Antonia Odagiu

Evolution of Water Quality in Romania

Globally, water is a renewable natural resource, but vulnerable and limited, so it must be treated as a natural heritage to be protected and defended. In our century, one of the largest global problems concerning water management, taking into account that the population of the planet is in continuous growing, is the crisis of drinking water. The structure of water resources is mainly represented by freshwater, which is a rather small percentage of total water on the planet, namely 2.5%, while the percentage of 70% constitutes the water on the surface of the Earth. The fresh water is directly accessible by springs, rivers, lakes, and ground water, the rest being found in glacial ice. It means that only 0.7% of the planets water is available, as a source of survival for the current population (Dodds, 2002; http://www.anpm.ro/ Mediu/rapoarte, accessed 2011).

Research on the Influence of Temperature on Beech Crops Raised in Nurseries

Abstract A particularly important determining factor for the installation and development of seedlings during the early years is their ability to withstand deviations from the normal regime of the climatic elements. Beech seedlings have poor resistance to extreme climate changes. The development of seedlings during the first years can be strongly affected by extreme temperatures. During the research, it was noticed that the frosts which may occur during the second half of April and in early May, before foliation, can cause significant injuries to the plantlets. A large part of the beech seedlings appear in early spring, approximately 7 - 10 days before the foliation of beech trees. The effects of these frosts have also been felt in the nurseries located in the area of the Sovata Forestry, in the case of crops sown in the autumn of the previous year in the Isuica Nursery, situated at an altitude of 520 - 530 m, in the vicinity of Săcădat Creek, and in the case of Solar II Nursery, situated in the village Câmpul Cetaţii, at an altitude of 610 m. The latter nursery is neighbored by the trout farm from Câmpul Cetăţii to the south, by the secondary school to the west, by private residences and estates to the east and by the village road of Câmpul Cetăţii to the north. In both nurseries the emergence percentage of the crops at the end of April was over 90%. Based on the average number of seedlings emerged per area unit, the losses recorded as a result of the frosts from 3-4 May were, in the case of the Isuica Nursery, 89% on 10 May, reaching 97% towards the end of the month. Unlike in the Isuica Nursery, in the Solar II Nursery the losses due to the frost of 3 May were not uniform. The area that was least affected by frost was situated in the immediate proximity of the larch curtain and the secondary school building, where the percentage of losses did not exceed 2%. Moving away from the larch curtain, the percentage increased progressively, reaching, at about 24 m (on the diagonal of the plot), as high as 87%. This percentage was close to that of the (uniform) losses registered in the Isuica Nursery. Thus, the maximum protective effect was recorded up to a distance of about 9 km (0.75 H), where H represents the height of the larch curtain). From this distance, the protective effect exerted by the larch curtain (and the secondary school building with a height of 8 m) started to decrease. While at a distance of about 1 H, the percentage of losses was 17 %, at 1.5 H it reached 61 %, and at approx. 2 H it neared 90 %.

Identification of two possibles new casein alleles in Romanian buffalo milk: αS1-casein BRV, β-casein CRV.

Milk proteins polymorphism was intensively studied in Italian Buffalo and other buffalo breeds due to its importance in mozzarela cheese pr oduction, being used as genetic markers for identifying cheeses autenticity. UTLIEF and PAGE of whole Italian Water Buffalo casein showed just one phenotype for αS1-CN (A), β-CN (B) and k-CN (B), respectively and three phenot ypes for αS2CN (Chianese et al., 2006). An additional β-casein variant named A was observed in Venezuelan Buffalo (Ferranti et al., 1998), but never in Itali an Buffalo or other European breeds. A silent allel e, named αS1-CN B, was recently discovered by RP-HPLC in Ital ian Buffalo (Chianese et al., 2006). Milk protein polymorphism was studied in 139 indivi uals from 3 different Romanian Buffalo populations, herds belonging to the National Geneti c Patrimony. To our knowledge milk proteins polymorphism in this breed has never been investiga ted so far. Genotyping was carried out in 20052006 from milk samples by IEF, as reported before ( Bâlteanu et al., 2007). The presence of two new possible casein alleles was observed (always togeth er and only in heterozygous form with αS1-A and β-B), with a 14% frequency in analyzed populations. They were named: αS1 casein B and β-casein C (Figure 1). The complete characterisation at the p rotein and DNA level is in progress, in order to establish the aminoacid and nucleotide substitution s. As these new casein variants appear only in Romanian Buffalo, their influence on milk quality a nd cheese yield will be investigated. They could be used as genetic markers for Romanian Buffalo ch eeses treaceability.