Seasonal variation of the concentrations of 137Cs in sediment, sea water, and some organisms collected from Izmir Bay and Didim

Cs-137 in the marine environment mainly originates from fallout of atmospheric nuclear weapon tests, accidental releases from nuclear facilities, and from the Chernobyl accident. After the latter accident, many studies have been carried out in Turkey. The objective of this study is to assess the spatial distribution of Cs-137 in the coastal marine environment of the Aegean Sea. The concentrat'ions of Cs-137 in sediment, sea water, mussel (Mytilus galloprovincialis), and fish samples collected from the coast of the Aegean Sea at Izmir Bay and near Didim (Akbuk) have been monitored for seasonal variability by the means of gamma spectroscopy: they vary between 0.10 +/- 0.01 and 1.5 +/- 0.3 Bq kg 1, 1.3 +/- 0.1 and 4.3 +/- 0.4 Bq m(-3), < 0.2 and 1.3 +/- 0.3 Bq kg(-1), and 0.20 +/- 0.03 and 1.8 +/- 0.3 Bq kg(-1), respectively.