Ciliates (or Ciliophora) are ubiquitous organisms which can be widely used as bioindicators in ecosystems exposed to anthropogenic and industrial influences. The evaluation of the environmental impact on soil ciliate communities with methods relying on morphology-based identification may be hampered by the large number of samples usually required for a statistically supported, reliable conclusi...

Complex physiological traits, such as routine aerobic metabolic rate or exercise performance, are indicators of the functional integrity of fish that can reveal sub-lethal toxicological effects of aquatic pollutants. These traits have proved valuable in laboratory investigations of the sub-lethal effects of heavy metals, ammonia and various xenobiotics. It is not known, however, whether they ca...

STUDY OBJECTIVE This study examined the impact on children's respiratory health of a government air quality intervention that restricted the sulphur content of fuels to 0.5% from July 1990 onwards. DESIGN/SETTING/PARTICIPANTS This study examined the changes, one and two years after the introduction of the intervention, in airway hyperreactivity of non-asthmatic and non-wheezing, primary 4, 5,...

Environmental pollutants cause a potential hazard for survival in free-living animal populations. We modelled local survival (including emigration) by using individual mark-recapture histories of males and females in a population of a small insectivorous passerine bird, the pied flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) living around a point source of heavy metals (copper smelter). Local survival of F. h...

Soil microorganisms may be both sensitive and resilient to various disturbances. The effects of a single stressor on soil microorganisms have been well studied, but only limited research has been carried out to test the effects of simultaneous action of diverse stressors. Soil samples were collected from a long-term polluted zinc and lead site and an unpolluted site. Modeling studies assumed sp...

Rhizodegradation of organic pollutants, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, is based on the effect of root-produced compounds, known as exudates. These exudates constitute an important and constant carbon source that selects microbial populations in the plant rhizosphere, modifying global as well as specific microbial activities. We conducted an experiment in two-compartment devices to sh...

Increasing amounts of anthropogenic contaminants have heavily polluted the atmosphere. This is one global environmental problems. Deposition atmospheric on earth’s surface brings potential risks to human health. review aims identify posed by lead in atmosphere and its impact Lead most dangerous toxic metals found crust. The lead-induced toxicity through oxidative stress mechanisms includes effe...

Urban rivers are polluted with discharge from sewage treatment plants and overflowing sewage caused by rainfall (Nix and Merry, 1990; Shiraris et al., 1987). These waste waters accelerate eutrophication of aquatic environments. Since urban river water is the public water supply source, it is an i~0ortant for public health issue to determine whether or not urban rivers are polluted with fecal ef...

Prokaryotes are of high importance in the assessment of environmental pollution effects. Due to fast responsiveness of bacterial communities to environmental physicochemical factors, it is difficult to compare results of bacterial community investigations on the temporal and spatial scale. To reduce the effects of variable physicochemical environmental conditions on bacterial microbiota when in...