Vol 38, No 3 (2017)

The evolution characteristics of the zapovednik system in Russia are considered. The national zapovednik management activities emerged well before 1917. Its further strengthening was influenced by the Western European ideas of nature conservation, and by experience of the establishment of North American national nature marks accumulated since the last quarter of the 19^th century. In spite of this influence, the network of zapovedniks of the USSR acquired its uniqueness and became one of the country’s most important achievements in the 20^th century. The idea of conserving nature is deeply rooted in the history of Russia and was raised in the national literature long before its practical implementation. Three main interpretations in the theory and practice of zapovednik management of Russia have hitherto been used: utilitarian-pragmatic, ecocentric, and scientific-ecological. The idea of classical zapovedniks is based on the scientific-ecological approach substantiated in publications of V.V. Dokuchaev, G.A. Kozhevnikov, F.R. Shtil’mark, and others. It is suggested that a specialized state body be re-established to ensure absolute conservation of preservation territories. The existing geographical network of zapovedniks of Russia needs further development in order to achieve optimal representativeness. An important benchmark in its optimization is provided by the project prepared in 1917 by V.P. Semenov-Tyan-Shanskii.

This paper outlines the existing system of the system of territorial nature conservation in the Far Eastern Federal District as of 2017, the 100^th anniversary of zapovednik management in Russia. Emphasis is placed on the importance of the primacy of the landscape approach in a further formation of this system as opposed to the currently dominant biological principle that declares conservation of rare and endangered species only. This is associated with the environment-forming function of landscapes, and with the need for the preservation of significant spaces typical for the Siberian and Far Eastern Federal Districts, each of which accounts for one-third of the area of Russia. The analysis of the system of specially protected natural areas demonstrated that in the Far East it includes a smaller number of protected areas; on the other hand, it is substantially more significant in diversity of categories and in the area than in Siberia. It is emphasized that among the nine regions of Siberian District, a special situation is emerging in Yakutia, because it has the largest number of protected areas, their proportion with respect to the area of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation is highest, and their diversity in categories is considerable. Also, it is the only region in all Asian Russia where the governance practices have retained the principle of division of the nature conservation and resource-use lines of activity. It is shown that the single-dimension (landscape) approach can be used in thematic atlas mapping to assess representativeness of the system of territorial nature conservation in the Far East at a large and medium scale, identify the distribution patterns of specially protected natural areas and determine their spatial overlaps. Illustrative examples are provided for the landscape structure and territorial overlaps in the case of Khoso National Park (Khabarovsk krai) and the South Kamchatka cluster of the Kamchatka Volcanoes Nature Park from the forthcoming Atlas entitled “Specially Protected Natural Areas of the Far Eastern Federal District.

An analysis is made of the oil pollution of the Ob river waters using a long-term (1993–2013) hydrochemical monitoring of oil fields in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. Contents of oil hydrocarbons (OHC) were determined in 4277 samples from the main Ob channel, and in 7076 samples from its anabranches by using infrared spectrometry. An increase in MAC (0.05 mg/dm³) was observed in 28% of the samples from the main channel, and in 32% from the anabranches. The total percentage of samples with an extremely high (> 50 MAC) and high (30–50 MAC) pollution level made up 0.3% of the samples for the anabranches, and 0.1% for the main channel. Maximum pollution was revealed in the eastern part of Okrug, from its eastern boundary to the mouth of the Trom’egan river which is associated with a considerable number of accidents on the pipelines within the Nizhnevartovskii district. The upper and lower quantiles in the most polluted anabranches, Pasl and Bagras, are 0.03–01.7 and 0.032–0.16 mg/dm³, respectively, whereas in the main Ob channel they vary from 0.022 to 0.065 mg/dm³ (0.4–1.2 MAC). The methods of geoinformatics and mathematical statistics were used to assess a dependence of OHC on the number of pollution sources (well clusters, and the area of oil spills) in zones at different distances from the river channels. By calculating the Spearman correlation coefficients, it was shown that OHC contents are dependent mainly on the number of wells, and on the area of oil spills located at less than 2 km from the channels.

We determined the sequence of formation of deposits on the first terrace above the Tarbagataika river floodplain, and a change of the sedimentation and soil-formation stages for the last 7 kyr. We reconstructed the accumulation dynamics of the sediment layer and calculated the mean sediment accumulation rates for different time intervals. The phases of intensification of erosion-accumulation and aeolian processes were recorded. The study revealed the main stratigraphic boundaries reflecting the fundamental changes of the settings of sedimentation: 7 cal. kyr BP, a change of riverbed sedimentation for floodplain sedimentation; 5.4 cal. kyr BP, intensification of erosion-accumulation processes due to climate aridization on the Atlantic-Subboreal boundary, and active input of erosion products to the floodplain; 4 cal. kyr BP, active filling of the river valley with horizontally layered polygenetic fine-grained sands and sandy loams containing intercalations of humic warps in conditions of the overlapped (built-up) floodplain with an increase in humidification in the middle of the Subboreal period and, as a consequence, an increase in the height of floods; 3.4 cal. kyr, the layer under investigation leaves the floodplain regime of sedimentation and accumulation of aeolian-deluvial deposits, and 1 cal. kyr, intensification of erosion-accumulation processes due to climatic and anthropogenic changes. We reconstructed the chronology and specific features of the pedogenesis stages which record the phases of temporal cessation of floodplain and slope sedimentation on the study territory. The results obtained are in good agreement with data on the hydraulicity of rivers, the stages of soil formation and on the manifestation of exogenous processes on the territories of Russia and Mongolia.

A study is made of the role of bogs in the formation of the annual runoff within the Middle Ob basin and its intra-annual distribution as well as making an assessment of the swampiness of the river catchments by using Landsat space images. It is shown that the overall swampiness of the catchments of almost all rivers under investigation(except for the Shegarka, Kargat, Chichka-Yul and Bol’shaya Yuksa rivers) as determined by analyzing the space images of the study territory exceeds, on the average, he previously obtained data by a factor of 1.5–2, while the influence of the bogs on the streamflow is different and depends on the occurrence of separate groups of bog microlandscapes, the structure of bog massifs, the character of location of the bogs on the catchment, and on the course and stage of their development. The area along the left bank of the Ob is dominated by raised bogs (49%) of the central-oligotrophic course of development and shows a regular alternation of definite groups of bog microlandscapes from the middle part to the margins of the bogs, and an almost total merging of elementary bog massifs to form major bog systems, such as the Vasyugan Swamp. As a result, the influence of the bogs on the streamflow is more clearly pronounced there. Along the right bank of the Ob, in conditions of the larger dissection of the terrain, the peripheral-oligotrophic course of development of the bog massifs is dominant, almost all bogs are in early stages of their development, with transition bogs predominating (49%) so that the bogs have a smaller influence on the streamflow. In conditions of an increase in swampiness of the catchments along the right bank of the Ob, it is found that the mean long-term layers of flow increase, whereas along the left bank the inverse situation is observed. The area along the right bank of the Ob shows an increase in evenness of the discharge within a year is observed with an increase in swampiness of the river catchments. The intra-annual runoff distribution of the rivers in the area along the left bank of the Ob is characterized by a larger irregularity, and by a decrease in the runoff at the low-water period with an increase in the area of the bogs.

An attempt is made to find the answer to the question as to why the measures of the environmental institutions of Russia are ineffective for the avoidance and prevention of the degradation of aquatic ecosystems in placer gold mining. It is established that the size of payments to be made by companies engaged in placer gold mining are such that they almost cannot stimulate any nature conservation initiatives. Moreover, they even cannot be the argument for observance of environmental legislation. It is shown that the high transaction costs borne by the State, with minor expenditures of nature resource users connected with the protection of environmental natural systems fail to achieve the objectives imposed upon the supervising institutions. It is established that local authorities are directly interested in increasing placer gold mining as well as in gaining the loyalty of artels implying registration of the enterprise in this region, because these tax proceeds are exceptionally important for municipal formations facing a chronic financial deficit, a budgetary uncertainty and a dependence on regional and federal subsidies and transfers. Finance flows were calculated and analyzed to show that a very important problem for Russia’s eastern regions that involves reconciling the economic and ecological interests in placer gold mining is not resolved through “cosmetic changes” in organs of state supervision. It is concluded that there is a need for new institutional solutions in order to create and increase incentives for users of mineral resources and local authorities for observance of environmental regulations, the preservation and restoration of disturbed ecosystems, and for the ecologization of production processes.

We examine the use of geoinformation systems and relevant software applications in marine geomorphology in terms of the digital elevation model of the White Sea region. The geomorphological development of the contemporary shoreline is shown on the basis of comparing the parameters of adjacent surfaces. The technique is suggested for identifying relative tectonic deformations by determining the morphoblock division of the seabed surface. In this case, the boundaries of the time interval used in investigating the tectonic dislocations are specified indirectly by the scale coefficient of the initial digital model. This indirect relationship is determined on the basis of the well-known expression of a dependence of oscillations of a massive object in an elastic medium. By analyzing the structure of seabed relief, we determined areas with a high value of tectonic deformations for the period involved (Holocene) relative to the level of marine sedimentation. A neotectonic regionalization of the surface of the White Sea bed allowed us to identify, on the basis of statistical dependencies, large planate subhorizontal surfaces of the seabed. Upon comparing the graphical analytical information obtained with geomorphological characteristics of these surfaces, we determined four submarine terraces of an abrasion-accumulative origin and drew the corresponding boundaries within which the ancient White Sea existed over the course of the Holocene. By analyzing the position of the marine terraces, we identified a relative intensification of marine abrasion processes at a particular evolutionary stage of the water area. This is associated with a crucial marker event in the development of the White Sea water area, namely its connection with the Word Ocean in the early Holocene.

We tested the dynamical model of migration based on balance equations, for a predictive assessment of soil pollution by heavy metals: lead, cadmium, zinc and copper, at the level of an administrative district. As the main input components of the balance, we took into account the flows of metals caused by atmospheric depositions, weathering of parent materials and input with fertilizers (on agricultural lands); the expenditure part of the balance is described by flows of metals with the infiltration subsurface flow and consumption for buildup of the vegetation biomass or the removal with the harvest. It is found that given the continuation of the existing level of loads (scenario 1), for the calculated period (40 years) in the soils of natural ecosystems the concentrations of the four elements can decrease substantially or remain at the previous level. Changes will make up 0.2–0.8% for lead, 0.5–5 for cadmium, 0.8–4 for copper, and 0.3–1.5% for zinc of their total content levels in the soil. In the soils of agricultural lands, provided that the aforementioned conditions are observed, the total content of lead will increase by 5–6.5%, cadmium by 1–1.2%, copper by 2.1–3, and zinc by 12.5–16.5%. It is determined that with an increase in the flow of atmospheric deposition (scenario 2), for 40 years the soils of natural ecosystems will retain a minor negative balance of cadmium (0.001–0.004 mg/kg of the soil); for lead the negative balance in forest ecosystems will change to a minor positive balance (0.09–0.18 mg/kg of the soil), and the removal of zinc and copper will retain its previous level. In the soils of agricultural lands, with a simultaneous increase of the rates of application of organic fertilizers by 20%, the total concentrations of lead for the calculated period can increase by 7.1–9.6%, cadmium by 7–8.5, copper by 5.2–7.8, and zinc by 18.2–24.2%.