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The data inferred from a new key section in the basin of the Vilyuy river allowed us to examine the structural-faces features and absolute age of cross-layered sandy-loam sediments of the D’olkuminskaya series distributed in Central Yakutia in a wide hypsometric range. These deposits had formed in the period from the latest Kargin thermochron to the beginning of the Holocene (between 35 ka and 12-10 ka BP) under the overwhelming conditions of severe desiccation and desertification of the area. During the Boreal optimum of the Holocene, the soil-vegetation cover had largely provided for the stabilization of dune covers. The formation of the contemporary moving-dune massifs had taken place not more than one thousand years ago and had been directly linked with the climatic events of the Little Ice Age.

The study has been focused on the thermal regime of peat soils (fibrist histosols) of palsa bogs and peat plateaus in northern West Siberia. Autonomous loggers recorded temperature for 343 days every hour to a depth up to 60 cm in palsas and 120 cm in hollows (pools, lawns) in four mire ecosystems: the forest tundra hollow and palsa, and the northern taiga hollow and palsa. The data on the mean daily temperature, the mean annual temperature, the extremes, the annual amplitude, the active layer dynamics, the sums of positive and negative temperatures at different depths have been adduced. The established differences in the thermal regimes of soils were due to the differences in the ecosystems of mires, rather than in bioclimatic zones they belong to. The high-latitude mires have the largest impact on the annual amplitude and temperature parameters obtained for the cold period.

Long-term and seasonal variations in major- and trace-element compositions of groundwaters in anthropogenic cryopegs stripped by boreholes in unconsolidated alluvial sediments have been monitored for thirty years at a site within Yakutsk city. Suprapermafrost cryopegs became less saline for the past five to seven years as a result of climate change in many previous years. The obtained data on chemistry and flow dynamics of groundwaters indicate enhanced hydraulic connectivity of cryopegs in the active layer. The ongoing ground temperature warming will lead to general decrease in the contents of highly soluble salts in suprapermafrost cryopegs and to increase in trace element abundances in pore waters.

The paper presents the estimates of evident ground ice contained in the permafrost of the Tien Shan Mountains based on the available geocryological maps of various scales. The maps represent patterns of permafrost distribution reflected in the regional structures depending on geocryological zonality. Using the data on the areal extent, thickness and ice content of permafrost, the volumes of permafrost and ground ice have been determined. It has been revealed that the largest volumes of ground ice occur in active rock glaciers and recent moraines. The volume of glaciers relative to that of ground ice has been ascertained to decrease signifi cantly due to the glacial degradation.

The spatial distribution of soil СO2 efflux measured at Novyi Urengoy station in southern tundra (Taz Peninsula) is determined by the soil volumetric moisture content and water-extractable organic carbon and with elevations above sea level. The contents of soil water-extractable and microbial biomass carbon are highly variable over the territory. The spatial distribution of the soil microbial carbon content partly depends on organic layer thickness and soil moisture, which are responsible for 19 % and 8 % of its variance, respectively. The environmental factors of active layer thickness, soil volumetric moisture, and soil surface temperature are relatively stable as the soil and vegetation covers are homogeneous while the soil organic layer is thin.

Changes in the equilibrium line altitude (ELA) of glacier systems have been studied in the Suntar-Khayata, Chersky and Orulgan mountains, as well as over the whole territory of Northeastern Siberia, for three periods of time: 1930-1960, 1961-1990 and 1991-2012. Northeastern Siberia has undergone warming in the 21st century which became more rapid than in the previous fi fty years. Records at most weather stations show increasing trends in mean annual and summer air temperatures and in total atmospheric precipitation but a decreasing trend in solid precipitation. The climate change has led to a rise of glacier ELA almost all over the Northeastern Siberia and to an increase in ablation which is in balance with accumulation at this altitude. The ELA rise is from 100 to 450 mm, 200 ± 50 m on average, while the ablation (accumulation) increase is 50 to 250 mm in different periods. The glacier parameters inferred from climatic data are background values, which provide a general idea of current and potential changes in glacier systems in this poorly studied region.

The results of measurement of snow cover density for the period from 2005 to 2017. The data on snow density have been obtained during regular observations carried out on a stationary horizontal sites located in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and during field work. 227 snow pits have been sampled, and more than 2,000 values of snow density for different snow layers have been analyzed. Data on distribution of snow density in different landscapes have been compiled and structured. The maximum density of snow is typical for treeless regions with dominating strong winds. Typical densities for specific snow structure have been revealed. The density of snow layers have been found to vary depending on the type of snow in the range from 40 kg/m³ (newly fallen snow) up to 790 kg/m³ (ice crust).

An assessment is made of the hydrogeological situation on the industrial site of the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill (BPPM) in the mode of operation of the enterprise. A profound transformation of the natural hydrogeochemical and thermal fields has been ascertained, resulting in the formation of contrasting (in mineralization, composition (sulfate and carbonate) and alkali-acid state)) groundwater with a temperature of 20-50 °C. The structure of the hydrogeochemical anomaly has been analyzed. It is ascertained that it undergoes intra-annual changes in the magnitude of mineralization and, partly, in composition. A series of discrete hydrogeochemical logging surveys showed that at the period of infiltration recharge the mineralization decreases to 1 g/L, and the composition approaches a sulfate-hydrocarbonate composition. During production shutdown intervals there occurs a clearly pronounced effect of piston-like displacement of polluted waters by the transit runoff: the maximum of mineralization is shifted right up to the discharge boundary, Lake Baikal. It is found that the transport of pollutants with the groundwater flow to Lake Baikal occurs with an attenuation in depth. Zonal experimental-seepage investigations showed that the profile totaling 50 m in thickness exhibits four approximately equivalent intervals with the effective velocity (from top to bottom) of 1.9; 0.84; 0.30 and 0.15 m/day. Thus it has been determined that 63 % of the most polluted groundwater flow is discharged trough the upper interval, and a mere 10 % through the two lower (least polluted) intervals. It is concluded that the liquidation of the BPPM will lead to the disappearance of the anomalies. Observations at regular intervals and specialized investigations from 1992-2013 testify that in the event that the pollution source is liquidated, the groundwater flow will be cleared of the polluting components to a local background level within a year.

Presented are the results of investigations made in 2013-2014 with the purpose of developing the system of biodiversity monitoring on the specially protected natural territories within the Lake Baikal drainage basin. The investigations used model areas, i. e. specially protected natural territories (Baikalsk State Nature Biosphere Reserve (Zapovednik), Zabaikal’skii State National Park, and Kabansk State Nature Reserve (Zakaznik)). The existing methodological level of biodiversity monitoring is outlined, and an array of scientific and scientific-organizational problems in carrying out observations is revealed. The investigations resulted in the development of the Program of biodiversity monitoring in the state nature reserves and national parks of the Baikal natural territory as well as the methodological recommendations for its implementation. It is shown that the development of a unified program of long-term biodiversity monitoring must be based on the novel methodological approaches and techniques and that there is a need for an obligatory unification of all the main techniques used in collecting data within the «Nature Records» program.

A general characteristic is provided for the foreign and Russian ecological insurance market, and the institutional peculiarities of its formation are considered. Particular emphasis has been placed on a deficit of national normative legal acts serving as the «engine» of generation of off-budget funds by participating users of nature of the contemporary market economy. The Baikal region comprising three constituent entities of the Russian Federation (Irkutsk oblast, Republic of Buryatia, and Zabaikal’skii krai) is regarded as a model territory for analyzing a relatively recently emerging (for Russia) direction of the insurance market. The study revealed structural features (the relationship of the obligatory and voluntary sectors of ecological insurance), and the magnitude (the number of licensed insurance organizations, and the annual turnover) as well as the qualitative potential of the regional ecological insurance market. This market is represented by encompassing the main types of hazardous production facilities on the basis of the effective classification of ecological risks in the form of a table. We initiate the implementation of the regional law «On obligatory ecological insurance» (following the example of a number of other constituent entities), because the future prospects of development of the Baikal region are predetermined by the location of Lake Baikal on its territory, the drainage area of which has a special regime of nature management.