The article is dedicated to the main principles of the sustainable development concept and the life quality of the population of the Kaliningrad region. The authors outline four sets of objectives crucial for the socio-economic development of the region as well as their key functions.
The article considers the basic methods of sea water quality assessment. The indicators of shell diversity of dominant bivalve molluscs in tidal accumulations are suggested as the most efficient field method.
This article describes the response of hydrobionts to exogenous biologically active substances (BAS) of anthropogenic origin through the example of different taxa ranging from the Infusoria and Spongia to the Crustacea and confirms the harmful effect of anthropogenic pressure at the levels of a single organism and the whole ecosystem.
The Vistula Lagoon of the Baltic Sea is one the most productive water bodies in Europe. The Pregolya River comprises the main part of the Vistula Lagoon's catchment area where the biggest cities and towns of the Kaliningrad Region are situated. The aim of the research is to estimate the nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) flux from the Pregolya River's catchment area into the Vistula Lagoon, which is composed by both point source emissions and diffuse load. The author applies the model of nutrient flux from the Pregolya River catchment area based on FyrisNP Version 3.1, which takes into account the catchment land use, nutrient runoff from point sources and lands of different types, stream characteristics, and precipitation.
This paper makes an attempt to divide the territory of the region according to the degree of groundwater protection. Protection against pollution is provided by the tight sediment layer that prevents the penetration of contaminants from the surface into the aquifer. The author distinguishes areas of insufficient natural protection, potentially dangerous in terms of certain types of chemical and bacterial groundwater pollution.