PAST AND RECENT TRENDS IN RADIOECOLOGY

The development of radioecology may be characterized by a number of nu clear events over the past fifty years. Radioecology was born in the m idforties and developed rapidly during the fifties and sixties when nu clear weapons testing in the atmosphere was at its height. In the seve nties and early eighties, marine radioecology came into focus due to t he notable discharges of water-borne radionuclides from nuclear reproc essing in western Europe. The Chernobyl accident in 1986 changed the i nterest back to terrestrial radioecology. In the nineties, the politic al changes in the former Soviet Union have made possible international radioecological studies of contaminated terrestrial and marine sites in Russia. Future objectives for radioecology may be found in subtropi cal and tropical environments.