Application of cartographic sources, satellite imagery Landsat 7ETM+ and GIS technology to spatial analysis of windthrows in Bory Tucholskie Forest

The spatial distribution of wind-induced damages was analysed in the forest complex of Komorza, situated in the Woziwoda Forest Inspectorate, the region of Bory Tucholskie Forest, northern Poland. The discussed damages were caused by a windstorm on the 22 nd of June 2000 in the forest fragment neighbouring agricultural grounds. The present study aimed at answering two questions: 1 does closer location of forest in relation to field-forest borderline increase damages in the standing timber? 2 – do windinduced damages occur more often and are more severe in the secondary forests restored on the formerly arable lands than in the forests, the development of which was not interrupted by temporary agricultural land use after cutting of trees? In order to define changes in forest and farming grounds in the study area, and as well as to identify secondary forests, old and temporary topographic maps were used, forest economic maps and satellite image Landsat 7ETM+ dated year 2000. Information derived from the above sources and also from the forest stock-taking and direct field measurements carried out with application of GPS receiver were organised in the geographic information system. Statistical analysis conducted according to GIS technology with application of computer programs: MicroStation/Bentley, ESRI ArcView3.2 and Idrisi32, proved that factors like the neighbourhood of large non-forested areas and the temporary use of forest soils for farming purposes do indeed increase range and frequency of damages caused by strong wind in the canopy of forest ecosystems

Past, current and potential resources of carbon and above-ground plant biomass in the landscape with heaths in some selected areas of the Tuchola Forest

Applying the GIS technologies, historical and contemporary cartographic materials, data coming from the forest inventory and indices of biomass state, the total biomass and biomass for individual layers of forest and non-forest phytocoenoses, the real and potential biomass was assessed, as well as current and potential carbon resources in that biomass in four nature objects. The investigated objects were characterized by different spatial size, as well as by different intensity of human economic activities and different status of nature conservation. Those were: the Tuchola Forest National Park, the Zaborski Landscape Park, as well as the areas of the so-called (forest) demesne of Zabory and the (field) demesne of Tuchola in the former District (Starosty) of Tuchola. In the case of both demesnes, the biomass state was assessed, as well as the extent of its displacement caused by economic human activities, both nowadays and in the past, i.e. for the year 1796 and 2008. The smallest difference in the state of potential and actual biomass was recorded in the National Park. The loss here amounted to 28.44%. The biggest differences occurred in the field demesne in 1796. The loss here reached 76.47%. It was also observed that nowadays the loss slightly decreased, reaching the level of 73.97%. In the demesne of Zabory, the increase of biomass state was considerably higher during the discussed period. In 1796, when heaths and poor xerothermic meadows covered relatively large areas and were exploited as sheep’s grazing lands, the biomass loss amounted here to 69.32% and in 2008 to 51.87%. The increase of biomass state and at the same time the reduction in biomass losses, calculated in relation to the potential, was brought here about mainly by establishing the Prussian Forest Inspectorate Zwangshof in 1890 and by afforestation of agricultural and fallow lands, which was done by Polish forest inspectorates in the 20th century, particularly during several years after the 2nd World War

Porównanie struktury krajobrazu na obszarach intensywnej i ekologicznie zrównoważonej gospodarki leśnej

Zastosowano technologię GIS i metody teledetekcji satelitarnej do oceny i porównań znormalizowanego wskaźnika wegetacji (NDVI), różnorodności i fragmentacji dwóch obszarów leśnych o różnym użytkowaniu w XIX wieku i różnej intensywności pozyskiwania drewna w ostatnich latach. Oba kompleksy leśne zlokalizowane są w Zaborskim Parku Krajobrazowym w województwie pomorskim. Pierwsze stanowisko (M) obejmuje lasy odtworzone w końcu XIX stulecia poprzez nasadzenia sosny na byłych pastwiskach i gruntach ornych. W wyniku intensywnego użytkowania lasów znaczną część terenu zajmują zręby i kilkunastoletnie uprawy sosnowe. Drugie stanowisko (P) obejmuje teren leśny w przeszłości nie użytkowany rolniczo, na którym od kilkunastu lat ograniczono pozyskiwanie drewna, a w 1996 roku utworzono Park Narodowy Bory Tucholskie. Strukturę krajobrazu porównano na pięciu powierzchniach badawczych (około 150 ha lub 500 ha każda) na stanowisku M i czterech powierzchniach o podobnych rozmiarach na stanowisku P. W analizie użyto zdjęcie satelitarne z 28 lipca 1990 roku oraz program Idrisi 32. Stwierdzono, że powierzchnie na stanowisku M charakteryzują się niższymi wartościami NDVI, ale wyższą różnorodnością i fragmentacją, niż powierzchnie zlokalizowane na obszarze dzisiejszego parku narodowego. Znaczne różnice w strukturze krajobrazu na stanowisku obejmującym lasy intensywnie użytkowane i na obszarze lasów o ograniczonym pozyskiwaniu drewna wykazano też metodami klasyfikacji i ordynacji numerycznej.GIS and remote sensing technology have been used to compare Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), diversity and fragmentation of two forest complexes different each from the other in the structure of land use in the 19th century and intensively of timber exploitation in the recent several years. Both complexes have been located in Zabory Landscape Park in Pomerania Province. The first site M has been comprised secondary forests restored by introduction of pine seedlings on former poor seep pastures and arable lands. Due to intensive timber exploitation a big part of those area has been occupied by clear-cuttings and few-year-old pine plantations apart from the oldest pine forests. The second site P has been forest complex where the timber exploitation was significantly reduced since the middle of eighties. The structure of landscape in the first site has been assessed on the basis of five sample plots about 150 or 500 hectares. Four plots of similar size have been chosen in the site P. The Landsat TM imagery from 28 July 1990 and Idrisi 32 software have been used in analysis. It results from the calculations that landscape with intensively exploited forests on former agricultural soils has been characterised by lower values of NDVI and higher values of diversity and fragmentation in comparison to those with sustainable forest management. Significant differences in the structure of landscapes have also been clearly expressed by the methods of numerical classification and ordination

EVALUATION OF CONDITIONS CONCERNING THE DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM. INVESTIGATION INTO THE BASIN OF THE PARSĘTA RIVER

DOI: 10.2478/v10089-008-0021-7 Available on-line at: http://www.bulletinofgeography.umk.pl http://versita.com/bgssThe article presents the results of multidimensional evaluation of conditions concerning the development of tourism in rural areas of Parsęta basin. For the purpose the synthetic measure has been applied in reference to 27 variables divided into two groups: suitable for tourism or investing. Having conducted the analysis of the selected variables, the investigated area was divided into three regions: the seaside at the North with very good conditions for the development of the touristic function as its core function, the central region, highly diversified with only moderate touristic capabilities, and finally the southern region, the lake district, with adequate features for the development of tourism

National comparison of methods for determination of radon in water

The article describes three interlaboratory experiments concerning 222Rn determination in water samples. The fi rst two experiments were carried out with the use of artifi cial radon waters prepared by the Laboratory of Radiometric Expertise (LER), Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences in Kraków in 2014 and 2018. The third experiment was performed using natural environment waters collected in the vicinity of the former uranium mine in Kowary in 2016. Most of the institutions performing radon in water measurements in Poland were gathered in the Polish Radon Centre Network, and they participated in the experiments. The goal of these exercises was to evaluate different measurement techniques used routinely in Polish laboratories and the laboratories’ profi ciency of radon in water measurements. In the experiment performed in 2018, the reference values of 222Rn concentration in water were calculated based on the method developed at LER. The participants’ results appeared to be worse for low radon concentration than for high radon concentrations. The conclusions drawn on that base indicated the weaknesses of the used methods and probably the sampling. The interlaboratory experiments, in term, can help to improve the participants’ skills and reliability of their results

Assessing spin-component-scaled second-order Møller-plesset theory using anharmonic frequencies

Four common parametrisations of spin-component-scaled second-order Møller–Plesset (MP2) theory are benchmarked by calculating the anharmonic vibrational frequencies of a test suite consisting of eighteen diatomic and five small molecules. Of the four methods, the scaled opposite-spin MP2 (SOS-MP2), the variable-scaling opposite-spin MP2 (VOS-MP2) and the spin-component-scaled MP2 (SCS-MP2) methods perform statistically better than standard MP2 theory, while the spin-com- ponent scaled for nucleic bases MP2 (SCSN-MP2) performs worse. Vibrations of closed-shell diatomic molecules are slightly more accurately described by the SOS-MP2 method of Head-Gordon (εMAD = 51 cm-1) than the SCS-MP2 method of Grimme (εMAD = 61 cm-1) or the size-consistent parametrisation of VOS-MP2 (εMAD = 54 cm-1). For open-shell diatomic molecules, the SOS-MP2 (εMAD = 83 cm-1) and SCS-MP2 (εMAD = 81 cm-1) methods are of similar accuracy, while VOS-MP2 is slightly better (εMAD = 77 cm-1). Since the VOS-MP2 and SOS- MP2 methods tend to have smaller deviations from experi- ment, and they can be made computationally more economical than the SCS-MP2 or MP2 methods, we suggest that they should be the preferred ab initio method for computing vibrational frequencies in large molecules

Influence of Water on the Oxidation of Dimethyl Sulfide by the ·OH Radical

International audienceOxidative stress of sulfur-containing biological molecules in aqueous environments may lead to the formation of adduct intermediates that are too short-lived to be experimentally detectable. In this study we have modeled the simplest of such oxidative reactions: the attack of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) by a hydroxyl radical (·OH) to form a radical adduct, whose subsequent heterolytic dissociation leads to a radical cation (DMS+) that is important for further reactions. We have modeled the aqueous environment with a limited number of discrete water molecules, selected after an original multistep procedure, and further embedded in a polarizable continuum model, to observe the impact of the water configuration on the heterolytic dissociation of the radical adduct. Molecular dynamics and quantum chemical methods (DFT, MP2, and CCSD) were used to elucidate the lowest energy structures resulting from the ·OH attack on DMS. Subsequent high level ab initio valence bond (BOVB) calculations revealed the possibility for the occurrence of subsequent heterolytic dissociation

The Valence-Bond Quantum Monte Carlo Method

book chapter submitted to Comprehensive Computational ChemistryThe VB-QMC method is presented in this chapter. It consists of using in quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) approaches with a wave function expressed as a usually short expansion of classical Valence-Bond (VB) structures supplemented by a Jastrow factor to account for dynamical correlation. Two variants exist: the VB-VMC (using variational Monte Carlo) and VB-DMC (using diffusion Monte Carlo) methods. QMC algorithms circumvent the notorious non-orthogonality issue of classical VB approaches, and allow highly efficient calculations on massively parallel machines. Calculation of VB weights and resonance energies are possible at the VB-VMC level, which makes VB-VMC a correlated method retaining all the interpretative capabilities of classical VB methods. Several recent applications are shown to illustrate the potential of this method as a modern alternative to classical VB methods to study ground and excited states of molecules

Evaluating the Parsęta basin communes’ tourist space using the selected quantification methods

Identifying differences in the factors determining tourism development in an area is crucial to utilising its natural, economic and socio-cultural resources that enable sustainable development of the tourist function. This article sets out to present and estimate factors underlying tourism development in the context of various quantification methods and the comparisons of their results. The phenomenon selected for the research is evaluated using tools such as a synthetic measure Gołembski (2002) (based on weights assigned to particular features) and two synthetic measures Perkal (z-scores) (1953) and Zioło (1985)