Andrzej Kownacki

• dr
• Polish Academy of Sciences

The responses of benthic fauna to channel modifications of mountain rivers by low-head barriers are poorly understood. The study aimed (1) to estimate the impact of two different low-head barrier types: concrete sills and block ramps, on Oligochaeta and Trichoptera communities in two small Carpathian rivers (Porębianka and Mszanka) in southern Pola...

The effects of channelization with low in-stream barriers in mountain rivers on macroinvertebrate communities are still weakly recognised. We aimed to assess the differences in structure and density of benthic macroinvertebrates between two north Carpathian mountain rivers: one channelized with a cascade of concrete sills and the other one with blo...

This article summarizes the studies concerning the impact of pollutants on benthic macroinvertebrate communities in the mountain and upland rivers of southern Poland. The Carpathian Raba River, which in the 1960s retained its natural character and had good water quality, was considered as a reference in terms of benthic macroinvertebrate communitie...

This study focuses on the Dombrovska pit lake, near the city of Kalush in Ukraine, which is a former potassium salt mine filled with brine and freshwater. The water level is still increasing and as a result the salinity is decreasing. We analyzed the benthic fauna communities and the genome instability by assessing the rearrangements in the polyten...

This study was aimed to show whether subfossil Chironomidae (Diptera) may be useful tool for assessing toxicity of heavy metals in the aquatic environment. Investigations were carried out in subsidence ponds affected by the activity of metal mining: (1) the older ones formed before mining activity and (2) the younger one formed after the mine was c...

The study aimed to determine natural communities of invertebrates and ichthyofauna on the background of physiographic and geological conditions and water chemistry and to evaluate the influence of human pressure on these communities on the basis of the results of long-term studies carried out since the 1960s in the Upper Dunajec River and its Tatra...

Mining is recognized to deeply influence invertebrate assemblages in aquatic systems, but different invertebrates respond in different ways to mining cessation. Here, we document the response of the cladoceran assemblage of the Chechło river, S. Poland (southern Poland) to the cessation of Pb-Zn ore mining. The aquatic system includes the river and...

The genome response, realized by structure chromosome rearrangements in the polytene chromosomes of two sibling species Prodiamesa bureshi Michailova and Prodiamesa olivacea Mg., was studied. The larvae of the species were collected in May and September, 2016, from Biała Przemsza River, a metal-mine-affected site in southern Poland, where Zn, Cd, a...

Comparison of small sized and weakly chitinized structures such as the labrum (labral setae SI-SIII, labral lamella, tormal bar, pecten epipharings) and the maxilla (maxillary palp, lacinial chaeta) is provided in larvae of Chironomus plumosus, C. balatonicus, C. usenicus C. melanotus, C. acerbiphilus, and C. riparius using Scanning Electron Micros...

We studied the effect of heavy metal contaminations on genome instability of Chironomus annularius sensu Strenzke from three sampling sites on the River Chechło valley in southern Poland and a control site in Saraya, Bulgaria. The analysis of the heavy metal concentrations in sediments at the three river sites indicated concentrations higher than t...

In this paper, a study of the morphology of the pupa and male imago of Glyptotendipes (G.) glaucus (Meigen 1818) was carried out, with the aid of a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The SEM provided additional valuable information on the morphology of the species. Adult male head, antenna, wing, leg, abdomen, hypopygium, pupal cephalothorax and a...

Larvae belonging to the family Chironomidae are difficult to identify. The aim of the present study was to describe the larval morphology of G. (G.) glaucus with the aid of a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), the karyotype and biology based on materials obtained from laboratory culture. Describing the morphology of larvae, special attention was p...

The paper reports on the value of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in the taxonomy and morphology of Chironomidae. This method has been relatively rarely used in Chironomidae studies. Our studies suggest that the SEM method provides a lot of new information. For example, the plastron plate of the thoracic horn of Macropelopia nebulosa (Meigen) un...

This work constitutes a continued presentation of the history of Polish research in the fauna of the Tatra waters and covers the inter-war period. During the years 1919-1939 these studies were still conducted but on a smaller scale than before the 1st World War. Many publications were based on earlier research done before 1914, which were broader w...

The karyotype, larval and pupal morphology of Macropelopia nebulosa group (Tanypodinae) is described. The species is generally identified on the basis of pupal morphology as it is not possible to distinguish the larvae of different Macropelopia species. However, the species has species-specific markers in the salivary gland chromosomes which allow...

This paper reports on studies of the effect of heavy metals on the Chironomidae that inhabit the Matylda stream, which has been contaminated for about 100 years by discharge water from a zinc and lead ore mine. Stream sediment was strongly polluted by Cd, Pb, Cu and Zn. These metals did not affect the Chironomidae community but strongly changed the...

The paper describes larval, pupal and adult morphology as well as the karyotype of Chironomus polonicus sp. n. from southern Poland. The material has been obtained from reared egg masses collected in Bolesław pool, near Kraków. The species belongs to the pseudothummi cytocomplex with 2n = 8 and chromosome arm combinations AE, BF, CD, G. Several hom...

The pupa and imago of Chironomus acerbiphilus (a senior synonym of C. crassimanus) show wide variation of external morphology characters. This paper describes the external morphology of larva, pupa and adult of C. acerbiphilus from Poland. Variability of morphological characters is evaluated for the Polish population in comparison with other Europe...

The Ojców National Park is situated in southern Poland in an area of Jurassic limestone, which determines the hydrochemistry of the water in the River Prądnik. The geochemical index of the sediment in the River Prądnik indicated it is moderately polluted with Pb and Zn, and heavily polluted with Cd compared to unpolluted sediment. The effect of nat...

The investigation was carried out on a small pond situated on a recent mine spoil at Bolesław in the Olkusz region with Zn-Pb ore deposits. Water of the pond had pH 7.2-8.5 and low concentrations of heavy metals. Concentrations of Pb (487 μg g( - 1)) and Zn (1,991 μg g( - 1)) in the sediment were very high and potentially could lead to toxicologica...

The chromosome set of Chironomus crassimanus Strenzke, 1959 and pictures of its salivary gland chromosomes were presented by Keyl and Keyl (1959) and Keyl (1962). Keyl (1962) described the band sequence of chromosome AE compared with that of other Chironomus species. Later, Michailova (1989) described the chromosome markers of this species using ma...

Invertebrates inhabiting alpine water bodies are sensitive to environmental variability and lake faunal communities can therefore be important indicators of long-range airborne pollution, climate change and other human impacts. Information about the trophic structure and species composition of alpine lake ecosystems over space and time should there...

The effect of contaminants on the genomes of Chironomus plumosus L. and Chironomus bernensis Wülker, Klötzli species was studied in the Dunajec River (station 1) and in the littoral of Czorsztyn Reservoir (stations 2 and 3). According to the index of geoaccumulation, the sediments were polluted by cadmium (Cd) and chromium (Cr). Cd concentrations a...

Kryon - communities of high mountain streams High mountain streams, flowing above the upper forest line, arise from the meltwater of glaciers, permanent snow fields and high mountain lake-outlet streams and temporary springs Larvae of Diamesa (Chironomidae, Diptera), mainly Diamesa steinboecki group, Diamesa latitarsi group dominate among macroinv...

Benthic communities in relation to environmental factors in small high mountain ponds threatened by air pollutants. Boreal Env. Res. 11: 481–492. Hydrobiological investigations of ponds situated above the timber line in the Tatra Moun-tains (Poland) were carried out. These water bodies are fed mainly by rainfall and melting snow. Some of them are t...

Chromosome variability was analyzed in three Chironomus species: Chironomus plumosus L., Chironomus muratensis Ryser, Scholl & Wulker, and Chironomus annularius Meigen, from the natural populations in Poland. A comparative analysis of band sequences with other Palearctic populations was done. Chromosome band sequences of C. plumosus and C. muratens...

The material identified as Kiefferulus tendipediformis on the basis of the larval morphology consisted of two cytogenetically distinct species, which we called cytotype 1 (2n=8) (Bulgaria) and cytotype 2 (2n=6) (Poland). The karyotype and external morphology (larva, pupa and imago - males) of Kiefferulus tendipediformis from pond on mine spoils in...

The salivary gland chromosomes of seven species of the genus Chironomus from Poland were described. Six of them (Chironomus plumosus L., Chironomus balatonicus Devai, Wülker et Scholl, Chironomus muratensis Ryser, Scholl et Wülker, Chironomus agilis Shobanov et Dyomin, Chironomus annularius Mg., Chironomus nuditarsis Strenzke) belong to thummi comp...

The cytotaxonomic characteristics of species of the genus Glyptotendipes (Chironomidae): G. glaucus Meigen, G. paripes Edwards, and G. barbipes (Staeger) are described. The studied material was collected from a fish pond at Gołysz and a sewage retention pond at Chybie in Silesia. All the studied species have the chromosome set 2n = 8, but with many...

Water chemistry and macroinvertebrates of four high mountain lakes (alt. 1657-1784 m) were investigated. The lakes are ultraoligotrophic with naturally slightly acidic water. In three lakes these water level changed substantially during the year while in one it remained constant. Moreover, trophic status was higher in one than in the other three. O...

Detailed hydrobiological investigations were carried out in a high mountain lake-outlet (Tatra Mts, Poland). The stream water had low concentrations of ions, nutrients and organic matter (DOM, POM). The stream had intermittent flow. In the spring, when the water started flowing, the initial communities were composed of organisms adapted to survivin...

The present paper describes changes in the chemical composition of water and the animal communities below three dam reservoirs lying in ecologically different river sectors and differing in the degree of water pollution. The reservoirs transform the chemical composition of the water in various ways, depending on the quality of the inflowing water a...

Detritivore Oligochaeta (Tubificidae) prevail in the Upper Vistula above and below the water stage at Laczany. In the lower section of the river with a stony bottom there also appear algivores (Naididae, Chironomidae, and Gastropoda) and predatory forms (Hirudinea). Greatest production and respiration of macrofauna are noted just below the water st...

In experimental streams with increased loads of nutrients there was an increase in the number of bacteria, this leading to an increased number of Ciliata. The greater amounts of nutrients affected communities of algae and invertebrates to a smaller degree. -from Authors

Investigations on invertebrate fauna were carried out at fifteen sites in some chosen streams of the Caucasus (Azerbaijan SSR) in March 1970. Seventy-five taxa of invertebrates were found in the investigated streams. Chironomidae constituted the most numerous group at all sites, Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Simuliidae being other important compon...

The influence of sheep grazing was chiefly manifested by the growing percentage of Chironomidae in the whole fauna, changes in the domination structure, and disturbances in regular seasonal cycles of benthic invertebrates. In the qualitative composition of the fauna, however, there was little change. The changes in the communities were brought abou...

In the streams of the Tatra Mountains over 1550 m a. s. l. mayflies are generally lacking. At 900 to 1550 m a. s. l Baetis alpinus and Rhithrogena loyolaea dominate in the current, and Ameletus inopinatus in the pools. In the submontane zone of the streams (below 900 m a. s. l.) many other species appear. In a polluted stream (138U to 1390 m a. s....