Quaternary Ostracoda of the southern Baltic Sea (Poland) : taxonomy, palaeoecology and stratigraphy

Wcelu odtworzenia zmian środowiskowych w późnym glacjale i w holocenie na terenie polskiej części południowego Bałtyku zbadano rozmieszczenie małżoraczków w osadach 85 rdzeni pochodzących zarówno z obszarów otwartego morza, jak również ze strefy przybrzeżnej. W badanych osadach znaleziono łącznie 30 gatunków, z których sześć okazało się nowymi dla czwartorzędu polskiej części Bałtyku. Najczęstszymi były gatunki słodkowodne: Candona neglecta (występująca aż w 52 rdzeniach), C. candida (w 31 rdzeniach) i Cytherissa lacustris (w 30 rdzeniach), a także gatunek holeuryhalinowy Cyprideis torosa (w 52 rdzeniach). Pierwotne zgrupowania późnego glacjału i wczesnego holocenu, zdominowane przez gatunki strefy profundalu/ sublitoralu jezior oligo-mezotroficznych (C. lacustris, C. neglecta, C. candida) lub gatunki charakterystyczne dla litoralu jezior (Darwinula stevensoni, Limnocythere inopinata, Ilyocypris decipiens), w środkowym i późnym holocenie zostały zastąpione zgrupowaniami zdominowanymi przez gatunki słonawowodne–morskie (Cyprideis torosa, Cytheromorpha fuscata). Odnotowane prawidłowości sukcesyjne fauny małżoraczków wskazują na fundamentalne zmiany środowiskowe Morza Bałtyckiego, kiedy to wody morskie wdarły się do basenu bałtyckiego, powodując przekształcenie zbiornika słodkowodnego w słonawowodne Morze Litorynowe. Uzyskane wyniki poszerzyły wnioski zawarte w opublikowanych danych dotyczących małżoraczków i przemian środowiskowych południowego Bałtyku

Mid-Pleistocene to Recent ostracod record in slack water deposits of the Frasassi gorge and cave system as a prospective proxy for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction

To trace environmental changes of the tectonically active Frasassi area in the northeastern Apennines of Italy, thedistribution of ostracod valves was studied in a series in slack water deposits collected from both caves and river banks, representing various time windows from lower Middle Pleistocene to Holocene, and allowing comparison with the modern ostracod assemblages in the Sentino River.The studied sediment sequences: BDR (BucodeiRovi cave, ca.780 ka), GBV (Grottadella Beata Vergine – ca. 650-450 ka), CDC and SDS (Caverna del Carbone and Sala dellaSabia – ca. 80-115 ka) and SBH (Sbif House fluvial swamp deposit – ca. 30 ka),as well as TRO (lake and river overbank deposits of the Esino River – 3.7 and 2.0 ka) yielded nearly 800 subfossil valves ofca. 25 ostracod species, of which all but threeare known to live today in the Sentino River or Frasassi Cave system. Due to thefragmentary and/or immature nature of recovered valves,their specific determination proved difficult in several samples and resulted in lumping under generic level. Neverthelessthe species accumulation curvesestimating the total species richness show that not many more taxa would be observed by increasing the number of samples. However, species/taxa richness of individual sediment samples was generally low and varied from 3 (in some samples of BDR and GBV) to 12 (CDC) with a mean SD of 5.9 3.0. The most common and abundant taxa in the studied sediment samples were Candona spp. ex gr. neglecta (33.8% of the analyzed valves, present in 15 out of 16 studied samples), Potamocypris spp. (26.8%, 14) and Ilyocypris spp. (20.6%, 16), which also constituted the indicator taxa of each of the studied site/age palaeoassemblages. Due to variationsin mutual proportions of these taxa,the site/age sequences differed significantly in the taxonomic structure of their ostracod palaeoassemblages (PERMANOVA pMC = 0.011-0.025) and could be successfully discriminated (100% allocation success by Canonical Analysis of Principal Coordinates). For instance the S

Wymywanie form azotu z gleby nawożonej osadami ściekowymi

The aim of the study has been to evaluate the extent of loss of various nitrogen forms leached from soil fertilized with sewage sludge, farmyard manure and NPK. Sewage sludge and FYM were applied as a single dose of 10 Mg o ha-1 or two doses, each of 5 Mg o ha-1. It has been demonstrated that all the objects fertilized with sewage sludge of sewage based composts experienced more severe leaching of total nitrogen and nitrogen forms compared with the control. More total nitrogen was leached from soil to which sewage sludge was introduced as a dose divided into two applications (2x5 Mg o ha-1) than from soil which received a single rate of this fertilizer (10 Mg o ha-1). Nitrate(V) nitrogen dominated among the mineral forms of nitrogen in soil flltrate. Higher loss of this nitrogen form occurred in treatments receiving compost madę from sewage sludge with straw (10 Mg o ha-1) or dried and granulated sewage sludge than when composted sewage sludge or traditional fertilization were applied. Water was more polluted with N-NH4+ when sewage sludge compost was used, but when it was made with straw, N-NO2- was the predominant water pollutant.Celem badań było określenie ilości strat różnych form azotu na drodze wymycia z gleby nawożonej osadami ściekowymi, obornikiem i NPK. Osady ściekowe i obornik zastosowano jednorazowi w dawce 10 Mg - ha-1 oraz dwukrotnie po 5 Mg o ha-1 w pierwszym i w trzecim roku doświadczenia. Wykazano, że we wszystkich obiektach, na których stosowano dodatki użyźniające w postaci osadów ściekowych lub kompostów z nich wytworzonych wymycie azotu ogółem i jego form było większe w porównaniu z obiektem kontrolnym. Większe ilości azotu ogółem wymyto z gleby, do której wprowadzano osady ściekowe w dawce podzielonej na dwie części (2x5 Mg o ha-1) w porównaniu do gleby, ; zastosowano je w dawce jednorazowej (10 Mg o ha-1). Spośród mineralnych form azotu w wodaełl przesiąkowych dominował azot azotanowy(V). Większe straty tej formy azotu notowano w obietektach nawożonych kompostem z osadu ściekowego z dodatkiem słomy (10 Mg - ha-1) oraz wysuszonym zgranulowanym osadem ściekowym (2x5 Mg o ha-1) w porównaniu z kompostowanym osadem ścieków oraz nawożeniem tradycyjnym. Do zanieczyszczenia wody N-NH4+ w największym stopniu przyczynił się kompost z samych osadów ściekowych, natomiast N-NO2- kompost ten z dodatkiem słomy

Mid-Pleistocene to Recent ostracod record in slack water deposits of the Frasassi gorge and cave system as a prospective proxy for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction

To trace environmental changes of the tectonically active Frasassi area in the northeastern Apennines of Italy, thedistribution of ostracod valves was studied in a series in slack water deposits collected from both caves and river banks, representing various time windows from lower Middle Pleistocene to Holocene, and allowing comparison with the modern ostracod assemblages in the Sentino River.The studied sediment sequences: BDR (BucodeiRovi cave, ca.780 ka), GBV (Grottadella Beata Vergine – ca. 650-450 ka), CDC and SDS (Caverna del Carbone and Sala dellaSabia – ca. 80-115 ka) and SBH (Sbif House fluvial swamp deposit – ca. 30 ka),as well as TRO (lake and river overbank deposits of the Esino River – 3.7 and 2.0 ka) yielded nearly 800 subfossil valves ofca. 25 ostracod species, of which all but threeare known to live today in the Sentino River or Frasassi Cave system. Due to thefragmentary and/or immature nature of recovered valves,their specific determination proved difficult in several samples and resulted in lumping under generic level. Neverthelessthe species accumulation curvesestimating the total species richness show that not many more taxa would be observed by increasing the number of samples. However, species/taxa richness of individual sediment samples was generally low and varied from 3 (in some samples of BDR and GBV) to 12 (CDC) with a mean SD of 5.9 3.0. The most common and abundant taxa in the studied sediment samples were Candona spp. ex gr. neglecta (33.8% of the analyzed valves, present in 15 out of 16 studied samples), Potamocypris spp. (26.8%, 14) and Ilyocypris spp. (20.6%, 16), which also constituted the indicator taxa of each of the studied site/age palaeoassemblages. Due to variationsin mutual proportions of these taxa,the site/age sequences differed significantly in the taxonomic structure of their ostracod palaeoassemblages (PERMANOVA pMC = 0.011-0.025) and could be successfully discriminated (100% allocation success by Canonical Analysis of Principal Coordinates). For instance the S

Morphological diversity and microevolutionary aspects of the lineage Cryptocandona vavrai Kaufmann, 1900 (Ostracoda, Candoninae)

Morphology of both the valves and limbs of several parthenogenetic populations of the widespread non-marine ostracod Cryptocandona vavrai Kaufmann (sensu lato) living in groundwater habitats of western (France) and south-eastern Europe (Romania) was examined for the extent of intra- and interpopulational variation. Geometric morphometrics and multivariate statistics were employed for the description of the valve morphological disparity whereas the discriminant analysis was performed for the comparative analysis of the limb chaetotaxy. The ranges of the most studied limb traits principally overlapped among the populations, however considerable differences in the carapace shape and size, reflecting microevolutionary changes at a macro-scale (inter-population) level, allowed distinguishing quantitatively some Romanian populations which deserve a separate specific status. Hence, a new species Cryptocandona racovitzai sp. nov. is described which differs from C. vavrai sensu stricto mainly in larger size, in more triangular valve shape as seen laterally and in less developed inner lamella of the valves. Finally, after examination of more material from Romanian groundwaters, we hypothesised the presence of more new species within the studied lineage and concluded that Cryptocandona vavrai sensu lato is a polymorphic lineage consisting of several geographically differentiated species rather than just only one widely dispersed species

Environmental concentrations of metals (Cu and Zn) differently affect the life history traits of a model freshwater ostracod

Zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu) are common contaminants of inland water bodies under severe anthropogenic pressure. The main aim of this study was to test the influence of environmental aqueous concentrations of Zn and Cu on the fitness-related life history traits of the cosmopolitan freshwater ostracod Heterocypris incongruens. Overall, eight subchronic laboratory experiments were conducted to test the effects of exposure to two Cu (260 and 460 µg Cu L−1) and Zn (230 and 410 µg Zn L−1) concentrations compared to the control conditions using asexual individuals originating from a wild population and from a commercial toxicity test (Ostracodtoxkit f). The response of ostracods to exposure to Zn and Cu differed considerably. The Cu treatments significantly reduced the total hatching success and hatching dynamics of resting eggs, increased the mortality of juveniles and reduced the survival of adults, dramatically decreasing the fitness of ostracods. On the other hand, the Zn treatments were less harmful and did not affect adult survival or the timing of juvenile hatching from subitaneous eggs but extended the timing of laying eggs at lower concentrations and stimulated hatching dynamics and success at higher concentrations. It seems that the increased Zn body burden did not strongly impact the fitness of the studied specimens. Moreover, the different responses of the laboratory and wild populations in the Zn experiments may suggest a genetic variation in the tolerance of ostracods to metals. Therefore, experiments involving laboratory H. incongruens as analogues of wild ostracods should be cautiously interpreted. We concluded that the major toxicant in our study was Cu, while Zn could be considered a micronutrient even supporting ostracod fitness, although its higher levels are likely to exert strong toxic effects

Metodologia oceny zagrożenia powodziowego na Litwie

This paper presents a methodology for flood risk mapping as envisaged by the Directive on the Assessment and Management of Flood Risks [Directive 2007/60/EC]. Specifically, we aimed at identifying the types of flood damage that can be estimated given data availability in Lithuania. Furthermore, we present the main sources of data and the associated cost functions. The methodology covers the following main types of flood threats: risk to inhabitants, risk to economic activity, and social risk. A multi-criteria framework for aggregation of different risks is proposed to provide a comprehensive appraisal of flood risk. On the basis of the proposed research, flood risk maps have been prepared for Lithuania. These maps are available for each type of flood risk (i.e. inhabitants, economic losses, social risk) as well as for aggregate risk. The results indicate that flood risk management is crucial for western and central Lithuania, whereas other parts of the country are not likely to suffer from significant losses due to flooding.W artykule przedstawiono metodologię mapowania ryzyka powodziowego zgodnie z zaleceniami Dyrektywy 2007/60/EC w sprawie oceny ryzyka powodziowego i zarządzania nim. Celem Autorów było w szczególności zidentyfikowanie typów szkód powodziowych, które można oszacować pod warunkiem dostępności danych na Litwie. Ponadto przedstawiono główne źródła danych i powiązane funkcje kosztów. Metodologia obejmuje następujące główne typy zagrożeń powodziowych: zagrożenia dla mieszkańców, zagrożenia dla działalności gospodarczej i zagrożenia społeczne. Zaproponowano wielokryterialne ramy do powiązania różnych rodzajów zagrożeń celem zapewnienia całościowej oceny ryzyka powodziowego. Na podstawie proponowanych badań sporządzono mapy zagrożenia powodziowego dla Litwy. Mapy te są dostępne dla każdego typu zagrożeń (tzn. mieszkańców, gospodarki i zagrożeń społecznych) i dla łącznego ryzyka. Wyniki dowodzą, że zarządzanie ryzykiem powodziowym ma zasadnicze znaczenie dla zachodniej i centralnej Litwy, inne obszary kraju nie powinny doznać istotnych strat w wyniku powodzi

Palaeoecology of ostracods from deep-lake Mondsee (Austria) as a source of ideas for new (palaeo-) biological research

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