The paper presents data on the assessment of the genetic diversity of five subpopulations of the European bison (Bison bonasus) in Belarus — from the National Park “Belovezhskaya Pushcha”, the National Park “Pripyatsky”, the Osipovichi district (Mogilev area), SEI “Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve” and the Grodno region. In general, the work includes 30 samples of muscle tissue from the collection of Gene bank of wild fauna in SSPA “SPC NAS of Belarus on Bioresources” (Minsk, Belarus). Microsatellites were used as markers to assess genetic diversity, structure, and search for signs of a sharp decline in the size of bison subpopulations in the past. A total of 11 microsatellite markers were used, recommended by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations for cattle research. The analysis of B. bonasus subpopulation from the NP “Pripyatsky” showed signs of passing through the genetic bottleneck. All studied subpopulations are characterized by a similarly low genetic diversity level in all analyzed indicators (mean number of alleles, allelic diversity, observed and expected heterozygosity). The expected heterozygosity (He) for the three subpopulations from the NP “Belovezhskaya Pushcha”, the NP “Pripyatsky” and from the Osipovichi district ranged from 0.37 to 0.39. For the studied subpopulations, the values of the fixation index were negative. The assessment of the presence of genetic structuring between the subpopulations of bison from the NP “Belovezhskaya Pushcha”, the NP “Pripyatsky” and from the Osipovichi district based on the values of such indexes as Fst and DJost which showed no signs of genetic differentiation, which is also confirmed by principal coordinates analysis (PCoA). The European bison conservation in Belarus has required tremendous efforts in the past. So far, even though the impressively large population size reached in Belarus, B. bonasus status still should not be considered as stable, which is closely linked to aspects of its overall low genetic diversity. Our research confirmed the low genetic variability of Belarusian subpopulations. Therefore, the more extensive research concentrated on identifying genetic diversity is necessary to ensure the beneficial control of gene flow and register a potential correlation of unfavorable gene variants with possible inbreeding depression. These attempts are required to lay the groundwork for the management and protection of the European bison in Belarus.
“Lines of flight are dragged behind you all your life.” Post-Memory, Old Age, and Forgetting in Ulrike Draesner’s Novel Sieben Sprünge vom Rand der Welt (2014) In contemporary German literature, particularly in the family novels that are key to the post-memory discourse of the past, there is a marked interest in the dysfunctions and deformations of memory associated with ageing processes. Demographic changes lead researchers to consider the determinants and the existing dominant themes and categories of interdisciplinary memory studies. Ulrike Draesner’s 2014 novel, Sieben Sprünge vom Rand der Welt, the subject of this paper, probes the meanders of memory and forgetting, examining their configurations in intergenerational relations. I am interested here in the threads that have been marginalized in the popular discourse on the flight and resettlement of millions of Germans from the eastern provinces of the Reich, which emerge along with the progressive dementia of one of the novel’s main characters.
The article presents variants of the story of the final phase of World War II in the eastern provinces of the Third Reich exemplified in the novels Wenn die Dämme brechen... by Edwin Erich Dwinger (1950), Engel, Menschen und Dämonen by Hanna Stephan (1951, Jenseits der Schleuse by Werner Klose (1953), and Feuer im Schnee by Jens Rehn (1956). The basis of the discussion are works outside the contemporary canon of literature devoted to World War II depicting forced evacuation of German civilian population and the retreat of Wehrmacht forces in the face of an offensive by the Red Army. The analysis shows the diversity in which the catastrophe of the "German East" was handled in works of fiction of the 1950s. Thus, the article disputes the theses of the German researcher Louis Ferdinand Helbig concerning the subject of "exodus and dislocation" in German writing. Helbig differentiates three successive phases of literary development devoted to the German exodus from central and eastern Europe and ties them to the predominance of specific genres (documentaries, quasi-documentaries, memoirs, and fiction). The present article, on the other hand, shows the diversity of narrative techniques in the period which Helbig considers as the realm of witness literature. The article examines different ways of discerning purpose in Germany's defeat and the suffering of the civilian population: heroic and military (Dwinger, Klose), mythical-demonic and religious (Stephan), as well as existential (Klose). Contrasted with such interpretations is a novel which rejects attempts to aggrandize tragic events by invoking ideology, metaphysics, or literary tradition (Rehn).Der Titel dieses Beitrags ist einem Vers aus Heinz Pionteks Gedicht Die Verstreuten (1955) entlehnt, der die Erzählung vom Weltenbrand und die Schöpfungsgeschichte vereint: "Der Osten -wie eine feurige Sage -/ ging hinter Armeen zugrunde. Jammer war er / und Aschenflug über der Öde und dunkel wie einst". 1 Mit diesen Zeilen ist auch das Thema der folgenden Untersuchung umrissen: Narrationen vom Ende des "deutschen Ostens" in der Schlussphase des Zweiten ________________
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