As nknighthb says, it's hard to say without access to the full paper. I googled for it, but couldn't find it.
There are two things I noticed in the web page (not the paper) that triggered questions immediately.
Firstly the claim "Because they had so many bags placed in so many different locations, they were able to statistically control for outside factors such as humidity, temperature and forest and soil type". The map only has 19 or so locations. Seems a bit few to me to control for so many variables. Or am I mistaken?
Secondly, the map has areas colored green, but the legend runs from yellow via orange to red. What does green mean? Radiation at normal levels?
>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].
Latin square type design I presume. Thanks for posting this and spending the time.
Given the record in your second reference, I'd imagine the lead author would want to have the data out there and eye-balled by as many as possible to improve reputation.
There are two things I noticed in the web page (not the paper) that triggered questions immediately.
Firstly the claim "Because they had so many bags placed in so many different locations, they were able to statistically control for outside factors such as humidity, temperature and forest and soil type". The map only has 19 or so locations. Seems a bit few to me to control for so many variables. Or am I mistaken?
Secondly, the map has areas colored green, but the legend runs from yellow via orange to red. What does green mean? Radiation at normal levels?