Woody plants: changes in survival in response to long-term (8 years) chronic gamma irradiation.

The number of plant deaths which occurred over 8 years of chronic gamma irradiation (20 hours/day) of 11 species of woody plants indicated a decline in the rate of death with increasing exposure time. This suggests that a highly effective repair system may develop, at least in the range of exposure which reduces survival by 50 percent. The inverse relationship previously found between interphase chromosome volume and radiosensitivity for single 16-hour exposures was confirmed for chronic exposures by construction of appropriate regressions. Radiosensitivity of a species can be predicted from these regressions if the interphase chromosome volume is known. The distributions of interphase chromosome volumes and predicted sensitivities are given for 215 species of woody plants.