Soil Microbes and Plant-Associated Microbes in Response to Radioactive Pollution May Indirectly Affect Plants and Insect Herbivores: Evidence for Indirect Field Effects from Chernobyl and Fukushima

The biological impacts of the nuclear accidents in Chernobyl (1986) and Fukushima (2011) on wildlife have been studied in many organisms over decades, mainly from dosimetric perspectives based on laboratory experiments using indicator species. However, ecological perspectives are required to understand indirect field-specific effects among species, which are difficult to evaluate under dosimetric laboratory conditions. From the viewpoint that microbes play a fundamental role in ecosystem function as decomposers and symbionts for plants, we reviewed studies on microbes inhabiting soil and plants in Chernobyl and Fukushima in an attempt to find supporting evidence for indirect field-specific effects on plants and insect herbivores. Compositional changes in soil microbes associated with decreases in abundance and species diversity were reported, especially in heavily contaminated areas of both Chernobyl and Fukushima, which may accompany explosions of radioresistant species. In Chernobyl, the population size of soil microbes remained low for at least 20 years after the accident, and the abundance of plant-associated microbes, which are related to the growth and defense systems of plants, possibly decreased. These reported changes in microbes likely affect soil conditions and alter plant physiology. These microbe-mediated effects may then indirectly affect insect herbivores through food-mass-mediated, pollen-mediated, and metabolite-mediated interactions. Metabolite-mediated interactions may be a major pathway for ecological impacts at low pollution levels and could explain the decreases in insect herbivores in Fukushima. The present review highlights the importance of the indirect field effects of long-term low-dose radiation exposure under complex field circumstances

Metabolomic Profiles of the Creeping Wood Sorrel <i>Oxalis corniculata</i> in Radioactively Contaminated Fields in Fukushima: Dose-Dependent Changes in Key Metabolites

The biological impacts of the Fukushima nuclear accident, in 2011, on wildlife have been studied in many organisms, including the pale grass blue butterfly and its host plant, the creeping wood sorrel Oxalis corniculata. Here, we performed an LC–MS-based metabolomic analysis on leaves of this plant collected in 2018 from radioactively contaminated and control localities in Fukushima, Miyagi, and Niigata prefectures, Japan. Using 7967 peaks detected by LC–MS analysis, clustering analyses showed that nine Fukushima samples and one Miyagi sample were clustered together, irrespective of radiation dose, while two Fukushima (Iitate) and two Niigata samples were not in this cluster. However, 93 peaks were significantly different (FDR 1R1H1; peptide) or downregulated (DHAP(10:0); decanoyl dihydroxyacetone phosphate) most at the low dose rates. Therefore, this plant likely responded to radioactive pollution in Fukushima by upregulating and downregulating key metabolites. Furthermore, plant-associated endophytic microbes may also have responded to pollution, suggesting their contributions to the stress response of the plant

Illumination normalization with time-dependent intrinsic images for video surveillance

Cast shadows produce troublesome effects for video surveillance systems, typically for object tracking from a fixed viewpoint, since it yields appearance variations of objects depending on whether they are inside or outside the shadow. To robustly eliminate these shadows from image sequences as a preprocessing stage for robust video surveillance, we propose a framework based on the idea of intrinsic images. Unlike previous methods for deriving intrinsic images, we derive time-varying reflectance images and corresponding illumination images from a sequence of images. Using obtained illumination images, we normalize the input image sequence in terms of incident lighting distribution to eliminate shadow effects. We also propose an illumination normalization scheme which can potentially run in real time, utilizing the illumination eigenspace, which captures the illumination variation due to weather, time of day etc., and a shadow interpolation method based on shadow hulls. This paper describes the theory of the framework with simulation results, and shows its effectiveness with object tracking results on real scene data sets for traffic monitoring.

Original pictures of September 2011: Morphological abnormalities in the field samples of the pale grass blue butterfly for three years after the Fukushima nuclear accident

From 2011 to 2013, a total of six field sampling surveys of the pale grass blue butterfly Zizeeria maha were conducted after the Fukushima nuclear accident. The first survey was in May 2011, two months after the accident, and this is the picture set of 22 specimens with morphological abnormalities from the second survey in September 2011. The detailed description for each abnormality is compiled in table and picture sheet separately and should be referred with these original pictures. Collected dataset including instruction, table, picture sheet, and original pictures of all six surveys are available below.  Collection of instruction, table, picture sheet, and original pictures: 10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6425981</p

Original pictures of May 2013: Morphological abnormalities in the field samples of the pale grass blue butterfly for three years after the Fukushima nuclear accident

From 2011 to 2013, a total of six field sampling surveys of the pale grass blue butterfly Zizeeria maha were conducted after the Fukushima nuclear accident. The first survey was in May 2011, two months after the accident, and this is the picture set of 10 specimens with morphological abnormalities from the fifth survey in May 2013. The detailed description for each abnormality is compiled in table and picture sheet separately and should be referred with these original pictures. Collected dataset including instruction, table, picture sheet, and original pictures of all six surveys are available below.  Collection of instruction, table, picture sheet, and original pictures: 10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6425981</p