Authors generalized and systematized original data on the hydrocarbon status (HCS) of soils in natural and technogenic landscapes within eleven key sites of the territory of Russia. The components and characteristics of HCS of soils are the following: a) the total content and qualitative composition of bitumoids (substances extracted from soils by neutral organic solvents); b) composition and concentration of individual hydrocarbon compounds – polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, liquid and solid alkanes; c) the amount and individual composition of free and retained soil hydrocarbon gases. It is shown that different types of HCS of soils are determined by their connection with different groups of natural and technogenic processes: generation of hydrocarbons (HC) in soils by microorganisms; accumulation of hydrocarbons from the lithosphere gas flows; HC input from oil and oil-products spills; accumulation of natural and/or technogenic HC on soil surface from the atmosphere; inheritance of parent rock hydrocarbons by soils. Accordingly, the following main genetic types of HCS of soils were considered: biogeochemical, emanation, injection, atmo-sedimentation and lithogenic. It is shown that different variants of combinations of the above types are the most typical in real situations, which is due to the multiplicity of factors acting simultaneously on soils, and one of the tasks of the study was the identification of such variants in the process of the analysis of HCS of soils.

Kamchatka is a unique region with a wide variety of natural healing resources. The most famous mineral thermal springs are located in the Central Kamchatka hydrogeological massif of folded areas. As a result of the survey 40 species of officinal plants (3% of the native flora of vascular plants of Kamchatka) have been identified. These species are included in the pharmacopoeia state list. Among them 21 species belong to native flora of the peninsula and 19 species are adventitious. The large number of officinal plants grows in communities of Southern and Central floristic regions. An analysis of created regional database for healing water springs and officinal plants has shown that resources of the Kamchatka Peninsula are of high therapeutic potential, but at present they have not been sufficiently studied for full and sustainable use in official medicine.

The activity of microorganisms isolated from the bottom sediments of the Kara Sea shelf and Lake Baikal in the process of oil degradation was evaluated in a model experiment. Under low temperature (+10°С) and mineralization from 0 to 30 g/L (sodium chloride) the reduced conversion of n-alkanes in the cultivation of bacteria from the Kara Sea (less than 30%) and higher activity of Baikal microorganisms community (conversion up to 95%) were revealed. The response of bacterial communities to the change in the mineralization of the medium is selective: nonsignificant result of the influence on n-alkanes degradation in the cultivation of the Kara Sea strains, and a sharp acceleration of conversion of the oil alkane fraction in the cultivation of Baikal microorganisms under 7,0 to 15 g/L of sodium chloride in the medium. The effect of synergism during oil degradation under conditions of co-cultivation of the strains from Lake Baikal and the Kara Sea is inappreciable.

Principal demographic indicators of several rural settlements of the Leningrad Region are analyzed with the help of data presented in groups of these rural settlements in Vkontakte social network. Basing on the obtained statistical information, the external activity of population is characterized, including the mobility of the group of residents of studied settlements that are members of the social network.

Concentrations and lateral distribution of Fe, Mn, Ti, Zr, Ni, Co, Cr, Zn, Pb in 1–0.25; 0.25–0.05; 0.05–0.01; 0.01–0.001 and <0.001 mm grain-size fractions of humus soil horizons were studied in a balka system located in the Central Protva River basin. The levels of metal concentrations are determined by the particle size: Ti, Zr and Cr are at their lowest values in the coarse and medium sand; the coarse silt fraction is enriched in Zr, while Fe, Mn, Co, Ni, Zn, Pb, Cu show their minimal values in this fraction; the medium and fine silt shows the highest levels of Ti and the clay fraction the highest mean concentrations of Fe, Mn, Co, Ni, Cr, Pb, Zn. The variability in the concentrations of the majority of metals decreases from sand to silt and clay fractions. The lateral distribution of metals in the grain-size fractions is related to their geochemical transformation during the process of migration from the trans-eluvial landscapes of adjacent areas along the slope and bottom of the balka system, from the upper to lower reaches. In coarse and medium sand, the highest concentrations of metals, except Fe, are found in soils of the bottom or the detrital fan. In fine sand metals other than Zn and Ti are concentrated in soils of trans-eluvial landscapes. In medium and fine silt all metals, except Fe, Zr and Ti, accumulate in soils of the balka slope and bottom. In clay fraction Zn and Mn concentrate in soils of the balka bottom, while other elements in soils of transeluvial landscapes. The lateral distribution of the majority of metals is the most uniform in coarse silt fraction. The concentrations of some elements decrease down the balka bottom: Ti and Zr – in coarse and medium sand, Cu – in medium and fine silt, Zr and Zn – in clay fraction; the increase of concentrations was revealed for Cr in coarse silt, Mn and Ti in medium and fine silt and Ni in clay fraction.

The results of research to determine the best bioclimatic predictor of mortality during heat waves are presented. Rostov-on-Don was chosen as a model city; statistical data for daily mortality and daily meteorological data for the warm period of 1999-2011 were analyzed. The research has shown the interrelation between the heat waves and population mortality. The risk of mortality due to coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular diseases increases with the rising temperature. The use of bioclimatic indices helps to identify the links between thermal indices and health risks. The study suggests application of the Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) index as a most promising one for further modeling the effects of high ambient temperatures on public health.

Field data on Quaternary sediments of several outcrops at Gydan Peninsula and Beliy Island and their comparison with literature data have shown that the relative sea-level changes in the southeastern part of the Kara Sea since MIS 3 differ from the average sea-level changes in the World Ocean. MIS 3 (Kargin time) marine sediments lie at elevations of up to 2–2,5 m a.s.l. at Beliy Island, Sibiryakov Island and some other Arctic islands; they are covered by the Holocene marine sand with allochtonous peat aged about 8 kA (radiocarbon). At Yavay Peninsula, marine silts and sands lie at the bottom of the coastal cliff and are overlaid by peat aged from 24 500±220 (LU-7972) to 30 710±420 (LU-7971) radiocarbon years. Above them, Holocene lacustrine sandy loam with peat and wood with ages of about 8 kA outcrop, implying that sea-level did not rise above its present position since MIS 3. In the southern part of Mammoth Peninsula, sea-level did not rise above present at least since MIS 5 (Kazantsevo time). MIS 3 deposits are continental silts with mammoth fauna, covered by the Holocene alluvium and lacustrine sediments. The range of RSL change scenarios evidences the general uplift of the Earth’s crust at Gydan Peninsula and the south-eastern part of the Kara Sea since MIS 3, accompanied by differential block movements.

Specific features of the transformation of the socio-economic space of territories located in the marginal zones of influence of large agglomerations are considered on the example of the Borovsk district of the Kaluga region and the Satino training grounds, the area of traditional training of the students of the MSU Faculty of Geography. Shifts in the territorial structure of the region are evaluated basing on the concepts of the economic-geographical situation, the function of the place and the diffusion of innovations. The main types of conflicts that arise as a result of competition of the main functions are identified: agrarian, industrial-infrastructural, recreational, environmental, residential and special. The current stage of the district development is characterized by increasing competition of functions for the territory and other resources, which is due to their intensive development, primarily in the eastern part of the region, and also by moving beyond or, on the contrary, drawing near the borders of the Moscow region new investment projects of just indirect relation to the interests of the district. Conflicts of functions are exacerbated against the backdrop of contradictory processes occurring in the territorial organization of the population: complication of its spatio-temporal organization and polarization of the interests of its various groups. The absence of a well-thought-out functional zoning gradually leads to the formation of a sustainable, difficultly amenable strip land use, which in the future can lead to degradation of the most valuable functions of the territory.

Under current conditions traditional methods of evaluating the global city status need to be updated by gauging city’s attractiveness for foreign multinational corporations. Why corporations locate in the leading metropolitan areas of the US is in large part dictated by city’s economic power and its ability to draw specialized business services. The paper brings to light key disparities in how foreign multinationals locate in us metro area’s core and periphery, i.e. industry-specific and geography-specific tendencies, as well as the differences in the total mass of transnational capital located in two zones. The results of the analysis allow putting the end to a longstanding debate on the core’s primary status over the periphery as it relates to the location of foreign multinational corporations.

The article aims to investigate how the reducing production potential impacts the social structure and human capital in 50 industrial cities of the Ural economic region. The crisis of the old industrial areas during the transition to the market economy affected both economic and social status of the local population, as well as its potential. Long-term and stable deindustrialization leads to the destruction of traditional family ties. After degradation of the social structure the level of human capital development also decreases during the period of the long-term deindustrialization.

The article examines phenomena and processes characteristic of today’s rural areas, which are under the influence of the Moscow agglomeration. As a theoretical basis for understanding, the idea of rural-urban continuum was adopted. The lists of key processes and relations, characteristic of rural-urban interactions (after K. Lynch), are supplemented. A typology of «rural worlds» is suggested; a group of «new villagers» – the indigenous urban dwellers who have chosen village as a space for their own life and activities – is identified.