Data comprise biological and ecological half-life values for marine, freshwater, terrestrial and riparian organisms. The database includes 1908 biological half-life values for 52 elements across a range of wildlife groups (marine, freshwater, terrestrial and riparian). The compilation of values from a range of sources was conducted by an international working group under the auspices of an International Atomic Energy Agency programme.

1. Measuring the microbial diversity in natural and engineered environments is important for ecosystem characterization, ecosystem monitoring and hypothesis testing. Although the conventional assessment through single marker gene surveys has resulted in major advances, the complete procedure remains slow (i.e., weeks to months), labour-intensive and susceptible to multiple sources of laboratory and data processing bias. Growing interest, in highly resolved, temporal surveys of microbial diversity, necessitates rapid, inexpensive and robust analytical platforms that require limited...