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This paper considers the problem of pollution of water bodies within the Tom’s river basin by waste waters from large industrial and municipal enterprises. An overview is provided for the methodological approaches to assessing the anthropogenic load, including direct impacts on the water body and indirect impacts its catchment area. An analysis is made of the amount and structure of wastewaters entering the Tom’ river and its tributaries from local pollution sources. The level of direct anthropogenic load on water bodies within the river basin was estimated using indicators, such as the waste water dilution ratio and the pollutant load based on its conditional mass (reduced to MPC). It is found that the highest level of anthropogenic load is characteristic for small and very small rivers in which waste waters are often discharged without any treatment whatsoever. It is shown the highest level of anthropogenic level occurs in water bodies on the territory of Kemerovo oblast. Within the Tom’ basin, the largest source of pollution of not only surface but also subsurface waters is located in the southern part of Kuzbass, in the vicinity of Novokuznetsk, in the most densely populated and industrially developed area disturbed by coal mining. The results obtained are confirmed by the fact that every year these rivers are assessed as the dirtiest in the river basin; the concentration of particular pollutants exceeds the MPC several times. The results reported here can be used in developing a special program of remediation of the anthropogenic load on the water bodies in Kemerovo oblast, including from local sources of pollution.

The spatiotemporal dynamics of land covers of representative catchments of the Altai region (Altai Krai and Republic of Altai) was analyzed using remote sensing data and GIS techniques. The following key areas were used: the adjacent basins of Lake Gor’koe and the Kasmala and Barnaulka rivers on the Ob Plateau (Altai Krai) were used for the inland drainage area of the Ob-Irtysh interfluve and the left bank of the Upper Ob; the Bol’shaya Rechka basin on the Biisk-Chumysh Upland and ancient Ob terraces (Altai Krai), for the right bank of the Upper Ob; the Belaya river basin (Altai Krai) for the low mountains and middle mountains of the Northwestern province of Russian Altai, and the Maima river basin (Republic of Altai) for the low mountains and middle mountains of the Northern and Northeastern Altai provinces. The algorithm for analyzing the actual state of land covers and identifying the main vectors of their transformation was adapted to the study area. A series of multi-temporal Landsat images for three time slices was used. It is found that the plain catchments of the steppe and forest-steppe zones are characterized by a smaller amplitude of land cover change as compared to the mountain zones. For the inland drainage area of the Ob-Irtysh interfluve and the left bank of the Upper Ob, a reduction of the arable land and a high natural dynamics of water bodies are most indicative. The right bank of the Ob is characterized by the lowest dynamics of all types of land cover and a significant dynamics of artificial water bodies. In the mountain basins, a noticeable decrease in the forest areas largely in favor of natural grass communities was caused by the economic activities. It is also shown that the directions of changes and transitions of different types of land covers can differ greatly for different groups of landscapes.

Bedrocks are subdivided into three types (blocky, rubbly and poorly lithified rocks) differing by interaction of fragments prevailing at the initial stages of weathering with streams. The expediency of this typification is substantiated along with the dif ferentiation of territories based on dominance of one of the three types. As an example, an overview is used of the results obtained in the course of the author’s research in Northeastern Russia. It is shown that the dominance of rocks of the rubbly type in this case determines the prevalence of braided rivers and their specific hydrological regime gives rise to alluvium of numerous pref erential flow pathways. Evidences is provided for the concentration of underground flows in these pathways which shows itself in a number of non-trivial features of groundwater regime (temperature and level variations) and ensures a very high effective permeability of alluvium. It is proved that these features lead to an intense water and heat exchange between rivers and their floodplains and to formation of extensive taliks on which the unique phytocenoses of long-boled mixed forests develop. It is demonstrated that an abundance of open taliks ensures a tight linkage of surface and subsurface waters and a large storage of them. One of the consequences is that in Northeastern Russia the seasonal glaciation (the proportion of meltwater from aufeis in the overall surface runoff) is much larger than in all the other territories. The approach considered here holds promise for a number of geographical disciplines enhancing objectivization of the regionalization of study territories.

The spatial and temporal dynamics of monsoon in the Holocene has been reconstructed for the Lower Amur area. Four stages of cooling are determined (10 300-10 800, 8000-8300, 4200-4600 and 2500 yrs. ago). During these periods the inten sity of the summer monsoon was weakest. The conventional northern boundary of monsoon influence moved from 54° N to 48° N. Two retrospective scenarios of the interaction versions of interaction of seasonal atmospheric centers are suggested, which had influence on the dynamics of the cyclone process over the southern part of the Far East in the Holocene. The cyclones attenu ated as a result of frequently recurring long-lasting periods of an increase in pressure in the region of the summer Far-Eastern and Asian depressions, and a decrease in pressure over the Sea of Okhotsk as well as the displacement of the center of the Okhotsk anticyclone toward southern latitudes, which was often in a quasi-stationary state blocking the passage of cyclones to the southern coast of the Sea of Okhotsk. In either case, the cyclones were forced away to lower latitudes and intensified over northern and eastern regions of China. The two scenarios could work both synchronously and metachronously.

An ecological-economic study was made within the framework of the overall assessment of the environment-forming services of geosystems in order to estimate the cost of the ecosystem service for carbon deposition by geosystems of one of the territories of traditional nature management in Nenets Autonomous Okrug situated in the coastal zone of the Arctic Ocean. Input data included published statistical and cartographic characteristics concerning the structure and areas of the study territory as well as observational data in scientific publications on carbon deposition in geosystems occurring in similar ecological-geographical conditions. As a result of assessment calculations, it was established that the cost of only one ecosystem service, namely, deposition turned out to be almost equal to the cost for the bio-production ecosystem which was analyzed earlier under the Global Ecological facility (GEF) project and is used for compensation of a loss of territories of traditional nature management of indigenous peoples living in the Arctic zone of Russia, as a result of the removal of lands for other types of nature management. Calculations served as the basis for compiling the map of the unit cost of the ecological service for carbon deposition based on the geobotanical map. It is determined that the preservation of pools of ecosystem services for territories of traditional nature management will permit them to perform important functions of mitigating unfavorable anthropogenic transformations of geosystems accompanying economic development of the Arctic zone of Russia.

The historical factors of the development of organic agriculture in the Baikal region are considered on the basis of ethno ecological experience of traditional agriculture management in the 18th-19 ^th centuries. It is pointed out that the historical method of developing the territory of Transbaikalia is based on nomadic ethnic culture, self-consciousness of the Buryat ethnos, and on the stereotype of behavior in the natural environment and constitutes a unique historical experience of adaptation of the Buryats in the steppe and forest-steppe landscapes of Transbaikalia. And the preservation of nomadic traditions and the Buryat culture of economic managing deserve the attention of researchers. The historical-geographical approach makes it possible to demonstrate the adaptive character of nomad livestock breeding and the use of the territory of Transbaikalia region by the Buryat ethnos in the past, using a conditionally allocated cattle-breeding model as an example. It is shown that the livestock breeding (nomadic) model of agrarian nature management under consideration reflected a specific «strategy of adaptation» of traditional (nomadic) nature management to the natural environment of the region, which was at a certain socio-economic level of development and represented a natural model for the existence of the Buryat ethnos formed under the influence of the unique landscapes of Transbaikalia and historical traditions. The livestock breeding model of the economy in the past was the main system of using the territory of Transbaikalia by the Buryat population and reflected the dynamic stereotype of behavior in a given natural environment. The main features of nomadic livestock breeding are identified, which confirm that the livestock breeding model was an ecologically correct form of farming, and traditional agriculture is an alternative to intensive forms of agriculture, a kind of management with a focus on the manufacture of ecologically clean products of livestock breeding as well as being the prototype of organic agriculture in the Baikal region.

The process of laboratory compilation of the natural landscape chorological map of one of the uluses (administrative districts) of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic is presented at a scale of 1:2 500 000. The GIS tools were used to reference thematic carto graphic documents to the topographic base of the ulus containing contour lines, elevations and the main river network. The final river network is drawn on the basis of other data sources. A significant role in the subsequent map compilation stages was played by data from the Google Earth website: 2D and 3D images were used to identify floodplains. Units of glacial landforms of foot hill areas and the main types of geological and geomorphological units of the ulus were determined using both published data sources and the Google Earth imagery. The map of natural vegetation has been compiled having regard to the humidity conditions and the vertical zonation of the climate and soils. The digital map layers in GIS were gradually combined into the synthetic natural landscape map of the ulus, and the identified natural landscape units were also incorporated into the regional classifica tion of the landscapes of Siberia. It is established that the hierarchical system of natural landscapes of the ulus differentiates three levels of classification: high (the landscapes are differentiated with respect to their geographical location into the landscapes of lowlands and high mountains), intermediate (the differentiation of the landscapes with respect to the genesis and topography dissection in a relevant climatic zone) and low (the natural landscapes are determined by a combination of vegetation covering the type of soil that developed on a given geological substrate).

Presented are the first data of a structural analysis of the river basins in the Upper Angara region, and the spatial features of the distribution of the values of the structural indices for the third-order basins are determined. As a representative area for identifying the structural features of the river basins in the low-water karst region, we used the basin of the Oek river (the right tributary of the Kuda river). Using the methodological approach based on the Horton analysis, we determined the main struc tural indices of the basin, namely, bifurcation indices, lengths, areas, slopes and geomorphic work, for third-order basins. Map ping of the territory used the technique of automated identification of catchment basins in terms of SRTM v.4 DEM, followed by data processing in the SAGA GIS. An analysis of the distribution of the indices showed the largest dissection of the western part of the basin in the upper components of the erosion network. It is determined that the highest homogeneity of the structural in dices is characteristic for the third-order sub-basins located in the western part of the Oek basin within the Irkutsk-Cheremk hovo plain, while the largest diversity in the diversity of the structural indices corresponds to the basins of the Kuda depression. An analysis of the distribution of the indicators of geomorphologic work showed that a significant part of the matter transport is done by the first-order channels in the western part of the basin. An analysis was made of the territory for the distribution of the basins with a different potential to accumulate/remove matter. According to this indicator, most of the basins are defined as transit basins, and the accumulation basins occupy one-third of the territory and are concentrated within the Irkutsk-Cherem khovo plain in the lower part of the basin. Two releasing basins, small in area, are located in the northern part of the basin.

To study the structure of geosystems within the key area (125.3 km ² ) on the northern slope of Khamar-Daban Range, we used method of factorial-dynamical series of facies as developed by A. A. Krauklis. Because of the composite and mosaic pattern of the study area, the typization was carried out according to the commonalty of the functional attributes. Comprehensive physical-geographical descriptions of 83 sample plots were used in compiling the hierarchical classification of geosystems and mapping of geosystems at level of groups of facies at scale of 1:50 000. Results of an automatic pixel-based classification of Landsat-8 and Aster images and a processing of the SRTM digital elevation model were used in delineating boundaries of the landscape units. On the key area we identified 46 types of facies which were grouped into the following hierarchical levels: groups of facies - classes of facies - geoms. The types of facies are represented on the territory by climax states as well as by succession stages. The entire diversity of the geosystems is presented by five geoms: the subgoltzy shrub geom on rocky ground and corroms which includes one class of facies with one group of facies; the sub-alpinotype high-mountain-meadow geom (one class and three groups); the mountain-taiga dark-coniferous/open woodland geom (two classes and two groups); the mountain-taiga dark-co niferous geom (two classes and four groups), and the piedmont plain dark-coniferous geom (two classes and four groups). The territory is dominated by the following groups of facies: spruce-fir and fir-spruce forb and forb-fern forests with bilberries on steep slopes on combinations of Entic Podzols and Regosols; Siberian stone pine-spruce (with fir krummholz) subshrub small grass-sedge sphagnum forests on combinations of Folic Entic Podzols, Histic Cryosols and Fibric Histisols, and fir (with spruce and Siberian stone pine) forests with forbs and elephant’s-ears saxifrage in herbaceous layer on combinations of Humic Leptosols and Dystric Cambisols with rock outcrops on steep slopes. The created map of geosystems allows to take into account the char acteristic properties of the mountainous territory in the process of planning and projecting of recreational activity on the studied area.

Results from investigating atmospheric aerosols in Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) 2005-2014 are presented. It is found that the largest sources of suspended particles are represented by fuel combustion and the concomitant exhaust gases, thermal power 2 generation, industrial facilities and mineral dust transport; the main components of aerosol particles are SO4 ^- , NO3 ^- , Cl^-, NH4 ⁺ , Ca²⁺, and Na⁺ . It is determined that in the wintertime, as a result of an increase in fuel consumption, calm weather and orographic characteristics of topography which contribute to accumulation of contaminants in the urban atmosphere, the average sum of ions increases to 43.9-114.6 μ g/m ³ against 7.44-18.48 μ g/m ³ during a warm season. Interannual differences in aerosol composition were noted; the total ion content averaged 43.9 μ g/m ³ during December 2011, 114.6 μ g/m ³ during De cember 2012, 68.7 μ g/m ³ during December 2013, and 64.7 μ g/m ³ during December 2014. It was found that the concentration of the sum of ions in the aerosol during the winter period is by a factor of 6 higher than during the summer. The highest exceed ance of the concentrations was observed for the alkaline earth ions Na⁺, K⁺, Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ (by a factor of more than 20) forming part of the ash components. There is a difference in the chemical composition of the aerosol sampled in the center of the city and on its outskirts. It is established that the aerosol composition and concentration in Ulaanbaatar during the winter pe riod are comparable the aerosol composition in the industrial cities of China.