Monitoring of soil structure

Based on data from the Central Office of Construction Supervision, there were 5455 construction disasters in Poland between 2008 and 2019. Four thousand twenty-three disasters were caused by random events, of which 110 were caused by landslides. Most of these events took place in 2010, when there were up to 94 disaster-related landslides. Landslides have been occurring with different intensity, significantly influencing the current structure of the Earth surface. In natural conditions, without human intrusion, these phenomena have a character of long-term processes that activate depending on the changes of natural external conditions such as ground saturation with water, area deforestation, high degradation or slopes erosion. Everyone who had contact with landslides knows that it is not a sudden phenomenon, but a process - chain of events occurring one after another and developing with time. This phenomenon forces constant necessity of getting more detailed knowledge of the processes mechanism and character and phenomena occurring inside the slopes. That is why slope monitoring plays such an important role in understanding the mechanism of landslides. In Poland, most structures of this type belong to the second or third geotechnical category in accordance with the Regulation of the Minister of Transport, Construction and Maritime Economy (2012). The law obliges the owner of the land on which this type of structure is located to perform inspections and monitoring of its condition. The monitoring of the slope protecting the liquid waste landfill facility located at the food processing plant was analysed in the article. In 1997, the slope was subject to a construction disaster in consequence of washout by the Oder River and too high irrigation of the ground structure. Following the disaster, the slope with the waste reservoirs slid into the river polluting it. Since the reconstruction, the slope is subject to constant monitoring of the external geometry and checking the condition of the ground building the dam. The paper discusses the applied monitoring methods and shows the methodology of conducting the measurements. The results of slope settlement were analysed and compared with model calculations. In conclusion, modern monitoring techniques were shown, which could be applied to this type of structures.

Trunks of multi-stem black poplars may have different genotypes – evidence from the Oder valley in Poland

The black poplar (Populus nigra L.) is an ecologically and economically important tree species, characteristic for floodplain forests in Europe. It is now considered to be endangered in many European countries due to the loss of its natural habitat caused by the development of river engineering and intensive land use management of riverside areas. Multi-stem specimens can be found occasionally in natural black poplar populations. The percentage of such individuals is low, although in some stands it may be over a dozen percent. The origin of multi-stem trees may be different. As a consequence, trunks being part of such a tree can have the same or different genotypes. The study aimed to find out whether all trunks of multi-stem black poplars are ramets of the same genet or if their genotypes are different, in which case they increase the gene pool of the population. We used 13 microsatellite nuclear markers to analyze the genotypes of 83 trunks belonging to 34 multi-stem black poplar trees from five natural populations from the Oder river valley in Poland. We also performed the sibship analysis of all trunks. The results showed that the trunks being part of the particular individual had distinct genotypes in five trees (14.7%). This indicates that they were formed as a result of the fusion of two genetically different individuals. The sibship analysis revealed that one multi-stem tree was represented by full-sibs. In the remaining four trees the fused trunks were not related. Nevertheless, we found three pairs of half-sibs between different trees that were distant from each other. The majority of the multi-stem trees we examined developed most probably due to the damage to the apical meristem of the main shoot of a single-stem tree. Nevertheless, some of them were indeed formed from two distinct individuals. Therefore, if a particular population consists of a small number of individuals, we recommend to study the genotypic homogeneity of each multi-stem tree.

Uzbrojenie znad dolnej Odry w okresie rzymskim na przykładach cmentarzysk w Czelinie (dawn. Zellin), Starych Łysogórkach (dawn. Alt Lietzegöricke) i Żelisławcu (dawn. Sinzlow), pow. gryfiński

Armaments from the Lower Oder Basin in the Roman Period on the Basis of Burial Grounds at Czelin (ex-Zellin), Stare Łysogórki (ex-Alt Lietzegöricke), and Żelisławiec (ex-Sinzlow), distr. GryfinoInvestigations of the burial ground at Czelin, Gryfino district, site 23 (AZP 45-04/5) yielded 191 features dated from phase A3 of the Late Pre-Roman Period to subphase C1b of the Roman Period. Cremation burials are in the majority. Only one inhumation grave was discovered. The collection of the recovered weapons includes nine swords (five single-edged, i.a. types Biborski B/1, D/1, and D/2), four double-edged (i.a. types Vimose-Illerup, Lachmirowice-Apa, and agladius), 29 heads of shafted weapons (i.a. groups Kaczanowski I, II, III, VIII, X, XVII), 19 shield-bosses (Jahn 5, Jahn 6, Jahn 7, and Jahn 8), 14 shield grips (Jahn 6, Jahn 7, and Jahn 9), four spurs, and two arrowheads. The most interesting weapons are the above-mentioned Vimose-Illerup sword, Pompeii gladius, and decorated spearheads. The typological identifications of the weapons refer to the Przeworsk culture ones, and the pottery vessels correspond with atradition from the Elbe River area. Scandinavian influence is also noticeable in the weapons (aHval-type head, an Illerup Ådal-type sword) and tools, such as needle-shaped strike-a-lights. This is typical situation in the lower Oder River region.

First report of Scutariella japonica (Matjašič, 1990), a temnocephalid epibiont from South-East Asia, found on introduced ornamental freshwater shrimp in European waters

This contribution presents the first record of ornamental shrimp epibiont, Scutariella japonica (Platyhelminthes: Temnocephalida) in European waters. The species lives on freshwater Atyidae shrimp from temperate, subtropical and tropical zones of South-East Asia. In total, 120 individuals of Neocaridina davidi shrimp were caught in thermally polluted canal of Oder river, near the city of Gryfino, in the northwest part of Poland. In that group, 5.83% were infected with scutariellids. Among shrimp, females were mostly infected (85.71%). Since ornamental shrimp released into thermally polluted water bodies have been also noticed in surrounding waters of natural temperature regime in Europe, S. japonica may spread further following potential expansion of the Neocaridina shrimp in Oder river. It is possible that other crustaceans, both native and alien which are present at this location, may also become vectors of this epibiont.

The Annual Reproductive Cycle of Rudd, Scardinius erythrophthalmus (Cyprinidae) from the Lower Oder River and Lake Dąbie, (NW Poland)

The rudd is a common freshwater species of the European ichthyofauna, however, this species' sexual cycle has not yet been described based on the histological analysis of its gonads. The aim of this study was to analyze the annual gonad development cycle of rudd from the watercourses of north-western Poland. Adult individuals aged 2+ to 13+, of both sexes were caught in the Oder River and Lake Dąbie. A standard paraffin technique and six-stage scales were used to assess the development of gonad maturity in both sexes. Rudd gonads developed similarly in the Oder River and Lake Dąbie. Eggs were deposited in batches from the beginning of May to the half of June. Females deposited at least two batches of eggs. In the majority of females collected from these sites, the gonads developed asynchronously throughout the year. Rudd males attained reproductive readiness in the same period as the females, but retained gametes in their gonads for a month longer than the females. Rudd avoid locations with warmer water discharged from power plants.

Urnfields in the middle Oder basin – a perspective of a Lubusz-Greater Polish territorial community

SummaryLusatian Urnfield communities inhabiting Lubusz Land and western Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages occupy a unique position on the settlement map of the middle Oder basin. For nearly a thousand years, they acted as a kind of buffer between the buoyant Silesian centre, which had achieved its culture-making role thanks to direct exchange contacts with the Transcarpathian and Danubian-Alpine centres of the south, and West Pomeranian groups inspired from the west and northwest by the Nordic circle. The importance of Lubusz-Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) populations to the overall cultural picture of the territories on the banks of the Oder River can hardly be overestimated, so it is worth analysing this phenomenon in more detail. One of the significant cultural elements is the ceramic style. It can be a means of manifesting outside the identity of a group, the identity consolidated by a tradition functioning within this group. It is hard to imagine a relative standardisation of patterns in pottery produced over a certain area to be only the result of more or less random movement of female potters or small groups of people. The standardisation of material culture, resulting from the existence of a style, no doubt enhances homogeneity and stability in everyday life, and therefore can be regarded as a factor integrating neighbouring communities in territorial communities within a supra-local scale. In the Late Bronze Age, in Lubusz Land and western Greater Poland (Wielkopolska), one can notice the same stylistic tendencies in pottery manufacture (bossed style, Urad style, Late Bronze Age style) and in figural art in clay, and a similar repertoire of bronze objects, produced in local metallurgical workshops on the Oder.The formation of Urnfield communities in Lubusz Land and western Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) was no doubt part of a broader process of cultural integration, of supra-local character, which was taking place throughout the upper and middle Oder basin at the transition of the Middle and Late Bronze Ages. This was a process of acculturation, based on the reception of the influx of new cultural contents along the River Oder from Lower Silesia and perhaps, although to a much smaller extent, from Lusatia and Saxony. The result was the cultural unification, for the first time to such an extent, of the western part of what is now Poland. The archaeological indicator of the discussed process was the appearance of large cremation cemeteries, with burials furnished with bossed pottery of the Silesia-Greater Polish type, representing a style typical of most of the middle Oder basin. Similar tendencies can be seen in bronze metallurgy, where a nearly complete unification of the repertoire of produced objects can be observed from the beginning of the Late Bronze Age. Here, however, the distributions of particular forms are much broader and encompass almost the entire western part of the Lusatian Urnfields. In Lubusz Land and western Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) the Late Bronze Age saw a very dynamic development of local bronze production, performed primarily within the Oder metallurgical centre. The result was a relatively high percentage of bronze artefacts in the cultural inventory of Urnfield populations inhabiting the region, most of them ultimately deposited in the many hoards buried during that period. A broad spectrum of manufactured designs, their notable standardisation, and the finds of durable casting moulds all seem to confirm that bronze metallurgy, along with pot-making, belonged to the most important areas of production performed by the population inhabiting the middle Oder basin at the conclusion of the 2nd and beginning of the 1st millennium BC, despite it having been carried out by a limited group of initiated specialists. The process of formation of Lusatian Urnfields in the middle Oder basin was most likely not complete before HaA2, and from the subsequent phase onwards one can notice a steady expansion of settled areas, resulting from intensive internal colonisation and the processes of acculturation. The dynamics of this phenomenon are best illustrated by newly established, vast cremation cemeteries, most of which were then continuously used at least until the close of the Bronze Age, with some persisting into the Early Iron Age. With the onset of the Early Iron Age, the Lubusz-Greater Polish territorial community of Lusatian Urnfields started to slowly disintegrate, a phenomenon explained by the adoption of a different model of Hallstatisation by these communities. In Lubusz Land, pottery of the Górzyce style (Göritzer Stil) appears, inspired more by Białowice (Billendorf) than Silesian patterns, while in western Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) ceramic workshops still maintained a close connection with the tendencies set by their Silesian neighbours, who at that time closely followed the East Hallstatt trends. The Lubusz-Greater Polish territorial community, which crystallised and developed throughout the entirety of the Late Bronze Age largely thanks to the unique role of the Oder River as a route of long-distance exchange and at the same time a culturally unifying element of the landscape, ceased to exist with the onset of the Early Iron Age, never to be reborn.