GEOGRAPHY
The article deals with complex studies of the Finnish case particularly migrants’ inclusion analysis into local cultural and political environments (as conditions to cultural and political environment stability) as well as public diplomacy impact evaluation of an important «soft power» tool where migrants role is rather high. Authors scrutinize migrants’ interaction with the environment, outline cause-and-effect links of this interaction, and unveil external factors that influence the respondents’ political behavior. The research method is based upon interviews, which result in respondents’ typology development, political information channels were defined, and the influence of education and social inclusion upon political communication was characterized. This method helps to perceive migrants’ integration policy at example of Finland, the fourth most attractive country in the world in accordance with the Migrant Integration Policy Index. Finnish experience could be highly useful for Russia in terms of both national migration policy development. The resulting characteristics of migrants’ political communication might be of high interest in terms of migration policy regulation and understanding the issue of migration quotas, help to predict structural changes in society, also to provide the basis for making decisions on the effective use of public diplomacy tools.
The article deals with the analysis of student educational migration and its role in origin of spatial contrasts at the territory of Russian early developed regions. In the paper ongoing processes are considered on the case of Yaroslavl oblast at the intra- and interregional levels and compared to processes abroad on the case of German federal state of Bavaria. The results are based on examination of official statistical data, surveys among students (disclosing their spatial behavior during the study and after degree completion) and expert interviews with university spokespersons. Migration bonds of Yaroslavl universities as well as space-time features of educational migration (average distances, time costs, transportation means) in Yaroslavl oblast and Bavaria are revealed. The study found that educational migration (together with other population mobility types) plays an important role in spatial polarization at the research territory due to importance of Yaroslavl as big educational centre for northern part of Non-Chernozem zone ( Vologda, Arkhangelsk, Kostroma oblasts and Komi Republic). School-leavers from small cities and countryside come to the regional capital for bachelor ’s degree completion, next they try to go to Moscow, St. Petersburg or other largest cities not only to get masters’ degree, but also in search of life conditions improvement. They want to change place of permanent residence and to have a career on perspective labor market.
Eastern Kazakhstan and the adjacent Gorno Altai of southern Siberia encompass very mosaic landscapes across all the geographic and geomorphic zones enclosing numerous (pre-)historic monuments, some of them being a part of the UNESCO World natural and cultural heritage. Excepting the high-mountain ranges (Rudno and Southern Altai, Narym, Tarbagatay and Dzhungarskiy Alatau) surrounding the territory, the interior open arid steppes characterized by a broken relief of the granite-built Central Kazakhstan Hills as well as the barren rocky semi-deserts in the SE parts of the land remain largely unexplored and tourism-uncovered. The extraordinary topographic diversity was generated by complex geological processes associated with the Cainozoic orogenesis and the changing Quaternary climates. Geo-tourism focusing on the most exquisite landscape forms (geo-sites) and geological formations is a new trend in the country with still minor activities that take advantage of the region’s supreme geo-heritage potential. The unquestionable touristic-recreational attractiveness of this geographically marginal area of Central Asia (historically a part of the Russian Empire’s Tomsk Gubernia) reflects unique natural features – both geomorphic and biotic – including orographic, hydrologic, climatic, mineral and pedogenic, as well as rare endemic plants and wildlife in addition to the colour ful national Kazakh and Russian traditions. In spite of these predispositions, an introduction of a vital, sustainable geo-tourism in East Kazakhstan is impeded by the limited accessibility to the region due to an insufficient year-round transport infrastructure and poor local accommodation facilities in addition to the restricting boarder-zone entry regulations.
ENVIRONMENT
The article gives an analysis of a unique data of the thermistor chain, which installed on the D-6 oil platform in the coastal zone of the Baltic Sea. In total 10 temperature sensors were installed at different depths with a recording interval of 1 min, the depth at the installation site was 29 m. Based on satellite data, ship measurements and thermistor chain observation the characteristics and dynamics of the sharp decrease in water temperature which registered in the south-eastern Baltic Sea (Gdansk Bay area), during June 5-12, 2016 are analyzed. The temperature decreasing caused by the simultaneous action of at least two factors: wind-driven Ekman upwelling and advection of cold water. Scales of temporal and spatial variability of water temperature in a coastal zone of the south-eastern Baltic Sea near the coast of the Kaliningrad region are described. This event led to the considerable SST (sea sur face temperature) drop by more than 8 °C for two days. The rate of reduction of its temperature during certain upwelling periods can reach 0.3-0.4 ºС per hour, but the maximum warming rate between phases varies from 0.25 to 0.28 ºС per hour. This dramatically changed the conditions of the thermal balance of the sea sur face. The width of the upwelling, as seen in the SST data, was about 25 km. Satellite data were supplemented with data of a thermistor chain and C TD measurements. The high correlation between water temperature variability and changes in wind parameters: when the wind speed has decreased and its direction has changed, the response of the vertical thermal structure has occurred very quickly, sometimes within 1 hour. Thermistor chain data allow to evaluate the vertical temperature distribution and get more detailed analysis of temporal variability and short pulsations of upwelling.
The Don River is the largest river in the southwestern part of European Russia and the second largest river system in European Russia. The Don River basin is one of the most water deficient regions in Russia and the long term average water usage in the basin amounts to 45%. The period 2007-2016 was the longest long-term low-flow period observed, with an estimated total water resources deficit of 40.4 km3 over 8 years. The main reason for this deficit were anomalously warm winters (2-4 degrees over average) with a low degree of soil frost penetration. This resulted in low spring flood volume (37% of the average) due to heavy seepage losses combined with thin snow cover. A similar low-flow situation was observed in 2014, when the drought caused great damage to ecosystem of Tsimlianskoye water reservoir and the River Don. Most of the fish breeding grounds had dried up by May 2014. This caused the number of round fish whitebait to drop 5-10 times below the 2002-2014 average. Inland shipping and hydropower industry also sustained losses of 42 million euro (according to interview from State Shipping company) due to low water level. This study shows that the main reasons for the 2007-2016 extreme hydrological drought are exceptional hydro-climatic conditions and anthropogenic transformations in the watershed, such as urbanisation growth and afforestation. The analysis shows that the main cause in water deficit is associated with the left tributaries of Don – Khoper and Medveditsa, while the flow in Upper Don remained more or less normal. The results can be interpreted as a “warning sign” to reduce water consumption in these sub-basins to avoid similar drought situations in future.
Building of scientific basis for harmonious exploitation and spatial organization of the economy (land use) is one of the key issues of present-day geography. The study of land resources includes consideration of the relations between economic development, profitability and potential opportunities for further development of the territory, possibility of disturbed lands recovery and returning to the economic turnover, and preservation – all of those things which are necessary for human life worth living. Identification and analysis of land use types and forms is a necessary step of any economic-and-geographic study of a certain territory on the basis of statistical data and field survey. The creation of optimal land use schemes, taking into account the assessment of the conditions for certain types of management placement in given territory, has practical importance.
This paper presents the logical model of the area natural conditions influence on the evolution of urban land, shows the ways of creating the model of comfortable environment, where all types of the place attractiveness – ecological, social and economic – should be balanced.
A constructive formula for the geomorphic assessment of territorial resources includes the synthesis of benefit and profit. That is an engineering and ecologic-and-geomorphic assessment of lands in terms of the convenience for some sort of economic activity, taking into account the ecologic-and-geomorphic restrictions, as well as the economic evaluation of the engineering site preparation, taking into account the availability of recreational and specially protected areas, as well as environmental insurance against adverse processes and phenomena – maintaining of favorable living conditions.
The trends and variability of climate change were studied through analyzing the trend of change in the annual temperature and rainfall averages during the period (1960 – 2016) in Al-Sheikh Badr Region by using Normal Distribution and De-Martonne index. The results showed a (-189 mm) linear decrease in the general trend of the rainfall, associated with a (+0.9o C) increase in the general trend of the temperature between 1960 and 2016. Also, Normal distribution showed that the probability of extreme temperatures events higher than 17.5oC increased from 3.3% during the period 1960-1990 to 24.8% during the period 1991-2016. While the probability of an extreme annual rainfall (more than 1800 mm) decreases from 5.3% to 4.7%, nevertheless, the probability of rainfall events less than 800mm where increased. Furthermore, there is a significant trend of drought in the studied area, where the De-Martonne index reaches (-10.75) through the period (1960-2016).
SUSTAINABILITY
The new concept of bioremediation of anthropogenic water bodies and quarry wastewaters treatment by phytoextraction and phytotransformation in the Subarctic conditions is presented. This technology is based on transformating the man-caused water reservoirs into nature-like marsh ecosystems. At the first stage, a new patented method for advanced waste treatment using floating bioplate was developed and implemented. After implementing the bioplate, the concentration of ammonium ions in water decreased by 53-90%, nitrate nitrogen reduced by 15-20%. At the second stage, the floating bioplate technology was modified into the highly efficient purificating marsh ecosystem, which allowed to cover the waterbody territory to the greatest possible extent. The technology is based on the creation of phytomats enabling in the accelerated mode to form plant blocks of three different types. They are aimed both at local grassing down, and at swamping deep and shallow areas of sediment ponds. In forming phytomats, two soil substitutional substrates (thermovermiculite and wood sawdust) and regionally-optimized assortment of 24 plant species are used. The proposed technology does not require energy, chemicals and soil components which are scarce in the region. The predominance of natural ecosystem processes in the formed phytocenoses allows to achieve maximum efficiency, and the use of available materials contributes to minimizing the costs of creating and maintaining the system. The introduction of this technology and formation of the artificial phytocenosis with the area of about 30% of the man-caused reservoirs territory made it possible to increase the efficiency of wastewater treating from mineral nitrogen compounds by 22%.
In the past, most of the open lands of arid areas were used as rangelands because of the pivotal role of grazing in the life of the indigenous populace. Currently, because of the competition between grazing and other types of land management (crops’ breeding, urbanisation, etc.) and the seemingly destructive effect of the grazing on the ecosystem, only a reduced part of the open lands is used for grazing. Even in the lands that are allocated to pasture, many restricting’ legislations have been enforced by the authorities. Consequently, these policies have resulted in the dramatic reduction in the profits of the herd owners and a drastic decrease in the rate of grazing, which resulted by ecological catastrophes such as wide spread of fires and invasion of exotic species. In order to achieve a sustainable and profitable utilization of these open lands, we used an alternative approach, which based on the physical interactions of the animals with the ecosystem. This scheme takes into consideration the physical interactions of the bred animals with the ecosystem there, the statutory state of the lands, and the social patterns of the indigenous farmers, as parameters for a holistic solution for arid lands.
SPECIAL ISSUE
The paper reports on the results of the pollen, plant macrofossil and geochemical analyses and the AMS 14C-based chronology of the «Rüdersdorf» outcrop situated east of Berlin in Brandenburg (Germany). The postglacial landscape changed from an open one to generally forested by ca. 14 cal. kyr BP. Woody plants (mainly birch and pine) contributed up to 85% to the pollen assemblages ca. 13.4–12.5 cal. kyr BP. The subsequent Younger Dryas ( YD) interval is characterized by a decrease in arboreal pollen (AP) to 75% but led neither to substantial deforestation nor spread of tundra vegetation. This supports the concept that the YD cooling was mainly limited to the winter months, while summers remained comparably warm and allowed much broader (than initially believed) spread of cold-tolerant boreal trees. Further support for this theory comes from the fact that the relatively low AP values persisted until ca. 10.6 cal. kyr BP, when the «hazel phase» of the regional vegetation succession began. The postglacial hunter-gatherer occupation is archaeologically confirmed in Brandenburg since ca. 13 cal. kyr BP, i.e. much later than in the western part of Germany and ca. 1000 years after the major amelioration in the Rüdersdorf environmental record.
Pollen analysis was carried out on an 80-cm sedimentary section on the shore of Lake Tere-Khol (southeastern Tuva). The section consists of peat overlapping lake loams and covers the last 2800 years. The alternation of dry-wet and cold-warm epochs has been established, and changes in heat and moisture occurred non-simultaneously. The first half of the studied interval, from 2.8 to 1.35 kyr BP was relatively arid and warmer on average. Against this background, temperature fluctuations occurred: relatively cold intervals 2.8–2.6 and 2.05–1.7 kyr BP and relatively warm 2.6-2.05 and 1.7-1.35 kyr BP. The next time interval 1.35-0.7 kyr BP was relatively humid. Against this background, the temperatures varied from cold 1.35-1.1 kyr BP to relatively warm 1.1–0.7 kyr BP. The last 700 years have been relatively cold with a short warming from 400 to 250 years ago. This period included a relatively dry interval 700–400 years ago and more humid climate in the last 400 years. The established climate variability largely corresponds to other climate reconstructions in the Altai-Sayan region. The general cooling trend corresponds to an astronomically determined trend towards a decrease in solar radiation in temperate latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, and the centennial temperature fluctuations detected against this background correspond well to changes in solar activity reconstructed from 14C production and the concentration of cosmogenic isotopes in Greenland ice. Against the general tendency towards aridization, alternating wet and dry phases correspond well to changes in the activity of the Asian monsoon, established by the oxygen-isotope composition of speleothems in South China.
Changes in vegetation in the southern Sikhote-Alin Mountains, which are in the upper reaches of the Ussuri R., are shown respond to minor climatic fluctuations over the past 5.4 ka. The largest mountain, Muta mire, chosen for paleoenvironmental reconstructions, is located within the main regional watershed. The studies include diatoms and pollen analyses. Chronology is based on radiocarbon dating and position of B-Tm tephra of the Millennium eruption of Baitoushan volcano. The cooling and warming reconstructed from the regional data correlate with global paleoclimatic events. The regional humidity changes notably along with the temperature fluctuations. Fire chronology was established and its significance for vegetation was estimated. Periods of frequent forest fires coincided with reduced moisture supply during cooling events. The analysis per formed revealed a considerable human impact on the vegetation in the 20th century.
Many studies report asymmetrical spatial distribution of soil respiration caused by presence of areas with significantly higher emission rates (so-called hot spots). For seasonally dry tropical forest soil respiration was measured on 1 ha plot with 20m, 5m and 1 m scale in the first half of dry season. 457 measurements made in 9 series at 54 sampling points. The results suggest that lognormal spatial distribution model appears to be much more supported rather than the normal one. A statistical method proposed for estimation the mean value and its confidence interval of lognormally distributed data. The mean emission rate E(RS) for the lognormal distribution amounted to 4.28 µmol m-2 s-1, the 95% confidence interval is 3.93 to 4.76 µmol m-2 s-1. However, the standard sample mean can be used as an estimator of the mean of lognormally distributed values of soil respiration if their coefficient of variance remains approximately the same as in our study (CV=0.35). Based on the data obtained and literature sources, recommendations are given on the number of sampling points for estimating the spatial average value with a given accuracy.
The influence of the very strong 2015–16 El Niño event on local and regional meteorological conditions, as well as on energy and CO2 fluxes in a mountainous primary tropical rainforest was investigated using ERA-Interim reanalysis data as well as meteorological and eddy covariance flux measurements from Central Sulawesi in Indonesia. The El Niño event led to a strong increase of incoming monthly solar radiation and air temperature, simultaneously with the increasing Niño4 index. Monthly precipitation first strongly decreased and then increased reaching a maximum in 3–4 months after El Niño culmination. Ecosystem respiration increased while gross primary production showed only a weak response to the El Niño event resulting in a positive anomaly of net ecosystem CO2 exchange (reduced CO2 uptake). The changes of key meteorological parameters and fluxes caused by the strong El Niño event of 2015–16 differed from the effects of moderate El Niño events observed during the period 2003-2008, where net ecosystem CO2 exchange remained largely unaffected. In contrast to earlier moderate El Niño events, the strong El Niño 2015–16 affected mostly the air temperature resulting in a weakening of the net carbon sink at the rainforest site in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Forest clearing strongly influences the energy, water and greenhouse gas exchange at the land sur face - atmosphere inter face. To estimate effects of clear cutting on sensible (H), latent heat (LE) and CO2 fluxes the continuous eddy covariance measurements were provided at the recently clear-cut area situated in the western part of Russia from spring 2016 to the end of 2018. The possible effects of surrounding forest on the air flow disturbances and on the spatial pattern of horizontal advection terms within the selected clear-cut area were investigated using a process-based 3D momentum, energy and CO2 exchange model. The modeling results showed a very low contribution of horizontal advection term into total turbulent momentum fluxes at flux tower location in case of the southern wind direction. The results of field flux measurements indicated a strong inter- and intra-annual variability of energy and CO2 fluxes. The energy budget is characterized by higher daily and monthly LE fluxes throughout the entire period of measurements excepting the first two months after timber harvest. The mean Bowen ratio (β=H/LE) was 0.52 in 2016, 0.30 - in 2017 and 0.35 - in 2018. Analysis of CO2 fluxes during the first year following harvest showed that the monthly CO2 release at the clear-cut area consistently exceeded the CO2 uptake rates. The mean net ecosystem exchange (NEE) in the period was 3.3±1.3 gC∙m-2∙d-1. During the second and the third years of the flux measurements the clear-cut was also a prevailed sink of CO2 for the atmosphere excepting short periods in June and in the first part of July when daily CO2 uptake was higher than CO2 release rates. The mean NEE rates averaged for the entire warm period of corresponding years were 1.2±2.3 gС∙m-2∙d-1 in 2017 and 2.8±2.5 gC∙m-2∙d-1 in 2018, respectively. The mean ratio between gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (TER) was 0.58 in 2016, 0.84 - in 2017 and 0.74 - in 2018.
The retrospective dynamics of major components of the carbon cycle under land use changes in the Central Forest zone of European Russia was investigated. This area is known as one of the most important agricultural and economical regions of the country. We applied the process-based simulation model DNDC (DeNitrification-DeComposition) recommended by UNCCC and world widely used. In this study the DNDC model was parameterized for Russian arable soils using official statistical information and data taken from published sources. Three main carbon variables in agrolandscapes were modelled: soil organic carbon, soil respiration, and net ecosystem exchange over the period of 1990-2017. For the analysis six administrative regions were selected: three with unchanged (permanent) arable land structure (Kaluga, Moscow, and Yaroslavl), and other three with changed crop rotation (Kostroma, Smolensk, and Tver). All regions in the study are characterized by homogeneous soil cover and similar cultivated crops. The results of the modelling were verified using the data from field CO2 fluxes observations in the European part of Russia. In growing season, the agrolandscapes function as a net carbon sink and accumulate C from the atmosphere into plant biomass. The dynamics of organic carbon in soil under growing crops depends on organic fertilizers in cultivation technologies, and if they aren’t inputted, soil loses carbon. During the last 30 years the cumulative rates of net ecosystem exchange and soil respiration had decreased mostly due to reduction of arable land area. CO2 emission and soil organic carbon losses are the most important controls of land degradation. Based on the dynamic patterns of CO2 fluxes, the regions of the Central Forest zone could be separated into two groups. The group with central location characterized by intensive soil respiration and high rate of accumulation of organic carbon in soil, whereas peripheral group characterized by losses of soil organic carbon and low rates of soil respiration. According to the modelling, within the period of observations the inter-annual changes of carbon fluxes are mainly controlled by rising air temperature and heat supply, variable precipitation, and increasing concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. Among human activity the most important are change of arable land area and decreasing amount of fertilizers.
The continuous field measurements of net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of CO2 were provided at ridge-hollow oligotrophic bog in the Middle Taiga zone of West Siberia, Russia in 2017-2018. The model of net ecosystem exchange of CO2 was suggested to describe the influence of different environmental factors on NEE and to estimate the total carbon budget of the bog over the growing season. The model uses air and soil temperature, incoming photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and water table depth, as the key factors influencing gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (ER). The model coefficients were calibrated using the data collected by automated soil CO2 flux system with two transparent long-term chambers placed at large hollow and small ridge sites.
Experimental and modeling results showed that the Mukhrino bog acted over the study period as a carbon sink, with an average NEE of –87.7 gC m-2 at the hollow site and –50.2 gC m-2 at the ridge site. GPP was – 344.8 and –228.5 gC m-2 whereas ER was 287.6 and 140.9 gC m-2 at ridge and hollow sites, respectively. Despite of a large difference in NEE estimates between 2017 and 2018 the growing season variability of NEE were quite similar.
Climate change has distinct regional and local differences in its impacts on the land sur face. One of the important parameters determining the climate change signal is the emissivity (ε) of the sur face. In forest-climate interactions, the leaf sur face emissivity plays a decisive role. The accurate determination of leaf emissivities is crucial for the appropriate interpretation of measured energy and matter fluxes between the forest and the atmosphere. In this study, we quantified the emissivity of the five broadleaf tree species Acer pseudoplatanus, Fagus sylvatica, Fraxinus excelsior, Populus simonii and Populus candicans. Measurements of leaf sur face temperatures were conducted under laboratory conditions in a controlled-climate chamber within the temperature range of +8 °C and +32°C. Based on these measurements, broadband leaf emissivities ε (ε for the spectral range of 8-14 µm) were calculated. Average ε8-14 µm was 0.958±0.002 for all species with very little variation among species. In a second step, the soil-vegetation-atmosphere transfer model ‘MixFor-SVAT ’ was applied to examine the effects of ε changes on radiative, sensible and latent energy fluxes of the Hainich forest in Central Germany. Model experiments were driven by meteorological data measured at the Hainich site. The simulations were forced with the calculated ε value as well as with minimum and maximum values obtained from the literature. Significant effects of ε changes were detected. The strongest effect was identified for the sensible heat flux with a sensitivity of 20.7 % per 1 % ε change. Thus, the variability of ε should be considered in climate change studies.
The possible impact of the climate changes on vegetation is a key topic of various research studies in geography and ecology. In this study we tried to provide a «one-time survey» of the phenological development of Prunus padus L. in the Yekaterinburg city as a part of the large-scale project “A Single Phenological Day ” and show the data on a map. The registration of a seasonal development of bird cherry was provided annually in the years of 2012-2018 on one and the same date in the city of Yekaterinburg, on 15 May. Yekaterinburg is the largest city located on the eastern foothills of the Middle Urals, Russia. The city has residential areas, parks, water reservoirs, as well as large industrial facilities that affect microclimatic conditions, resulting in an increase of the temperatures. Such microclimatic heterogeneity results in uneven development of bird cherry in spring. It was revealed the slowing of the bird cherry development in the areas situated close to large water reservoirs. At the same time bird cherry trees growing inside large industrial areas, on the contrary, developed much faster. The development rates of Prunus padus L. also differed though years: in years with dry and warm weather during the period of late April - early May the vegetation began earlier.
ISSN 2542-1565 (Online)