Společenský význam těžby kamenných surovin ve středoevropském neolitu a eneolitu

The article discusses changes in mining in Neolithic and Eneolithic middle Europe and their relation to social background. Regular variabilities were detected in structures of mining localities during time, which indicate that mining was not basal subsistence activity. Presumably, it is necessary to perceive the considerable social background of past mining. Social interaction is related to cooperation and specialization necessary for mining. The raw materials were also used for making artefacts, but the sense of mining consisted mainly in the social sphere.

Resilience of Raw-Earth Technology in the Climate of Middle Europe Based on Analysis of Experimental Building in Pasłęk in Poland

The article concerns the experimental building in raw-earth technologies situated in Ecological Park in Pasłęk, in the northeast part of Poland with rather severe climate characteristics for middle and east Europe. The purpose of the designing and realization of the building was to demonstrate the methods of construction in traditional raw-earth technologies with current modifications and then to create the possibility for long-term research and observations at the site visits during the buildings’ exploitation. The building was designed as energy efficient with a passive solar system, green roof, and space arrangement. Construction effects of exploitation were checked. Also, physical aspects were analyzed and thermal-humidity environmental parameters were measured with specialized equipment. Examples of such measurements with appropriate conclusion are presented. Based on the analyses, the authors evaluate the resilience of the applied technology under the given climate conditions, as one of the possible sustainability technologies that can be used in Poland under given restrictions.

SUBJECT DIDACTICS: RELEVANT ISSUES

I would like to thank the editor of the journal for the space to write some words about actual problems of subject didactic. I would like to ask all readers to remember, this is not a classic scientific text, it is only short reflection for the actual situation in subject didactic as it is perceived by the author of this text. Current subject or disciplinary didactic is a dynamic discipline, which is still changing and is reporting to actual trends in the relative disciplines like pedagogy, psychology, sociology, philosophy, and others, and also the newest findings from the scientific disciplines, which are connected with subject didactic. The didactic is perceived in different ways by different countries. For example, in the Middle Europe and former post-communist countries it is possible to observe subject didactic, where every subject, has got its own didactic (e.g., didactic of biology, didactic of history, …). For Anglo-Saxon countries it is typical disciplinary didactic (e.g., science didactic). It can cause a little bit problematic view, but the nature of concept is similar. In this text it is used the term “subject didactic”.

Possibilities for Introducing a New Night Train Connection in Middle Europe

Liberalisation of the rail transport market is the main aim of the European Union in the field of transport policy. Open access on the market allows railway undertakings to provide their services, but it also requires to compete with each other. In recent years, night train services have experienced a renaissance, especially in west-Europe countries. A development of this type of services is important to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality in EU, especially in context of affordable air transport. The aim of this study is to analyse current night train services in middle Europe and find opportunities for their further development. In this article we have proposed new night train connections between Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Germany, provided by railway undertaking in open access mode, with a detailed cost calculation. This is necessary to assess the economic efficiency of introducing new connections. Results of the cost calculations form the basis of the price for transport on newly introduced routes.

ET of a mosaic landscape – measurements and modelling

<p>Evapotranspiration changes with landuse, soil conditions and meteorological conditions. Landscapes in middle Europe are typically of mosaic pattern at micro to local scale with different landuses adjacent to one another and we therefore have areas of different ET. This work shall address how ET changes with landuse based on 10 years of Eddy-Covariance data for different landuses. In a first step, it will be focussed on two landuses (coniferous forest and grassland). ET obtained via measurements will be compared to ET obtained via modelling by a using a one dimensional soil-vegetation transfer scheme and a machine learning approach using gradient boosting. Results will be analysed whether typical characteristic properties of the respective landscape are preserved (e.g. Bowen ratio) as well as differences between land uses (e.g. differences in yearly ET estimates).</p>

Unperturbed root fungal communities in a temperate forest recovering from five years of reoccurring droughts

<p>Since industrialization, the global average temperature increases with far reaching consequences for the world climate. One phenomenon is the current occurrence of more heavy and long droughts in Middle Europe, which lead to extensive tree die-off and shows that we need a better understanding of the forest-soil ecosystem in times of climate change.</p><p>Within the interdisciplinary Kranzberg Roof Experiment, we study the drought resistance and drought recovery of mature Norway spruce (<em>Picea abies</em>) and European beech (<em>Fagus sylvatica</em>). The trees experienced a rainfall exclusion for five years during the vegetation period and were rewetted by drip irrigation in summer 2019. Our interest focuses in the functional role of ectomycorrhizal and overall fungal communities on tree drought resistance and recovery. Particularly, we hypothesized the rewetting event will lead to a shift in community structure because of steeply rising water and nutrient availabilities.</p><p>To get insights to the development of the fungal communities right after the rewetting period, we sequenced the fungal ITS2 region of fine root DNA extracts. The roots were taken from soil cores before and at several time-points after irrigation.</p><p>We found that the fungal communities stayed quite similar to each other during the time-frame of recovery we investigated (84 days), while the amount of new root tips strongly increased directly after the rewetting. Surprisingly, the organic material which had accumulated as it was not degraded during the years of drought, did not lead to a shift in community composition. In particular, there were no changes in the relative amounts of saprotroph fungi in the phase after the rewetting.</p><p>Therefore, root fungal communities – the interface between trees and soil – seemingly did not experience a strong pressure to adapt their composition to the new condition, which matches their resistant behavior during the long drought phase before (cf. abstract 2937).</p>

Evidence for multiple introductions of an invasive wild bee species currently under rapid range expansion in Europe

Background Invasive species are increasingly driving biodiversity decline, and knowledge of colonization dynamics, including both drivers and dispersal modes, are important to prevent future invasions. The bee species Megachile sculpturalis (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae), native to East-Asia, was first recognized in Southeast-France in 2008, and has since spread throughout much of Europe. The spread is very fast, and colonization may result from multiple fronts. Result To track the history of this invasion, codominant markers were genotyped using Illumina sequencing and the invasion history and degree of connectivity between populations across the European invasion axis were investigated. Distinctive genetic clusters were detected with east–west differentiations in Middle-Europe. Conclusion We hypothesize that the observed cluster formation resulted from multiple, independent introductions of the species to the European continent. This study draws a first picture of an early invasion stage of this wild bee and forms a foundation for further investigations, including studies of the species in their native Asian range and in the invaded range in North America.

Сhrysaspis patens and Сh. patens × Сh. campestre (Fabaceae) іn the flora of Ukraine

Data about distribution of Сhrysaspis patens (Schreb.) Holub (Trifolium patens Schreb.) and Сh. patens × Сh. campestre (Schreb.) Holub (T. patens × T. campestre Schreb.) (Fabaceae Lindl.) in the Ukrainian flora are analyzed. For the first time, according to LE and KW Herbarium materials, in 1990 and 1996, the species, Сh. patens, was noted by Yu. Roskov from the territory of Transcarpathian Region (Zakarpats’ka Oblast’): in the vicinity of the village of Malyi Bereznyi of Velykyi Bereznyі District (1954), and village Lazy (1958) of Uzhgorod Distr., later – between villages Nevytske and Kamianytsa (1970, 1972) of these district of the Region. One specimens from the Malyi Bereznyi (LE) was determined by Yu. Roskov as hybrid: Сh. patens × Сh. campestre. Before 2019 in Checklist and regional flora’s these taxa was not mentioned. Traditionally, the species is considered as part of the sect. Сhrysaspis of genus Chrysaspis Desv. or sect. Chronosemium Seringe subgen. Chronosemium (Seringe) Hossain of the genus Trifolium L. Taxonomically, the species is close to Сh. campestris. The main distinguishing features between these species are: morphological characteristics of vegetative and generative organs, mainly size and form of leaves and parts of flower. Taxonomic citations, morphological characteristics, primary and secondary areas, ecological and coenotic peculiarities of Ch. patens are given. The general area of the species is including Middle Europe, Mediterraneum and Asia minor; at the last years species was noted from the territory of Azerbaijan, Finland and New Zealand. The species grows on meadow, among shrubs, in wet and rocky places, on pastures, along roadsides and railway tracks, etc. In the South European country Ch. patens is a characteristic species of cl. Molinio-Arrhenatheretea Tuxen 1957. The florogenetic status of the species is discussed, in particular in the Transcarpathia region, as well as in the neighboring Hungary and Slovakia Ch. patens is considered as element of native fraction of the flora. At the northern parts of species distribution range, e.g. in Poland, Germany, etc. the species is a kenophyte. A schematic map of the distribution of the species in the Transcarpathia region is given.

Winter honeybee (Apis mellifera) populations show greater potential to induce immune response than summer ones after immune stimuli

In the temperate climates of middle Europe and North America, two distinct honeybee (Apis mellifera) populations are found in colonies: short-living summer bees emerge in spring and survive until summer, whereas long-living winter bees emerge in late August and overwinter. Besides the difference in their life spans, each of these populations fulfills a different role in the colonies and individual bees have distinct physiological and immunological adaptations depending on their roles. For instance, winter worker bees have higher vitellogenin levels and larger reserves of nutrients in the fat body than summer bees. The differences between the immune systems of both populations are well described at the constitutive level; however, our knowledge of its inducibility is still very limited. In this study, we focus on the response of 10-day-old honeybee workers to immune challenges triggered in vivo by injecting heat-killed bacteria, with particular focus on honeybees that emerge and live under hive conditions. Responses to bacterial injections differed between summer and winter bees. The latter induced more intense response, including higher expression of antimicrobial genes and antimicrobial activity, as well as a significant decrease in vitellogenin gene expression and its concentration in the hemolymph. The intense immune response observed in winter honeybees may contribute to our understanding of the relationships between colony fitness and infection with pathogens, as well as its association with successful overwintering.