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Czorsztyn Lake is an artificial water reservoir backed up by the hydropower plant Niedzica earth dam on Dunajec River in south Poland. Its filling began in 1995 and ended in 1997. The reservoir of 234.5 million m 3 capacity is shallow, between 20 to 50 m of water column, on average. Until 2011 the seismic activity in this region was sparse, some 1 event trimonthly. However, in November 2011 more than 60 events occurred. Such bursts of activity, separated by low activity periods, continue to appear. Since August 2013 the area is monitored by a local seismic network. The setup allows to accurately locate the epicenters and to determine source mechanisms for stronger events. The events are clustered and aligned along NE-SW direction and their mechanisms are very similar, indicating N-S strike slip faulting. This and the irregular pattern of activity suggest that this seismicity is triggered by the reservoir impoundment.

Background Ageing is a complex phenomenon that leads to decreased proliferative activity, loss of function of the cells, and cellular senescence. Senescence of the immune system exacerbates individual’s immune response, both humoral and cellular but increases the frequency of infections. We hypothesized that physiological ageing of adaptive immune system occurs in recipients of allogeneic hematopoietic cells transplant (allo-HCT) at faster rate when compared to their respective donors since the small number of donor cells undergo immense proliferative stress restoring recipients hematopoiesis. We compared molecular characterizations of ageing between recipients and donors of allo-HCT: telomeric length and immunophenotypic changes in main lymphocyte subsets – CD4+, CD8+, CD19+, CD56+. Results Median telomeric length (TL) of CD8+ lymphocytes was significantly longer in donors compared to recipients (on average 2,1 kb and 1,7 kb respectively, p = 0,02). Similar trends were observed for CD4+ and CD19+ although the results did not reach statistical significance. We have also found trends in the immunophenotype between recipients and donors in the subpopulations of CD4+ (naïve and effector memory), CD8+ Eomes+ and B-lymphocytes (B1 and B2). Lower infection risk recipients had also a significantly greater percentage of NK cells (22,3%) than high-risk patients (9,3%) p = 0,04. Conclusion Our data do not support the initial hypothesis of accelerated aging in the long term all-HCT recipients with the exception of the recipients lymphocytes (mainly CD8+) which present some molecular features, characteristic for physiological ageing (telomeric shortening, immunophenotype) when compared to their respective donors. However, a history of lower infection numbers in HCT recipients seems to be associated with increased percentage of NK cells. The history of GVHD seems not to affect the rate of ageing. Therefore, it is safe to conclude that the observed subtle differences between recipients’ and donors’ cells result mainly from the proliferative stress in the early period after allo-HCT and the difference between hosts’ and recipients’ microenvironments.