentose at the same biotope. Among filamentose or fruticose species those with large surface area to biomass ratio e.g. Usnea sp. showed also greater accumulation capacity. Autoradiography revealed an amount of 137Cs distributed more or less uniformly in lichen thalli. The high 137Cs activities found in lichens 20 years after Chernobyl suggest that these primitive plants are effective, suitable and inexpensive biological detectors of the distribution and burden of fallout radionuclide fallout pattern.