Floods play a predominant role among all disastrous natural occurrences. They have affected us in the past, they are a part of our present, and they will continue to occur in the future.

Can disastrous floods be avoided? The answer to that question of course has to be "no": we are simply unable to fully protect against these natural phenomena. Nonetheless, research on the course and consequences of floods is helping us to mitigate their negative social, economic, and ecological impact, and above all to avoid human fatalities.

The scientific and engineering profile of the Institute of Hydroengineering has changed over the past 50 years: from a purely technical approach to hydroengineering in earlier years, our studies have now turned more towards environmental problems.

After several years of research, the foraminiferal fauna of Admiralty Bay (King George Island, South Shetland Islands) has become themost studied fiord in West Antarctica with respect to foraminifera. As such, it provides actualistic data for better understanding of paleoenvironmental records from this dynamically changing area. Over a few years, the bay was systematically sampled down to 520 m water depth, for multi−chambered and mono− thalamous benthic foraminifera, including soft−walled allogromiids often overlooked in for− mer studies. Altogether, 138 taxa were identified, and three new taxa described. This paper aims to integrate these results, put them into a broader perspective, and supplement them with information that was not presented to date. Most notably, a record of the vertical distribution of Rose Bengal stained foraminifera below the sediment surface and the proportions of soft and robustly−testate forms at different sites are described.

During the austral summer of 2002/2003 the author collected 38 marine and/or glacio-marine sediment samples from Admiralty Bay on King George Island (South Shetland Islands, West Antarctica). Recent “living” (Rose Bengal stained) and “dead” (subfossil) benthic foraminifera represented by 105 species belonging to 65 genera are recognized in samples from water depths of up to 520 m. They show large spatial variability. Four distinctive foraminiferal zones within the fjord of Admiralty Bay were recognized and analyzed in terms of environmental conditions. The zones are: restricted coves, open inlets, intermediate-, and deep-waters. The major environmental factors, which dictate foraminiferal distribution, are closely related to bathymetry and distance to open sea. Sediment composition and chlorophyll content appear to have minor influence on foraminiferal communities. Most diverse, deep-water faunas dominate water-depths below 200 m , which seems to be the lowest limit of atmospheric and meltwater influence. In waters shallower than 200 m , environmental features, affecting distribution of various benthic foraminiferal assemblages, appear to be sedimentation rate and hydrographic isolation. The results of this study gives promise to use the Admiralty Bay foraminiferal distribution pattern as a paleoenvironmental tool for shallow- to intermediate-water Quaternary marine research in fjord settings of the South Shetland Islands.

Czy można uniknąć powodzi? Odpowiedź na to pytanie oczywiście brzmi: nie. Przed powodzią nie jesteśmy w stanie w pełni się zabezpieczyć. Jednak dzięki poznaniu genezy, przebiegu i skutków powodzi jesteśmy w stanie w dużym stopniu łagodzić ich negatywne efekty społeczne, ekonomiczne i ekologiczne, a przede wszystkim - unikać wypadków śmiertelnych.

Powodzie to jeden z głównych naturalnych kataklizmów. Zdarzały się w przeszłości, nękają nas dziś, i musimy się z nimi liczyć w przyszłości.

The paper describes the design and construction of the Włocławek water barrage operating on Vistula River for more than 50 years. The construction of the barrage and the damming up of the Vistula River caused changes in the hydraulic and thermal regime of a fifty-kilometre long stretch of the Vistula River, resulting in some ecological changes as well. Some ecologists consider these changes as eminently unfavourable and call for the dismantling of the barrage, but not all experts are of the same opinion as the construction may be regarded as a important technical, economic and social achievement, primarily because of the electricity produced, which is renewable and ecologically clean.

Twenty one core tops from the central part of Pine Island Bay and nearby Ferrero Bay were collected in early 2010. They originate from a poorly studied area of the Amundsen Sea influenced at greater depths by relatively warm Circumpolar Deep Water. Almost all samples came from water−depths between 550 and 900 m and yield benthic foraminiferal assemblages of moderate variability with a significant decrease in calcareous forms with increasing water−depth. In total, 93 benthic taxa, belonging to 71 genera, are identified at the species level. They share a greater percentage of common species with the Ross Sea than with South Shetland Islands, most likely due to stronger climatic dissimilarity with the latter. Interestingly, the assemblages from Pine Island Bay, share the greatest numbers of taxa with assemblages described from Lützow−Holm Bay in East Antarctica, where the influence of Circumpolar Deep Water has been also recognized.

Ostracods from Admiralty Bay on King George Island (South Shetland Islands) represent 29 podocopid species, belonging to 19 genera, one cladocopid and six myodocopid species. They were recovered from Recent marine and/or glacio-marine sediment samples from water depths of up to 520 m. These ostracods constitute a variable assemblage, which is overall typical for the Antarctic environment. Shallow-water assemblages tend to be more variable in terms of frequencies and species richness than deep-water assemblages. The later are low in numbers and remain relatively high diversities. Overall, no linear relation between ostracod assemblage-composition and environmental features analyzed was recognized.

Recent foraminifera represented by 24 species belonging to 20 genera are recognized in marine and/or glacio-marine sediment samples collected at water depths of up to 75 m in Goulden Cove (Admiralty Bay) on King George Island, West Antarctica. The foraminifer assemblages are dominated by benthic taxa, such as Globocassidulina biora and Miliammina arenacea, the two most abundant species in the studied biocenosis.

During the 2004 summer season, 14 sediment samples were collected in Kongsfjorden and Isfjorden, West Spitsbergen, from 6 down to 345 m water-depth (mwd). The samples yielded abundant assemblage of monothalamous foraminifera, belonging to almost 40 morphotypes. Our qualitative (>125 um) and quantitative data (125-500 um) allowed to distinguish three water-depth related assemblages in both Kongsfjorden and Adventfjorden (branch of Isfjorden), indicating that soft-walled monothalamous foraminifera show similar habitat gradation along fjord axis as calcareous and robust agglutinated taxa. Among the monothalamous foraminifera, the subtidal assemblage (6 mwd) was dominated by various unidentified allogromiids. The second, shallow-water assemblage (44-110 mwd) was dominated by Psammophaga sp. 1-3, Hippocrepinella crassa, Hippocrepinella cf. hirudinea, and large Gloiogullmia sp. 2. The deep-water (150-345 mwd) monothalamous assemblage was dominated by Psammophaga sp. 4, pear-shaped Hippocrepina sp., Hippocrepina indivisa, and long Cylindrogullmia sp. 2, as well as large agglutinated species Hyperammina subnodosa with attached Tholosina bulla, Hyperammina fragilis and Lagenammina sp.

Drilling operations of the Cape Roberts Project took place between 1997 and 1999 offshore of Cape Roberts in the western Ross Sea, Antarctica. These were made possible due to a group effort by geoscientists from Australia, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Great Britain, and the United States. The major goal of this undertaking was the recovery and analysis of sediment core, which was expected to provide a first East Antarctic record of the Early Cenozoic hothouse to icehouse climatic transition. This goal was not attained. Nevertheless, over the three seasons, a 1500 m long composite section was recovered, including a predominantly Early Oligocene to Early Miocene (34—17 Ma) glaciomarine succession. It was analyzed in terms of sediment physical properties, paleontology, tectonic structures and geophysics. This multidisciplinary investigation allowed detailed reconstruction of a significant portion of local environmental history, spanning a period of highly variable environmental conditions strongly affected by local glacier advance and retreat across the Victoria Land Basin margin.

Bowseria arctowskii gen. et sp. nov., a new organic-walled monothalamous (single-chamber) foraminiferan is described from samples collected in Admiralty Bay (King George Island, West Antarctica) at 100- 200 m water-depth (mwd). The species is characterized by a large (1- 2 mm) elongate theca with a single terminal aperture. Molecular phylogenetic analyses, based on partial small subunit rDNA sequences, indicate that the new species belong to a clade of single-chambered foraminifers that branch as a sister group to the multi-chambered textulariids and rotaliids. The most closely related to the new species is an undetermined allogromiid from under the Ross Ice Shelf.

During the late 2007 austral summer, 20 sediment samples were collected in Admiralty Bay (King George Island, South Shetlands, West Antarctica) from 8 down to 254 m water-depth (mwd). The samples yielded abundant assemblage of monothalamous benthic foraminifera, belonging to at least 40 morphospecies. They constituted the first such collection from Antarctic Peninsula fjords and provided a new insight into this group’s diversity and distribution. Among organic-walled taxa, Psammophaga sp., Allogromia cf. crystallifera, and three morphotypes of Gloiogullmia were especially abundant. Agglutinated forms were dominated by Hippocrepinella hirudinea, Psammosphaera spp., Lagenammina spp., and various mudballs. Although, the majority of the morphotypes were known from other high-latitude locations, some were reported for the first time. Our quantitative data (>125 µm) showed the greatest differences between monothalamous foraminifera assemblages at shallowest water depths above 50 mwd. The deepest assemblages from between 179 and 254 mwd, were most similar, suggesting uniform near-bottom conditions at ~200 mwd throughout the Admiralty Bay.

The calcareous microfossil assemblage from Middle Miocene strata of SHALDRIL Site NBP0602A−5D consists of bent hic foraminifera, ostracods, bivalves, and gastropods, and is interpreted as shallow−water. It appears to be reworked but its age is probably similar to the age of the host sediment, which contains only rare, fragmented, agglutinated foraminifera. Most of the calcareous taxa are of uncertain taxonomic affiliation, due to the scarcity of Cenozoic microfossils of this age from West Antarctica, and also the very different paleohabitat of this now extinct assemblage.