Beata Bosiacka

The Fluoride Content of Yerba Mate Depending on the Country of Origin and the Conditions of the Infusion

There are many reports of the positive effect of yerba mate on the human body. Elemental composition analysis of yerba mate revealed the presence of many microelements and macroelements, but there is no literature data referencing the content and the effect of the method of preparing the yerba mate infusion on the amount of released fluoride and thus the amount of this element supplied to the human body. Therefore, in the traditional way (cold and hot), we prepared infusions of yerba mate from different countries and determined in samples content of fluoride using potentiometric method. Hot infusions resulted in statistically significant (p = 0.03) increases in the amount of fluoride released from the dried material to the water, compared to brewing with water at room temperature. The successive refills of hot water also resulted in a release of the same amount of fluoride, although smaller than the infusion with water at room temperature (at the third refill, it was statistically significantly smaller at p = 0.003). With an increase in the number of hot water refills, the amount of fluoride released from the sample portion significantly decreased. Similar results were recorded when analyzing samples depending on the country of origin. The amount of fluoride released into the water differed statistically significantly depending on the country of origin. The most fluoride was determined in the infusions of yerba mate from Argentina and the least in infusions from Paraguay.

A comparative study of hourly and daily relationships between selected meteorological parameters and airborne fungal spore composition

Air sampling was conducted in Szczecin (Poland) throughout April–September 2013. The final data set included 177 daily and 4248 hourly samples. The total of 21 types of spores, which occurred in a number >10 in the season, were taken into account. The following meteorological parameters were analyzed: air temperature, relative humidity, precipitation and wind speed. Effects of individual weather parameters on hourly and daily concentrations of different fungal spore types were examined using Spearman’s rank association test, whereas effects of complex of meteorological factors on hourly and daily compositions of spore were assessed using detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) and redundancy analysis (RDA). Airborne fungal spore distribution patterns in relation to meteorological variables were determined by RDA, after DCA results detected a linear structure of the spore data. The RDA results obtained indicated that all the applied variables accounted for 20 and 22% of the total variance in the hourly and daily spore data, respectively. The results of stepwise forward selection of variables revealed all included hourly and daily meteorological variables were statistically significant. The largest amount of the total variance in the spore composition was explained by the air temperature in both cases (16%). Multivariate ordination did not show large differences between the hourly and daily relationships (with exception of wind speed impact), while the differences between simple hourly and daily correlations were more clear. Correlations between daily values of variables were in most cases higher than between hourly values of variables.

Habitat Requirements of Marsh Dandelions (Taraxacum) in Polish and Estonian Coastal Grasslands

ABSTRACT Factors determining the distribution of highly endangered marsh dandelion species in Polish and Estonian coastal grasslands have been investigated. The aim of this study was twofold: (i) to determine which environmental variables are responsible for the vegetation patterns in coastal grasslands with marsh dandelion and (ii) to analyse the ecological spectra of the identified marsh dandelion species. Altogether 51 plots were sampled (in 2013 and 2014). They were used following statistical analysis: DCA, CCA, Spearmans rank correlation test, Kruskal-Wallis test and hierarchical divisive cluster analysis (TWINSPAN). In total, three marsh dandelion species were found in Polish and Estonian coastal grasslands. The only species found in Poland was Taraxacum balticum. In Estonia all three species occur: T. balticum, T. decolorans and T. suecicum. Taraxacum balticum has been found in the widest ranges of all soil properties included, usually on organic, saline, non-carbonate and acid to slightly acid substrate. Taraxacum suecicum and T. decolorans have been found only on mineral, non-saline and slightly alkaline to alkaline substrate. The ecological spectra determined for endangered marsh dandelion species can be used to improve the methods of their protection. Nomenclature: mosses - Ochyra et al. (2003); vascular plants - Mirek et al. (2002).