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A comprehensive study of fens was carried out in the zone of weak influence of the enterprises in the Norilsk industrial region. Evidence for the present state of these fens was obtained for the first time as well as on their typization, the pollution level of vegetation and peat deposits by aerotechnogenic pollutants, namely, copper, nickel, cobalt, lead and sulfur for the lower reaches of the Keta-Irbo river (western macroslope of the Putorana plateau). It was established that the proportion of fens in the study region is not high. They are located along the river valley on poorly drained piedmont plains and also occur in the lower part of the mountain-tundra belt. The fens are of forest-marshy or marshy subtype. Sedge, horsetail and Hypnum mosses are the main peat-forming plants in this area. The thickness of the peat deposit of the valley and mountain-tundra bogs varies from 2 to 3 and from 0 to 1 m, respectively. It is composed of sedge, Hypnum, grass-Hypnum peats. The peat deposits are characterized by an acid pH throughout the profile and by a low degree of peat decomposition. Diagnostics of the degree of pollution of plants-indicators for fens in the key area showed an exceedance of concentrations in all elements with the exception of lead when compared to the background. The highest copper and nickel concentration was observed in true mosses of pools filled with abundant water. The highest cobalt concentration was observed in sphagnum mosses of dry ridges. An ecological-geochemical assessment was made of the peat pollution level in the fens (the upper 0.5 m layer of the deposit). It was found that its pollution level depends on the geomorphological position, hydrothermal regime, and on the phytocenosis type of fens. The study revealed that the concentration of copper, nickel, cobalt and sulfur in peats of the valley fens is much lower than in peats of fens of in termontane depressions and in peats of the swamped birch forest. It is shown that generally the concentration of pollutants in peats of the fens in the study area significantly exceeds the background, especially for copper and nickel.

This paper considers the theoretical and methodological aspects of landscape-hydrological analysis in substantiating the possible development of recreational activities within the boundaries of the central ecological zone of the Baikal natural territory (BNT CEZ) in Irkutsk oblast. The hydrological characteristics of the landscapes in terms of their sensitivity and resistance to natural changes and external influences are given. We carried out a landscape-hydrological zoning for the BNT CEZ territory within the boundaries of Irkutsk oblast having regard to the conditions of runoff formation, the characteristic features of its regulation in various landscapes, and to the possibility of preserving the natural water regime and the water-ecological state in utilizing the territory. It is determined that the main factors for the landscape differentiation in assessing the advisability of recreational development without damage to the Lake Baikal ecosystem and to the natural waters of BNT CEZ as a whole are the hydrological properties of landscapes and resistance of natural complexes to impacts. It is found that the level of realization of the main hydrological functions of landscapes, i. e. the runoff formation, runoff regulation and water protection functions, characterizes the involvement of the natural complex in the formation of quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the local runoff, in the replenishment processes of dynamical reserves of subsurface waters, the regulation of natural floods and freshets, the preservation of the water-ecological potential of the territory. As a result a landscape-hydrological framework zoning of the territory using the landscape planning tools, three zones have been identified: the zone of the preservation of the existing state, the zone of regulated use, and the zone of territorial development. The proposed zones have general recommendations for the preservation of the hydrological and water-ecological indicators of the natural complexes which imply abandoning any activity in areas of particularly high value and highly sensitive to impacts, and the possibility of developing recreational activities in sustainable areas, subject to environmental protection measures.

The distribution of major and trace chemical elements in the snow water of the cover has been studied in the near-shore zone of the settlement of Listvyanka (South Baikal) along Baikal high road. It is established that the elemental composition of snow is governed by local natural and anthropogenic pollution sources influencing, to a different extent, the sites of the study area. The study did not reveal any influence of the pollutants air transport from the Irkutsk-Cheremkhovo industrial hub ac cording to indicative elements is not detected. The main pollution factors are the roadbed, exhaust gases, smoke emissions from boilers and ovens in private houses. The markers of pollution sources can be arbitrarily divided into eight groups. According to the degree of mineralization and elemental composition, the samples used in the study are divided onto three types: clean snow (on the Lake Baikal shore at the beginning and at the end of the settlement more than 10 m from the roadbed), moderately polluted snow (along the entire length of the settlement 10-40 m from the roadbed) and dirty snow in the immediate vicinity of the roadbed (less than 10 m) and/or of the roadside cafe. The maximum contribution from chemical elements in the polluted melt waters to the mean annual balance of the surface subsurface flow is calculated. It is shown that the input of toxic elements and of elements favoring eutrophication with polluted melt waters is present in insignificant amounts when compared with the surface and subsurface flow; hence, it cannot serve as the determining factor for the emergence of the ecological crisis at Baikal in this area.

On the basis of comparing old maps, satellite imagery and archival material, interviewing local residents and doing fieldwork, we reconstructed the history of agricultural development of the small river Kud’ma basin on the Volga Upland over the last 150-200 years and assessed its influence on the transformation and modern dynamics of small river channels. We developed the zoning scheme for the basin according to three types of anthropogenic impact on the channels, the directedness of vertical deformations and to corresponding channel transformations. It is shown that the character of channel transformation depends on the natural differences of the rivers within the basin as well as on the specific practices of using the different-order rivers and on the character of development of different parts of the basin as a whole. It is found that the largest impacts on the channels that led to a change of the morphodynamic type of channel and to the transformation of the floodplain to the terrace occurred in the middle reaches of the main rivers, Kud’ma and Ozerka: a large-scale channel rectification was organized on the Kud’ma river, whereas the channel incision on the Ozerka river was caused by draining the ponds in the 1930s. Changes in the channel mor phodynamics was also manifest in the character of straightening of meanders and the formation of specific lake-like expansions at their heads. A serious transformation occurred in the channels of the smallest rivers in the developed part of the basin which were affected by siltation. Feedbacks occurring in the case of impacts on the river are demonstrated: channel rectification with the purpose of draining swampy floodplains for agriculture leads, because of the channel incision, to a shortage of water re sources and dictates a need for land irrigation.

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.