The article presents changes in the thickness and duration of the ice cover found in the restored anthropogenic water reservoir of Pławniowice. It also defines the role the ice cover plays in the formation of the reservoir limnological cycle. Characteristic and significant changeability of the ice cover thickness and duration was observed. The changes in the ice cover demonstrate that they are cyclical but not regular. The ice cover did not always form in the analyzed period. It happened twice, i.e. in 1988 and 2007 (a gap of 20 years). The longest lake freezing period lasted 119 days. Changes in the ice cover duration also show certain periodicity. The shortest periods occurred approx. every 7 years. Maximum values of the ice cover thickness ranged between 10 and 52 cm. There is a relation between the ice cover thickness and its duration period. The rate of increase in the ice cover thickness varied between 0.296 and 3.6 cm/d. The hypolimnion removal impact on the ice cover duration period and thickness was not observed. On the other hand, the ice cover duration period affects the spring circulation duration. Thus, it has an influence on the oxygen balance of the limnic ecosystem.

The aim of this research was to evaluate the microbiological indoor air contamination level in chosen facilities of the primary health-care for adults and children. The total numbers of mesophilic bacteria, staphylococci, coli-group bacteria and moulds in both surgery rooms and patients’ waiting rooms were determined. Air samples were collected with a MAS 100 impactor and the concentration of microorganisms was estimated by a culture method. The microbiological air contamination level was diverse: the number of mesophilic bacteria ranged from 320 to 560 CFU/m3, number of staphylococci - 10-305 CFU/m3, coli group bacteria - 0-15 CFU/m3 and moulds - 15-35 CFU/m3. The bacteriological contamination level of the air in examined community health centers was higher than described in the literature for hospitals and exceeded the acceptable values proposed for the surgery objects.

Simultaneous measurements of the indoor and outdoor particle mass (PM) and particle number (PN) concentrations as well as the air temperature, relative humidity (RH), and CO2 concentrations have been conducted in 6 occupied (L) and unoccupied (V) classrooms in 3 secondary schools in Lublin, Poland, in the heating (H) and summer (S) seasons. The schools were located in residential areas where the majority of private houses are heated by means of coal-burning stoves. The ratios of the average particle concentrations in occupied and unoccupied classrooms (L/V) were higher during the heating season measurements. The ratios of the average particle concentrations during the measurements in the heating and summer seasons (H/S) were higher in occupied classrooms. In both seasons the average PM and PN concentrations amounted to 239 μg/m3 and 7.4×103/cm3 in the occupied classrooms, and to 76 μg/m3 and 5.4×103/cm3 in the unoccupied classrooms, respectively. The particle exposures experienced by students were higher in the monitored classrooms than outdoors and were on average about 50% higher in the heating than in the summer season. A positive correlation between mass concentrations of coarse particles and indoor air temperature, RH and CO2 concentrations in both seasons was observed. The concentrations of fine particles were negatively correlated with the indoor air parameters in the heating season, and positively correlated in the summer season.

Serpentine soils from 16 sample points in Serbia as well as the roots and shoots of eight Brassicaceae family species: Aethionema saxatile, Alyssum montanum, Alyssum repens, Cardamine plumieri, Erysimum linariifolium, Erysimum carniolicum, Isatis tinctoria, Rorippa lippizensis, were analyzed with regard to their concentrations of P, K, Fe, Ca, Mg, Ni, Zn, Mn, Cu, Cr, Cd, and Pb. Most of the soil samples were typical of ultramafic sites with low concentrations of P, K and Ca and high concentrations of Mg, Fe, Ni and Zn. Ca/Mg ratio was <1 in most soil samples and Brassicaceae plants. Only in A. montanum, A. repens, E. linariifolium and R. lippizensis was the Ca/Mg ratio >1. The levels of P, K, Fe and Zn were high, Mn and Cu occurred in low amounts, whereas Cr, Cd, Co and Pb were only traceable. In the roots and shoots of A. montanum and A. repens the measured concentrations of Ni were 657 mg kg-1 and 676 mg kg-1 respectively, which is the first instance that such high concentrations of Ni were detected in these two species.

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of advanced oxidation process with the use of Fenton’s reaction on the effectiveness of anaerobic treatment of wastewaters originating from the wood industry that were characterized by a high concentration of formaldehyde. Experiments were established to analyze changes in COD content and in the concentration of formaldehyde in treated wastewaters, additional analyses were carried out to assay quantitative and qualitative changes in the biogas produced. The first stage of the experiment involved analyses of the effectiveness of the tested wastewaters treatment only in the process of methane fermentation. At the second stage of the experiment, the biological process was preceded by chemical pre-treatment of wastewaters with Fenton’s reagent. The conducted study proved that the investigated variants of chemical pre-treatment of wastewaters had a significant effect on increasing the total biogas production. In contrast, no significant effect of the applied technology was demonstrated on changes in the concentration of the analyzed contaminants in the treated wastewaters.

Natural gas combustion was carried out in air enriched with oxygen in the amount of 25 and 29% with addition of CO2 in place of part of nitrogen. The research was carried out at different flow rates of gas and oxygen excess ratios. The concentration of CO and NOx was analyzed. It has not been proved that the increased oxygen concentration influences significantly the CO concentration. However, the addition of CO2 caused a substantial variability of CO concentration in the exhaust gas, in contrast to the concentration of NOx which decreased monotonically. Model calculations, performed with use of FactSage, indicate an increase in the concentration of CO not only for the air enriched with oxygen, but after adding CO2 too, as well

Land cover change (LCC) is important to assess the land use/land cover changes with respect to the development activities like irrigation. The region selected for the study is Vaal Harts Irrigation Scheme (VHS) occupying an area of approximately 36, 325 hectares of irrigated land. The study was carried out using Land sat data of 1991, 2001, 2005 covering the area to assess the changes in land use/land cover for which supervised classification technique has been applied. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) index was also done to assess vegetative change conditions during the period of investigation. By using the remote sensing images and with the support of GIS the spatial pattern of land use change of Vaal Harts Irrigation Scheme for 15 years was extracted and interpreted for the changes of scheme. Results showed that the spatial difference of land use change was obvious. The analysis reveals that 37.86% of additional land area has been brought under fallow land and thus less irrigation area (18.21%). There is an urgent need for management program to control the loss of irrigation land and therefore reclaim the damaged land in order to make the scheme more viable.

Biomass is commonly considered as a renewable fuel, which taking into account emission of CO2 does not contribute to the emission of the greenhouse gases. In the research, combustion tests of two types of fuel formed on the basis of straw with addition of polyethylene were performed in the laboratory. The article presents results of measurements of gas pollution coming from the combustion of the formed fuel. Obtained results were compared with similar literature data for the combustion of coal. The research covers also testing of chemical content, content of heavy metals and selected physical properties of ashes generated during the process of burning fuel based on straw.

The use of quantitative methods, including stochastic and exploratory techniques in environmental studies does not seem to be sufficient in practical aspects. There is no comprehensive analytical system dedicated to this issue, as well as research regarding this subject. The aim of this study is to present the Eco Data Miner system, its idea, construction and implementation possibility to the existing environmental information systems. The methodological emphasis was placed on the one-dimensional data quality assessment issue in terms of using the proposed QAAH1 method - using harmonic model and robust estimators beside the classical tests of outlier values with their iterative expansions. The results received demonstrate both the complementarity of proposed classical methods solution as well as the fact that they allow for extending the range of applications significantly. The practical usefulness is also highly significant due to the high effectiveness and numerical efficiency as well as simplicity of using this new tool.

The paper describes practical results of four-year laboratory studies completed to estimate technically feasible conditions of upgrading an existing sludge disposal system. A minimization of sludge mass and volume together with an energy recovery improvement were main goals of these activities. The way from lab studies and simulations to full scale investments has been shown with a special emphasis on application of respirometric procedure being applied by authors. Proposed was authors’ procedure for an estimation of a digestion time prediction for sludge of specific composition. Investigations completed at existing wastewater treatment plant resulted in practical implementation to be used during the design of upgrading and extension of the digestion and energy recovery system at the plant. It was proved that proposed changes provide close to optimum conditions for process performance and the application of proposed calculation procedures was adopted by design team

The investigation was carried out on forest soils collected from areas subject to variable pollution. The fraction of strontium was analyzed in soil samples from north-eastern Poland (Borki forest division), treated as a non-polluted region (natural background) and in soil samples from central (Rogów forest division) and south-western Poland (Świerklaniec forest division). The sequential extraction procedure was applied in this study to separate the fractions of strontium. Five fractions were analyzed in every genetic horizon according to the Tessier method. The concentration of strontium was also analyzed in the plants. Both results were compared in order to evaluate the mobility and bioavailability of the trace elements in the environment. The content, distribution and bioavailability of the strontium fractions were investigated with particular emphasis on the contaminated study sites. Total content of strontium in surface horizons depended on the localization. Among analysed fractions strontium, in organic soil horizons, regardless of localization, occurred predominantly in mobile fractions in all examined soils.