Joint effect of altitude, island area and atmospheric circulation for the altitudinal position of the forest belt is described basing on publications and materials of six voyages to the tropical islands of the Pacific and Indian oceans. Two landscape types prevail above the foggy forest zone, i.e. fern-wet-meadow on the slopes facing the trade winds and dry shrublands, analogues of subtropical maquis, above the upper limit of trade winds or on the leeward slopes. In the former case the upper forest line depends on the permanently high relative humidity, up to 95–100%. A logarithmic dependence of the upper forest line altitude on the island area has been revealed. The island area determines the degree of transformation of marine air masses entering the islands. Specific heat capacity of the island surface is 4–5 times lower than that of water; in the daytime a greater share of energy is consumed for turbulent heat exchange with the atmosphere as compared to water. Therefore, the level of moisture condensation on small islands is lower than on larger ones, and the process of photosynthesis in trees is either inhibited or absent.

Аnthropogenic changes in the coastal zone of the Russian Arctic seas are overviewed for the first time. Maps of the anthropogenic transformation of relief and relief-forming processes (scale 1:15 000 000) and corresponding databases have been compiled using the interpreted data from satellite images and literature sources. Six stages of the coast development have been identified, i.e. Pre-revolutionary (including 2 sub-stages: before the 18th century and from the 18th century till 1918), Komseveroput’ (1919–1932), Glavsevmorput’ (1933–1963), Departmental (1964–1991), Changes of economic structure (1992–1998) and Neocapitalist (1999 – present) with pre-sanctional (1999–2014) and sanctional (after 2014) substages. For each of them specific types of the anthropogenic impact on the coastal zone were determined. During all stages, except that of 1992–1998, the load on the coasts increased, and the anthropogenic changes accumulated. After deloading the coasts relaxation occurred just in places without engineering structures in the coastal zone. However, the anthropogenic changes of the Russian Arctic coasts are still of local character. We identified 89 sites of anthropogenic impact with a total length of about 1% of the total coastline of the Russian Arctic seas. At 56% of them Transformation of relief and relief-forming processes result from the construction of industrial, military and transport facilities in the coastal zone (56%), and operation of facilities located outside (44%). Changes of the coastal relief are insignificant and local for 62% of the sites; 20% of the sites undergo the increasing denudation relief-forming processes (coastal, cryogenic, slope, and aeolian) at a distance of up to 1 km from the source of impact. Transformation of relief-forming processes caused rapid coastal retreat and/or flooding of coastal areas for 18% of the sites; the changes spread to 1–12 km from the source of impact. The most profound changes in the coastal zone result from the construction of port facilities and pipeline crossings; accumulative (beach and lagoon) and thermoabrasion coasts are particularly vulnerable to human impact.

The article presents the results of a medium-scale study and mapping of the environment-forming functions of forests in the reference landscapes located in various physical and geographical areas of the Moscow region, namely the Verkhnevolzhskaya Lowland, the Klinsko-Dmitrovskaya range, the Teplostanskaya Upland and the Meshcherskaya Lowland. The actual forest diversity was determined for each landscape from the vegetation map; the dynamics of each forest epi-assosiation was identified, and the vegetation index was calculated using the Landsat space imagery. The production of oxygen and the carbon sequestration by phytomass are calculated for 1 ha of some types of forests, the composition and structure of which are covered in available publications. The sources of information are field studies by the author, the Department of Biogeography of the MSU Faculty of Geography, the Center of Forest Ecology and Productivity of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and literary sources. Using methods of mathematical statistics and values of the vegetation index, a method for calculating the environment-forming functions for each forest area of reference landscapes is proposed. This made it possible to give a cartographic assessment of the contribution of main tree species to the environment-forming functions of forests. The highest values of oxygen production are characteristic of floodplain forests with gray and black alder, hazel and willow, as well as for nominally primary broad-leaved species. The maximum production of oxygen is observed in the landscapes with low anthropogenic impact, i. e. the Verkhnevolzhskaya and Meshcherskaya lowlands, the minimum production – in the anthropogenically disturbed forests of the Teplostanskaya Upland. And, the swampy terrain of the low-lying landscapes determines relatively high values of carbon sequestration by forests. The paper gives examples of the evaluation maps of environment-forming functions of forests. The results can be used for sustainable forest management with the aim of recommending the conservation measures for the most valuable forest communities in a landscape. Disregard of the environmental component leads to the degradation of both forests and the whole ecosystem, thus affecting the ecological situation and the human health.

The prospects of the use of solar energy, which helps to reduce capital costs for the treatment of sewage sludge under natural conditions, provides leadership in the selection of natural-technical systems for the treatment sewage sludge – drying beds (sewage dumps). A distinctive feature of the functioning of drying beds is the direct dependence of the operating mode on the climate load (µ), i. e. the combined influence of average annual air temperature and precipitation. The dynamics of µ was studied for drying beds located within the territory of the Leningrad region. The paper analyzes the regulatory requirements and recommendations for the operation of drying beds that «migrate» from one version of regulatory documents to another. The main standard criteria of climate load (µ) do not match the actual influence of average annual air temperature and precipitation as basic parameters of the operation of natural-technical waste treatment systems. It was found that the average annual amount of precipitation exceeded the established norms by 1 to 3 steps, while the range of average annual air temperatures of the entire chronological series corresponded to the standard step of ranking. The influence of atmospheric precipitation changed the value of µ and its territorial specifics. The results of the study allow for the conclusion that the increasing precipitation could contribute to the loss of operational and environmental protection properties of the natural-technical sewage sludge treatment systems designed and operated in accordance with the regulatory requirements.

The erosion of river banks is a most dangerous form of channel processes. Besides from creating a threat to settlements and engineering facilities on the banks it affects the channel regime of rivers, and provokes changes of the channel forms, their parameters, flow structure and hydraulics. However the bank erosion in relation to the channel morphodynamics is still poorly explored. The paper provides general description of bank erosion for the Lower Ob River. The banks are relatively homogeneous in terms of lithological composition (sandy-loamy) along the whole length of a branching channel under water distribution over numerous branches and floodplain channels. Using the remote sensing data for different time intervals we calculated the erosion rates and the length of erosion front. The main parameters of the principal channel types of the Lower Ob River, i. e. branching channels, meanders and bifurcated channels, were revealed. The erosion rates increase and the length of erosion front decreases in the meanders with low curvature, and the bank erosion depends on the local situation. The high curvature and wavelength of meander or branching channel provide for a long front of erosion and low rates of river banks erosion. It was found that higher water discharge and water distribution over branches and floodplain channels leads to increasing river banks erosion in the branching and bifurcated channels. Under otherwise equal conditions the intensity of river banks erosion is higher in the branches with greater water discharge.

The rates of erosion-accumulation processes were estimated and the contribution of various sediment sources was identified for the catchment of the actually drained Popovsky Pond, located in the northern outskirts of Kursk. The rates of sediment accumulation in the pond and dry valley bottoms over two time intervals were determined using ¹³⁷Cs of Chernobyl and global origin as a tracer. Fatty acids were for the first time used in Russia as tracers to assess the contribution of various sediment sources. It was established that 97–98% of sediment accumulated in the bottom of the pond came from the catchment in the period of 1964–1986, and the denudation rate in the catchment area was 1,7 mm/year. Sediment yield from the pond catchment was minimal after 1986 until it was drained in 2010. A sharp decrease in sediment yield results from higher air temperatures in the winter months after 1986, which led to a decrease in the frozen soil depth and an almost complete cessation of surface water runoff and erosion during spring snowmelt. Landuse changes in the catchment area with a significant reduction of arable lands and an increase of urban areas, especially since the late 1990s, was an additional, but less significant factor. It has been established that the sediments eroded from the arable lands were the main source of pond siltation. They account for 50% of the total sediments accumulated in the pond. At least 18% of bottom sediments are produced by gully erosion. Moreover, the actual contribution of gully erosion may be even higher. This is due to the fact that the use of fatty acids as tracers makes it impossible to reliably separate sediments which were formed due the gully erosion under the forest and between the forest and the apple orchard from the sediments which were formed due to soil erosion in the garden and in the forest.

Ice conditions of the Northern Caspian and their long-term dynamics depending on winter severity were analyzed basing on the observation data. Moderate types of winters prevail, but the number of severe and mild winters varies. Since the 1960s, the number of severe winters decreases, while the number of mild winters is on the increase. Ice covers about 75,5% of the Northern Caspian in severe winters, 65,1% in moderate, and 47,2% in mild winters. Average ice cover for the period 1940–2015 is 57%, however the ice cover decreased by 11%. The average long-term duration of the ice season is 81–124 days for the Kulaly and Peshnoye observation points, respectively. In mild winters ice formation begins few weeks later than the long-term average (sometimes a month later), and in severe winters 1 to 2 weeks earlier. The study showed that the ice season became shorter by 16 days in Peshnoye and 6 days in Astrakhan (in comparison with other data sources). Original classification of winter periods has been elaborated and performed basing on a number of factors: types of winters for coastal station (severe, moderate, mild); value and date of the minimum air temperature for coastal stations during winter season; average value of ice coverage of the North Caspian for the season (%); start and end dates and duration of the ice season (days). The classification suggests that during the 1950s – 1970s severe winter periods prevailed at all weather stations of the Caspian Sea region. After the 1970s moderate and mild winter periods showed an increasing tendency while severe winter periods occurred once-twice a decade.

The article presents the results of studying the evidences of cryogenesis in alluvial and loess-soil deposits of the Lower Volga River region. Four stages of the development of permafrost processes during the Late Pleistocene were newly recognized for the region through the example of the Srednyaya Akhtuba reference section. The processes of cryogenic transformation of sediments under seasonal freezing and the existence of perennial permafrost during the Late Pleistocene predetermined the composition, structure and properties of loess and paleosoils. Cryolithological, particle size and micromorphological analyzes of mineral matter were carried out for each horizon and the evidences of cryogenic processes were described to evaluate the paleogeographic conditions of their formation. The age of the main stages of cryogenic processes in the Lower Volga River region was determined by the optically stimulated luminescence method. The fourth stage of cryogenic processes took place during MIS-4 under the Atelian regression of the Caspian Sea. The third stage is expressed as large wedge-shaped structures (pseudomorphoses) on the border of loess and alluvial horizon; their formation relates to the degradation of ice wedges. During the first and second stages of freezing plastic deformations of sediments occurred.

The article deals with the main stages of international migration in Germany in the second half of the 20^th century. During the period three stages of migration could be identified. The first stage was the postwar period and the 1960s, when return migrations took place and migration policy measures were put in place to attract labor migrants to the country. During the second stage (1970–1980) flows of labor migrants to Germany were formed, and the principal groups of foreigners appeared in the country. At this time the main approaches to the policy of integration of migrants and the main directions of research on international migrations were developed. The third stage of migration (1990–2010) is characterized by political system changes in Eastern Europe, the collapse of the USSR, and the formation of a single European labor market. As a result of the sixty-year-long international migration the proportion of foreign citizens in Germany has grown to almost 10% of the country’s population accounting for more than 8 million people. Germany is the leader among Western European states in terms of the number of migrants arriving to the country. The article analyzes the transformations of migration process, correlates the changes in migration situation with the main lines of research on the international migration, and focuses on the transformation of scientific discourse around the migration research in Germany. The article considers the changing attitude of scientific community and the state to the issue of the integration of migrants into the German society, depending on the scale and structure of migration flows.
The characteristics of each migration stage are discussed, as well as the main features of integration policy and the main research topics. A trend of research agenda expansion with increasing proportion and number of migrants is revealed. The present-day geography of international migration flows in Germany is described. In conclusion, the possibility of applying the «lessons» of the German migration experience to the current migration situation is considered for Russia, which has recently become a country that actively attracts international labor migrants.

Depending on the context it is expedient to consider watershed nodes as both points on topographic or geomorphologic maps (node top) and specific forms of relief with conformal geological content (watershed node-morphostructure – WNM) hosting the sources of watercourses and top parts of their valleys. Such approach which accents WMN as key elements of the structure, factors of development of various orogenic systems and areas of denudation in general allows a new approach to the geological-geomorphologic analysis of correlation between orographic features and network of watercourses for the territories and the issues of their formation, evolution, etc. Several main types of disharmonies have been identified: 1 – the intersection of orogenic arches and mountain ranges by rivers resulting in formation of canyon-like antecedent valleys with maximum incision; 2 – abnormally high concentration of river sources within particular WMN; 3 – remoteness of some large WNM from the areas of maximum heights of mountain ranges and rises of the territories; 4 – river captures, accompanied by the introduction of watercourses of neighboring river systems into the interfluves and the changes in plan patterns of WMN and water catchments. Using the examples of different objects and regions (Far East, Siberia, Europe, North America) it is shown that the bases of these phenomena are heterochrony and heterogeneity of the WNMs of the territories, different time of WNMs and drainage network formation, the presence of long-living centers of endogenous activity and granite formation, with which WNMs are associated, etc.
Energy dependence of the Earth’s crust uplifting makes it possible to consider WNMs associated with focal morphostructures as universal elements of the structure of orogens and regions of tectonomagmatic activity being most resistant to tectonic destruction and denudation.

The main criteria of the vertical stability of water in the upper 100-meter layer of the Laptev Sea are calculated from the reconstructed spatial-temporal variability of the three-dimensional structure of temperature and salinity, obtained on the basis of numerical experiments using the regional configuration of the NEMO mathematical model adapted to the conditions of the Arctic Ocean. The modeling results are presented on a vertical section crossing both shallow and deep-water parts of the sea. The structural changes in the distribution of vertical water stability were revealed for warm periods in the beginning of the XXI century with the ice cover shrinkage. During these periods the situations favoring the development of a full vertical stability of waters are more frequent. The range of changes of the Brunt-Väisälä frequency in the «warm» years decreases against the «cold» year of 2004. The depth of the layer with maximum values of the Brunt-Väisälä frequency increases during the periods of ice melting. At the same time the negative thermohaline stability is more intensive in spring in shallow areas of the sea, extending into a deeper surface layer. During winter period of «warm» years the area of the section with a positive criterion of thermohaline stability decreases both for the deep-water and the shallow-water parts of the section. The depth of the layer with negative values of the density ratio reaches the highest values during summer periods of the «warm» years.

A landscape-geochemical catena with Albic Retisols (Loamic) under coniferous-deciduous forest on loess-like loams underlain by carbonate moraine deposits located in the southern part of the Central Forest Reserve on a gentle interfluve slope was studied to evaluate the migration of trace elements in the soil–plant system. Biogeochemical differentiation of landscapes was analyzed basing on Mn, Fe, Zn, Sr, Cu, Ni, Cr and Pb concentrations in parent rocks, soils and plants. Soils of the catens have near-clarke content of Mn and Pb and lower content of Cu, Fe, Zn, Ni, Sr and Cr. In the upper part of the catena, A and O-horizons are enriched in Pb, Mn and Zn. E-horizon is depleted in Fe, Ni, Sr and Zn. B-horizon has a higher content of Cr, Ni and Cu and a lower content of Sr and Mn. Ash proportions in studied coniferous and broadleaved species of coniferous-decidous forests are 1–4 and 1–8% respectively, while it is 3–12% for the aboveground parts of grasses. The studied plant species contain near-clarke amounts of Cu, Zn and Ni. Branches and bark of woody plants are depleted in Fe and Cr, while sphagnum has lower content of Sr. Within the lower part of catena Fe content in plants decreases and this of Mn increases. Within the upper part of catena where plant leaves and needles accumulate Mn, Cu, Sr and Zn more actively than within its lower part, the element concentrations in plant organs differ slightly. Spatial differentiation of the total content decreases from Mn, Ni and Fe to Zn, Sr and Cu. Trees are the most active in the uptake and turnover of biophilic Mn and Zn while sphagnum and grasses mostly accumulate Fe, Cr and Pb. At the catena (toe)slope grass-shrub plants and tree leaves accumulate Cu. In the landscapes of the upper part of catena metals show more even distribution compared to the lower part where photosynthetic organs of plants accumulate Mn, Cu, Sr and Zn. Concentrations of Mn, Ni and Fe show the highest differentiation along the catena, while Zn, Sr and Cu are evenly distributed. Needles of Picea abies most intensively accumulate Mn in all landscapes (especially in hydromorphic). The photosynthetic organs of Picea abies, Tilia cordata, Salix caprea and Sphagnum have the greatest biogeochemical activity with the main contribution of Mn, Cu, Sr, Zn and Ni. The lowest biogeochemical activity is characteristic of Acer platanoides and Ulmus glabra.

Manifestations of the interaction between spatial structure and the formation of ethnic exclusion areas are analyzed through the example of Zagreb (Croatia). Roma ethnic community and Bosnians are most at risk of ethnic exclusion, which is largely due to their common migration history and compact settlement in Zagreb. Elements with a barrier function for the residential areas were identified within the structure of the urban space of Zagreb, namely rivers, railways, large highways, industrial and commercial areas, and green park areas. We distinguished Residential areas that combine characteristics of geographical isolation and social exclusion on ethnic grounds were recognized. It was found out that geographical isolation of the areas of residence was a key factor that aggravated social exclusion. The main behavior strategy of Roma and Bosnians, who are trying to get out of the ethnic exclusion, is to move from a territorially isolated residential area.

The Karangatian transgression of the Black Sea is a significant stage in its Pleistocene history. There is no consensus on the chronometric estimate of the age of this event. The paper presents the dating results for the Karangatian deposits cored from the Tuzla key section on the western coast of the Taman Peninsula. The mollusk shell composition of sediments indicates that the section reflects the peak phase of the transgression. A new absolute chronology bases on the dating by the method of infrared stimulated luminescence of feldspars. The distribution of credible intervals and the results of standard tests are in exact accordance with the ranges accepted in the operational practice of luminescence dating, thus the obtained results could be considered as reliable. The age of the Karangatian deposits of the Tuzla section matches with the time interval of 125–120 ka BP, which corresponds to the peak of the interglacial period (MIS 5e). The waters of the Karangat basin reached the section area about 125 ka BP, and the coastalmarine deposition began at 3.5 m AMSL. The basin level reached 5,3 m AMSL in 120 ka BP, the rise of 1,8 m during 5 thousand years. After 120 ka BP, the local marine sedimentation was insignificant. The subaerial deposition stage in the western part of the Taman Peninsula began about 100 ka BP. The section contains a loess-soil series with three layers of buried soils. An additional geochronological study of the upper part of the section will determine the age of these layers and reconstruct the substages of subaerial deposition stage of the Late Pleistocene regional history.