CONTENT 1 (5) 2012

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GEOGRAPHY

Yury G. Chendev

Russia, National Research Belgorod State University; 308015, Belgorod, Pobeda St. 85
E-mail: Chendev@bsu.edu.ru
Corresponding author

Aleksandr N. Petin

Russia, National Research Belgorod State University; 308015, Belgorod, Pobeda St. 85

Anthony R. Lupo

USA; University of Missouri; 302 Anheuser-Busch Natural Resources Building, Columbia, MO 65211-7250
E-mail: LupoA@missouri.edu

Abstract:
A number of examples for the reaction of chernozems in the center of the East European Plain and their relation to different periodical climatic changes are examined. According to unequal-age chernozems properties, the transition from the Middle Holocene arid conditions to the Late Holocene wet conditions occurred at 4000 yr BP. Using data on changes of soil properties, the position of boundary between steppe and forest-steppe and the annual amount of precipitation at approximately 4000 yr BP were reconstructed. The change from warm-dry to cool-moist climatic phases, which occurred at the end of the XX century as a reflection of intra-age-long climatic cyclic recurrence, led to the strengthening of dehumification over the profile of automorphic chernozems and to the reduction of its content in the upper meter of the soils. The leaching of carbonates and of readily soluble salts contributed to the decrease in soil areas occupied by typical and solonetzic chernozems, and to the increase in areas occupied by leached chernozems.
Key words: chernozems, climate change, Holocene, forest-steppe, steppe

Department of Research in Human Geography, Institute of Geography, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine
E-mail: ivansavchuk@yahoo.com

Abstract:
The longer the distance that separates Ukraine from a state—object of international passenger communication, the higher is the administrative rank of the city-terminus of this communication. In 2007, 139 international passenger trains and 76 direct carriages ran through the country. Owing to the effect of historical inertia, Ukrainian cities are predominantly connected by international passenger service with Russian cities, especially with Moscow.
Key words: international passenger railway communication of Ukraine, metropolization, polarization, geo-economy, geopolitics, geo-history

Deputy Director on Research, Ye. M. Sergeev Institute of Geoecology of RAS P.O. Box 145 Ulanskyi Ln, 13-2, 101000 Moscow, Russia
Phone: +7-495-624-7257
E-mail: dist@geoenv.ru

Abstract:
This paper discusses potential of obtaining answers to key issues related to the use of landscape metrics by applying approaches of mathematical landscape morphology. Mathematical landscape morphology that has emerged in Russia’s geography in recent years serves as the basis of the new scientific direction in landscape science. Mathematical landscape morphology deals with quantitative regularities of the development of landscape patterns and methods of mathematical analysis. The results of the research conducted have demonstrated that landscape metrics are subjected to stochastic laws specific to genetic types of territories; furthermore, these laws may be derived through mathematical analysis. It has been also shown that the informational value of different landscape metrics differs and can be predicted. Finally, some landscape metrics, based on the values derived from single observations, nevertheless allow one to provide assessment of dynamic parameters of existing processes; thus, the volume of repeated monitoring observations could be reduced. Other metrics do not posses this characteristic. All results have been obtained by applying mathematical landscape modeling.
Key words: landscape metrics, mathematical landscape morphology, landscape pattern, mathematical models

Dmitry O. Sergeev

Permafrost Laboratory, Institute of Environmental Geoscience, Russian Academy of Sciences
Phone: +7-495-607-4789
E-mail: d.sergeev@geoenv.ru
Corresponding author

Nikolai N. Romanovskiy

Geocryology Department, Faculty of Geology, Moscow State University
Phone: +7-495-939-1937
Fax: +7-495-932-8889

Gennadiy S. Tipenko

Geocryology Laboratory, Institute of Environmental Geoscience, Russian Academy of Sciences
Phone: +7-495-607-4789
E-mail: gstipenko@mail.ru

Sergey N. Buldovich

Geocryology Department, Faculty of Geology, Moscow State University
Phone: +7-495-939-4920
E-mail: ser_bul@rambler.ru

Anatoly V. Gavrilov

Laboratory of the Geological Environment, Faculty of Geology, Moscow State University
Phone: +7-495-939-4920
E-mail: agavrilov37@mail.ru

Kenji Yoshikawa

Water Resource Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, USA

Vladimir E. Romanovsky

Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks; PO Box 750109, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA
Phone: +1-907-474-7459
Fax: +1-907-474-7290
E-mail: veromanovsky@alaska.edu

Abstract:
Using the balance method authors showed for the case of 1990 that the reaction of the river discharge on the climate change is different in the regions with continuous and sporadic permafrost extent. In mountain with continuous permafrost extent the climate warming has no strong influence on the river discharge but affects on the ice-mounds’ volume. In case of sporadic permafrost extent the decreasing of permafrost area to 30% leads to decreasing of snow-melting overflow up to 38%. Also the period of the flood became longer because the underground storage increasing that takes away the precipitation, snow-melting and condensation water from surface discharge.
Key words: permafrost, underground water, river run-off, climate change, numerical simulation

ENVIRONMENT

Lachezar H. Filchev

Chief assistant, Remote Sensing and GIS Department, Space Research and Technology Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (SRTI-BAS), Acad. Georgi Bonchev St., bl. 1, 1113, Sofia, Bulgaria
Phone: +359-2-9792490
E-mail: lachezarhf@gmail.com

Eugenia K. Roumenina

Associate professor, Remote Sensing and GIS Department, Space Research and Technology Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (SRTI-BAS), Acad. Georgi Bonchev St., bl. 1, 1113, Sofia, Bulgaria
Phone: +359-2-9793939
E-mail: eroumenina@gmail.com
Corresponding author

Abstract:
Remote sensing have become one of decisive technologies for detection and assessment of abiotic stress situations, such as snowstorms, forest fires, drought, frost, technogenic pollution etc. Present work is aiming at detection and assessment of abiotic stress of coniferous landscapes caused by uranium mining using high resolution satellite data from Landsat. To achieve the aim, ground-based geochemical data and were coupled with the satellite data for two periods, i.e. prior and after uranium mining decommissioning, into a file geodatabase in ArcGIS/ArcInfo 9.2, where spatial analyses were carried out. As a result, weak and very weak relationships were found between the factor of technogenic pollution—Z_c and vegetation indices NDVI, NDWI, MSAVI, TVI, and VCI. The TVI performs better compared to other indices in terms of separability among classes, whereas the NDVI and VCI correlate well than other indices with Z_c.
Key words: remote sensing, high resolution satellite data, abiotic stress, coniferous landscapes, uranium mining, Landsat

Tatyana I. Moiseenko

V.I.Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry of RAS Kosygin Street 19, Moscow, 119991 Russian Federation
Phone: +7-495-939-3810
Fax: +7-495-938-2054
E-mail: moiseenko@geokhi.ru
Corresponding author

Andrey N. Sharov

Northern Water Problems Institute, Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, A.Nevsky 50, 185030, Petrozavodsk, Russian Federation
Phone: +7-812-230-7838
E-mail: sharov_an@mail.ru

Alexey A. Voinov

Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) University of Twente P.O. Box 6, 7500 AA Enschede, The Netherlands
Phone: +31-0-53-487-4507

Alexandr D. Shalabodov

Tyumen State University of Russia; Semakova Street 10, 625003 Tyumen, Russian Federation
Phone: +7-3452-461131
Fax: +7-3452-410059
E-mail: shalabodov@utmn.ru

Abstract:
A retrospective analysis of aquatic ecosystem long-term changes in the Russian large lakes: Ladoga, Onega, and Imandra, is given. The lakes in the past were oligotrophic and similar in their origin, water chemistry and fauna. The ecosystems transformed under the impact of pollution with toxic substances and nutrients. There are three stages of ecosystem quality: background parameters and degradation and recovery trends after the decrease of the toxic stress. On the stage of degradation, species abundance and community biodiversity were decreased. Eurybiontic species abundance and biomass were increased due to lack of competitive connections in toxic conditions and biogenic inflow. Small forms of organisms (r-strategists), providing more rapid biomass turnover in ecosystem, dominated in the formed plankton communities. On the stage of decrease of the toxic pollution, the lakes recolonization with northern species occurs, which is confirmed by replacement of dominating complexes, increasing index of plankton community biodiversity, and the rise of the mass of individual organisms of the communities. Accumulated nutrients in ecosystems are efficiently utilized at the upper trophic level. The ecosystem state after decrease of the toxic impact indicates formation of its mature and more stable modification, which differs from a natural one.
Key words: long-term pollution, aquatic ecosystem, reference condition, disturbance, recovery

Vitaliy A. Ivanov, Sergey F. Dotsenko, Mikhail V. Shokurov, Vladimir V. Malinovsky

Marine Hydrophysical Institute, Sevastopol, Ukraine

Vladimir A. Dulov

Marine Hydrophysical Institute, Sevastopol, Ukraine
E-mail: dulov1952@gmail.com
Corresponding author

Sergey Yu. Kuznetsov, Yana V. Saprykina

Institute of Oceanology of P.P. Shirshov, Moscow, Russian Federation

Vladislav G. Polnikov

A.M. Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Moscow, Russian Federation

Abstract:
The problem of assessing the risk for a vessel to encounter a killer wave in the Black Sea is considered. Analysis of in situ wave data obtained from the platform of Marine Hydrophysical Institute in the autumn of 2009 shows that occurrence frequency of abnormally high waves (freak, rogue, or killer waves) varies considerably on the time scale of several hours. It is shown that the formation of such waves is associated with nonlinear processes in the wave field, presumably, with the development of modulational instability. Ninety percent of the total number of killer waves was observed in the swell wave system, and 70% of them propagated approximately in wind direction. We propose a scenario of the killer waves formation in the Black Sea. The scenario was confirmed by numerical reconstruction of the wind and wave fields in the Black Sea for the history of storms on Oct. 14, 2009 in Katsiveli and on Feb. 01, 2003 in Gelendzhik, using the MM5 mesoscale atmospheric model and the WAM-C4 wave model. A practical approach to assessing the risk for a vessel to encounter a killer wave in the Black Sea is presented.
Key words: storm seas, killer waves, freak waves, rogue waves, Benjamin-Feir instability, field study in the Black Sea, numerical recovery of wind and wave fields, risk assessment for extreme maritime events

SUSTAINABILITY

Nikolay S. Mironenko

Head of the Department of Geography of World Economy, Faculty of Geography, M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University
E-mail: nikolay_mironenko@mail.ru
Corresponding author

Tatyana Kolchugina

President, Sustainable Development Technology Corporation, Corvallis, Oregon, USA
E-mail: kolchut@gmail.com

Abstract:
This article analyzes the “Dutch disease” as a significant barrier to sustainable economic development of Russia; this is associated with the presence in the country of large hydrocarbon resources and their enhanced export. Rybczynski’s theorem was used to demonstrate negative effects of the “Dutch disease” in advancement of processing industrial sectors. The “oil-shale revolution” that occurs mainly in the U.S. and represents a threat even for the Russian export of natural gas and oil, has been analyzed. A liberal export-oriented model of Russia’s participation in the international division of labor may help overcoming this unstable situation.
Key words: “Dutch disease,” “oil-shale revolution,” export-oriented model, sustainable economic development, Russia

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Abstract: