Piotr Dynowski

Sampling techniques and inter-surveyor variability as sources of uncertainty in Polish macrophyte metric for lake ecological status assessment

According to the Water Framework Directive, the results of the ecological status assessment should be accompanied with estimates of the level of confidence and precision of the determination. The Polish macrophyte-based method for lake assessment (Ecological State Macrophyte Index, ESMI) was tested for its uncertainty. The data from 12 lakes surveyed using four modifications of the sampling procedure, different numbers of transects and by two or three independent surveyors were analysed and the risk of misclassification was estimated. The choice of the sampling technique had no effect on abundance parameters (Cmax and %cover), but it affected significantly the taxonomic composition indices (H and J′). It did not influence, however, the final assessment result, since in all the methods used, the ESMI values were comparable and showed no significant differences of means. Although the mean ESMI values were statistically indifferent and gave the same assessment result irrespective of the number of transects surveyed, the lower the number of transects, the higher the SD value and the more uncertain the assessment result. The risk of misclassification of the 12 lakes varied from 0.5% to over 40% depending on the sampling standard deviation value and the proximity of the index observed value to the class boundary.

Czy mieszkańcy miast preferują tereny cenne przyrodniczo pod budowę domu pod miastem? Studium strefy podmiejskiej Olsztyna

Dynamic migrations from urban to suburban areas and related to them development of residential buildings in rural areas are both desirable by local authorities and raise many concerns, including anticipation of natural environmental values degradation. The source of those concerns is common opinion, that urban people prefer moving out toward areas with exceptional natural environmental values and, through transforming them with intensive residential building, eventually destroy them. The aim of the article was the attempt to find the answer for the following question: do urban people actually select areas with exceptional natural environmental values for their suburban residential houses? What are their motives to select the particular localization for suburban homes? Studies were carried out in the area including all communes surrounding Olsztyn, the capital of Warmia and Mazury region, where almost half of the region’s area is legally protected. Achieving the aim required considering natural environmental values, analyzing the preferences toward suburban localization for residential buildings and its actual concentration. As a result, it was eventually verified, that areas with exceptional environmental values were not simultaneously attractive for residential building, therefore properly directed suburbanization do not have to explicitly mean environmental degradation, but can even contribute to gentrification of villages located in the areas that are of less importance for agriculture or maintaining valuable ecosystems.

Conservation status of the Natura 2000 habitat 3110 in Poland: Monitoring, classification and trends

Abstract Soft water lakes, or so-called lobelia lakes, which are inhabited by a specific vegetation composed of isoetids, have been subjected to intense research aimed at evaluating their condition and conservation status for many years in Poland. At the time of Poland’s accession to the European Union and the implementation of the EU Habitats Directive, these lakes were classified as natural habitat 3110. In accordance with the provision of the Habitat Directive a comprehensive methodology for monitoring and classification of the state of this habitat has been developed. Using this methodology, two monitoring trials (in 2009–2010 and again in 2016–2017) were carried out at 45 and 43 sites of the 3110 natural habitat, respectively. These studies confirm the high sensitivity of these poorly buffered aquatic ecosystems to all external influences, both natural and anthropogenic. The overall conservation status of the 3110 habitat in Poland showed a relatively high stability, with similar proportions of sites classified as favourable (FV), unfavourable inadequate (U1) and unfavourable bad (U2) between 2009–2010 (35%, 49% and 16%, respectively) and 2016–2017 (33%, 56% and 11%, respectively). Out of 43 sites examined in 2016–2017, 29 remained unchanged compared with the results of the previous survey concerning their overall status. Results of the monitoring research also allow for the observation and evaluation of mechanisms and directions of changes in the functioning of these ecosystems. Based on the experiences from two series of monitoring conducted so far, the methodology has been assessed as appropriate for the assessment of the conservation status of the 3110 natural habitat, however, some modifications and additions have been suggested.