Changes in rivers ice regime features and the climatic resources of the winter period were examined for the territory of Russia northward from 60° N. Datasets from 220 gauging stations for the period from 1960 to 2014 have been used in the study both with the results of numerical experiments carried out using climate models in the framework of the international project CMIP5. A change in the duration of the ice phenomena period, the ice cover period and the maximum thickness of ice on the rivers for the scenario RCP 8.5 by the end of the 21st century for a spatial grid with a distance between the nodes of 1.75x1.75 degrees in latitude and longitude has been estimated. We elaborated series of the maps. Main features of the ice regime changes are consistent with the expected changes in the duration of the cold season and the accumulated negative air temperatures. The significant changes are expected for the rivers of the Kola Peninsula and the lower reaches of the rivers Northern Dvina and Pechora, whereas the lowest changes - for the center of Eastern Siberia.

A complex cladistic analysis of molecular and morphological data of the Monimiaceae family is carried out. The hypothetic modes of the family dispersal are reconstructed basing on the data received for the studied representatives of the Monimiaceae family from all parts of the range and available fossils data. The family supposedly originated in Africa and penetrated into South America via the Antarctic way, and through the Arabian Peninsula and Sri-Lanka to South-Eastern Asia, Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, and further then to Madagascar.

Public health dynamics is one of the main methodological approaches to study spatiotemporal patterns of the population diseases spreading and to create nosogeographic maps. It is one of validity terms of geographic public health assessment and forecast. Dynamics maps usually show emergence, development, past stages, changes, and movement of analyzed phenomena. Analysis of medical-geographic maps showed that the choice of methods and techniques for elaborating dynamic aspects is limited. The results of comprehensive medical-geographic atlas mapping obtained in the Department of Biogeography and Laboratory of Integrated Mapping (Faculty of Geography, M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia) have significantly improved this situation and demonstrated the benefits of cartographic approaches and graphic methods of visualization of public health dynamics. However, these benefits as an integral problem has not been fully realized yet and research in this direction should continue.

Sediment monitoring and assessment remain one of the most challenging tasks in fluvial geomorphology and water quality studies. As a response to various environmental and human disturbance effects, the main sources and pathways of the sediments transported within catchments, especially most pristine small one, may change. The paper discusses state-of-the-art in the sediment budget research for small catchments. We identified nine independent approaches in the sediment transport assessment and applied them in 11 catchments across Eurasia in the framework of an FP – 7 Marie Curie – International Research Staff Exchange Scheme in 2012-2016. These methods were classified as: i) Field-based methods (In-situ monitoring of sediment transport;– Soil morphological methods and dating techniques; Sediment source fingerprinting; Sediment-water discharge relationships), ii) GIS and remote sensing approaches (Riverbed monitoring based on remote sensing/historical maps; parametrization of the channel sediment connectivity; Sediment transport remote sensing modeling), and iii) Numerical approaches (Soil erosion modeling and gully erosion (stochastic and empirical models); channel hydrodynamic modeling). We present the background theory and application examples of all selected methods. Linking fieldbased methods and datasets with numerical approaches, process measurements as well as monitoring can provide enhanced insights into sediment transfer and related water quality impacts. Adopting such integrated and multi-scale approaches in a sediment budget framework might contribute to improved understanding of hydrological and geomorphological responses.

Seasonal regional features of the daily precipitation extremes were studied based on Russian meteorological stations datasets for the period of 1991- 2013 compared to the 1961-1990 climate baseline conditions. Precipitation extreme changes were assessed for the most vulnerable regions of Russia with high population density, where precipitation extremes result in negative impacts on the environment and human activities. It was found that the frequency of precipitation extremes in winter and in spring for the period 1991-2013 significantly increased, by 20-40% at the average, in most parts of the case study area. Due to positive trends in daily precipitation extremes changes which was revealed for the winter and spring periods (not exceeding on average 0.2 mm/day/decade), the risks of catastrophic spring floods have been analysed, especially in the areas with a higher recurrence rate of dangerous floods, i.e. - the South Urals region and the Altai region. Strong positive trends of extreme precipitation changes were observed in the Russian Far East region. It indicates higher risk of summer rain floods in the Amur River basin. A significant impact on human activities and in particular population health is associated with revealed trends in hydrological cycle changes that are not relevant to typical meteorological and hydrological regimes. The significant increase of the frequency of extreme summer precipitation events in the Central Chernozem region of European Russia in the period of 1961-2013 was accompanied by the leptospirosis disease incidences.

Climate change has led to changes in the known patterns of rainfall and other climatic variables as well as increase in the frequency and magnitude of natural disasters including floods in different parts of the world; and flood is indeed a global environmental issue that had destroyed lives and property amidst other untold hardships. The study examined rainfall characteristics in Warri metropolis for the past 30 years (1986-2015) vis-à-vis the flood situation in the metropolis; as well as the factors responsible and adaptation strategies to flood in the area. Dividing the study area into four zones after Sada (1977), the researchers collected rainfall data from the archives of Nigerian Meteorological Agency; 268 copies of questionnaire and oral interview were used. The result of the correlation analysis performed showed a negative relationship of -0.156 between rainfall and time (years), this implies that rainfall is decreasing over time. The trend line regression equation Y=243.75-0.4572X, confirms that rainfall in Warri Metropolis is decreasing at the rate of -0.45 per year. However, the p-value 0.412 is greater than 0.05, hence, the trend is not statistically significant at 95% level of confidence. It was discovered that rainfall, absence of drainage and poor urban planning practices (as factor 1) contributed 51.09% while overflowing of rivers, blocked/ poor drainage and untarred roads (as factor 2) contributed 44.10% variance to flood occurrence in the metropolis. Recommendations given included continual monitoring and study of rainfall characteristics and other climatic data and dissemination of such information for planning purposes; construction of integrated drainage system and river rechannelisation, legislation against dumping of refuse on roads and drainages; proper urban planning including implementation of the metropolitan urban drainage master plan.

Regional trends of land use/land cover transformation in Brazil during 2001—2012 were analyzed in the following order: 1) identification of the types of transitions for different land use and land cover categories and aggregated groups of transformation processes based on the Global Land Cover Facility datasets, 2) analysis of national agricultural and forestry statistics to find out the principal socioeconomic drivers, 3)  land cover and land use data merging to elaborate comprehensive typology of land use/land cover changes on a regional level. The study evealed 96 types of transitions between land cover categories, aggregated into 10 groups corresponding to driving processes. It was found that the main processes of land cover transformations is related to both natural and anthropogenic origins. Cropping and deforestation are anthropogenic processes, flooding and draining are the principal natural ones. Transformation of cultivated lands and reforestation are combined natural and anthropogenic. The contribution of natural factors is higher in the states of the North (Amazonia) and the Northeast macroregions; in the Center-West and the South anthropogenic factors make larger contribution. We have also detected considerable land use/land cover changes caused by agricultural development in densely populated states of the Southeast and the South. In both macroregions planted area expands due to increase of soybeans and sugar cane production, while area of pastures is shrinking. The trends of transformations of agricultural land use revealed as a result of statistical data analysis, match with transitions of land cover categories belonging to the aggregated group of cropping processes. Transformations of land cover types with predominance of shrub vegetation were the most problematic to interpret because of lack of comparable statistical data on pastures.

Crops, like other plants, clearly react to various changes in both natural and anthropogenic factors (herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, etc.), which affects the amount of phytomass, its fractional composition, and developmental and physiological state of the plant, and, accordingly, is reflected in the spectral image. Data on spectral characteristics of plants allow users to determine quickly and with a high degree of reliability various indicators of the state of agricultural crops and thus improve the efficiency of agrotechnical practices and the use of land resources and facilitate the implementation of the precision farming concept. Reflective properties of plants (and hence crops) carry a large amount of meaningful information about the species, stage of development, and morpho-physiological state, allowing determination of the interrelations between the spectrometric characteristics and temporal physiological parameters. The paper presents the results of monitoring of the state of winter wheat and corn in experimental fields in southern and central Russia in the spring and summer of 2016.