Kamienna river – changes in time and a proposition of restoration

In Kamienna River Valley the iron ore exploitation was done for a very long time. The intensification of the mining took place in XVIII and XIX century. For this region played an important role Stanisław Staszic. Kamienna River was supposed to be the source of energy and way of transport. Therefore, the river canalization and intensive training was undertaken, in consequence the river course was straighten and shorten, which resulted in the significant change in the river dynamics. Meander elimination and introduction of a uniform cross-section resulted in deterioration of habitat. To-day Kamienna River has deeply incised bed, which causes the drainage of surrounding grounds. After the analysis of the old maps and the river cross-sections it was found that it is impossible to restore the old river bed, because of the important erosion and cut off the sediment transport by dams on Świślina and Kamienna Rivers. Moreover the canalized river along some industrial vestiges is a part of technical patrimony. Therefore the only slight improvements could be proposed – introduction of slight meanders, more natural bed form and irregular banks. That could be obtained by an introduction of small hydraulic structures diverting the water stream. ...

Changes of ground beetle assemblages structure on mountain stream alluvial areas

Changes in ground beetles assemblage structure in relation to bankfull discharge in mountain stream have been tested. The research was performed in one of the Polish Carpathian streams in the Gorce Mountains region: the Ochotnica Stream. As the index of determination of bankfull volume the size of terrestrial invertebrates (carabids) was advocated which were present in the investigated research cross-section and were resistant to specific water discharge conditions. Redundancy analysis shoved that only variation of community biomass depended on frequency of changing water discharge. Distribution of mean abundance in body length classes is unimodal for upper benches meanwhile on the lowest bench abundance decreased linearly. This parameter can be used in practice as a good indicator of bankfull discharge on mountain streams. The need of fluvial processes in conservation approach for riverine communities is discussed. ...