An ecogeographical position of Russia with respect to foreign sources of ecological hazards, their distribution channels and barriers are identified. External environmental threats, localized in borderlands are considered. A catch basin area, where an “imported” Russia's river runoff is formed, amounts to more than 2 mln km². This area is home to more than 80 mln people. Due to the western air mass transfer, atmospheric pollutions come upon the territory of Russia from all over Europe, but the main “exporters” are Ukraine, Poland and Germany. The areas of concentration of external ecological threats to Russia are identified: the Chernobyl nuclear power plant area, the Ukrainian part of the Severskii Donets basin, the Kazakhstan part of the Irtysh river basin, the China's Amur (Heilong) river basin. In environmental terms, Russia is suffering from neighboring countries more than they are. It should be took into account and used in foreign policy.

The article analyses the regional features of the population dynamics of Russia in the post-Soviet period (1990-2014). Within this period, three time intervals homogeneous by nature of the average Russian dynamics are highlighted (1990-1998, 1999-2006, and 2007-2014). The typology of regional population dynamics is built on the comparison of regional trends with the national average. The rows of the population dynamics in each federal subject are reduced to the combinations of signs “+” (increase) and “-” (decrease) for the three periods; on the basis of these combinations seven types of regional population dynamics are allocated. Geographic features of expansion of each type are analyzed. The results of this typology and its comparison with the author’s earlier typology of regional population dynamics of Russia in the second half of the 20th century (1959-2002), confirmed put forward by the author the hypothesis about the inertia of long-term trends in population dynamics, when the current changes are greatly affected by the sign of the trend of the previous periods (increase or decrease). To identify the contribution to the dynamics of its components the typology of regions by the ratio of natural and mechanical population movement for the most characteristic time intervals having similar trends of dynamics within the period 1990-2014 was conducted. It is established that long-term trends of the population dynamics are the most sustainable for polar types - of constant increase and constant decrease of the population. On the basis of combinations of the dynamics components, zones of permanent increase and permanent decrease of the population within the country are isolated and characterized. It is noted that the influence of economic factors transforms the impact of climate on population dynamics.

Four stages of development of methodology of territorial nature protection in Russia are revealed: (1) the beginning of the operation of the Permanent Environmental Commission under the Russian Geographical Society and implementation of its plans in 1920-1930; (2) Stalin’s (1951) and Khrushchev’s (1961) “destructions” of reserves and the establishment of the Commission for Nature Protection of the Academy of Science of the USSR with its “long-term plan of the geographical network of nature reserves of the USSR” (1958); (3) restoration the network of reserves in 1970-1980; (4) the formation of the legislation, integration into the international system and the development of the geographical network of specially protected natural territories of new Russia. The problems of formation of the Russian network of reserves in relation to the formation of approaches to spatial development and spatial planning are considered.

The paper describes the application of the basic concepts of landscape dynamics (landscape site, landscape state, impact, dynamics and evolution of landscape, dynamic trajectory, etc.) for the study of cultural landscapes. The Karelian isthmus with a complex political and ethnic history is considered as a case of modern diversification and evolution of cultural landscapes. There are processes of active transformation of cultural landscapes, when many of the widespread complexes (rural and agricultural, military objects and settlements) get to the category of relic, and new types of cultural landscapes are formed: collective gardens and “dacha” settlements, cottage settlements, landscapes of sport and recreation, etc. The term “virtual cultural landscape” is proposed for the part of territory used by different communities for different purposes in relatively short periods of time. The transformation of rural cultural landscape in residential-recreational landscape is studied in detail in the key area of 7 km², where the fist state border between Novgorod the Great and Sweden had been established in 1323. The series of maps showing the evolution of the cultural landscape along the banks of the Sestra River (Rajajoki) from the mid-19th century to the early 21st century is presented. It is shown that under any transformations of cultural landscapes the main features of the structure of the landscape sites of the territory retain relative stability that gives advantages for the study of cultural landscapes using the concept of landscape dynamics.

The role of the Atlantic Ocean in climate changes in the Atlantic-European region determines the importance of studying spatial-temporal variability of the field of currents and the wind field generating the circulation of water in the ocean. The analysis of literature shows that data on seasonal variability of currents in the North Atlantic are controversial and reliable information on the interannual variability of ocean circulation in some regions of the North Atlantic it is impossible to obtain due to the lack of long oceanographic observations. The purpose of this study was clarifying seasonal changes and analyzing of interannual changes of the response of circulation of the upper layer of the North Atlantic on atmospheric forcing (wind stress and wind stress curl) by homogeneous and long-term datasets of re-analysis. Features of seasonal variability of wind stress, velocities of currents and their vorticity in subtropical and subpolar areas of the North Atlantic are confirmed. To the north of 15-20° of north latitude, seasonal variability of wind stress, velocities of currents and their vorticity generally accounts for less than one third of their total variability, the remaining dispersion is due to interannual and decennial fluctuations. In the Subtropical Atlantic in January there was a trend toward increased seasonal variability of wind stress, velocities of currents and anticyclonic wind stress curl and vorticity of surface currents in the second half of the 20th century. In September, since the mid-1970s, there is the tendency towards the weakening of these values, which leads to a long-term increase in the amplitude of the annual cycle. In the Subpolar Atlantic since the late 1950s, during the months with extreme values in the annual cycle there is an increase in seasonal variability of wind stress, velocities of currents and cyclonic wind stress curl and vorticity of surface currents. While, a significant increase in the amplitude of the annual cycle it is not revealed.

Based on the complex studying 10 meter thick loess-soil sequence in the Beglitsa section (47°08° N, 38°31° E), the landscape and climate changes in the north-eastern Azov Sea Region in the Late Pleistocene were reconstructed. The intensity of loess accumulation decreased in the interglacial and interstadial conditions, when the soil-forming processes prevailed, and increased in cryoarid conditions of the glacial epoch, and especially, during the Late Valdai. As indicated by topography of palaeosoil horizons, loess layers of various ages envelope in sequence the primary fluvial (erosional-accumulative) relief. Loess accumulation resulted in general rise of the terrace surface. It preserved the major features of original topography but gradually smoothed the minor ones. During the entire Late Pleistocene the studied area belonged to the steppe zone. Participation of forbs in steppe communities, as well as the grass cover density, decreased in the cryoarid periglacial conditions and increased under warmer and less continental interstadial or interglacial climate. The role of intrazonal tree communities (pine forests with steppe elements, birch and alder wet forests) remained minor even in the most favorable climate of the Mikulino Interglacial, when the broad-leaved trees (mainly Quercus) participated in the forests. During the interstadial warm phases of the Valdai glacial epoch, the trees growing at present in the severe continental climatic conditions (Larix, Pinus sibirica) occurred in the region. As in the present time, near the shore of the Azov Sea, the areas with disturbed soil cover, including those with saline soil, were widespread due to abrasion, development of slumps and landslides, and erosion.

Among the remnants of Late Pleistocene mammals collected on the coast of the Laptev Sea, there are the tusks of woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) with abnormalities. An analysis of the isotopic composition of carbon from their bone carbonate hydroxylapatite, as well as geochemical studies of the substance of such tusks (35 items, a total of 38 samples) by x-ray fluorescence method was conducted. Significant differences in the chemical composition of the tusks with abnormalities and “normal” tusks in such the elements as Sr, Mg, Si, Al, Mn, Fe, Zn, etc. were revealed. An attempt to express the obtained anomalies of the chemical composition in the terms adopted in the description of microelementoses was made. It was determined that most studied mammoths lived in the cold epochs, however, the pathology of the tusks were observed for animals living both in the cold and warm epochs of the Late Pleistocene. The causes of occurrence of pathologies probably were linked to different types of physiological disorders affecting the growth and development of the tusks and, possibly, with changes in the geochemical background influencing the population of woolly mammoth in the North of Yakutia.

Based on the occurrence distortion analysis of the anomalous tree rings structure (frost ring, light ring, fluctuation in a tree ring) and missing rings, the chronology of extreme climatic events over the last 1500 years on the Central Altai was constructed. The results allowed us to determine the most significant events in 536-537, 591, 627, 803, 874, 905-906, 935, 1243-1245, 1370-1371, 1399, 1645-1647, 1662, 1699-1700, 1751, 1783-1784, 1812-1814, 1874-1875, 1900. The verification of the dates of extreme events in the period from 1600 to 1850 has revealed that they are consistent with the data of historical evidence (about frosts, poor harvest, lean years and etc.) and the dates of large volcanic eruptions.

The strategy of steppe nature use and steppe agricultural landscapes management should be aimed at conservation, reproduction and ensuring productive longevity, increase of biodiversity of steppe ecosystems, flora and fauna. The strategy of rational steppe nature use is purposeful optimal spatial-temporal organization of modern agricultural landscapes, which should be the most adequate to their natural structure and dynamics. Productivity of agricultural land, environmental management in agriculture are derived agro landscape entire system, i.e. its infrastructure, optimal structure of sown areas, crop rotations, a fair share of perennial grasses in them, the functioning of agroecosystems. Scientific maintenance of agrolandscapes management is shown on the case study of agrolandscape-environmental analysis of the area of the Central Chernozem zone.

Land cover databases obtained as a result of processing space images from different imaging systems are used around the world for mapping landscapes/ecosystems at global and regional scales. For these purposes, the following databases are analyzed: the University of Maryland’s UMD Land Cover Classification for 1981-1994, DISCover land cover for 1992-1993, Global Land Cover 2000, GlobCover for 2009, and MODIS Land Cover for 2001-2012. On the basis of per pixel and per class analysis of UMD Land Cover Classification and Global Land Cover 2000 it was concluded that to obtain reliable results on the status of the land cover is possible only for certain categories. MODIS Land Cover data for 2001-2012, which may be combined with AVHRR data available for 1982-2006, are better suited for mapping land use changes of contemporary landscapes. The constraints and opportunities for using these databases, including the creation of a dynamic classification of contemporary landscapes on the basis of the typology of land use changes for 1980-2010 are considered. It is shown that the data on land cover reflect the prevailing geoecological functions of geosystems: environment regulatory (ecosystem), productive, industrial and residential, which can be the basis for a new classification system for modern landscapes.

The transformation is a qualitative changing the complex through the mechanism of restructuring, i.e. the reorganization of a complex system through redistribution of its various quality parts in the new order under the influence of a changing environment, while maintaining the structural and functional similarity. Quantitatively landscape complexes are imaged using rank distribution of system elements on occurrence (significance). Mathematical models of geocomplexes transformation are based on partial differential equations of second order, which generate different alteration of rank distributions. The connection between these equations and models of transient processes, non-equilibrium thermodynamics and gravitational geographical models are shown. To test the equations landscape studies in Tunkinskaya hollow (South Siberian mountain area) are conducted and the landscape-typological map of the territory at the level of groups of facies are created. Rank distributions of pixels of Landsat space image on the occurrence of different brightness levels in images of each group facies were built. Rank distributions are approximated by exponential dependences of occurrence on the rank and height of facies location. According to the obtained formulas characteristics of flows, as well as sources and sinks, reflecting the intensity of the transformation of landscapes are calculated. It is shown that: 1) the rank distributions for different groups of facies form a congruence, i.e. the studied area forms a single system - a complex; 2) the inverse of the coefficient of the exponential function is linearly related to the height for mountain taiga facies and to the distance to the river Irkut for depressions facies; and 3) a more accurate approximation of rank distributions satisfying the basic differential equation are provided by the use of logarithmic coordinates. The obtained theoretical and empirical regularities can reflect the processes of transformation of geocomplexes in the space of different geographical characteristics of the order.

The paper is concerned on the format of a narrative historical atlas, which consists of not only graphical materials and thematic maps of a region, but methodical comments to maps and schemes, by the case of studying historical geography of the Tyumen-Verkhoturye road of the 17th-18th centuries. The experience of historical-geographical description of the area of Siberian communications of the 17th-18th centuries is offered as an example of one of sections of such Atlas. The first part of the article provides a critical comparison of the atlases, compiled by S. U. Remezov, with the data of travel descriptions of the 17th-18th centuries to identify toponyms being in sources. In the second part of the article, schemes are built based on the travel descriptions, and then an overview maps showing the exact route of the road, the available information about the settlements and their names, and also a number of additional issues such as speed of movement, methods of travel, and possible deviations from the route.

The retrospective historical analysis of development of the Russian fishery in the Black Sea has been continued for the period from collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917 to the beginning of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) and the first post-war years. The heritage of tsarist Russia in this area of economic activity, such as primitiveness of fishing gears and fish processing technology, hand labor, lack of the power-driven fishing fleet, lack of the state fishery control, its spontaneous and consumer orientation, and limited geography, is considered. The first Soviet government decrees and resolutions in fishery regulation and protection of the Black Sea biological resources are studied. The facts of introduction of new methods of fish search (air reconnaissance), all-season fishing (distant-water fishery), and stock assessments (trawl surveys) are presented. The results of the first scientific fishery researches on the state and structure of resource base in the main traditional fishing areas are analyzed. The catch statistics for the main commercial species from the mid-1920s to 1940 is investigated. In 1939, the mean annual catch of the USSR in the Black Sea comprised 35000 tons that was about equal to the total catch of all Black Sea countries, and fish productivity of the sea amounted 2 kg per hectare. At the same time, resources of mullet, red mullet, belted bonito, flounder, mackerel, sprat, as well as oysters, mussels, and shrimps were underutilized for the technical and executive reasons, while the share of anchovy in total catch increased from 17.1% (1920-1930) to 34.2% in 1930-1940, and to 42.6% in 1949. It was concluded that the studied period could be considered as the beginning of establishment of legislative and scientific-technical foundation of fishery industry which in the second half of the 20th century became one of the most powerful economic sectors of the USSR.