When the temperature drops, rivers, lakes and seas become covered with ice, the water vapor in the atmosphere turns into snow crystals, and underground water turns into tiny ice lenses or veins. Glaciers and ice caps are formed in high mountains and in polar regions. All these large and small, visible and invisible forms of solid water on Earth together form what is known as the “cryosphere.”

Macrozooplankton was caught at 17 stations with a Bongo net from the 0-200 m layer. The stations were located near the pack ice edge, between Elephant Islands and the South Orkney Islands. The cluster analysis of 58 recognized taxa allowed to distinguish three regions: the western — near Elephant Island, the middle and the western one — at the South Orkney Islands. No clear difference in macrozooplankton species composition at the open sea stations and those near pack ice was found. The average biomass of macrozooplankton in the investigated area amounted to 82.8 g/1000 m3 (95% CL: 47.2-94.2 g/1000m3). Macrozooplankton was dominated by salps and krill. The biomass and 95% confidence limits were 52.0 g/1000 m3 (15.6-59.2 g/1000 m3) and 26.1 g/1000 m3 (8.4-30.4 g/1000 m3), respectively. Differences in the biomass distribution of some taxa in three distinguished regions were observed. Except of salps the biomass of particular taxa caught near the pack ice edge and the same taxa caught in stations distant from this edge were similar. The biomass of salps was evidently higher in most northern stations.

In the investigated area the overall abundance of krill was small and was increasing with the distance from ice. However, with the data available, it was not possible to decide whether this increase was related to the ice border or was a part of a larger scale phenomenon. The depth distributions as well as the mean values of krill depth were similar to those of open water both in this study and reported in literature.

In the region between King George Island and the South Orkney Islands 7 fish species from 6 families were found. The concentration of larvae at the edge of drifting ice was higher (2.55 ind. x 1000 m-3) than in the stations situated at a distance from the ice edge (0.93 ind. x 1000 m-3).

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 essence of the methane fermentation course is the phase nature of changes taking place during the process. The biodegradation degree of sewage sludge is determined by the effectiveness of the hydrolysis phase. Excess sludge, in the form of a flocculent suspension of microorganisms, subjected to the methane fermentation process show limited susceptibility to the biodegradation. Excess sludge is characterized by a significant content of volatile suspended solids equal about 65 ÷ 75%. Promising technological solution in terms of increasing the efficiency of fermentation process is the application of thermal modification of sludge with the use of dry ice. As a result of excess sludge disintegration by dry ice, denaturation of microbial cells with a mechanical support occurs. The crystallization process takes place and microorganisms of excess sludge undergo the so-called “thermal shock”. The aim of the study was to determine the effect of dry ice disintegration on the course of the methane fermentation process of the modified excess sludge. In the case of dry ice modification reagent in a granular form with a grain diameter of 0.6 mm was used. Dry ice was mixed with excess sludge in a volume ratio of 0.15/1, 0.25/1, 0.35/1, 0.45/1, 0.55/1, 0.65/1, 0.75/1, respectively. The methane fermentation process lasting for 8 and 28 days, respectively, was carried out in mesophilic conditions at 37°C. In the first series untreated sludge was used, and for the second and third series the following treatment parameters were applied: the dose of dry ice in a volume ratio to excess sludge equal 0.55/1, pretreatment time 12 hours. The increase of the excess sludge disintegration degree, as well as the increase of the digestion degree and biogas yield, was a confirmation of the supporting operation of the applied modification. The mixture of reactant and excess sludge in a volume ratio of 0.55/1 was considered the most favorable combination. In relation to not prepared sludge for the selected most favorable conditions of excess sludge modification, about 2.7 and 3-fold increase of TOC and SCOD values and a 2.8-fold increase in VFAs concentration were obtained respectively. In relation to the effects of the methane fermentation of non-prepared sludge, for modified sludge, about 33 percentage increase of the sludge digestion degree and about 31 percentage increase of the biogas yield was noticed.

Ice thickness is one of the most critical physical indicators in the ice science and engineering. It is therefore very necessary to develop in-situ automatic observation technologies of ice thickness. This paper proposes the principle of three new technologies of in-situ automatic observations of sea ice thickness and provides the findings of laboratory applications. The results show that the in-situ observation accuracy of the monitor apparatus based on the Magnetostrictive Delay Line (MDL) principle can reach ±2 mm, which has solved the “bottleneck” problem of restricting the fine development of a sea ice thermodynamic model, and the resistance accuracy of monitor apparatus with temperature gradient can reach the centimeter level and research the ice and snow substance balance by automatically measuring the glacier surface ice and snow change. The measurement accuracy of the capacitive sensor for ice thickness can also reach ±4 mm and the capacitive sensor is of the potential for automatic monitoring the water level under the ice and the ice formation and development process in water. Such three new technologies can meet different needs of fixed-point ice thickness observation and realize the simultaneous measurement in order to accurately judge the ice thickness.

Chlorophyll a content and the density and species composition of algae were determined in drifting sea ice north of the Elephant Island (between 54-56°W and 60°30'—61°00'S) at the end of October 1986. In yellow-brownish pieces of brash ice the amount of chlorophyll α was on average 203.5 ± 149.9 mg m-3 at the density of algal cells of 255.7+137.8-103 in cm3. In not visibly discoloured ice the respective values were about 80 times lower, and in surface water about 700 times lower. 69 algal taxa were recorded in the samples, almost all of which were diatoms. Nitzschia cylindrus dominated in all the samples. A comparison of species composition in the investigated habitats revealed that the highest species similarities occurred between samples collected in discoloured ice, lower in the uncoloured ice and the lowest ones in water.

The highest concentrations of algal cells (1.1 x l0 6 litre- 1 ) and of algal carbon (20 μg litre -1 ) were associated with a lens of ice melt water in the northeast of the study area. Phytoflagellates were dominant at all stations with greater numbers always in the 0 - 20 m surface layer and with the peaks of Cryptophyceae in the open waters and also near the ice edge east of 50° W. Picoplankton flagellates and monads (1.5-5.0 μ) were generally next in abundance and most important numerically in the near ice stations in the western part of the study area. Parasinophyceae were usually more abundant than Nitzschia cylindrus (Grunow) Hasle, the only common diatom species found mainly in the western near ice edge stations. The presence olN.cylindrus, dominant in the pack ice and in phytoplankton near the ice edge, shows that algae released from ice may act as an inoculum for the phytoplankton.

Ice constitutes physically, but not legally, a separate element of polar regions, alongside with land, water and air. Lack of clear legal regulations in this respect compells the practitioners to apply often inadequate analogies. The specific status of polar permanent and floating ice calls for urgent and comprehensive legal regulation under general international law, the law of the sea and the law of polar regions, on the ground of the principle of Arctic sectors in the Northern Hemisphere and the Antarctic Treaty System in the Southern Hemisphere, with reference to the relatively rich legal doctrine, discussed in detail below.

Chlorophyll α, phytoplankton, suspensions and zooplankton beneath the fast ice have been studied in Spitsbergen fjords (Hornsund, Bellsund, Sassenfjord, Gronfjord and Kongsfjord) in 1982, 1984/85,1987 and 1988. Observations on ice associated Polar cod and wildlife have been collected simultaneously. There were no typical sympagic communities observed at the West Spitsbergen fast ice. Exception was spring 1982 and 1988 when drifting ice from Barents Sea contributed to the fjords fauna. Fast ice on the investigated fjords was poor in adjacent zooplankton (biomass below 0.06 g/m3). Ice phytoplankton reflects the autumn situation and no specific communities of algae have been found. Chlorophyll α amount and organic sedimentation from ice and from the adjacent water were very similar (0.4 to 1.7 mg/m3 chlorophyll and 8 to 10 g d.w./m2/day sedimenling matter). The diet of Polar cod reflected the food items occurrence, Calanus has been the most common food. N o specific concentration of seabirds have been observed at fjords ice.

Results of an oceanographic survey along the edge of drifting pack ice in the area between Elephant Island and the South Orkney Islands are reported. The influence of sea ice on hydrological factors was very weak. It was not possible to develop oceanographic features characteristic for marginal sea-ice zones in the areas with well marked surface currents and dynamic hydrological conditions. The spatial distribution of chlorophyll was governed by water stability, although during our survey, areas with enhanced vertical stability could not be described in terms of a sea-ice edge influence.

An axially symmetric, gravity driven, steady flow of a grounded polar ice sheet with a prescribed temperature field is considered.

The ice is treated as an incompressible, non-linearly viscous, anisotropic fluid, the internal structure (fabric) of which evolves as ice descends from the free surface to depth in an ice sheet. The evolution of the ice fabric is described by an orthotropic constitutive law which relates the deviatoric stress to the strain-rate, strain, and three structure tensors based on the current (rotating) principal stretch axes. The solution of the problem is constructed as a leading-order approximation derived from asymptotic expansions in a small parameter that reflects the small ratio of stress and velocity gradients in the lateral direction of the ice sheet to those in the thickness direction. Numerical simulations of the flow problem have been carried out for various sets of rheological parameters defining the limit strength of the anisotropic fabric in ice. The results of calculations illustrate the influence of the ice anisotropy, basal melt conditions and temperature field in ice on the glacier thickness and lateral span, and on the depth profiles of the flow velocity.

The δ18O data for the last 8000 years in the Greenland NGRIP1, GRIP, DYE-3 and GISP2 ice cores have been analyzed stratigraphically in search of potentially meaningful boundaries and units. Pattern matching of the profiles is supported by using graphical display enhancements, calculating spectral trend curves and generating a compound profile. Techniques routinely used in subsurface geology have been applied in correlating the profiles. Four major stratigraphic units are identified (8.1–4.9, 4.9–3.3, 3.3–1.9 and 1.9–0.1 ka b2k), resulting in an improved understanding of the climate change after the Holocene Climate Optimum. Correlatable higher-order boundaries are identified within these units. The layers between the boundaries show δ18O patterns which generally are similar in character, the differences being ascribed to lateral variations in the factors that control the isotope content of the ice. The layering forms a series of short-lived low-amplitude aperiodic oscillations on a centennial time scale. The suggestion is that these higher-order boundaries and δ18O oscillations have climatic significance. Equivalent units are tentatively identified in ice-core data from the Agassiz and Renland ice caps. Comparison with other climate proxies or stratigraphies from the Northern Hemisphere is expected to render support for the here proposed scheme. It will then serve to guide and constrain the analysis of the dynamics of the climatic fluctuations for the study period.