Etude expérimentale du transfert du cobalt 60 dans une chaine trophique marine benthique.

Experiments were carried out in order to quantify the transfer ofCo from the environment to various species of a benthic food chain. The food chain tested was composed of the diatom Navicula sp., the bivalve Scrobicularia plana, the shore crab Carcinus maenas, and the rat Rattus rattus. The diatoms take up large quantities of radiocobalt. The radio-activity accumulated (per unit weight) by the organisms studied decreases from one trophic level to the next. This result is particularly interesting from the point of sanitary protection. There is some biological control inCo uptake by these species. For both, invertebrate animals and rat, the quantity ofCo assimilated is independent of the quantity ingested with food. Preferential sites of cobalt accumulation are liver and kidneys in the rat, and hepatopancreas in the two invertebrate species examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]