XVI International Botanical Congess

Concentrations of 137Cs in fruit bodies of 52 species of Higher Basidiomycetes and substrates from their habitats (206 samples), collected in 21 locations of Kyiv region of Ukraine in 1998 have been studied using gamma-spectrometric method. Radiocesium content in mushrooms varied within a wide range. Maximum levels of 137Cs were found in Suillus luteus (samples from Chernobyl area) - up to 7,144kBk/kg d.w. In general, accumulation levels depend of specific radioecological situation at sampling sites (quantity and quality composition of contamination, humidity, pH, species and ecological belonging, etc.). Interspecific differences in levels of radiocesium accumulation among studied mushroom species from the same habitat reached 103 times. The highest levels of radionuclide contamination had been found in some representatives of the mycorrhizal families Russulaceae, Boletaceae, Paxillaceae and Amanitaceae that allowed to consider them as hyper-accumulators of radiocesium and to use them as bioindicators of contamination in the long-term radioecological monitoring.