Assessment of the Odour Quality of the Air Surrounding a Landfill Site: A Case Study

In the present study, the authors assessed the odour quality of the air in the vicinity of a landfill site using a case study of a waste management plant that processes non-hazardous and inert waste as an example. An analysis of the impact of the facility under study on the odour quality of the air was performed based on a mathematical modelling system used to, among other things, assess the impact of investments in air quality both in Poland and worldwide. The most important element of the system is the puff dispersion model CALPUFF. In conclusion, the analysis of the plant’s odour impact clearly indicates a significant impact on the air quality in the studied area. The range of the impact may even reach up to 1.5 km; in the nearest locality, the odour perceptibility threshold may be exceeded for more than 3% of the hours in a year. However, taking into account the fact that the landfill is located within an agricultural area, the incidental odour impact in this area may also be associated with periods of intensive fertilization and a roadside ditch collecting municipal sewage from roadside households.

Paraplothrombium maketawa n. sp. (Acariformes: Parasitengona), the first member of the Johnstonianidae recorded in New Zealand

Paraplothrombium maketawa n. sp. is described from a female taken from native forest litter in a roadside ditch at the Maketawa river near Inglewood, Taranaki, New Zealand. This represents the first record of the Johnstonianidae in New Zealand.

An observation of the use of devil crayfish (Cambarus cf. diogenes) burrows as brooding habitat by eastern cicada killer wasps (Sphecius speciosus)

Burrowing crayfish are a polyphyletic group of crayfish adapted to life in habitats where surface water is only intermittently available. The burrowing activity of these crayfish creates refugia for numerous other species, making them allogenic ecosystem engineers. While excavating devil crayfish burrows in a roadside ditch in Southern Indiana, USA, a large cicada killer wasp carrying an even larger cicada landed near the authors. The wasp spent a few minutes manipulating its prey, then took flight and flew directly into an unoccupied crayfish burrow in the roadside ditch. The wasp emerged approximately ten minutes later without the cicada and flew away. Female cicada killer wasps typically excavate brooding burrows consisting of numerous cells in which they deposit cicadas for their young to feed on upon hatching. We believe that this particular cicada killer wasp was in the process of provisioning a brooding cell, but used a crayfish burrow instead of digging its own burrow, possibly to save energy. To our knowledge, use of a crayfish burrow by a cicada killer wasp has not been documented before and adds to the list of organisms that benefit from the ecosystem engineering of burrowing crayfish, highlighting the importance of giving these crayfish appropriate conservation attention.

The Minories Eagle: A New Sculpture from London's Eastern Roman Cemetery

ABSTRACTThe limestone sculpture of an eagle firmly clasping a serpent in its beak was recovered from within the eastern Roman cemetery of London on the last day of excavations at 24–26 Minories, EC3 in September 2013. The sculpture, which is dated stylistically to the late first or early second centurya.d., had been carefully buried within the backfill of a roadside ditch no later than the mid-second century. The Minories eagle is one of the finest and earliest examples of freestone sculpture from the London cemeteries and presumably adorned the tomb of a rich and important individual or family located nearby. Petrological analysis of the sculpture has revealed it is carved from oolitic limestone quarried from the south Cotswolds. The article presents the context of the findspot and a detailed description of the eagle sculpture with an in-depth discussion of the iconography of the image and the results of the petrological examination. The Supplementary Material available online (http://journals.cambridge.org/bri) presents an account of the site stratigraphy, integrated with the specialist finds and the environmental reports.

Case Study on the Use of Mobile Lidar to Produce a Preliminary Drainage Design

Inadequate and ineffective roadway and roadside drainage causes highway pavements to fail prematurely. For rehabilitation techniques to perform as desired, surface and subsurface drainage conditions must first be addressed. Mobile lidar is emerging as a safe and effective tool for collecting vast amounts of surface data that can assist in developing drainage designs. This paper presents a case study on the application of mobile lidar to develop a preliminary drainage design on US-75 in north Texas. A design is provided for an underdrain system that includes both longitudinal and lateral pipes. A roadside grading design is provided that works in concert with the underdrain design to move the water away from the pavement structure. Design constraints and challenges include a roadside ditch flow line higher than the pavement structure, slope stability concerns along the frontage road, front slope steepness along a high-speed corridor, and depth of cut within the pavement for installation of the underdrain. The preliminary design, developed from data collected with mobile lidar, was provided to the Texas Department of Transportation. This design has already been used to improve the drainage in the roadside ditch.

New records of Gypsophila perfoliata (Caryophyllaceae) in Poland

The paper presents two new records of alien Gypsophila perfoliata in Poland. It was found on 16 September 2016 in Bodzanów and Łapczyca, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, southern Poland, growing on roadside slopes and in roadside ditch. The updated map of distribution is presented using the ATPOL cartogram method, and the pathways of introduction and spreading are discussed.