The quarterly Polish Polar Research edited by the Committee on Polar Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences is an international journal publishing original research articles presenting the results of studies carried out in polar regions.
All papers are peer-reviewed and published in English.
The Editorial Advisory Board includes renowned scientist from Poland and from abroad.
Polish Polar Research is indexed in Science Citation Index Expanded, Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Biological Abstracts, BIOSIS Previews, Cold Regions Bibliography, Antarctic Literature, Geological Abstracts, Polish Scientific Journals Contents - Agricultural and Biological Sciences, Quarterly Review, and Zoological Record.
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Polish Polar Research is an open-access journal in which archive issues are freely accessible and articles are published at no cost to authors.
The results of several years of studies concerning the role of penguin rookeries in the functioning of the land ecosystems in the maritime Antarctic are summarized. The origins of phosphatic ornithogenic soil in the areas of currently active penguin rookeries arc presented. In the maritime Antarctic occurs relatively fast microbiological decomposition and mineralization of large amounts of excrements carried into coastal area by penguins during breeding period. Chemically aggressive water solutions of guano react with underlaying rocks. This process brings about the occurrence of wide zones of phosphatization. These processes cause the appearance of the series of phosphate minerals whose composition and properties depend on the changing physical and chemical conditions of the soil environment. It has been discovered that in the rookeries for various reasons abandoned by penguins phosphates are still present in large amounts and, gradually changed and washed out, have been for hundreds, or even thousands years a source of nutrients for plants growing in poor Antarctic land ecosystems. These soils came to be called the relic ornithogenic soils of the maritime Antarctic. The stages of plant colonization in the abandoned penguin rookeries were traced. The differences in the fate of the organic matter carried out from the sea to the coastal area by sea-birds in various climatic zones were discussed.
In the breeding season 1988/89, within the region of SSSI No. 8, nesting of 12 species of birds was observed. The highest number of nests — 24430 — belonged to three species of pygoscelid penguins; 77.1% were the Adelie penguin. Relatively high fluctuations in the number of penguins in some rookeries in particular breeding seasons were confirmed. During regular countings of mammals' in 1988 the presence of 5 species of Pinnipedia was noted, of which the southern elephant seal was most numerous in the summer season, whereas crabeater seal — in winter. In the region of SSSI No. 8, breeding of southern elephant seal and Weddell seal was observed. Fluctuations in the number of seals in this region in the period 1977—1988 were insignificant.
A total of 704 fishes representing 39 species were examined. Twenty five digenean species were recognized. Only one species previously found by the present author in a fiord of this area was absent in the material. Pelagic species were usually not parasitized by digeneans, while demersal fishes were normally found to be infected. Results of the present study are compared to those from fiords. Seven species were found to be widely distributed. Two of them, Macvicaria pennelli and Genolinea bowersi, were associated with an inshore fiord environment and could be used as biological tags indicating the association of hosts with this kind of environment. Three of widely distributed species, Lepidapedon garrardi, Elytrophalloides oatesi and Lecilhaster macrocotyle, were not clearly associated with any environment.
Gonocerca phycidis, Neolebouria antarctica and other less widely distributed species, with the exception of Postmonorchis variabilis, were associated with deep part of fiords and/or open sea shelf environment. The level of infection of open sea fish at the South Shetlands was low. Many fish species living at South Georgia were massively infected; the dominant species in this area is E. oatesi, which was rare off the South Shetland Islands. A total of 45 digenean species occurring in the Antarctic fish were listed. Eleven of them were not endemic.
Using a thin layer chromatography the content and composition of krill lipids was examined in different sex and maturity stages. The content of lipids decreased in the following sequence: immature males — females with eggs — juvenile specimens — spent females — mature males. In females the differences concerned mainly phospholipids and waxes, in males — triacylglicerols; this fact proves the different utilisation of lipids for reproduction in both sexes.
A composition of lipids of some Antarctic Crustacea (Euphausia superba. E. triacantha. Thysanoessa macrura and Mysidacea gen. sp. indet.) caught in the Admiralty Bay (South Shetlands) was compared. Lipids of E. superba differed in low content of waxes that evidences for different management of lipids than in other examined Crustacea.
The photo-oxidability of lipids taken from 32 samples of krill from different dates of catch has been examined for photooxidation. Relations were indicated between the rate of accumulation of peroxides in the process of lipids, exposure and content of lipids in krill, its iodine value and amount number of carotenoids.
Editors-in-Chief
Magdalena BŁAŻEWICZ (Life Sciences), University of Łódź, Poland
e-mail:
magdalena.blazewicz@biol.uni.lodz.pl
Wojciech MAJEWSKI (Geosciences), Institute of Paleobiology PAS, Poland
e-mail:
wmaj@twarda.pan.pl
Michał ŁUSZCZUK (Social Science and Hummanities), UMCS, Poland
e-mail:
michal.luszczuk@poczta.umcs.lublin.pl
Associate Editors
Piotr JADWISZCZAK (Białystok),
e-mail: piotrj@uwb.edu.pl
Krzysztof JAŻDŻEWSKI (Łódź),
e-mail: krzysztof.jazdzewski@biol.uni.lodz.pl
Monika KĘDRA (Sopot)
e-mail: kedra@iopan.gda.pl
Ewa ŁUPIKASZA (Sosnowiec)
e-mail: ewa.lupikasza@us.edu.pl
Piotr PABIS (Łódź),
e-mail: cataclysta@wp.pl
Editorial Advisory Board
Angelika BRANDT (Hamburg),
Claude DE BROYER (Bruxelles),
Peter CONVEY (Cambridge, UK),
J. Alistair CRAME (Cambridge, UK),
Rodney M. FELDMANN (Kent, OH),
Jane E. FRANCIS (Cambridge, UK),
Andrzej GAŹDZICKI (Warszawa)
Aleksander GUTERCH (Warszawa),
Jacek JANIA (Sosnowiec),
Jiří KOMÁREK (Třeboň),
Wiesława KRAWCZYK (Sosnowiec),
German L. LEITCHENKOV (Sankt Petersburg),
Jerónimo LÓPEZ-MARTINEZ (Madrid),
Sergio A. MARENSSI (Buenos Aires),
Jerzy NAWROCKI (Warszawa),
Ryszard OCHYRA (Kraków),
Maria OLECH (Kraków)
Sandra PASSCHIER (Montclair, NJ),
Jan PAWŁOWSKI (Genève),
Gerhard SCHMIEDL (Hamburg),
Jacek SICIŃSKI (Łódź),
Michael STODDART (Hobart),
Witold SZCZUCIŃSKI (Poznań),
Andrzej TATUR (Warszawa),
Wim VADER (Tromsø),
Tony R. WALKER (Halifax, Nova Scotia),
Jan Marcin WĘSŁAWSKI (Sopot) - President.
Geosciences
Wojciech
MAJEWSKI
e-mail: wmaj@twarda.pan.pl
phone:
(48 22) 697 88 53
Instytut Paleobiologii PAN
ul. Twarda 51/55
00-818
Warszawa, POLAND
Life Sciences
Magdalena
BŁAŻEWICZ
e-mail: magdalena.blazewicz@biol.uni.lodz.pl
phone:
(48 22) 635 42 97
Zakład Biologii Polarnej i Oceanobiologii Uniwersytet Łódzki
ul.
S. Banacha 12/16
90-237 Łódź, POLAND