The results of several years of studies concerning the role of penguin rookeries in the functioning of the land ecosystems in the maritime Antarctic are summarized. The origins of phosphatic ornithogenic soil in the areas of currently active penguin rookeries arc presented. In the maritime Antarctic occurs relatively fast microbiological decomposition and mineralization of large amounts of excrements carried into coastal area by penguins during breeding period. Chemically aggressive water solutions of guano react with underlaying rocks. This process brings about the occurrence of wide zones of phosphatization. These processes cause the appearance of the series of phosphate minerals whose composition and properties depend on the changing physical and chemical conditions of the soil environment. It has been discovered that in the rookeries for various reasons abandoned by penguins phosphates are still present in large amounts and, gradually changed and washed out, have been for hundreds, or even thousands years a source of nutrients for plants growing in poor Antarctic land ecosystems. These soils came to be called the relic ornithogenic soils of the maritime Antarctic. The stages of plant colonization in the abandoned penguin rookeries were traced. The differences in the fate of the organic matter carried out from the sea to the coastal area by sea-birds in various climatic zones were discussed.

Altogether 105 algal taxa were identified including 101 diatom species. Chaetoceros criophilus was dominant in the western part of the study area influenced by waters from the Bellingshausen Sea. Corethron criophilum was abundant in the Weddcll Sea water mass found to the east of 53.5°W meridian. Nitzschia cylindrus common in the ice-melt samples was dominant in only two net phytoplankton collections obtained at the ice-edge zone. Additional samples from Admiralty Bay, at King George Island revealed the dominance of Chaetoceros socialis and the presence of many tychoplankton species. Very few diatom cells were found in the open waters of the Bransfield Strait which combined with the presence of krill, suggested intensive grazing by herbivores. The unstable waters of the Weddell-Scotia Confluence area contained little phytoplankton except for a station dominated by Phaeocystis pouchetii. Greater cell densities were related to warm, lower salinity Weddell Sea water of summer modification found in the surface layer east from 49°W.

The highest concentrations of algal cells (1.1 x l0 6 litre- 1 ) and of algal carbon (20 μg litre -1 ) were associated with a lens of ice melt water in the northeast of the study area. Phytoflagellates were dominant at all stations with greater numbers always in the 0 - 20 m surface layer and with the peaks of Cryptophyceae in the open waters and also near the ice edge east of 50° W. Picoplankton flagellates and monads (1.5-5.0 μ) were generally next in abundance and most important numerically in the near ice stations in the western part of the study area. Parasinophyceae were usually more abundant than Nitzschia cylindrus (Grunow) Hasle, the only common diatom species found mainly in the western near ice edge stations. The presence olN.cylindrus, dominant in the pack ice and in phytoplankton near the ice edge, shows that algae released from ice may act as an inoculum for the phytoplankton.

Macrozooplankton was caught at 17 stations with a Bongo net from the 0-200 m layer. The stations were located near the pack ice edge, between Elephant Islands and the South Orkney Islands. The cluster analysis of 58 recognized taxa allowed to distinguish three regions: the western — near Elephant Island, the middle and the western one — at the South Orkney Islands. No clear difference in macrozooplankton species composition at the open sea stations and those near pack ice was found. The average biomass of macrozooplankton in the investigated area amounted to 82.8 g/1000 m3 (95% CL: 47.2-94.2 g/1000m3). Macrozooplankton was dominated by salps and krill. The biomass and 95% confidence limits were 52.0 g/1000 m3 (15.6-59.2 g/1000 m3) and 26.1 g/1000 m3 (8.4-30.4 g/1000 m3), respectively. Differences in the biomass distribution of some taxa in three distinguished regions were observed. Except of salps the biomass of particular taxa caught near the pack ice edge and the same taxa caught in stations distant from this edge were similar. The biomass of salps was evidently higher in most northern stations.

At the northern border of pack ice the study on chlorophyll a content, density of cells, species composition and domination in samples from the drifting ice floes and from brash ice was carried out. 102 taxa of algae were found in the pack ice. In the study area algal taxa were rather uniformly distributed. In different ice layers the qualitative composition of diatom assemblages was similar and usually the diatom Nitzschia cylindrus was dominant and most frequent. Chlorophyll a content (from 0.12 to 334.5 mg m-3) and the density of cells (from 0.3 to 362 x l0 6 cm) varied strongly in various habitats. Ice floes near the northern pack ice border contained low values of chlorophyll a (mean value 0.50 ±0.28 mg m-3) . However, brash sea ice originating from ice floes, contained 142.4 ±117.5 mg m-3 of chlorophyll α in visibly discoloured and 30.1 ±24.3 mg m~3 of chlorophyll α in not visibly discoloured parts on average. The range of chlorophyll α content and the presence of characteristic species allow to distinguish brash sea ice infiltration assemblage of diatoms.

The Jarlsbergian unconformity at the Late Proterozoic-Early Cambrian boundary, is expressed in the Hecla Hoek Succession of South Spitsbergen as a regional low-angle unconformity, the result of folding and subsequent erosion of the Late Precambrian Jarlsbergian Basin deposits. The unconformity pre-dates the Bonnia-Olenellus trilobite zone; the sedimentary hiatus covers the lowest Cambrian Fallotaspis and Nevadella trilobite zones, and a closer undefined uppermost part of the Late Proterozoic. There are no Varangian (latest Proterozoic) tillites present in south Spitsbergen at the top of the Late Proterozoic metasediment column which is represented by the Gashamna Formation phyllites and associated rocks.

Results of geological interpretation of air photos from selected parts of southern Spitsbergen are presented. Quaternary and some older landforms and deposits distinguished during the photointerpretation are described on the basis of their discrimination features, as well as origin and spatial realtions. On this ground a code for interpretation of relief elements in polar areas was prepared. A geological interpretation of air photos completed by absolute datings of different deposits enabled to connect studied landforms with the Late Quaternary main glacial episodes. Sea and glacier extents in the northwestern Sörkapp Land, from the Wedel Jarlsberg Land Glaciation (Saale) to the Little Ice Age (Holocene) are presented.

In Hornsund Fiord, West Spitsbergen, the cobblees with varnish coat on their surface were found. They occur on low Holocene terraces on older and lower moraine ridges of Hans Glacier. There are two types of chemical coats: 1. corresponding to the mineral and chemical substance of the rock they occur on, and 2. independent of the rock, sedimented under influence of external activities. First type of coats is created by oxidative processes. The second type, like manganese-iron coats of intensive dark colours, does not differ from the phenomenon defined as "desert varnish". They were developed in Holocene in present conditions of polar climate. The authors lean toward biological origin of the coats.

Thin coal seams found in the Lions Cove Formation, Polonia Glacier Group (Middle Eocene, upper part) at King George Bay, King George Island (South Shetland Islands, West Antarctica), represent lustrous (vitrine) brown-coal metaphase. The coal from the lower seam represents carbonized wood, probably angiosperm, that from the upper ones originated due to accumulation of branches or larger wood fragments and leaf remains. These coals are slightly older than metaxylite brown coal previously described from Admiralty Bay on King George Island, and dated at Eocene-Oligocene boundary. Both coal occurrences are evidences for a warm climate which prevailed in the Antarctic Peninsula sector during the Arctowski Interglacial (ca 50—32 Ma).

Mean annual variation of snow depth at the Hornsund Station has been determined. The snow cover usually appears in late September and remains till the beginning of July the next year. The snow depth keeps growing till the first half of March and from then on, until the third dekad of May it does not change. Towards the end of May fast decrease of snow cover occurs mainly due to subsidence by intensive insolation. If compared to the Arctic Basin the snow cover appears in Hornsund three dekads later and disappears about two dekads sooner.

The species of the brachiopod genus Terebratella d'Orbigny, which does not correspond to any one reported hitherto from the upper Eocene-? lower Oligocene La Meseta Formation of Seymour Island, West Antarctica but showing a strong affinity to the Recent T. inconspicua (Sowerby), is described.

This paper reports the species of macromycetes collected on NW Sörkapp Land, Spitsbergen: all the species are new to the area. Brief notes on taxonomy, ecology and distribution of the species are provided.

The author makes a review of conceptions explaining the beginnings of human penetration into the region of Spitsbergen and points to attempts of employing archeological data in this task. In his analysis of the development, the tendencies and the state of the excavatory exploration of Spitsbergen the author tries to define the cognitive capabilities of archeology in the investigation of the history of human activity in the area. The appraisal of achievements in the field prompts the author to propose new priorities in the research problems hitherto undertaken by archeologists. Greater emphasis should be put on the examination of the structure and the dynamics of the analysed processes, rather than on the purely historical (event-centered) aspects.

The infauna of the soft bottom of Nottinghambukta was studied quantitatively. The distribution of 5 most abundant species: Liocyma fluctuosa (Bivalvia), Dendrodoa grossularia (Ascidiacea), Priapulus caudatus and Halicryptus spinulosus (Priapulida) and Chone duneri (Polychaeta), in this Arctic estuary has been presented.

In the Fugleberget catchment area (Spitsbergen, Hornsund Fiord region) the growing season lasted 95 days, with growth beginning under the snow. In this time shoots of moss Calliergon stramineum reached a mean length of 19 mm and mean biomass of 0.593 mg dry weight. Annual primary production of moss communities amounts to 220-270 g dry weight per square meter per year. In the first year of destruction the dead plant material lost 30-45% of its initial value, after 10 years only ca 25% of the initial amount of organic matter was left.

A sea floor investigation was performed in the fiord of Hornsund by means of the seismoacoustic profiling, echosounding and core sampling. The main seismoacoustic sea floor units were recognized (the methods used according to Kowalewski et al. 1987a) and characterized on the basis of their relations to geomorphology and geological evolution. The bathymetrical sketch and the resulting geomorphological description of the bottom were prepared. The surface of the sea bottom and the surface of the bedrock displayed an irregular high relief with large sills dividing the fiord sea floor into several basins. Four main types of the sills were distinguished: burried sills, accumulative sills, rock sills and rock-accumulative sills. Within the internal Basins I and II there were thick (up to 170 m) covers of the glaciomarine ice-front deposit with changing thin ( 1 -5 m) blanket of the glaciomarine muds at the bottom surface. The Basin III had a cover of the glacial and glaciomarine deposits of variable lithology, genesis and age. The most external Basin IV had a cover o f glaciomarine muds up to 4 0 - 5 0 m thick, deposited on the tills. Four main glacial episodes were recognized, most probably referring to the stadials of Lisbetdalen, Slaklidalen, Revdalen and to the Little Ice Age.

The distribution of earthquake foci around the Hornsund fiord, south Spitsbergen, suggest the presence in this region of a micronode of geotectonic structures, exhibiting moderate dynamic activity. Dislocation description was applied to the processes of motion of the glacier and crack formation. Long-period seismic waves generated by the glacier-substratum dynamic system and impulses generates by icebergs seated on the sea bottom have been discussed.

Geological investigations of the 4th Polish Geodynamic Expedition to West Antarctica, summer 1990/91, covered the following topics: volcanological studies and mapping at Deception Island; stratigraphic, palaeonotological and sedimentological studies, and mapping of Tertiary glacial and glacio-marine strata on King George Island; sedimentological and mesostructural studies, and mapping at Hurd Peninsula, Livingston Island; and palaeontological sampling of Jurassic (Mount Flora Formation) and Trinity Peninsula Group deposits at Hope Bay, Trinity Peninsula.

A new species of genus Panopea Menard de la Groye, named P. (P). andreae sp. n. is described in detail. It is the most common of bivalve species recorded in the Destruction Bay Formation (Early Miocene) of King George Island (South Shetland Islands, West Antarctica). The bivalve material collected includes in addition: P. (P) aff. worthingtoni Hutton, Eurhomalia cf. antarctica (Shermann and Newton) and E. cf. newtoni (Wilcknes).

The photo-oxidability of lipids taken from 32 samples of krill from different dates of catch has been examined for photooxidation. Relations were indicated between the rate of accumulation of peroxides in the process of lipids, exposure and content of lipids in krill, its iodine value and amount number of carotenoids.