Soil Sequences Atlas III, 218 s.

Soil Sequences Atlas III is a continuation of two earlier volumes published in 2014 and 2018. As in the previous studies, the variability of soil cover is presented in the form of soil sequences characteristic of particular types of landscapes. Each of the chapters contains a general description of the environment (lithology, topography, land use, climate), a set of soil data (soil profile photo, description of morphology, laboratory data) and their interpretation in terms of the pedogenesis and systematic position according to the WRB (2015) system. The “catenary approach” (expressed in the form of individual figures) helps to better understand the relationships between individual components of the environment and soils. Chapters are arranged roughly according to the main soil-forming process in sequences and referring to the World Reference Base for Soil Resources except for Technosols, which as “unnatural” soils are placed at the end of the book. At the beginning of the book, two landscapes dominated by Gleysols and gleyic processes were described – tidal flats in Germany and the flood plain of the Vistula River in Poland. Next, the mountain areas with Andosols (Slovakia), Lithosols and Podzols (Poland) were presented. The issue of the environment with the dominant podsolization process was continued in the subsequent chapters from Lithuania and Russia. Chapters 8 and 9 are related to Hungarian and Ukrainian soils with a pronounced accumulation of humus in epipedons (Chernozems, Umbrisols, Phaeozems). The book ends with a section on issues related to clay-illuviated (Luvisols), coarse textured (Arenosols) and technogenic (Technosols) soils in Poland, Estonia and Czechia. Sixteen Reference Soil Groups are featured, and represented by 61 soil profiles in total. One of the objectives of the Soil Sequences Atlas is to explain the relationships (predictable to some extent) between the landscape and soil cover. The collected data are intended to be a useful educational tool in the teaching of soil science, supporting the understanding of the causes of soil cover variability, and also as a WRB classification guideline. They are intended to be useful not only to students but also practitioners in agriculture, forestry, environmental protection and landscape planning. The Atlas was developed as part of the EU Erasmus+ FACES project (Freely Accessible Central European Soil)

North Macedonia as Food Tourism Destination – Trends and Perspectives

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the Balkan countries among tourists. These trends owe their popularity to, among others, favorable climatic conditions, interesting tourist attraction and folklore. One of the countries that attracts a large number of tourists is North Macedonia. The local population is increasingly taking actions to attract the attention of foreigners, also by means of promoting national cuisine. Macedonian dishes perfectly reflect the spirit of the Balkans and fresh fruit and vegetables testify to the high quality of food products. Data pertaining to the popularity of Macedonian cuisine among tourists and locals were collected using a survey. The group of respondents includes 130 visitors and 31 residents of North Macedonia. The results of the study showed that the local dishes are still identified with the entire Balkan area and their origin is often confused. Traditional Macedonian dishes, however, thanks to good promotion and advertising have the potential to become a strong factor attracting foreign tourists

Soil Sequences Atlas

To understand the soil-landscape relation it is necessary to study the spatial diversity of soil cover. This variability is partly predictable due to the substantial repeatability of soil units. Depending on dominant soil-forming factor affecting the repeated soil patterns, different types of soil sequences can be distinguished. The influence of relief on the repeated variability of soil cover was first noticed by Milne in 1935 in East Africa. He proposed the term ‘‘catena’’ to describe a transect of soils that are related to the topography. Sommer and Schlichting in 1997 distinguished several archetypes of catenas depending on the mobilization processes and hydrological regimes. The impact of climate on the variability of soil cover is described as climosequences. The diversity of soils due to the different time of development - chronosequences are a suitable tool for investigating rates and directions of soil and landscape evolution. This book provides an extensive database of soil sequences of various types from the following countries: Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. The main objective of this study was to present a great diversity of soil-landscape/climate/hydrology relations and its effect on patterns in soil cover. Most recent edition of the World Reference Base classification system was used to classify presented soils (2014). Fourteen Reference Soil Groups are represented in this publication. The collected data will be a useful tool in soil-science teaching, helping to understand reasons of variability of soil cover and influence of various soil-forming factors on directions and degree of development of ‘Earth skin’. Presented data can also be used for comparison purposes

North Macedonia as Food Toursim Destination – Trends and Perspectives

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the Balkan countries among tourists. These trends owe their popularity to, among others, favorable climatic conditions, interesting tourist attraction and folklore. One of the countries that attracts a large number of tourists is North Macedonia. The local population is increasingly taking actions to attract the attention of foreigners, also by means of promoting national cuisine. Macedonian dishes perfectly reflect the spirit of the Balkans and fresh fruit and vegetables testify to the high quality of food products. Data pertaining to the popularity of Macedonian cuisine among tourists and locals were collected using a survey. The group of respondents includes 130 visitors and 31 residents of North Macedonia. The results of the study showed that the local dishes are still identified with the entire Balkan area and their origin is often confused. Traditional Macedonian dishes, however, thanks to good promotion and advertising have the potential to become a strong factor attracting foreign tourists

The Cultural Heritage and Its Sustainability in Europe

Books dealing with different aspects of cultural heritage (culinary heritage, global warming influence on CH) and teaching about it

Soil Sequences Atlas II, 248 s.

This is the second book in the series of Soil Sequence Atlases. The first volume was published in 2014. Main pedogeographic features are presented in the form of sequences to give a comprehensive picture of soils – their genesis and correlations with the environment in typical landscapes of Central Europe from Estonia furthest north, through Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary to the southernmost Slovenia. Soils of natural landscapes – loess and sand (continental dunes) – are presented, as well as those of plains of various origin, karst lands, low mountains, and anthropically modified soils. Each chapter presents soil profiles supplemented by landscape information and basic analytical data., Then genetic interpretations of soil properties related to soil forming agents as schematic catenas are given.. When one factor changes while the others are more or less stable, the soil sequence can be recognised. Depending on dominant soil-forming factor affecting the repeated soil patterns, different types can be distinguished. Chapters are arranged roughly in accordance with the main soil-forming process in sequences, and referring to the WRB key (peat formation, vertilisation, gleyic process, podzolisation, humus accumulation, clay illuviation), with one small exception – the Technosols have been placed at the end of book. The main objective of this book is to present the diversity of relations between soil and landscape, climate, hydrology and human relations, and to present interpretations reflecting the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (2015) classification with comments on the choice of qualifiers. Sixteen Reference Soil Groups represented by 67 profiles are featured. The secondary objective is pedological education. One of the aims of soil science education is to explain to students the relations between landscape and soil cover. The patterns of soil units within landscapes are to some extent predictable. The collected data is intended as a useful educational tool in teaching soil science, supporting understanding of the reasons for the variability of soil cover, and also as a WRB classification guideline. The Atlas was developed as part of the EU Erasmus+ FACES project (Freely Accessible Central European Soil)

SOIL SEQUENCES ATLAS V, 248 s.

The significant spatial variability of soil cover results from the diverse impacts of different soil-forming factors. This book presents pedovariability in the form of a collection of soil sequences typical of particular landscape types. The fifth part of the Soil Sequences Atlas contains description of 73 pedons (with soil profile photo, description of morphology and laboratory data) grouped into 15 chapters each representing a different environmental setting specific to very diverse regions from five continents – North and South America, Africa, Europe and Asia. The Atlas begins by presenting a pedo-landscapes from Americas – from Mexico to Peru. Next comes a group of chapters devoted to The Mediterranean Region – Spain, Italy, Slovenia and Tunisia. The next two chapters concern the soils of Central Europe – Hungary and Poland. At the end there are examples of steppe (Russian chernozems), semi-arid (Iran) and subtropical soils of Southeast Asia (Thailand). Out of 32 reference groups, as many as 17 are represented in the fifth part of atlas Soil Sequences Atlas. The most common soils are Calcisols (semi-arid areas) and the soils with clay illuviation (Luvisols) developed in very diverse environments. The collected data is intended as a useful educational tool in teaching soil science, and in supporting an understanding of the reasons behind the variability of soil cover, and also as a WRB classification guideline. It is intended to be useful not only to students but also to practitioners in agriculture, forestry, environmental protection and landscape planning. The Atlas was developed as part of the EU Erasmus+ SYStem project (Share Your Soils – Project No 2019-1-PL01-KA203-065101 Strategic Partnerships for higher education (KA203) of Erasmus+ programme of the European Union)

The internet as a source of knowledge about soil cover of Poland

The aim of this paper is to assess the quality and correctness of information on Polish soils available on selected websites. Particular attention was paid to educational portals, which became the subject of evaluation of the information its contains in terms of the correctness, up-to-dateness and reliability. Twenty-five websites representing educational portals and blogs were selected for analysis in terms of their contents (type of subject matter) correctness (substantial value), curentness (presence of up-to-date information) and completeness. Most of the information on the evaluated educational portals is targeted at high school students. These websites present only basic content. The most frequent issues on the analyzed portals were: soil types and soil systematics, distribution of soils in Poland, definition of soil and also soil valuation classes. Websites addressed to university students constitute a decided minority, could be said, that even an exception. One of those is article on Wikipedia, which has the highest educational value among all analysed websites