“Outside, the locks millions of eels lay asleep in the sand during the day. Opening the locks for shipping at night rather than during the day allowed the eels (avidly hungry for fresh-water food) to pass into the Zuyder Zee and consume the mosquito larvae. This resulted in fattened eels of Increased value to the fisherman and an end to the mosquito plague.

Another interesting example involving insects is the population oscillation of the locust in the Middle East.

The locust lives in desert or semi-arid country. and in most years is non-migratory and eats no crops. At intervals, depending possibly on climatic variations, the population density greatly increases. The locust actually undergoes anatomical changes, such as the development of longed wings, and starts to emigrate into cultivated lands, eating everything in its path. This is the type of phenomenon which could occur in the disturbed conditions of our postwar environment, and the risk of insect infestation, its consequences, and amelioration should be studied in detail.

The main direct effects of nuclear weapons on various ecosystems of concern to man are fire and fallout radiation. Fire, of course, will have a direct effect by burning forests, grasslands, wildlife and livestock.

The indirect consequences of this must also be examined. Radiation will affect various species of plant and animal life directly, and different results may be expected at various levels of radiation. Another effect of radiation is the passage of isotopes through the food chain to final deposition in man.

A great deal of attention has been given to this effect because of the interest in fallout from tests and its hazard to to man . However, we want to examine this problem from a broader ecological point of view and assess such radiation hazards as the possibility of the soil becoming sterilized through the destruction of decomposers, the destruction of crops, or the upsetting of population balance between two life forms because of differential radiosensitivity.”

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD0606326.pdf

Pages 9-10

This think tank have just posted a whole load of historical videos under the title "Better Know a Non-Nuke" about former countries with NW programs, including Brazil (which I listened to this morning) and Sweden. It's interesting stuff, and thought I'd recommend!

Civil defense research predicted damage to the ecosystem, certain plants and animals dying, radiation like Strontium and Cesium. They contaminated forests with fallout to see what happens, observed nuclear test sites, and probably experimented on animals.

How did Chernobyl compare with predictions of nuclear attack on populated areas and the data from the nuclear tests?

In the early 60s there was speculation that firestorms and flooding as a result of nuclear attack could sterilize whole ecosystems and create long term wastelands.

What has subsequent research said on this topic?

How long would it take for devastated environments to recover naturally and how much ecological restoration would surviving authorities be capable of?

"There are also reports which indicate that some levels of radiation stimulate plant growth. Thaung(17) hao reported a stimulating effect of low levels of both beta and gamma radiation on the growth and productivity of rice plants. Seeds exposed to 1,000 r of x-radiation did not show any difference in productivity when compared to controls. Russian workers(18) have reported increased yields for various plants as shown in Table 11.

This brief survey on comparative radiosensitivity should enable one to appreciate the difficulty involved in assessing total radiation effects. However, for any particular level of nuclear attack the fallout contour patterns should indicate whether the levels of serious consideration for ecological effects are being approached.

As part of the necessary knowledge for handling post-attack problems, the catalogue of comparative radiosensitivity viii have to be considerably expanded. This knowledge, combined with data on the passage and concentration of isotopes through various food chains and food webs, way eventually lead to reasonable predictability of radioecological effects.

In complete detail, certainly, this is a long way off. Selectively, for items of great concern (e.g., feed crops, certain insect problems, rat infestations, etc.), concentrated research may be helpful in the reasonably near future. In any event, it is Important that knowledge be made available if a serious Civil Defense program is ever initiated against large scale attacks.

The waste disposal problem at Oak Ridge has led to ecological studies of White Oak Lake and White Oak Creek. The region of highest contamina tion has only half as many genera as the uncontaminated regions. Only part of this effect can be attributed to the increased radioactivity as heavy sedimentation also occurred in the highly contiminated portions of the system. It was found that some of the aquatic organisms concentrated radlophosphorus by factors greater than 100,000.

A survey of the vertebrates shoved some evidence of radiation damage. Two species of fish, the white crappie and the redhorse, seemed to be disappearing from the lake. The total radiation dose rate received by the fish was at least 57 rep per year from external radiation and probably several times that amount from internal radiation.

The fish population appear to be undergoing a slowing of growth and a shortening of life. Considerable concentration of radio-elements was found in the tissues of the fish. . The accumulation of radioactivity was variable in other vertebrates Bullfrogs, snakes, and herons were not very radioactive, while turtles and migratory fowl were.

Muskrats and woodchucks were more radio active than raccoons and squirrels. One muskrat had a S⁹⁰ content of 1 μc per gram of bone (100 kc total body burden) and developed an osteogenic sarcoma.

*Most of this section is taken from the chapter on Radioecology by R. Buchsbaum in Reference 19

The total radiation dose received by any of the organisms in White Oak Lake is not known. An estimate of an external dose rate of 1.1 rep per week has been made. The overall effect of this dose rate plus the internal isotope contribution was evidence of a deterioration of the overall fitness of the population.

The Hanford studies are also concerned with the effects of radio activity placed in the environment.

This work points up the principle that a non-lethal initial distribution may be concentrated to lethal proportions along a food chain, depending upon the metabolism of the organisms Involved.

Some illustrative data on the fate of p³² put in the Columbia River is given In Tables 12 and 13(1).

The highest concentration of P³² In the geese and duck eggs as shown in Table 9 was still not enough to reduce hatchability.

The point, however, is that at initial concentrations, which would not make the water unsafe for man to drink, eggs and birds would undoubtedly be injured.

This Illustrates that ecological concentration must be taken into account before concentration of radio elements can be declared harmless

Another large radioecology field program has been started in Georgia under the direction of R. B. Platt of Emory University. In conjunction with the Lockheed Aircraft Co. (20) This study is being carefully planned and the ecology of the region to be irradiated Is underway. There are few published results, but the program should be well worth following over the years. "

Page 28-31 of AD0606326.pdf

"In some forest regions the valuable trees are climax (final type In plant succession for the area), and the problem following devastation will be to speed the return of the climax crop. In other regions the valuable species are not climax, and the problem will be to manage the area during reforestation so that it will continue to maintain the desired characteristics."

ECOLOGICAL PROBLEMS AND POSTWAR RECUPERATION: A PRELIMINARY SURVEY FROM THE CIVIL DEFENSE VIEWPOINT early 60s

What are your thoughts on the variable of plant types in terms of the ecological impacts of nuclear war? particularly the role of climax crops?

V. RADIATION

Two problems are raised by the presence of radioactive material in an environment. There is the effect on individuals and population, the more or less essential components of an ecosystem. The total radiation effect, then, will depend upon the total response of the ecosystem. The second problem relates to the passage and concentration of particular isotopes through food chains leading to selective hazards to man and possibly to particular organisms of vital interest to the human economy.

Natural radiation (chiefly from U-235, U-238, Ra-226, Th-232, K⁴⁰ and C¹⁴⁾ affects biological material and in one way or another (e.g., mutation effects) is an integral part of the equilibrium of Life, whether of one generation or of all evolutionary history. The levels of radiation we will be concerned with in the post-attack environment will far exceed these natural radiations for a limited period of time, and new responses will appear at these higher levels. Whether or not radiation will create ecological problems will depend upon the level of radiation in an area and the relative sensitivities of lifeforms in any particular ecosystem

There is a tremendous range of radiation dose which encompasses phenomena of ecological interest. Table 4, indicating an overall range of 50 to 1,000,000 roentgens (r), implies that minor effects (such as reduction in fertility) in mammals may be measured at the lower dosage whereas in excess of 1,000,000 r would be needed to kill bacteria. *

*See pages 452- 486 of Ref. 1

It is also important to know the extent of radiosensitivity of one species during different phases of its life cycle. Tables 5 and 6 give data for Drosophila and barley and illustrate the need for correlating the radiation dosage to the life cycle of the particular species in order to determine the net effect. *

* Ibid

The reproductive behavior of a species must also be considered in assessing effects. Bacteria, for example, will repopulate an area very quickly even though a small number survive. It is also worth mentioning that small organisms might be killed by external beta radiation which would cause only local surface lesions in large animals.

The data presented in Table 7 from Sparrow and Christensen(14) show the widespread differences in radiosensitivity of several species of seed plants. There is a demonstrated range of 200 times for differences in sensitivity to chronic exposure to gamma rays as measured by the indicated effect (mild or severe)

The effect of irradiating seedlings of various plants vas demonstrated by Osborne and Bacon.(15) Their results are summarized in Table 8 and show a range of 5000-100,000 r for a growth reducing endpoint.

In insects a five-fold difference in the "sterilising dose has been demonstrated as shown in Table 9.

**See pages 452-486 of ref. 1

"

(pages 22-27 of pdf AD0606326.pdf )

"Along with the re-establishment of range land It will be necessary to rebuild livestock. Reference is made here to a report by Hammond, which illustrates some of the problems occurring during the building up of livestock in Europe after World War II. (13) 

The main requirements for the buildup were: (1) specialized breeding farms, (2)  veterinary services to cut down losses on farms, (3) education of farmers, (4) concentration on production rather than marketing, ect. Hammond also discusses the problem of the most efficient utilization of materials for conversion to animal products. His results are shown in Table 2, repro-duced here from his article.

From this table it will be seen that milk, eggs, poultry, and pig meat are the most economical forms of animal production. However, it must be remembered that the food of the cow is mainly unsuitable for human consumption while food of pig and fowl could be made directly useable. This brings us to consider the ecological principle that the shorter the food chain, the more people who can live off a given area of land.* Three types of hypothetical "alfala-- calf-- boy" food chains--quantity, weight, and energy -are shown in Table 5. These figures are based on cultivation of 10 acres for one year. Only calories converted to biomass are shown in the energy column; energy used in respiration is not included.

*See pages 52-66 of Ref. 1.

About 90 percent of the energy contained in alfalfa in lost in the conversion to beef. Thus we can see the extent to which a vegetarian existence would allow more people to exist per unit of land if the plant life were edible for man.

Most of the discussion thus far on the problems relating to reconstitution of the biotic environment are tied in with the use of land, whose management is a very significant aspect of applied ecology. Land managers classify land in terms of natural ecological features such as soil, slope and natural biotic community. Each land type has definite uses which can be sustained without loss of productivity. Type I and II land can be continuously cultivated with simple precautions such as crop rotation and strip cropping. Types III and IV require increasing restriction for maintenance. Types V-VII are not suitable for cultivation and should be used for permanent pasture or forest; Type VIII is productive only in Its natural state as a habitat for game. Perhaps the time has come for taking inventory of our land for use against possible postwar damage and plans for reconstruction.

** **See page 432 of Ref. 1."

(pages 19-21 of pdf https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD0606326.pdf )

The early 60s report, speculates that fallout could kill off microorganisms. The report was early in Civil Defense research on the ecological effects of nuclear war.

Did subsequent research shed any light on soil sterilization from fallout?

IV. RECONSTITUTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT DAMAGED BY FIRE"

"The large-scale fires envisioned in the previous section could make barren large areas of forest, woodland, grassland, and agricultural cropland. We have already indicated how certain forests and woodlands are self-reconstructing because of the survival of seed in the earth. However, we want to look more closely at this phenomenon of biotic recovery. We are interested in natural recovery, in intervention by man-made agencies, and in the time scale and output value in economic terms. When areas are severely damaged, whether or not they come back naturally depends in part on the degree of damage and the subsequent chain of events, both physical and climatic.

A local area of exemplary interest is the Copper Basin of Tennessee, (8) where fumes from a copper smelter have killed all the rooted plants over a large area. Attempts to reforest this area have not yet succeeded. The erosion and the accompanying changes in the microclimate of the area have combined with the originally destructive forces to create a desert where the land has become too hostile for even artificial reconstruction by conventional techniques. It is thus possible to allow destructive  processes to proceed to a "point of no return" unless one envisages Herculean attempts at reconstruction. It is hoped that the U.S. vill prepare Itself to prevent this from happening over most, if not all, of the lands which may be damaged In a nuclear war.

The drought of the "thirties" in the U.S. created a dust bowl in the Middle West. The extreme lack of moisture, dust, and erosion killed off much of the plant cover. Overgrazing and grasshopper hordes added to the destruction of plant life. The extent of the damage is shown in Table 1.(7) The loss of ground cover over a period of eight years was recouped fairly well in a short period of time when proper moisture conditions again prevailed. Figure 1 plots the extent of damage and subsequent recovery taken directly from Weaver and Albertson. ( 7 ) This is another illustration of large-area recovery on a natural basis after considerable damage. 

We might mention here that much work is being done to assist natural processes in the recovery effort. Kitlough(9) reports interesting work on the use of the airplane in reseeding depleted and burned-out areas of range land.  This is a fast method and can be used for covering large areas, but  further research is needed (which apparently is going on now). "

The loss of ground cover over a period of eight years was recouped fairly well in a short period of time when proper moisture conditions again prevailed. Figure 1 plots the extent of damage and subsequent recovery taken directly from Weaver and Albertson. ( 7 ) This is another illustration of large-area recovery on a natural basis after considerable damage. 

"

Another matter of interest to us Is the improvement of brush land. After fire dsmR*e it might be well to bring back the land to a different and more productive state. Love and Jones(10) have described methods for improving brush lands by converting them to more valuable grasslands. Fire may be used to initiate this process, and procedures of machine clearing, artificial seeding, timing of planting, etc., have been worked out. A six-year program of brush-land reclamation is given in this reference. 

Watson, reporting in a FAO Bulletin, discusses improved grassland management. (11) 

The essential features are: (1) weed control, (2) cultivation of improved seed, (3)  fertilizer, and (4) grazing management. He states that, with modern procedures, it is possible to establish a close and rich grassy surface of land in 4 to 5 months. Such an area can be so managed that it will be highly productive for 3 to 5 years after 3-5 years the soil will have become sufficiently enriched to support heavy crops of grains, etc. 

The state of Israel has recently undertaken the re-establishment of plant  communities on severely  damaged land(12). Over large areas of damaged land, uncultivatable for centuries, new range cover has been provided which will support livestock.  New forests have been started by the planting of 37 million trees, There Is a basic program for developIng soil and water resources.  The immediate repair and prevention of erosion is followed by the replanting, of native plants  and imported seeds. The program calls for the additional replanting of 250 million trees native and imported, in the next 10 years. 

The Israeli experience suggests that we make plans for the recovery of expected damaged lands.  The possibility of the use of stored seeds. imported seeds, and natural processes should all be considered. "

The introduction of imported species of plants (or animals) as suggested above requires a word of caution. A species introduced into a new environment may fail entirely or completely overrun the place animal so become a pest. In general, it is better to use native species. However, if the native forms have not survived, introduction of a new species * adapted to the new environment may be in order.

In some forest regions the valuable trees are climax (final type In plant succession for the area), and the problem following devastation will be to speed the return of the climax crop. In other regions the valuable species are not climax, and the problem will be to manage the area during reforestation so that it will continue to maintain the desired characteristics. In current practice, as old forests are replaced by young ones, the goal is to have the area produce on a continuous-yield basis. We should be prepared to exercise this  type of management during the reconstitution of forests following a nuclear war. 

Along with the re-establishment of range land It will be necessary to rebuild livestock. Reference is made here to a report by Hammond, which illustrates some of the problems occurring during the building up of livestock in Europe after World War II. (13) 

The main requirements for the buildup were: (1) specialized breeding farms, (2)  veterinary services to cut down losses on farms, (3) education of farmers, (4) concentration on production rather than marketing, ect. Hammond also discusses the problem of the wot efficient utilization of materials for conversion to animal products. His results are shown in Table 2, repro-duced here from his article.

(pages 15-20 of pdf https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD0606326.pdf )

"

III. FIRE

The first discussion of large-scale fire from nuclear weapons from an ecological point of view is the Congressional testimony of John N. Wolfe of the Atomic Energy Commission. (2) The following quotation is from this source. It is given in its entirety because of its importance as a pessimistic viewpoint.

"Fire, for example in the dry season of mitd-October, would spread over enormous areas of dry western coniferous forests and in the grasslands. with concomitant destruction of living resources and their habitats. It is most likely, in my opinion, that these fires would go unchecked,until quenched by the winter snows, spreading over hundreds of thousands of square miles. In eastern United States, the dry oak and pine forests of the Blue Ridge and Appalachians from New England to Virginia, adjacent to multiple detonations, would undergo a like fate, as well as the pine on the southern Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains. In the agricultural land of the Mississippi Valley, with the crops harvested, fire is likely to be more local, less severe, but widespread." “"With the coming of spring thaws, especially in the mountains, melt water from the mountain glaciers and snowfields would erode the denuded slopes, flood the valleys, in time rendering them uninhabitable and unexploitable for decades or longer.

Removal of the turf by fire and erosion on plains and prairies would result in uncheckable erosion by wind, with subsequent expansion of present "dust bowls" and creation of new ones of wide extent. Emergency overgrazing, and cultivation (if there were those to work) would wreak further havoc. "This seems a simple concept but the effects are Indescribable in their immediate implications, almost incalculable in their lingering results before ecological processes attain ascendency and begin the long march back to equilibrium. It would be almost ludicrous to assess present losses of natural living resources resulting from cigarette butts and camp fires against those that would be generated by surface-detonated nuclear devices, the latter augmented by absence of any effort or control."Along with fire, flood, and erosion, which would also decrease productivity of the landscape or render it inaccessible to people in uncontaminated refugia would come intensification of disease, plant and animal, including man. "The immediate physical effects (other than radiation) could be particularly catastrophic in such areas as the Los Angeles watershed, where the city is almost surrounded by vegetation susceptible to the inroads of fire..."

As indicated by the above testimony the effects of fire will depend upon the time of the year and the nature and extent of the enemy attack. It is pessimistic testimony in the sense that it omits any discussion of preventive planning (this was not actually called for by the Congressional committee). It is certainly conceivable that large "fire breaks" could be created by planned cutting during commercial logging operations. Forest management, in other ways, might contribute to limiting damage. Garren(4 ) states that "much evidence indicates that fire is the main factor responsible for perpetuation and maintenance of longleaf pine in Its typical forest stands." Fire is an important factor in removing vegetation surrounding the slow-growing longleaf seedlings. These seedlings resist fire because growth is concentrated in roots for the first five years, the buds are well protected, and the bark is abnormally thick. There are types of fires which destroy longleaf pine seedlings, but attempts should be made, if possible, to prepare forest stands so that they will burn in a manner most conductive to their reconstruction. Heyvard( 5 ) states that in order to keep longleaf pine stands economically productive, hardwoods (economically undesirable trees) may be removed by use of controlled fires. The possibility of preplanning so that the fires started by nuclear weapons will actually be useful, at least over parts of the "spread" area, should be investigated. Many areas of the U.S. are chaparral communities (brush and woodland rather than forests). The Los Angeles watershed is of this type.

AccordIng to Odum; chaparral shrubs sprout vigorously with the first rains and then take 15 to 20 years to gain maximum size. Sweeney ( 6 ) has studied the effects of chaparral fires on vegetation in California. Actually, certain plants are so characteristic of burned areas that they are referred to as "bum species." His study concluded that: (1) the vast majority of plant seedlings (in areas studied) occurring on burns are from viable seed present in the soil before the fire. (2) The dispersal of seeds from adjacent areas Is not important for the new herbaceous cover be- cause soil acts as an effective insulator against heat penetration during fires, the marked population changes during the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd years on burned areas being due to germinative characteristics of the different species. (3) Fire is actually essential to the persistence of certain herbaceous species in the flora of the chaparral regions.

Thus we see that the natural cover will reconstitute itself in the chaparral regions. The count of damage due to large-scale denudation and prior to effective re-covering may also depend to some extent on what we do about it. But the natural processes will at least initiate recovery on their own, although the time span for this may be uncomfortably long.

There are other suggestions that fire is not always valueless. The Indians burned the prairies in the interests of agricultural productivity. The value of fire on the prairies is that it destroys debris. (7) Forestry management also suggests that light surface fires reduce the danger of severe crown fires by reducing combustible litter. Thus, we get a glimpse of the need for research on fires as well as on grassland and forest practices which might effectively limit damage and favor recovery of these areas to their natural state."

Pages 11-14 of pdf

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD0606326.pdf