Three Northern European countries over the last century have had similar political experiences, in 1990–1991 they have re-established independence and developed an individual political and administrative system. From 2004, when all Baltic countries became members of the European Union, the land use and spatial planning systems were developed with many similarities, as well as differences. The topic of this study is a survey of the national land policies and spatial planning systems in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in the context of sustainable development, needs of society and depopulation. The aim of the article is to examine the problems, needs of society and tendencies in land usage, as well as systemic features of spatial planning in the Baltic countries. It is very important to analyse how countries realize the implementation of sustainable development strategies in land use planning and in the context of depopulation. It was found that the Baltic countries are facing similar problems in land use and spatial planning documents but there are also differences regarding planning procedures of documents, their hierarchy and types of planned measures. The study has shown that people in these countries want more natural environment and eco-industrial development. Also, it was approved as necessary to create an index (engineering method) of sustainability in spatial planning.

The purpose of this work is to justify the need to develop a set of solutions for the organization of the step-by-step planning of rational use of disturbed lands. Currently, environmental problems have worsened due to the closure of mining enterprises, which has led to an urgent need for a scientific approach to the environmental remediation of mining regions and their future rational use and evaluation. The implementation of such approaches can be largely achieved through the creation of improved natural and anthropogenic landscapes on disturbed lands. As a result of the research, the procedure and sequence for the development of rational use of technologically disturbed lands have been formed. This procedure and stages of work performance will provide an opportunity for their reuse, as well as systematize the activities of local government bodies. The criteria for choosing the direction of the technogenic landscape transformation in Ukraine, which are based on the prevention of undesirable, uncontrollable processes of natural and technogenic origin have been formed. The process of the technogenic landscape transformation should be based on the use of potential opportunities and trends inherent in nature itself. The studies on the rational use of disturbed lands in order to adapt them to reuse and prospective use has shown that lands formed as a result of mining can be used for both recreation and industrial development. Complex schemes of sequential actions in the organization of works on the rational use of lands have been develope.

The nature of the Cenomanian–Turonian Oceanic Anoxic Event (CTOAE) and its δ13 C Excursion is considered in the light of (1) the stratigraphical framework in which the CTOAE developed in the European shelf seas, (2) conclusions that can be drawn from new detailed investigations of the Chalk succession at three locations in England, at Melton Ross and Flixton in the Northern Province where organic-rich ‘black bands’ are present, and at Dover in the Southern Province (part of the Anglo-Paris Basin) where they are absent, and (3) how these conclusion fit in with the present understanding of the CTOAE. The application of the cerium anomaly method (German and Elderfield 1990) at Dover, Melton Ross and Flixton has allowed the varying palaeoredox conditions in the Chalk Sea and its sediments to be related to the acid insoluble residues, organic carbon, δ18O (calcite), δ13C (calcite), δ13C (organic matter), Fe 2+ and Mn2+ (calcite), and P/TiO2 (acid insoluble residue). This has provided evidence that the initial stages of the δ13C Excursion in England were related to (1) a drop of sea level estimated at between 45 and 85 metres, (2) influxes of terrestrial silicate and organic detritus from adjacent continental sources and the reworking of exposed marine sediments, and (3) the presence of three cold water phases (named the Wood, Jefferies and Black) associated with the appearance of the cold-water pulse fauna during the Plenus Cold Event. Conditions in the water column and in the chalk sediment were different in the two areas. In the Northern Province, cerium-enriched waters and anoxic conditions were widespread; the δ13C pattern reflects the interplay between the development of anoxia in the water column and the preservation of terrestrial and marine organic matter in the black bands; here the CTOAE was short-lived (~0.25 Ma) lasting only the length of the Upper Cenomanian Metoicoceras geslinianum Zone. In the Southern Province, water conditions were oxic and the δ13C Excursion lasted to the top of the Lower Turonian Watinoceras devonense Zone, much longer (~1.05 Ma) than in the Northern Province. These differences are discussed with respect to (1) the Cenomanian–Turonian Anoxic Event (CTAE) hypothesis when the ocean-continent-atmosphere systems were linked, (2) limitations of chemostratigraphic global correlation, and (3) the Cenomanian–Turonian Anoxic Event Recovery (CTOAER), a new term to define the varying lengths of time it took different oceans and seas to recover once the linked ocean-continent-atmosphere system was over. The possibility is considered that glacio- eustasy (the glacial control hypothesis of Jeans et al. 1991) with the waxing and waning of polar ice sheets, in association with the degassing of large igneous provinces, may have set the scene for the development of the Cenomanian–Turonian Anoxic Event (CTAE).

The present contribution provides a study of calcareous nannofossils and siliceous microfossils from the Sawai Bay Formation on Car Nicobar Island, northern Indian Ocean. Two stratigraphically short sediment intervals near Sawai Bay have been examined. Qualitative and quantitative microfossil analyses show the Sawai Bay ‘A’ Section to be devoid of siliceous microfossils, while 24 well-preserved calcareous nannofossil taxa are identified. The Sawai Bay ‘B’ Section yields 18 calcareous nannofossil, 33 radiolarian and 25 diatom taxa. The calcareous nannofossil index taxa ( Ceratolithus armatus Müller, 1974a and C. cristatus Kamptner, 1950) indicate both sections to be from zones NN12 (CN10b) and NN13 (CN10c) of early Pliocene (Zanclean) age. The radiolarian taxa, i.e., Didymocyrtis avita Riedel, 1953, Euchitonia spp., Siphocampe lineata (Ehrenberg) Nigrini, 1977, Stichocorys peregrina Riedel, 1953, Semantis spp. and Stylochlamydium sp. are common in the Sawai Bay ‘B’ Section, which is assigned to Zone RN9. Most of the diatom taxa are represented by representatives of the genera Actinocyclus Ehrenberg, 1837, Azpeitia Peragallo in Tèmpere and Peragallo, 1912, Coscinodiscus Ehrenberg, 1839a, Grammatophora Ehrenberg, 1841 and Triceratium Ehrenberg, 1839b, with the benthic diatom species Triceratium favus Ehrenberg, 1839b being predominant (~35% of the total diatom count). Siliceous microfossils are also represented by silicoflagellates dominated by Dictyocha spp. and sponge spicules dominated by astrophorids.

The paper is focused on the palaeographic development of the western part of the Holy Cross Mountains, Poland, during the maximum extent of the Sanian 2 (MIS 12) ice sheet and its retreat. The studies were based on archival cartographic data, coupled with new lithological and petrographic analyses of limni- and fluvioglacial sands, i.e., grain-size composition, quartz grain morphology and heavy mineral analysis, as well as analysis of the erratic material of tills. The results confirm the regional variability of the erratic material in the Sanian 2 tills and point to the long-term development of fluvioglacial sands cover documenting cold climate conditions. They also evidence that the western part of the Holy Cross Mountains was the area where two oppositely directed ice sheet lobes (Radoszyce and Sandomierz) advanced during the Sanian 2 Glaciation and that deglaciation of the area took place in two stages. Huge quantities of meltwater released at that time contributed to the intensification of earlier initiated karst phenomena, as well as filling of the existing caves by fluvioglacial sands.

In the Balkans, the Serbo-Macedonian Unit (SMU), Serbia, is thrust bounded by the composite Tethyan Vardar Zone and the Carpatho-Balkanides. The SMU actually emerges from beneath the Neoalpine Miocene–Pliocene deposits. Both provenance and geodynamic position of the SMU are poorly known and still debated. This paper reviews the data hitherto published and includes some new field data interpretations. The SMU is composed of a Neoproterozoic–Cambrian high-grade (para- and ortho-) gneiss with peraluminous magmatic arc components (560–470 Ma). The SMU is in the contact with Neoproterozoic upper Ordovician–Carboniferous low-grade metasedimentary succession of an accretionary wedge assembly represented by the Supragetic basement. The SMU basement became folded, sheared and metamorphosed around 490–450 Ma. Paleomagnetic data point to high southern latitudes and a peri-Gondwanan position of the SMU at that time, which concurs with glaciomarine evidence recorded from the upper Ordovician sediments at the base of an accretionary wedge succession. Based on the published data and field survey in the Stalać region, we correlate the SMU with the pre-Mesozoic gneiss terrane exposed in the Strona-Ceneri zone of the Alps. This terrane, identified as the Cenerian orogen of the Alaskan subduction type, developed at an active margin of Gondwana during middle Ordovician times. The SMU basement, with augen and migmatitic gneisses and arc-related peraluminous magmatic bodies, developed at this margin as part of the Cenerian belt or its equivalent. Such an orogenic edifice proved transient and in the earliest Silurian the SMU fragments drifted away being bound for Baltica (amalgamated Moesian microplate and Danubian terrane) to which they became accreted in the Carboniferous and included in the southern European branch of the Variscan orogen (Marginal Dacides/Carpatho-Balkanides). Despite considerable Variscan and Alpine reworking, the pre-Variscan, Cenerian-type crustal assembly along with an inferred boundary between the magmatic arc and the accretionary wedge, accompanied by back-arc/forearc deposits, are still decipherable in the Western Balkan countries.

Balanomorph cirripedes from the Eocene–Oligocene of the Hampshire Basin (United Kingdom) and the Middle Eocene of the Cotentin Peninsula, Manche (France) are described. A new genus, Vectibalanus, is founded, with the type species Balanus unguiformis J. de C. Sowerby, 1846; assigned to this are also Balanus erisma J. de C. Sowerby, 1846 and Vectibalanus mortoni sp. nov. In addition, a new species of Lophobalanus Zullo, 1984, L. fresvillensis sp. nov., is described. This is the first record of that genus from outside the eastern USA and the oldest species known to date. Cladistic analysis of 24 morphological characters suggests that Vectibalanus unguiformis is sister taxon to a group comprising the most derived balanomorph taxa, and thus represents an important transition in the evolution of the group, with the initiation of development of a complex parietal wall structure. Vectibalanus unguiformis was evidently adapted to low salinity habitats (10–30 ppt), and is the oldest known brackish water barnacle. The other species ( V. erisma, V. mortoni sp. nov.) occupied more clearly marine environments (>30 ppt). Balanomorph barnacles appeared simultaneously in the Priabonian (Upper Eocene) of the Gulf and Atlantic seaboards of the USA and northwest Europe, which probably represents a northerly migration from Tethys.

Our study involved the first-ever evaluation of the performance of anther culture and wheat × maize hybridization techniques in producing haploids or doubled haploids as a result of spontaneous doubling of the chromosome number during androgenesis in plants from 30 wheat genotypes including ancient, local and modern types. The results indicated that the best induction rates of androgenic structures and haploid embryos for the hexaploid and tetraploid wheat genotypes were obtained with anther culture and wheat × maize hybridization, respectively. Whereas only one regenerated plant from 15 genotypes of tetraploid wheat was obtained, 13 plants were regenerated from 15 genotypes of hexaploid wheat. Moreover, haploid embryos obtained in wheat × maize hybridization 60 and 100% green plants regenerated in relation to the number of the cultured haploid embryos. Genotypes with high induction capacity to produce androgenic structure or haploid embryos did not have desired haploid plantlets regeneration capacity and vice-versa. However, with both methods, hexaploid wheat genotypes had a considerable ability to produce green plants. Doubled haploid plants were obtained from ancient and local wheat genotypes by both methods, but not from modern wheat. Those genotypes can be used as parents in future wheat breeding programs and new varieties may be obtained by selecting pure lines in wheat populations