From the editor-in-chief

Main directions of activity of geographers and Russian Geographical Society in the Second World War are described. There were military geographical support of the armed forces, the activity of geographers to rear, and the work of geographers in the war – research, educational, and pedagogic. The role of the participants of the war (both who has become geographers before the war and veterans who came in geography after the Victory) in the post-war development of geographical science is shown. The necessity of future study under aegis of the Russian Geographical Society, as well as at the level of regional geographic and research centers is underlined.

With the depletion of natural resources in old developed parts of the world there is a need to expand the resource base in new areas. Since the beginning of the 1950s, new resource areas in developed countries have been introduced. Large resource bases targeting both domestic consumption and export were created there. They had changed signifi cantly location of global mining. The energy crisis of the 1970s caused the development of energy production on the oceanic shelf. In recent decades the interest in the development and redistribution of global spaces – oceanic, air, cosmic, informational and circumpolar spaces – is growing. The value of the oceanic shelf as a new area of development is permanently growing. Currently a third of the planet’s mineral resources is produced on the shelf. The development of offshore hydrocarbon production takes a special place. From 1991 the “Deepwater Club” included most of the coastal countries, which accounted for a third of the world’s production of hydrocarbons. With the development of production in the Arctic, this share is expected to increase to 50%. The development of marine mining gave an impetus to the intensive development of coastal zones. Natural resource factor of economic development has historically tended to continental sources. In developed countries in the era of scientifi c and technological revolution territorial shifts in location of the economy had initially shifted to new resource areas, now – to the oceanic shelf where the convergence of oceanic and terrestrial economies takes place.

Classifications of faunas of Northern Eurasia (separately for classes and groups of fish and cyclostomes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, as well as for all vertebrates and for all terrestrial vertebrates) are performed using methods of cluster analysis. Result of classifications are used as the basis for zoning of the territory of Northern Eurasia. Comparative evaluation of the zoning schemes by the share of dispersion of matrix of similarity of specifi c faunas which is taken into account by zoning schemes is obtained. The degree of correlation between the variability of fauna and environmental factors identified in the analysis, which determine the fauna heterogeneity, is calculated.

Different migration flows – resettlement to the permanent residence and seasonal labor migrations both of Russian population and foreign workers – are analyzed. Higher level of correlation between the intensity of labour migration of Russian population and their resettlement to the permanent residence, their orientation to the central regions of Russia and the largest cities, as well as the divergence with migrate paths of foreign workers are identified. The analysis of regional labor migration was founded on different statistical sources and at the same time used indirect methods of study of socioeconomic state and migration attractiveness of cities of different size in Russian macroregions from 1991 to 2011. The results of sociological studies of key rural areas also are used. In modern institutional conditions seasonal works as a kind of temporary labor migration with week, month, and more long periods are considered as one of the main way of ensuring the necessary living level outside large agglomerations. This process not only has social consequences for the population, but also enhances the polarization of the Russian space, blocks the development of peripheral areas, small and medium towns. The article is accompanied with maps, charts and tables.

The problems of nation-building today cause the exploration of new frontiers, the evolution of their functions and roles in Eastern Europe and Russia and the comparison of the process of establishing new boundaries in the East of the European Union. Socioeconomic, ethno-cultural and historical features of the regions concerning the practice of cross-border activities, as well as institutional infrastructure defi ning the processes of cross-border integration in two different cross-border regions: Kaliningrad (Russian) and Transcarpathian (Ukraine) oblasts, are shown.

In the first part of the paper the choice of regions is justified, their similar historical, institutional and ethno-cultural features that determine the development of cross-border cooperation are analyzed. The second part is devoted to the analysis of socioeconomic development of chosen regions in comparison with neighboring regions. The level of development of the Kaliningrad and Transcarpathian oblasts is compared with the level of development of similar administrative units of neighboring countries: counties and communes of Lithuania, provinces and powiats of Poland, counties of Romania and Hungary, territories and districts of Slovakia. Differences and contrasts along the border are considered in the context of actual and potential cross-border interactions and cooperation. In the third part authors examine the practice of cross-border activities along the border, including the impact of the border on the everyday life of local people. The main purpose of the paper is to determine the degree of infl uence of various factors on the development of cross-border integration, and to assess its prospects on the case of the Kaliningrad and Transcarpathian oblasts.

Various options for method of the over long-term hydrological forecasts of annual runoff for several river basins in Central Asia (Amu Darya, Syr Darya, Tarim, Ganges, Indus, Mekong, Brahmaputra, Yangtze, Huang He) are investigated. Annual air temperature, precipitation, and normalized difference of anomalies of these variables according to data of meteostations and for gridded values having 0.5 degree increments in latitude and longitude were tested as inputs. Informative capability of each predictor for calculating runoff in river basins of Central Asia was described. Expected air temperature as a predictor for long-term forecasts of river runoff was obtained by extrapolating the proper temporal series. Simulation, calculation and forecast of glacial runoff and evaporation were performed in the ablation zone of Central Asia glaciers. The input data for the model are: precipitation, average temperature and humidity during the summer, generalized areal, altitudinal and morphological parameters of the glaciation. In order to optimize the method of calculating of regime of glaciation, the populations of glaciers in the basins of the tributaries of the Amu Darya, Syr Darya, Indus, Ganges, Yellow, Yangtze, Brahmaputra and Tarim rivers were allocated to 3815 homogeneous groups of objects. Eight values of altitude and 23 gradations of glacier area are consistently applied as classifi cation criteria. For each group the average and weighted average morphometric characteristics of glaciers were determined. Data from 53 225 glaciers with a total area of 81144 km2 in the basins of Central Asia are used to demonstrate the capabilities of the method. Modelled values of water balance components (runoff, precipitation, and evaporation) were obtained for river basins of Vakhsh, Panj, Zarafshan, Naryn, Brahmaputra.

The physical basis of the long-term asynchronous link between the thermal regime of the North Atlantic in August (March) and the conditions of the thermal regime in the Volga Federal District in next January (July) is discussed. Methodology and results of testing of possibility of use of the informative properties of the fi elds of temperature anomalies of the ocean surface for long-term forecasting of the thermal regime in the district are presented. Comparative data on the effectiveness of methods of “secondary standards” and non-parametric discriminant analysis used in experimental forecasts are contained.

The results of the comparative analysis of the characteristics of pressure centers which influenced the weather in Siberia in 1976–2011 according to the surface synoptic maps and maps constructed using NCEP/DOE AMIP II reanalysis are presented. The area of study was limited by 50–70°N, 60–110°E. Such characteristics as number of cyclones and anticyclones, pressure in their centers, pressure gradient, duration of live are investigated. It is found that reanalysis data represent the qualitative picture of the temporal variability of pressure centers quite correctly. In the second half of the studied period cyclones have become less deep and anticyclones have become less intensive. The average value of the pressure gradient of pressure centers obtained using surface synoptic maps is less than that obtained using reanalysis data by factor of two or three. Average long-term duration of the impact on the territory of the pressure centers using the surface synoptic maps and reanalysis data is almost the same. In general, for Siberia over the period of 1976–2011, according to surface synoptic maps data, duration of anticyclonic weather had increased, but according to reanalysis data, duration of cyclonic weather had increased.

The questions of geoecological assessment of agrarian lands in Krasnoyarsk Krai, in connection with impact of the dangerous natural phenomena are discussed. Approaches for insurance of agrarian lands considering geoecological risk of the natural hazards are validated. Forecast of areas of the loss of grain crops by zones of geoecological risk of impact of the dangerous natural phenomena for calculations of the insurance payment are defi ned.

Moscow has various sources and weather conditions for the increase of dust content of air, both due to technogenic emissions, and due to diffusion of loose material from surface. Samples of solid atmospheric fallouts in roadside areas are studied. Airborne fallouts participate in formation of city soils. Solid atmospheric fallouts promote enrichment of the soil by compounds of carbon, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, chlorine and heavy metals. The main part of samples consists of different sizes silicate particles – from sand to thin silt. In all samples the carbonates and high-carbonaceous particles, organic remains of different degree of decomposition, and also hyphas and conidia of fungi are found. Also there are particles of artifi cial materials. Airborne fallouts are weakly responsible for the extreme character of urban soils. Samples are aggregated with a primary size of micro units 10-50mkm that strongly reduces risk of secondary pollution by heavy metals due to sorption of thin particles containing heavy metals on a surface of silicate grains and an organic material.

Paleopalynological researches of modern sedimentary deposits allowed discovering specifics and tendencies of the development of vegetation cover on the islands of Peter the Great Bay in Holocene under climatic fluctuations and the related with them variations of the sea level as well as under the impact of a human factor. In cold Holocene periods small-leaved-broadleaved forests with Betula fruticosa were widespread. During warm periods broadleaved forests predominated. In the second half of Late Holocene the development of coniferous-broadleaved forests occurred. The climate was colder than the present one. Vegetation of modern islands consists of broadleaved and sparse broadleaved forests which appeared under the impact of the anthropogenic factor. It is also noted that the areas occupied with meadow and shrubby communities are spreading. The comparative analysis of the islands by the similarity of the stages of paleovegetation development allows identifying regularities and factors of the development of vegetation cover.

It is found that the high diversity of the upland ecosystems in sub-tundra woodlands of the Lower Kolyma River is caused by frequent fi res. The type of successions, the power of the active layer, the degree of gleization of the soil profi le, the intensity of cryogenic processes of mass transfer, the size of carbon stocks, the classificatory status of soils depends on the strength and duration of the fi re. Post-pirogenic transformation of vegetation, soils and tree species evolve according to the cascade principle, when every previous change generates and enhances subsequent change, i.e. feedback mechanisms are working actively. In the first years after the fire the expected reduction in carbon stocks of organic horizons (–3.4 kilogram of carbon per square meter) is observed, however, in the later stages the post-pirogenic effect of surplus (relative to initial) accumulation of organic matter at mineral surfaces (+1.7 kilogram of carbon per square meter) occurs. Such consequences of fi res as the lowering-lifting of roof permafrost and the intensification of cryogenic mass transfer in conditions of active organic matter accumulation of upper horizons can lead to post-pirogenic increase of the carbon pool of mineral depth (+2.5 kilogram of carbon per square meter). The time required to recover after a severe fire the initial stocks of soil carbon is 60–200 years.

The works of the famous Russian geographer, historian, ethnographer and economist P.I. Rychkov (1712–1777) “Orenburg history” (Istoriiya Orenburgskaya) and “Topography of Orenburg Gubernia” (Topografi ya Orenburgskoi gubernii) republished in recent years in Russia are analyzed. They are an important resource on the history and geography of Russia, Kazakhstan, Central Asia and they have still saved their scientific signifi cance. The author of the article points out the advantages and disadvantages of their editorial preparation and makes a conclusion that the majority of the reeditions do not meet modern demands of archeography and textology. Special attention is paid to the necessity of obligatory scientific commentation of the writings of Russian geographers of the 18th century.