This article describes silver specimens of the size of tenths to a few millimetres, found in small pegmatites and quartz veinlets of the porphyritic granitoid area in 22 sites in the eastern part of the Variscan granitoid Karkonosze pluton, from 20 of which native silver occurrences were previously not known. The sites are scattered on the whole surface of the granitoid. The native silver occurred in wire, rod, platy, dendritic, anhedral granular and euhedral cubic and octahedral habits; in some specimens twins and fenster faces were also found. Associated with native silver small amounts of acanthite crystallized commonly, sometimes apparently formed by sulphur diffusion into silver. Inclusions of native gold, electrum, galena, chalcopyrite and pyrite occurred in the native silver. The parent fluids of the specimens were epithermal, because the homogenization temperature (Th) of inclusions in quartz, calcite and cleavelandite that were the host minerals of the native silver was generally 91–165ºC and for individual samples the Th range was 4–11ºC. The total salinity of the fluid was 2.4–7.2 wt. % with Na and Ca (hydro)carbonates as the main dissolved components and admixtures of K, Mg, Fe, Al, S, Cl and F. The parent granitoid contains Ag in trace amounts (0.034–0.056 ppm) and was probably the source of this element for the crystals of native silver. Migration of Ag was made easier by the presence of fluoride ions in fluids.

The human movement to and from Antarctica has increased significantly in recent decades, particularly to the South Shetland Islands, King George Island (KGI), and Deception Island (DCI). Such movements may result in unintentional soil transfer to other warmer regions, such as tropical countries. However, the ability of Antarctic bacteria to survive in tropical climates remained unknown. Hence, the objectives of this work were (i) to determine the bacterial diversity of the soils at the study sites on the two islands, and (ii) to determine if simulated tropical-like growth climate conditions would impact overall diversity and increase the abundance of potentially harmful bacteria in the Antarctic soils. KGI and DCI soils were incubated for 12 months under simulated tropical conditions. After 6 and 12-months, samples were collected and subjected to metagenomic DNA extraction, 16S rDNA amplification, sequencing, and alignment analysis. The 12-month denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis revealed changes in fingerprinting patterns and bacterial diversity indices. Following that, bacterial diversity analyses for KGI and DCI soils were undertaken using V3-V4 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing. Major bacterial phyla in KGI and DCI soils comprised Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Verrucomicrobia. Except for Proteobacteria in KGI soils and Acidobacteria and Chloroflexi in DCI soils, most phyla in both soils did not acclimate to simulated tropical conditions. Changes in diversity were also observed at the genus level, with Methylobacterium spp. predominating in both soils after incubation. After the 12-month incubation, the abundance of potentially pathogenic bacteria such as Mycobacterium, Massilia, and Williamsia spp. increased. Overall, there was a loss of bacterial diversity in both Antarctic soils after 12 months, indicating that most bacteria from both islands' sampling sites cannot survive well if the soils were accidentally transported into warmer climates.