<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

The Province of Silesia, in Poland, is an area where many railway connections, of mostly local importance, have been closed recently. In some cities, they have been eliminated altogether and passenger rail transport has been replaced by bus transport. For this research, a sociological study was conducted using the diagnostic survey method and the questionnaire technique. A transversal testing strategy was also used. The aims of the study were to illustrate the function of abandoned railway areas in the landscape and to present possible recommendations for their development from the point of view of the needs of society. The research population included 1,685 people who were students at the University of the Third Age and adult residents. The surveys focused on the possibility of exploiting the natural potential of railway areas. The respondents’ answers provided suggestions for the development of unused railway areas, which included creating bicycle lanes, alleys with a high biodiversity of both flora and fauna, and walking tracks. The analysis of the study’s results can be useful to both local authorities and the Management of the Polish State Railways (PKP S.A.) in their decision-making processes concerning the revitalization of unused railway areas. Similar revitalization efforts have already been undertaken by various cities and communities.
</abstract>

University of Silesia in Katowice, Faculty of Natural Sciences

University of Silesia in Katowice, Faculty of Social Sciences

The socio-economic importance of abandoned railway areas in the landscape of the Silesian Province (southern Poland)

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

The article presents data from the study of vegetation dynamics in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone 30 years after the nuclear disaster and the resettlement of its local people. The 1993 prognostic data on the further development of grass and forest community groups in this area was only partially correct. The new prognosis for demutation successions reflects deviations from the linear development with a possible horizontal "shift", depending on climatic conditions, bio-ecological features of plants, as well as the impact of fires. Based on the analysis of recent data from geobotanical studies of the vegetation, the values of ecofactors that determine the course of demutation of communities were calculated. In particular, the classic course of succession is now inherent in the former settlements of the exclusion zone where the formation of forests takes place. In the old fallow lands, the previously prevailing <italic>Elytrigia repens</italic> has lost its dominant position, and has been replaced by <italic>Calamagrostis epigejos</italic>, which we associate with a certain deficiency of nitrogen compounds in the soil. The allelopathic properties of cereals inhibit the process of replacing grass communities with forest ones, which affects the course of succession. The issues of demutation of residential areas of the Exclusion Zone are considered and the sequence of changes in different habitats is described. Post-pyrogenic changes in the forest vegetation are noted and the capacity of invasive plant species to invade natural ecosystems are characterized. It is emphasized that frequent and large-scale fires cause a significant imbalance in forest ecosystems, and result in the appearance of a largenumber of alien species.
</abstract>

O.V. Fomin Botanical Garden of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv

Vegetation changes within the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, Ukraine

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

Due to an absence of domestic certified reference materials for coal on the Polish market, an attempt was made to manufacture a new and innovative product tailored to its needs. The chosen candidate material was hard coal acquired from Poland’s coal mines. A single reference material unit consisted of 50g of an analytical hard coal sample with a grain size below 0.2 mm. A manufacturing method was developed enabling production of matrix reference materials addressing the needs of the domestic solid fuel market, and was directed at research laboratories carrying out analyses of solid fuels for the energy and coking sectors. The adapted manufacturing scheme of a certified reference material for coal was presented with a description of the chosen critical steps of the process and discussion of the obtained results in terms of homogeneity, stability, characterisation of the reference material as well as assigned values to particular properties and their uncertainty budget. The results obtained during homogeneity, short-term and long-term stability assessments as well as reference material characterisation confirmed the feasibility of the investigated certified coal reference material manufacturing process. The obtained levels of relative expanded uncertainties of the measurements confirmed the feasibility of the manufactured certified reference material for establishing and maintaining metrological traceability of measurement results. The presented research establishes a base for planning out production of additional reference materials as well as providing the know-how for designing manufacturing schemes for reference materials for solid fuels, or waste related materials like fly ash, or furnace waste.
</abstract>

Certified reference material for coal in accordance with the PN-EN ISO 17034:2017-03 standard and ISO GUIDE 35:2017

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

The effects of climate change in Uganda are manifested by severe and sometimes extreme weather events such as droughts and landslides. An Integrated Watershed Management (IWM) plan was initiated in the Karamoja region, aimed at generating information that could be used to reduce climate vulnerabilities among the rural poor. The study aimed at determining the local community’s perception of the effects of climate change on their livelihoods; and, to examine the effectiveness of the Integrated Watershed Management practices (IWMPs) on agricultural production within the area. Three hundred and ninety-seven households were randomly chosen and included in the survey. Interviews with local government officials who held high posts were conducted. Direct observations were also used for data collection. Findings showed that droughts and increases in pests and diseases; were some of the impacts caused by climate change events. Despite the initiation of IWMPs, climate change events moderately increased food insecurity (γ = 0.556; P=0.000) and also moderately affected community assets like roads and valley dams (γ = 0.426; P=0.000). In addition, household income insecurity was moderately and positively related to climate change effects (γ = 0.556; P=0.000). A weak positive relationship was found between the application of IWMPs and agricultural production (γ = 0.273; P=0.000). The Uganda Government should emphasize and intensify the implementation of IWMPs among the farmers living in agricultural watersheds as a means of continuously improving agricultural production and building the farmers’ resilience to climate change events.
</abstract>

Watershed management and climate change adaptation mechanisms used by people living in dryland areas of Lokere catchment in Karamoja, Uganda

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

The adventive fraction of the flora of Seymskiy Regional Landscape Park (Sumy Oblast, Ukraine) including 237 species of 183 genera and 62 families, is described. Its systematic and biomorphological structures was analyzed. The major families, namely Asteraceae, Poaceae, Brassicaceae, Fabaceae, Rosaceae, Lamiaceae, Boraginaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Solanaceae and Malvaceae are represented by 152 species (64.1% of the alien fraction). Therophytes (49.4%), hemicryptophytes (28.7%) and phanerophytes (17.7%) were found to be the prevailing life forms in the alien flora of the park. According to the time of immigration, kenophytes (69%) predominate among alien species of the park. The most common species belonged to the group native of North America (23.2%), the Mediterranean (21%), Asian (17.7%) and Mediterranean-Iran-Turanian (11.4%). Xenophytes (54.4%) predominated by way of penetration into the territory, ergasiophytes were represented by 39.6% and xeno-ergasiophytes by 5.9% of the species. According to the degree of naturalization epoecophytes (30%) and agrio-epoecophytes (27.8%) had high ranked positions as part of the alien flora and there are slightly less ephemerophytes (14.8%), colonophytes (14.3%), agriophytes (6.8%) and ergasiophygophytes (6.3%). At the time of the survey, we considered 162 species as naturalized, 50 taxa as casuals, 16 species as potentially invasive, and 9 as those of invasive status. The obtained data indicated the need for action to stop the increase in the adventive species within the park's flora in order to reduce their negative impact on natural habitats and the native flora.
</abstract>

The alien fraction of the flora of Seymskiy Regional Landscape Park, Sumy Oblast, Ukraine

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

This article presents the results of studies on aeolian processes in the Oświęcim Basin in southern Poland. There are only a few large dunes in the western part (Woszczyce area) of the vast area of the Basin (about 1800 km2), and several dozen small forms (1–3 m high) in the central part (Świerczyniec area) All these forms are located on the outwash plain from the Odra Glaciation – dunes in the proximal part of sandur and small forms in the distal part. Grain size indices were determined for all samples taken at 17 sites, and quartz grain abrasion was examined using mechanical graniformametric and morphoscopic methods. The study found that the fluvioglacial deposits are not very diverse in grain size but significantly differentiated in terms of the degree of aeolization. In the proximal part of the outwash plain, deposits are characterized by very poor abrasion of quartz grains, two-three times worse than those from the distal part. Aeolian sands, in terms of grain size, do not differ essentially from fluvioglacial deposits, and in the distal part of sandur, there are no differences in the abrasion of the quartz grains. Conversely, in the proximal part, there was a significant increase in the degree of aeolization of the dune deposits compared to the source fluvioglacial deposits.
</abstract>

Aeolian processes on the outwash plain in the Oświęcim Basin, southern Poland

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