Reconstructed Paleodiets and Subsistence Strategies of the Central Ciscaucasian Population (1000 BC to 1000 AD), Based on Collagen Isotope Analysis of Bone Samples from the Kichmalka II Burial Ground

Settlement and economy patterns of the Iron Age and early medieval population of the Central North Caucasus evidence complex cultural processes in the region. The ecological approach including the evaluation of carbon and nitrogen isotopes in the local biota opens up new prospects in the study of environments, climate, anthropogenic effect, land use, and nutrition. We analyze the isotopic composition of collagen in 19 human and 11 animal bone samples from Kichmalka II—a cemetery successively used by the Koban people, those of the Sarmatian stage, and Alans. The isotopic composition of the Alanian sample indicates a heavy predominance of plants with the C3-type photosynthesis in the diet of humans and animals. People who lived during the Koban and Sarmatian stages consumed also C4-plants, such as common millet (Panicum miliaceum), suggesting the rise of the trophic step for carbon (Δδ13Chuman-animal). Statistically signifi cant differences in the isotopic composition of carbon were found within the Koban population, apparently evidencing two dietary models. The Δδ15Nhuman-animal values fall within the trophic step, mirroring a focus on meat and dairy products in the diet of all groups. Comparison with respective data on the Klin-Yar III cemetery revealed differences in isotopic signatures in the diet of both humans and domestic animals during the Koban period. The possible reason is climatic change in the Iron Age and the variable share of millet in the diet of the Koban people. The low proportion of δ15N (below 4 ‰) in the bone collagen of goat, sheep, and horse of the Alanian period may attest to vertical transhumance.

Chemical Problems and Environmental Education

Ecological problems are considered one of the most important problems of the globalized world in the article. It’s noticed that the negative attitude of the population to the environment causes to creating available problems. Therefore, it must be paid special attention to the ecological education among children and students at school and preschool educational institution. Everybody must get knowledge on ecology must form ecological worldview at the separate stages of education ecological discipline must be actualized. Forming responsibility feeling to the nature on pupils is given priority. Teachers form such an opinion on pupils that knowing Chemistry it`s possible to organize the product that doesn’t damage the environment in a word a wasteless technology. The regular attitude to the environment is formed as a result of ecological knowledge. Because of this it must be ecological knowledge, ecological culture and ecological ethics. It’s important to bring up people who have ecological worldview for eliminating ecological problems. Different methods must be applied for complete explaining of the ecological problems to pupils. Pupils must be informed about the sources which pollute the environment, the pollutant which spreads on the biosphere from the sources, their effect on human body, flora and fauna and the ecological problems of the region. First it must pay more attention to practical experiences together with provided child’s psychological features for forming ecological worldview on pupils. The world’s scientists’ thinking about eliminating ways of the deplanement that climate changes create are given priority. Here the main purpose is to minimize the damages of Climate changes to the environment and anthropogenic effect. Many matters are implemented in the direction of saving global climate all over the world. The reasons of terrible and tragic diseases that are cured for a long time (COVID, Aids, bird flu, swine influenza, hepatitis and etc.), genetic diseases that are observed among children (thalassemic, hemophilia, immune deficiency), dead and early birth of children that worry humanity and the world scientists are considered as the main problem.

Impacto de Secas e Antropização na Dinâmica da Cobertura Florestal em Fragmento do Domínio Fitogeográfico da Caatinga

Este trabalho objetivou avaliar a influência da antropização e de secas severas na dinâmica da cobertura florestal de um fragmento de caatinga na região semiárida do Brasil, ao longo de 32 anos. Para o cálculo do índice de seca, agrupou-se os valores de precipitação média pondera da anual da série histórica (1988 - 2019) em Decis. A partir do quantitativo de área encontrada nas classes de uso e ocupação (cobertura florestal conservada, cobertura natural campestre, área antropizada e corpos d’água) dos anos extremos secos e chuvosos, procedeu-se à análise estatística multivariada pelo método da análise de agrupamento hierárquico. Os valores médios dos agrupamentos foram submetidos à análise estatística e confrontados pelo teste T de Student (p ≤ 0,05). Foram encontrados três grupos distintos: G1 constituído por anos secos e muito secos da década de 90, o agrupamento 2 formado por anos extremos úmidos e muito úmidos, independentemente do período, e G3 (agrupamento intermediário) constituído tanto por anos típicos secos quanto chuvosos, especificamente de períodos mais recentes (2000 a 2019). Os grupos G2 e G3 contribuíram com as maiores quantitativo de cobertura florestal conservada, 143.176,50 e 144.928,13 ha, respectivamente. Os resultados demonstram que a precipitação pluviométrica está mais estritamente correlacionada com as áreas antropizadas do que propriamente com a regeneração natural da cobertura florestal. A vegetação arbórea-arbustiva do fragmento investigado tem passado por um processo de regeneração natural na década recente (2002 - 2019) em virtude do abandono de áreas anteriormente antropizadas na década de 90. Drought and Anthropogenic Effect on the Dynamics of Forest Cover in a Fragment of Caatinga Phytogeographic Domain A B S T R A C TThe aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of anthropogenic action and severe drought on the dynamics of forest cover in a fragment of caatinga in the semi-arid region of Brazil, over 32 years. To calculate the drought index, the values for weighted mean annual precipitation from an historical series (1988 - 2019) were grouped into deciles. Based on the quantification of the area found in the classes of use and occupation (conserved forest cover, natural rural cover, anthropogenic area and water bodies) for the extreme dry and rainy years, multivariate statistical analysis was carried out using hierarchical cluster analysis. The mean values of the clusters were submitted to statistical analysis and compared by Student's t-test (p ≤ 0.05). Three distinct groups were found: G1, consisting of dry and very dry years from the 1990s; G2, formed by extreme wet and very wet years regardless of the period; and G3 (intermediate group), comprising both dry and rainy years, specifically from more recent periods (2000 to 2019). Groups G2 and G3 contributed the greatest amount of conserved forest cover, 143,176.50 and 144,928.13 ha respectively. The results show that rainfall is more closely correlated with the anthropogenic areas than with the natural regeneration of forest cover. The woody vegetation of the fragment under investigation has undergone a process of natural regeneration during the last decade (2008 - 2016), due to previously anthropogenic areas being abandoned in the 1990s.Keywords: Caatinga, remote sensing, desertification.

Twelve new microsatellite loci of Eurasian perch Perca fluviatilis Linnaeus, 1758

The Eurasian perch (Perca fluviatilis Linnaeus, 1758) is native to almost entire Eurasia. For over the last two decades, this species became an important candidate for intensive freshwater aquaculture due to its high consumer’s acceptance and overall market value. Hence, the intensive production of Eurasian perch has increased considerably allowing effective domestication; there is still a need for the development of effective selective breeding programmes allowing its further expansion. This process, in turn, can be significantly facilitated by molecular genetics. The genetic information of Eurasian perch and its populations is limited. Up to date information of regarding genetic diversity of many populations is still missing, including microsatellites for Eurasian perch, which could be useful during the selective breeding programmes allowing parental assignment and/or to follow heritability of desired traits. In this study, we have developed and characterized new polymorphic microsatellites. Subsequently, those 12 markers have been used further to compare two Hungarian and one Polish Eurasian perch populations. The Hungarian stocks had high genetic similarity (with low diversity), as we assumed, while the Polish population differed significantly. All populations deviated significantly from the Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium, and heterozygote deficiency was detected in all, showing the presence of an anthropogenic effect.

CYPRINID FISH INFECTION WITH METACERCARIAS OF TREMATODES UNDER ANTHROPOGENIC EFFECT

We presented parasitological studies of fish (Cyprinidae) in the Usman River within the Voronezhsky Biosphere Reserve. The infection of fish with metacercarias of trematodes in the river sections with various anthropogenic effect was assessed. We identified metacercarias of 6 species of trematodes: Opisthorchis felineus, Pseudamphistomum truncatum, Metorchis bilis, M. xanthosomus, Posthodiplostomum cuticola, and Paracoenogonimus ovatus. The highest occurrence and abundance of P. cuticola (95.4%, 36.4 sp.) and P. ovatus (56.9%, 8.8 sp.) was noted in the upper reaches of the River, in areas with high anthropogenic impact. An increased prevalence of infection was recorded for the group Opisthorchiidae (O. felineus, P. truncatum, and M. bilis) in areas within the Reserve with minimal anthropogenic impact. Infection rate of Opisthorchiidae metacercarias was 86.5% and 8.2 specimens in the middle and lower reaches of the River. At the same time, we noted a decrease in infection with P. cuticola (54.5%; 5.8 sp.) and P. ovatus (33.9%; 1.3 sp.). The degree of anthropogenic eutrophication of the Reservoir affects the development of different species of mollusks and the infection of fish with metacercarias. Metacercarias of trematodes can be used as indicators of water pollution in assessing anthropogenic effect on natural ecosystems.

Internal variability and unforced trends of all-sky and clear-sky SSR: quantitative estimates using CMIP6

<p>Quantifying trends in surface solar radiation (SSR) of unforced simulations is of substantial importance when one tries to quantify the anthropogenic effect in forced trends, as the net effect may be dampened or amplified by the internal variability of the system. In our analysis, we consider trends on different temporal scales (10, 30, 50 and 100 years) from 58 global climate models, participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project - Phase 6 (CMIP6). We calculate the trends at the grid-box level for all-sky and clear-sky SSR using annual mean data of the multi-century pre-industrial control (piControl) experiments. The trends from both variables are found to depend strongly on the geographical region, as the most pronounced trends of the all-sky variable are observed in the Tropical Pacific, while the largest clear-sky trends are found in the large desert regions. Inspecting for each grid cell the statistical distribution of occurring N-year trends  shows that they are normally distributed in the majority of grid cells for both all-sky and clear-sky SSR. The 75-th percentile taken from these distributions (i.e. a positive trend with a 25 % chance of occurrence) varies with geographical region, taking values in the ranges 0.79 - 12.03 Wm<sup>-2</sup>/decade for 10-year trends, 0.15 - 2.05 Wm<sup>-2</sup>/decade for 30-year trends, 0.07 - 0.92 Wm<sup>-2</sup>/decade for 50-year trends and 0.02 - 0.29 Wm<sup>-2</sup>/decade for 100-year trends for all-sky SSR. The unforced trends become less significant on longer timescales – the trend medians, corresponding to the above ranges, are 3.18 Wm<sup>-2</sup>/decade, 0.62 Wm<sup>-2</sup>/decade, 0.29 Wm<sup>-2</sup>/decade, 0.10 Wm<sup>-2</sup>/decade respectively. The trends for clear-sky SSR are found to differ from the all-sky SSR by a factor of 0.16 on average, independent of the trend length. The model spread becomes greater at longer trend timescales, the differences being more substantial between large model families rather than between individual models. To elucidate the dominant causes of variability in different regions, we examine the correlations of the SSR variables with ambient aerosol optical thickness at 550 nm, atmosphere mass content of water vapour, cloud area fraction and albedo.</p>