ve
ee ie!
hells
aes
ee
ee
fe rut Sioui sides,
~ 25
marine plants, other than the coconuts, differ only slightly
from one another and from the slopes of the soil decay curves,
the average slope being -1.25 (-1.05 to -1.36).
s
This indicates
that in these plants little or no differential uptake of fission
product material has been taking place.
In coconuts, however,
fission products mixtures with longer half-lives have been absorbed into the meat and milk fractions.
Decay curve slopes
of -.96 and -.54 for the coconut meat and -.24 from the coco“@
nut milk indicate a different isotope mixture from that found in
je
643011 collected in the same area.
Birds
-
Birds were collected at four islands of the atoll.
Speci-
mens from the northern islands of Gejen, Kabelle and Labared j
were considered to be from the same area and were collected
on
&ll four dates, while those from the southern island of Ronge-
a lap were taken only on January 26, 1955.
. &
The birds are of two types as based on feeding habits and
Migratory characteristics.
These are:
(1) the noddy, crested
and fairy terns, which tend to stay in the vicinity of a few
islands within the atoll and feed principally on small fish, and
3
(2) the migratory shore birds, which are transients and feed
,
mainly on crustaceans along the beaches.
The latter group in-
cludes the plovers, curlews, turnstones, and tattlers.
The terns,
because of their limited tendency for nigratton,
are more representative than are the shore birds with regard to
@ chronic uptake of radioactive material.
AT
TAS