Complex Risks from Old Urban Waste Landfills: Sustainability Perspective from Iasi, Romania

Landfills continue to represent the most frequent managerial practice for municipal solid wastes and an increasing and complex problem globally. In certain countries, a transition to an open society and free market is superimposed on the transition to sustainability, resulting in even higher complexity of management. This paper proposes an approach for problem-structuring of landfills in complex transitions: sustainability or unsustainability of a management approach is determined by a set of sustainability filters that are defined by sets of indicators and prioritized according the systemic concept of sustainability, which says that economy is embedded in society, which is embedded in nature. The writers exercise this approach with an old landfill in Iasi, Romania, and conclude for unsustainability, because the ecological sustainability filter is not successfully passed. Social and economic sustainability filters are also discussed in relation with the ecological sustainability indicators. The described approach allows a coherent, transdisciplinary synthesis of knowledge scattered across various disciplines, a pervasive problem in landfill management. The case study helps distinguish between generally true and context-dependent aspects.Peer reviewe

Internal helminth fauna of Baltic herring, Clupea harengus membras L. (Clupeiformes) from southern Baltic

In the years 1994-1996, a total of 592 specimens of herring Clupea harengus membras L., caught in southern Baltic, were examined. The investigations revealed four species of trematodes: Hemiurus luhei, H. raabei, H. levinseni, Brachyphallus crenatus, two species of nematodes: Hysterothylacium auctum (syn. H. aduncum), and Anisakis simplex and three acanthocephalans: Echinorhynchus gadi, Metechinorhynchus salmonis and Pomphorhynchus sp. The finding of H. levinseni constitutes the first record of this species in Polish waters. The infection parameters of herring (prevalence, intensity and abundance) were compared in relation to different capture areas and seasons of the year. Possible affects of the feeding ground, fish body length and the spawning group of herring on the infection levels were also examined. No relation was observed between the place and the season of catch and the infection level of herring. The fish representing different feeding grounds (Baltic, Danish Straits) and sequential length classes showed variable parameters of infection

Helminth fauna of flounder Platichthys flesus (L.) and turbot Scophthalmus maximus (L.) from the Gulf of Gdańsk

The present investigation covered 400 specimens of Platichthys flesus and 22 of Scophthalmus maximus caught in the period of October 1993-December 1994 in the Gulf of Gdańsk (the South-east Baltic). The following parasite species were found: Bothriocephalus scorpii, Hysterothylacium auctum, Cucullanus heterochrous, Cuculanellus minutus, Anisakis simplex, Raphidascaris sp. (probably R. acus), Echinorhynchus gadi, and Pomphorhynchus laevis. The occurrence of parasites was studied in relation to the season of fishing and the length of the fish body