Volume 31 (2020): Issue 2 (June 2020)

In Poland and most of the areas of Europe, the beech, that is, Fagus sylvatica L. is one of the most vital species found in the species composition of forests. A number of the species of foliophages tend to develop on the leaves, which may contribute to the dieback of the tree. The demonstrated results are the effects of the research conducted in 2018 in the Cisów-Orłowiny Landscape Park. Subsequently, 11 species of foliophages were initially discovered there. Such species were inclined to form galls and the miner damages to the beech leaves. Among 4,000 of the analysed leaves, 398 galls and 498 leaf miner damages were found. They were caused by the representatives of insects and mites.

Medical waste is mostly generated by health care centres and veterinary, research and pharmacological facilities as well as laboratories. As the number people using home treatment rises from year to year, and the number of aesthetic medicine offices increases, the problem of potentially hazardous waste affects an increasingly larger population, and can no longer be restricted to the qualified hospital staff. Medical waste falls within the group of hazardous waste since it poses environmental threat of epidemiological contamination with pathogens and pathogenic bacteria. The article presents the classification and properties of medical waste and their impact on the environment. The legal status regarding the utilization of such waste in Poland was discussed as well.

Soil organic matter (SOM) significantly affects the growth, development and yield of cultivated plants. In the era of increasing agriculture intensification and adverse changes in the crop structure as well as climate change, it is important to know the processes affecting the accumulation and degradation of SOM. This paper aims to assess the quality of organic matter in Stagnic Luvisol fertilised with bovine manure to varying degrees. Soil samples were taken in spring from topsoil after pre-sowing treatments. Three soil profiles were selected: soil fertilised with manure annually at a dose of 30 t ha⁻¹, soil fertilised with manure every 4 years at the same dose and soil deprived of organic fertilisation in the past several years. The following laboratory analyses were performed (soil pH, total carbon content). Sequential fractionation of organic matter was carried out based on the Schnitzer method. In humic acid preparations, the elemental composition (CHNO and H/C ratio) was determined and spectrophotometric properties were measured. The conducted tests revealed a significant impact of manure fertilisation on the quantity and quality of organic matter. In the soil fertilised with manure annually, a much larger amount of SOM was found with a greater share of labile forms. In addition, humic acids extracted from the soil were characterised by lower maturity as well as molecular weight and condensation of the aromatic part of their structure.

Food production is connected with a negative effect on the environment as it is linked with the utilisation of natural resources such as fresh water and with the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs). It is, therefore, very important to prevent the wastage of food at all food chain stages. Special attention should be paid to the phenomena which burden the environment in an unjustified way. One such example may be the waste of final products at the stage of retail sale objects. The purpose of the present paper was to estimate the effect of wasted food in the selected network of the retail sale on the environment with the application of water footprint indicator and CO₂ emission. On the grounds of the collected data, the participation of food withdrawn from the trade, the reasons for the mentioned phenomenon and the size of the wasted food products and those donated to charities were established. Based upon such data, the level of CO₂ emission and the water print of the products which have not been utilised according to their destination were estimated. In spite of the fact that the animal origin products were characterised by a small participation in the weight of the unsold food (ca. 13.34% annually), they constituted the main source of CO₂ emission and water footprint estimated from the food waste. It was calculated that the annual turnover and waste of the products only in one trade network was connected with the unjustified emission of ca. 12 thousand tonnes of CO₂ and 13 million m³ of water footprint.