Vol 37, No 4 (2016)

A case study is made of the Mendeleev volcano (Kunashir Island, Southern Kuril Chain) to carry out a quantitative assessment of the influence of magmatic energy of an active volcano on the thermal regime of the soil and the ground-level air level as well as on the water balance and forest formation processes in the insular volcanic landscape. It is established that the influent channels of steam-hydrotherms cause an anomalous rise in soil temperature thereby having a substantial influence on the structure and functioning of forest ecosystems. Using a specially developed method, we calculated the geotherm-caused temperature anomalies in the soil. Calculations showed that the forest communities of the Mendeleev volcanic landscape evolved into existence and persist under the same heat and energy conditions as their zonal marginalmainland counterparts. The active volcano compensates for a deficiency in the climatic resource and ensures a stable functioning and a structural configuration of these “climatically unjustified” (extrazonal) island-arc ecosystems. We have empirically substantiated the proposition that geothermal energy of passive volcanoes serves as the factor for acceleration evolution of the insular phytobiota. This constitutes the phenomenon of biogeocenological organization of the volcanogenic landscape in the continent-to-ocean transition zone. It is shown that the magmatic geotherms of the Mendeleev volcano promoted the transgression of species and whole communities from southern areas to this boreal-forest region. We examine the rearrangement of the forest cover toward an increase in its floro- and phytocenotic diversity, the formation of relatively stable boreal-subboreal forest ecosystem with subtropical relicts as well as rudimentary buffer forest communities. It is demonstrated that a geothermal heating of the soil on the slopes and at the foot of the volcanoes of the Kuril Ridge is a large-scale (rather than an exceptional) phenomenon in the hydrothermal regime of forest ecosystems of island-arc ecoregions.

A rationale is provided for the need and current importance of establishing a cartographic-space monitoring of Siberia’s Arctic zone in conditions of an increased interest in the exploitation of the region’s natural resource wealth and an aggravation of the geopolitical situation. We examine the principles of cartographic-space monitoring as a system for real-time acquisition, processing, visual display and supply (to users) of geospace information on natural and anthropogenic processes and phenomena. The primary goal of monitoring is defined as well as its particular objectives, such as the promotion of geoinformation services, training and professional improvement of specialists in remotely sensed data processing, digital cartography and geoinformation technologies, etc. We developed a conceptual model for geoinformation support of cartographic-space monitoring, based on the methodology of system analysis. We determined the sources and the composition of geospace information as well as the main requirements on it. The composition, purpose, structure and characteristic features of the main monitoring units and subsystems are presented and discussed, on the basis of the geoinformation portal that provides the users with the systems of base servers intended for acquisition, generation, updating and visualization of geospace information and metadata as well as for data control: loading, search, interactive editing, and unloading. We singled out three units of the system for geoinformation support of cartographic-space monitoring: the information unit, the geospace data processing unit, and the unit of access to information resources.

An analysis of statistical data has shown that most Russia’s cities with unfavorable ecological conditions refer to the Siberian Federal District. This is due to considerable amounts of atmospheric emissions from large industrial enterprises with imperfect equipment and technologies as well as to the unfavorable conditions of diffusion of dust and gas emissions. Attention is given to the role of nonferrous metallurgy, including aluminum smelting, in environmental impairment. It is shown that the pollutant emissions not only pollute the atmosphere, but also when returning to land surface, they alter the soil-geochemical habitat conditions for vegetation and animals and lower the quality of human life. The shifting of aluminum smelters to Siberia and the construction of major plants pose a threat of impairment in the ecological situation over a significant part of the territory, which is illustrated with the impact of pollutants from several aluminum smelters. Thus, in spite of the fact that the aluminum smelters of Khakassia are provided with up-to-date equipment, their 30-year-long operation has led to formation of a technogenic geochemical anomaly with an area of about 80 km², containing 0.05 to 0.2% of the total amount of fluorine in the 0–15 cm topsoil, and water-soluble fluorine from 1 (10 mg/kg) to 3 MAC. The investigations show that the Soderberg method when used to obtain aluminum in large amounts (0.8–1 mln. t per year) is not as ecologically safe as advertised. It is therefore necessary to perfect the technologies used or to decrease the amount of aluminum produced.

We examine the data on the mean annual sea level dynamics for 1875–2005 along the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea (Baltiisk and Kronstadt) and along the northern coast of the Black Sea (Odessa, Sevastopol’ and Kerch) which have coastal lagoons. The study revealed a generally positive trend for the period (from 0.7 to 1.8 mm/year at different points), a similarity of changes in the level for separate 30-year-long intervals, and a significant increase in sea level growth rate at the turn of the 20^th century (up to 8.6–13.3 mm/year at different points). High values of the correlation coefficient (0.71–0.87) were recorded between the variations in the mean yearly level (with the temporal trend excluded) within the lagoon coasts of the Baltic and Black Seas as well as the absence of a correlation between data series for the two seas. Analysis (after excluding a linear trend from the variation of the values) showed an actual absence of a correlation between mean yearly level variations and North Atlantic atmospheric circulation indices, while the previously recorded correlation was due to a correlation between trend components. It is suggested that the sea level oscillations include only a small component which responds oppositely for the two seas to the resultant influence of the eastward and westward components of the atmospheric circulation. On the basis of the similar absolute values of the linear trend and of the range of long-term fluctuations in mean yearly sea level values in the area of the lagoon coasts of the Baltic and Black Seas, the conclusion is drawn about the similar conditions under which over the course of the last 100 years the coastal lagoons have been evolving in these two, relatively remote, zones of the drainage basin of the Atlantic Ocean.

We examine the intrasecular morphodynamics of the Irkut river within the Tunkinskaya depression and the associated partitions between depressions. An analysis is made of the changes in the channel pattern in plan, and a typization is provided for the channel processes for three time intervals: 1914, 1975 and 2015. We identified eleven morphodynamically uniform reaches of the channel: three, one and seven of them are of the adapted, incised and broad-floodplain types, respectively. The types of morphodynamical development of the river are systematized, and reaches with a different degree of deformation are identified within the most mobile broad-band segment of the river in conditions of free meandering. It is ascertained that the reaches of the braided type and the reach with sharp loop-like bends are the most stable, which is, in either case, due to the consolidation of vegetation by the high floodplain which made it possible to stabilize the movement of the channel in plan. The most strongly altered reaches are determined, where river channel displacements were accompanied by a complete change of the morphodynamical types of bends; the macrobends mainly experienced a regular breakthrough or were complicated by lower-order bends. We identified the reaches with lower-order (local) changes where the development of the bends (for the most part, of the loop-like type) changed into a new evolutionary cycle). We determined the role played by the influence of the territory’s geologo-geomorphological structure, hydrological conditions and natural processes of channel evolution on the dynamics of homogeneous reaches, and on morphological changes within them. The period of the most significant channel deformations, from 1914 to 1976, was determined, which is accounted for by an enhancement in anthropogenic pressure and by the associated increase in suspended load, and the period of decrease in the magnitude of manifestations of channel deformations from 1976 to 2015.

Presented are the results from testing the method of calculating the soil-ecological index for an agro-ecological assessment of land use in the steppe zone of Southern Ural. A description is given to the various approaches in using the index for dealing with agro-ecological problems. It is suggested that the soil-ecological index should be used as an integral indicator for the optimization of the land-use structure, assessments of the effectiveness of agricultural enterprises, and for the substantiation of landscape-adaptive approaches. Basically, the existing cadastre assessment of lands in the Russian Federation takes into consideration mostly the economic indicators, ignoring the quality of land resources and the ecological standardization of land use. The soil-ecological index, developed by researchers of the V.V. Dokuchaev Soil Science Institute RAS, is characterized by ease and integrity of calculation and has a considerable potential for improvement. By testing the soil-ecological index against agricultural model areas, it is possible to identify at the intraregion and intradistrict levels the resources of highly profitable (elite) lands, with a priority specialization of grain crop production, and the resources of arable land conservation. Conservation (removal of arable lands from turnover) will subsequently make it possible to develop clusters of beef animal husbandry. The soil-ecological index will provide a means of assessing the effectiveness of using land resources by agricultural enterprises and determining the directions of development of territorial agricultural clusters. It can be used in developing landscape-adaptive models of land use in the reorganization of the existing structure of agricultural lands by adapting it to the region’s landscape structure, and to natural boundaries and borders. On the whole, the soilecological index makes it possible, on the one hand, to identify highly profitable arable lands and, on the other, to scientifically substantiate the transfer of low-productivity lands to the category of pastures.

The principles and the algorithm of order classification of river watershed divides are outlined. It is shown that a formal application of any available order classification procedures for river watershed divides is not theoretically grounded as well as being impractical, because the physical mechanisms for formation of watershed divide network are different from those operating in the river network. We have formulated the basic principle of determining the watershed divides order on the basis of a serial sequence of sections constituting the travel path of an arbitrary water drop from the watershed divide to the outlet section of the basin. It is suggested that the order N should be assigned to the section of the watershed divide belonging to the full divide line of the N-order basin only if the travel path from it to the N-order stream is “full” in the topological sense, i.e. includes sections of all orders, from 1 to N. Also, we present a variant of determining the order on the basis of so-called higher-order triplets, incomplete sequences of sections of three neighboring orders along the travel path, with the higher of them determining the watershed divide order. The use of triplets is a subjective procedure of generalization that eliminates the influence of recent random erosional incisions on the forms of stable high-order watersheds. We outline the variants of the technique for identifying the network of watershed divides and calculating their orders, based on processing the digital elevation models (DEM) through the use of standard GIS ArcMap tools. Results are obtained in the form of a correlated classification of river and watershed networks which are rationally interpreted and hold promise for investigating the structure, functioning and evolution of river systems. The study revealed the existence of formation “cores” of river systems, i.e. regions within which the system reaches a higher stream order and which are bounded by watersheds of the same order.

We investigated the Ria Formosa Natural Park located in the lagoon of the same name; it is famous for a great diversity of bird species and offers outstanding possibilities for the development of a special type of ecological tourism, birdwatching, that attracts birdwatchers from across the globe. It is shown that the existing natural resources on this territory should be complemented by an appropriate infrastructure and the rules in order to ensure tourism sustainability and development in connection with a high ecological significance of the territory and a heavy demand from visitors. Using landscape approach and methods of geoinformationbased landscape-interpretation mapping, extrapolating the density of different bird species, calculating integral indicators for assessing ornithological resources as well as infrastructure development techniques, we undertook a planning procedure of the birdwatching tourism infrastructure, including trails and observation points. As initial data, we used vegetation and soil maps, topographic maps, space images, data on the density of bird species in different biotopes, and field investigations. We generated the population density maps for each bird species as well as the biotope assessment map for all bird species, based on calculating the sum of the products of densities of each species by the ecological value of the species. Also, the landscape map was used to develop the territorial zoning map, having regard to the possibilities and limitations of constructing trails of different classes. Using spatial cross-matching of the assessment maps for ornithological resources and the trail zoning map, we identified places holding promise for the construction of the birdwatching tourism infrastructure. It is shown that the suggested method provides a means of making a proximate assessment of the territory from different perspectives, based on knowledge of a territory’s landscape structure; it is a prompt and inexpensive technique as contrasted to field investigations of the entire territory; however, it calls for further detailed investigation into promising areas.