The „Academia” magazine was founded on the initiative of Professor Andrzej B. Legocki, a President of the Polish Academy of Sciences in 2003 – 2006. In the beginning it was published only in English as a reply to the growing demand for a current information on the Polish Academy of Sciences` activities, expressed by foreign scientists and Poles living abroad and interested in Polish science.
Since 2005 the magazine is published both in Polish and English.
The „Academia” is an exceptional - on the Polish market - scientific magazine for the general public, propagating achievements of Polish scientists here and abroad. Authors of articles in „Academia” explain their subject in a way that is accessible not only for all sorts of academics but also for students, pupils and all other readers interested in scientific topics for the general public.
Water is essential for plant growth and development, and the degree of its availability significantly shapes ecosystems in different climate zones. How does an overabundance or deficiency of water affect the flora in Poland and different parts of the world?
On a few examples of aquatic metaphors that invoke some of the most important philosophical concepts.
If we throw something into a river, how long will it take to reach a certain location downstream? We talk to Prof. Ian Guymer from the University of Sheffield about our increasingly complex models of this deceptively simple problem.
Poland is among the countries that are facing water stress, although we largely remain accustomed to having water always there when we need it. Should we take this unrestricted access for granted?
We can hardly imagine the Earth without majestic trees and omnipresent shrubs. But not all of us realize that these plants owe their success to ubiquitous yet often unnoticeable fungi. What links these two types of organisms together is life-giving water. It is the reason why trees and fungi have been inseparable for hundreds of millions of years. How do droughts affect trees and their evolutionarily ancient symbiosis with fungi?
Prof. Tomasz Okruszko explains what role wetlands play in the environment and how they are affected by human activity.
Floodplains are highly valuable, but highly endangered ecosystems. Restoration programs need to carefully consider their multifunctionality, ecological value and the provision of ecosystem services. The example of the Danube River illustrates the impacts of various restoration measures.
Environmental hydraulics is a sub-branch of environmental fluid mechanics that deals with the movement of water and transport processes in both natural water bodies and engineered waterways. Techniques developed to evaluate flow resistance in man-made conduits can be successfully applied to natural waterways.
Prof. Monika Kalinowska and Dr. Agata Goździk of the PAS Institute of Geophysics talk about ways to bolster public awareness of water issues.
The successful design and implementation of hydroengineering projects crucially rests upon three collaborative pillars of research: field observations, physical models, and mathematical models.
Forecasts suggest that the freshwater resources available to our civilization will shrink by 30% in the coming two decades. How can we reverse the degradation of water resources and create a balance between the society’s demand for water and the capacity of the hydrosphere?
Multi-purpose reservoirs play an important role in satisfying demands for water supply, irrigation, hydropower, drinking water, flood protection, recreation, navigation, and other purposes. At the same time, they can often have considerable negative impacts on the environment and local biodiversity that remain largely unseen. These “dirty secrets” include sediment deposition, cyanobacteria blooms, and greenhouse gas emissions.
Professor Paweł Rowiński, Vice-President of the PAS and a researcher at the PAS Institute of Geophysics, explains why rivers are such a fascinating subject of study and describes the innovative approach being taken to organizing the IAHR Congress in Poland.
We talk with Prof. Corrado Gisonni, the IAHR’s division chair for Europe, on the organization’s activities and on how hydroengineering and hydraulics can help resolve current global problems.
How does inflowing river water affect the quality of water in the Baltic Sea? Why are the chemicals used in agriculture so dangerous for seas, and what future lies in store for the Baltic?
Prof. Patrick Meire of the University of Antwerp discusses subtle interdependencies in marine ecosystems and the transformations that they undergo under the influence of climate change.
Careful study of river channel hydraulics is helping recover archeological treasures from the bottom of the Vistula River in Warsaw, lost by Swedish looters back in the seventeenth century.
The Vistula’s riverbed is a treasure-trove of relics concealed by continually shifting sands and by the turbid river water. So what lies down there, hidden in the Vistula’s depths?
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