REGIONAL PROBLEM

The article presents the teamwork results of scientists from the Amur region specialized research institutes, universities, and nature reserves within the Federal State Budgetary Institution of «Zeisky State Nature Reserve» structure. The authors provide a brief description of the Zeysky Nature Reserve and the Tokinsky-Stanovoy National Park, considering the features of climate, soil characteristics, the altitude zone for each protected area, vegetation and landscape. They also give information on the animals, plants, mosses, fungi and lichens species number. It is indicated the number of species listed in the Red Books of the Russian Federation and the Amur Region. The two protected areas research includes monitoring in the reserve (collection of meteorological data, phenological observations, records of invertebrates and vertebrates), as well as inventory and monitoring work in the national park.  Observations in the areas are carried out by researchers and inspectors, and also by reindeer herders-observers in the park. Besides, it is underway the research of abiotic factors affecting the reserve and the national park biomes, such as the scree formation on the ridges’ slopes, steam in the ice of the Zeya reservoir, the watercourses chemical composition, and saline soils.

Thermal mineral waters contain various inorganic and organic components and gases and are widely used in resorts to improve human health, as thermal waters contain high concentrations of substances beneficial to the human body – primarily inorganic components and gases. Organic compounds, though also having a considerable balneological value, are rarely treated as therapeutically significant. However, investigation of organic matter, as an integral component of natural waters, and defining its composition and variability over time is also a very important and pressing task. The aim of this study is to determine the organic matter in the Tumnin geothermal field (Far East) thermal waters and evaluate short-period variations in its composition. Using solid-phase extraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, it is identified 73 organic components belonging to 13 homologous series. In the hot waters aliphatic hydrocarbons (including terpenes) and oxygenated compounds dominate. The aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons origin is associated with simultaneous biogenic and thermogenic processes, resulted in significant variations in their composition over time. These processes in hot waters occur under the influence of high temperatures. Concentrations of oxygenated and nitrogenated compounds change little over time, which is likely due to their biogenic origin. Among the identified organic components, phthalate esters were detected in all chromatograms. These compounds are typical pollutants in natural environments. However, being not anthropogenic, but instrumental pollution, they cause the appearance of substances in the chromatogram’ peaks which are not the real components of the studied waters.

In the article, the authors consider iron content and migration patterns in the Middle Amur basin waters of the Zeya, Selemdzha, and Bureya rivers, which drain the mountain-taiga zone. It has been identified a number of patterns reflecting the specific influence of these river basins topography and soils on the formation and migration of dissolved iron compounds – divalent and trivalent iron (Fe²⁺ and Fe³⁺, respectively) and its complexes with humic acids (humic and fulvic acids, HFA). It has been shown that the Fe²⁺ content in taiga brown soils is 2–10 times higher than that of Fe³⁺. In soils of the mountain-taiga zone, iron content increases from eluvial to subjacent landscapes. The organic carbon content distribution also correlates with this: from the lowest amounts (1.3–1.9%) in the humus-accumulative horizons of burozems in eluvial landscapes to the highest (10.1–17.5%) in trans-super aqueous ones. The illuviation of iron oxides into the middle part of the profile (up to 23 mg/100 g of soil) and their removal beyond it is a characteristic process in brown taiga soils (illuvial-humus burozems). It has been established that river waters contain dissolved forms of iron and its Fe–HFA complexes, predominantly in elevated concentrations. Overall, the Fe–HFA complexes proportion varies from 44 to 79% (of the total dissolved forms of the element), providing in water detoxification. It has been statistically proved that the color of river waters in the taiga catchments of the Amur region is determined by a high content of iron in the Fe–HFA complexes composition.

The paper considers the problem of soil compaction caused by recreational activities and provides a brief overview of the previously obtained field research results and applied techniques in the Bastak Nature Reserve.

The growing number and popularity of the Bastak Reserve ecological trails among residents of the Jewish Autonomous region and visitors, make it necessary to deeply study the aggregate composition and density of soils as their key morphological and diagnostic features.

To study the aggregate composition of soils, it was analyzed 12 soil samples from the most visited ecological trails of «Uchebnaya» and «In the world of bees», located close to each other. As a result, it has been obtained the comparable data on soil density and redistributed the route recreational load. 

The analysis was carried out by the N.I. Savinov method of dry sieving with a set of definite cell size sieves. The study results interpretation and structure coefficient calculation were obtained according to the P.U. Bakhtin classification.

The study shows that in the areas with a minimal recreational exposure, the content of the most valuable aggregates 0.25-10 mm is 75% of the total sample volume, and this showing corresponds to the soils good structural condition, while in the tourist high activity places, this indicator is low: 26.4–35.2%.

In order to protect the ecological trails recreational impact zones, it is recommended to equip the routes with decking along their entire length.

V.M. Savich, a biologist and forester, was a prominent organizer of science in the Far Eastern region in the early 20th century. His scientific works employ a landscape concept to develop strategies for agriculture and forestry in a sparsely developed region. The analysis of works by V.M. Savich’s is crucial for understanding the regional landscape science history. The aim of this study is to consider directions of the landscape method use. In the works by V.M. Savich, they served the Far Eastern economic development in 1920s–1930s, on the base of its biological and resource potential.

He gives three classifications of the Far Eastern landscapes: individual (natural zones and regions), typological (corresponding to modern classes and subclasses), and cultural landscapes, according to the degree of their anthropogenic transformation. The criteria for delineating classification units were not strictly separated, reflecting the level of landscape methodology development in 1920s–1930s. Dependent on the types of regional natural complexes, it was proposed specific ways for agriculture and forestry development in them. V.M. Savich used the landscape method to consider interrelation of different factors, including the geosystem components states and their interdependence. In his research works, he substantiated several major projects for cultural landscapes formation in the region: comprehensive transformation and development of the Middle Amur Lowland, the principle of semi-natural forest-garden economies introduction into the coniferous-broadleaf forest zone, and integrated development of mountain valleys The cultural landscape concept by V.M. Savich is consistent with modern cultural landscape concepts formulated by A.G. Isachenko.

This article examines the effects of carbonaceous and soot particles on the human respiratory system during active forest fires. The development of mathematical models of forest fire effects on human tissue is proposed. Subjects of study include the skin, nasopharynx, and upper respiratory tract tissues, which may be exposed to elevated temperatures and carbonaceous and soot particles. Heat and mass transfer processes in human tissue mathematically is described by parabolic partial differential equations with appropriate initial and boundary conditions. Key requirements for the development of next-generation information-computational and medical information systems are formulated. The corresponding software will be integrated with medical information systems for monitoring public health in areas with active forest fires. The results of scenario calculations of parameters for assessing public health during active forest fires are presented. A relay-race deterministic-probabilistic algorithm for assessing social damage from forest fires is proposed. For software implementation, it is proposed to use the high-level programming language Object Pascal in the RAD Studio or Lazarus development environments. Visualization of the numerical modeling results is performed using the Origin Pro software package. At the next stage, social risk mapping technology using geographic information systems will be applied.

Food security plays a key role in ensuring a sustainable economic development and improving the population quality of life in the Russian Far East. This is a strategic imperative, which requires careful research. In the article, the authors examine the interrelation between the food independence level, regional population, and showings of imported food supplies necessary for the food consumption by the population. The data analysis of the regional domestic agricultural production has revealed a general declining trend and a decrease in the cultivated area. From 2018 to 2024, the share of food products in the region’s total imports increased from 17% to 18.85%. Particular attention is paid to the role of government regulation and international initiatives in maintaining a stable level of food security. Based on the analysis, it is concluded that consistent and systematic production and processing of agricultural products, combined with import substitution, will improve the level of food security in the region and contribute to the population higher quality of life.

The article reveals the reasons that prompted the Soviet leadership to create their own national autonomy for Jews, who received equal political and civil rights with other peoples during the revolution, far from their places of compact residence. The solution of the Jewish question in the Far Eastern Birsky-Bidzhansky district allowed Jews to engage in national and state development on the undeveloped, but their own land. And, most importantly, to increase the population number in this sparsely populated area located next to China, occupied by militaristic Japan, at the expense of arriving Jews, residents of the country western regions and demobilized soldiers. Thus, the reliability of the state border protection was increased and the possibility of this territory settlement by Chinese was prevented. At the same time, the problem of employing tens of thousands of bankrupt and unemployed Jewish merchants, artisans and craftsmen after the NEP fall was radically solved. These people could now be involved in solving the most important economic and military-strategic tasks in a remote and still undeveloped territory rich in deposits of graphite, gold, manganese and iron ores. The Jewish colonization of the Amur region gave rise to its development. It led to the formation of the Jewish Autonomous Region as part of the Far Eastern Territory, new settlements, industrial and agricultural enterprises, and the rise and flourishing of Jewish culture and education. But the Jewish colonization also had to survive the Stalinist repressions, in which many regional leaders, workers and employees – specialists, ideologists and enthusiasts for the construction of the «national house of Jews»- suffered. The Soviet authorities’ special attention was focused on this region in connection with the international situation in the 1930s, with the invasion of Manchuria by the Japanese Kwantung army. During the Second World War, residents of the Jewish Autonomous Region in the rear and at the front contributed to the victory over fascism.