I believe this[1] is the paper (paywalled). From the abstract: >we deposited 572 bags with uncontaminated dry leaf litter from four species of trees in the le

I believe this[1] is the paper (paywalled). From the abstract: >we deposited 572 bags with uncontaminated dry leaf litter from four species of trees in the leaf litter layer at 20 forest sites around Chernobyl that varied in background radiation by more than a factor 2,600 Depending on how much variation there is in microclimate and soil type within their 20 locations, I could believe that they could get some pretty convincing results from 572 bags. Especially if, as it appears from their claims, the effect of radiation is very large relative to background noise. On the other hand, the senior author: * is not an expert in any related field as far as I can tell * has been known to fabricate his data [2] and engage in borderline misconduct during the data analysis and writing phases as well [3]. I'm agnostic. [1]: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00442-014-2908-8 http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00442-014-2908-8 [2]: http://news.sciencemag.org/2004/01/ecologists-rocked-misconduct-finding http://news.sciencemag.org/2004/01/ecologists-rocked-miscond... [3]: http://bio.fsu.edu/~dhoule/Publications/mollerreview.pdf http://bio.fsu.edu/~dhoule/Publications/mollerreview.pdf (large PDF)