Floodplain of the Moskva River lower reaches is a typical man-made terrace, which was not flooded for almost 90 years, is intensively used in agriculture and gradually being built up by industrial and civil facilities. As a result of river flow regulation and long-term agricultural development the floodplain natural territorial complexes (NTC) underwent a profound transformation. Of 2,5 thousand urochisches only 179, i. e. 7,2%, or 6% of the territory, can be thought of as modal. About 13% (333 urochisches, 7% of the territory) have a slight degree of disturbance, 23,6% (587 urochisches, 54% of the territory) – medium degree and 546 urochisches (21,2%, 25% of the territory) strong degree of disturbance. More than one third (838 urochisches, i. e. 34,6%, or 9% of the territory) are technogenic, i. e. totally created by man not excepting the relief and lithological basement. In spite of the quantitative predominance technogenic complexes as linear objects occupy a small area. Due to high degree of landscape structure disturbance, the river floodplain requires increased attention, planning of economic activities, coordinated placement of engineering objects, agricultural areas and natural reserves, as well as strict compliance with land use standards and environmental legislation.

Specific features of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs, polyarenes) accumulation in the soils of shelterbelts and adjacent agricultural fields were determined. The key site in the Belgorod Region (1500 ha) is an arable land with an extensive network of forest belts oriented both along and across the main source of pollution, i.e. the railway. On the basis of 49 soil sampling points it was shown that the soils of shelterbelts are characterized by higher polyarenes storage in 0–25 cm layer (1,50 to 7,02 мg/m2) for both light and heavy PAHs as compared to soils of adjacent arable lands (0,23 to 1,70 мg/m2). This phenomenon is due to the barrier effect of trees in relation to pollutant airflows and lower rates of polyarene destruction in the soils of shelterbelts. With increasing distance of soils from the source of polyarenes, the most noticeable decrease is in benzo (a) pyrene and benzo (ghi) perylene storage. In the absence of cultivation 65 years is enough to form a surface-accumulative type of PAHs distribution in the upper 25 cm of shelterbelt soils at a distance of up to 2,5 km from the railway.

Application of modern statistical methods (LDA) for landslide susceptibility assessment is discussed. A computer model was created to forecast if an area falls into the category of potentially landslidehazardous. The model is based on the landslides inventory carried out earlier by one of the authors in the vicinity of the Krasnaya Polyana settlement (Russia, Krasnodarskiy Krai). The sites with the highest landslide susceptibility were identified, and the landslide-prone objects and buildings were revealed.

By 2018, a lot of factual data on landslide formation has been accumulated for a number of relatively small areas around the world. There are many examples of the elaboration of mathematical models explaining the spatial patterns of landslides. The most common errors during the construction of such models are characterized. It is also shown that, at least in English-language publications, there are no examples of statistical probabilistic modeling of the landslide hazard in the territory of Russia.

The structure and the operation mode of computational algorithm implemented in the R environment are described. The characteristic durations of each computational stage and the whole algorithm using common desktop PC are presented. Two most important advantages of the algorithm are as follows: 1) the user does not decide which particular set of characteristics should be tested for predictive power, 2) «sensitivity», rather than «accuracy», is used to evaluate the model’s «quality», which is more coherent considering the incompletion of landslide processes within the territory.

The model is based on six geomorphometric parameters of terrain: the minimum normalized height, the minimum standardized height, the average «terrain view factor» in a cell, the mean and standard deviation of the «multiresolution index of valley bottom flatness», the maximum negative topographic openness. The reliability of forecast by the model for the territory under study is 73%.

Basing on the generalization of data series obtained by automatic optical turbidity loggers, lowfrequency (20-minutes) changes in suspended solids concentrations in rivers of different types and size are considered. The turbulent nature of these fluctuations, corresponding to the low-frequency zone of the spectrum of ripple velocities of the river flow (macroturbulent fluctuations) is justified. The contribution of macroturbulent fluctuations to the synoptic variability of water turbidity was analyzed on the basis of the TI parameter, which is the ratio of the difference between maximum and minimum turbidity for a short period of time (Ti) (1 hour, with the measurement discreteness of 20 minutes) to the total difference of turbidity for a hydrological event (TГС). The higher values of TI correspond to the greater contribution of macroturbulent turbidity fluctuations to synoptic variability of sediment load caused by precipitation, snowmelt and ice melting. As the basin area increases, the amplitudes of ripple oscillations decrease. Their role in the overall variability of turbidity is maximum for small rivers. The heterogeneity of turbidity structure increases on rivers with the highest frequency of pulsations, i.e. their flow tends to be quasi homogeneous. The heterogeneity leads to the increased contribution of macroturbulent turbidity fluctuations to its synoptic oscillations.

Recently the quantitative methods became popular in soil geography to study the structure of soil cover tackled as pedodiversity. The experience gained in their application to different territories and at different scales is not large yet, and the regularities revealed are not always obvious and unambiguous. The study of pedodiversity in the Republic of Karelia with its rather monotonous small-contour soil cover is targeted at the analysis of pedodiversity factors. It is of considerable methodological interest as an example of rather simple model with definitive soil diagnostics, and also a source of data in soil geography. Pedodiversity is shown to be higher when calculated basing on large-scale maps versus small- and mediumscale ones, and it strongly depends on soil classification applied for the soil map legend. When soil names are transferred from classification systems used in Russia to the International (WRB) system the ShannonWiener index becomes lower. This could be partly attributed to the nature of classification systems in relation to their objects, i.e. soils of the USSR or Russia and soils of the world. It is obvious that soils of one country, even with a complicated and variegated soil cover, require more detailed classification.

The relevance of a «natural capital» category in the geographical analysis is shown on the example of environmental management systems in the regions of Siberia. The value of their ecosystems exceeds the cost of natural resources that makes it possible to correct regional approaches to the formation of sustainability-oriented environmental policy. Under the market economy the natural capital is shown as an economic result of environmental management stemming from the geographical features of a territory. Application of results of the natural capital assessment allows using new approaches to the solution of administrative tasks, e. g. improvement of the natural rent management, introduction of compensation mechanisms to maintain the biodiversity, development of mineral raw material resources through the natural rent reinvestment into the development of territories, etc.

Combination of the geographical analysis of environmental management and the methodology of the natural capital assessment promotes the formation of a qualitatively new analytical research base which allows revealing the interrelations between ecological, economic and social dimensions that is a necessary prerequisite of environmental management and is well coordinated with the sustainable development ideology. 

The dynamics and the factors of dairy industry development in the regions of the Russian-Belarusian borderland in 2010–2017 were analyzed. It was revealed that the territorial structure of dairy industry in the Russian regions shrinks to a limited number of centers and the number of districts with positive development dynamics decreases. The destruction of intraregional relations between producers and processors of milk continues. The emergence of new growth points in milk processing is described; these made themselves known after 2014 and are already appreciated at the federal level. It is shown that the composition of holding structure, which includes an agricultural producer, is of a primary importance in changing the territorial structure of milk production in the Belarusian borderland,. Despite the almost unvarying geography of processing enterprises, their structural transformations are taking place – some dairies are engaged just in milk reception and cooling. In the future the formal preservation of the territorial structure could result in real reduction to a limited number of large milk processors in successful and economically developed industrial regions of Belarus.

Concentrations of methane (CH4) in marine water of the Sevastopol Bay were measured during different seasons of 2017–2018 and its emissions from water to the atmosphere were calculated. The CH4 content in water was measured by headspace method using the HP 5890 gas chromatograph. The CH4 surface concentration varied over a wide range, from 2 to 210 nmol L–1, and the CH4 saturation level was 61 to 6814% as compared to the equilibrium values. It was found that CH4 concentration depends on the season. The lowest values were found in June, and the highest in November. The water of Sevastopol Bay appeared to be a source of CH4 for the atmosphere during the whole period of survey averaging from 17 to 112 µmol m–2 a day. The estimated time of dissolved methane emission turnover in the Sevastopol Bay ranges from 12 to 37 days.

The paper deals with the seasonal dynamics of nutrients in the Mozhaysk reservoir in 2018/2019. The factors of seasonal variability of the vertical distribution of nitrogen, phosphorus and mineral silicon compounds are considered basing of monthly measurements.

The regime of nutrients in the Mozhaysk reservoir and the ratio of their various forms is largely determined by the formation and duration of the density stratification of water. During hypoxia phosphorus and ammonium are recovered from the bottom sediments. By the end of summer nitrates and dissolved mineral phosphorus are almost completely consumed by algae in the epilimnion. During the growing season organic phosphorus occur mainly in suspended form within the phytoplankton cells. Mineral silicon is actively consumed in May during the development of diatoms, while in the hypolimnion its concentration is stable throughout the period of stratification. Longitudinal heterogeneity in the nutrient content is caused by both the mixing conditions, and the varying genesis of water mass in a particular area of the reservoir.

It is shown that over the past 30 years the internal nutrient load in the reservoir has increased as a result of increasing duration of density stratification and, as a consequence, the period of anoxia. At the same time, the input of nitrogen and phosphorus compounds to the reservoir with rivers has decreased as a result of land-use change. 

The vertical distribution of oxygen and hydrogen sulphide, and the position of suboxic zone boundaries are discussed basing on the results of three 2016 expeditions of the Federal State Budget Scientific Institution «Marine Hydrophysical Institute of RAS» in the central part of the Black Sea (within the economic zone of the Russian Federation). The position of the upper boundary of the suboxic zone (the 10 M isooxigen) was subjected to seasonal and synoptic changes; as a result the depth of suboxic zone in the central part of the sea varied within 0,25–0,30 kg/m3 in sigma-t scale t, which is about 10 m in the depth scale. The position of the 3M isosulphide which separates the suboxic and the hydrogen sulphide zones in the central Black Sea has not changed in the last 50 years and corresponds to the isopycnic surface of t 16,10– 16,15 kg/m3. In deep waters of the Black Sea (below 1750 m) the concentration of hydrogen sulphide gradually increases, which, however, requires confirmation by in-situ measurements over a longer period.

Influence of morphological features of the underwater coastal slope relief on the generation of storminduced high-energy bottom gravity currents is discussed. Such currents are capable of transporting beach sediments from the swash zone to the outer boundary of the coastal zone. Characteristic features of the regions (orientation of relief forms, gradients of the underwater coastal slope etc.) with positive and negative forms of relief oriented across the coast were identified and investigated by example of the underwater coastal slope of the Sambian Peninsula (Kaliningrad Oblast, south-eastern part of the Baltic Sea). Raster image processing methods were applied to the digital elevation model, and potential steepest descend trajectories of beach sediments were calculated. It is shown that the orographic factor is characteristic of several areas of the underwater coastal slope of the Sambian Peninsula, namely the Svetlogorsk Bay (from the Cape Taran to Pionersky) and the area from the Cape Gvardeisky to Zelenogradsk town at the northern coast, and the area from Yantarny settlement to Donskoe settlement at the western coast. In these areas the slope of the bottom can reach 2° value. These morphological peculiarities of the coastal zone affect the sediment balance, contributing to the transport of suspended matter to greater depths, and causing the degradation and erosion of beaches.

The spatial distribution of Caragana jubata (Pall.) Poir. is analyzed on the basis of herbarium materials, literary data and online documents. The analysis of spatial distribution of Caragana jubata made it possible to reveal the heterogenic distribution of occurrence sites of the species, resulting from the history of species origin and resettlement, as well as its coenotic association. Caragana jubata has a disjunctive area. Moving northward from the center of origin in the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau through the mountain systems, the species found favorable habitats in the mountains of the Eastern Sayan and the Stanovoye Highlands,  where it is a relict of the Tertiary period. Basing on the map of the spatial distribution, the geographical aspects of Caragana jubata participation in vegetation cover of the different regions were revealed.