Geographical Regularities Research Articles

Elevation dependency of future degradation of permafrost over the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Global warming has caused widespread permafrost degradation, but the geographic regularity of permafrost degradation is unknown. Here, we investigated the three-dimensional features of future permafrost degradation on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Our findings show that permafrost degradation under shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs) has obvious three-dimensional characteristics. In comparison to latitude and aridity, permafrost degradation is closely related to elevation, i.e. it slows with elevation, a phenomenon known as elevation-dependent degradation. The pattern of elevation-dependent degradation is consistent across four subzones and is strongly linked to thermal conditions that vary with elevation. Under SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0, and SSP5-8.5 scenarios, remarkable elevation-dependent warming (EDW) is observed at 3600–4900 m, but changes in mean annual ground temperature of permafrost and EDW as altitude rises are anti-phase. Under any SSP, the magnitude of mean annual air temperature along altitude belts determines the degree of permafrost degradation (R 2 > 0.90). This research provides new insight on the evolution of permafrost.

Картографирование структуры пространственных точечных образов в региональном масштабе

To identify geographical regularities in changing the structure of spatial point patterns, we proposed the use of cartographic visualization. Approaches to gathering initial data, mechanisms for calculating the characteristics of the spatial structure and ways of displaying them on the map are described. The process of mapping combines elements of geoinformatics, spatial statistics and cartography. The elements of the methodology were integrated using the R programming language and the spatstat package. A script was written in the R that enables automating the calculation of the spatial structure’s quantitative characteristics. Thirteen indicators were identified that can be used for cartographic visualization of the spatial point images structure features. The described approach was tested on the example of sparse woody vegetation areas found in the ravine-gully network of the Central Chernozem region.

Geographical aspect of the dynamics of investments in agro-industrial complex of large territories

The importance of agriculture to the modern economy actualizes investigation of the related investment processes. The example of the regions of the Southern Federal District is used to study the spatio-temporal dynamics of industry-based unit investments (taking into account agricultural area, number of employees and production cost equivalent). Series of special cartographical models are used for interpretation. The results revealed significant dynamism of investments during five years. It has become possible to trace geographical regularities of their changes and describe them by image models («wave», «spreading drop» and «waves from scattered drops»). Generally, the studied spatio-temporal dynamics of investments demonstrates oscillatory character.

Typological diversity and ecological-geographical characteristics of the forest cover of southern part of the Evenki region

The article presents the results of preliminary comprehensive ecological and geographical studies of the forest cover of the middle taiga subzone of Central Siberia. The higher syntaxa of forests were identified using the ecological-floristic classification of vegetation (Braun-Blanquet approach). All forest communities in the region are classified as Vaccinio – Piceetea Br.-Bl. in Br.-Bl. et al. 1939 and are represented by the following orders: Ledo palustris – Laricetalia gmelinii Ermakov in Ermakov et Alsynbayev 2004 – coniferous (mainly larch) forests of Northern Eurasia on permafrost soils characterized by stagnant moisture and low heat supply; Piceo obovatae – Pinetalia sibiricae Ermakov 2013 – typical Siberian dark coniferous forests; Lathyro humilis – Laricetalia gmelinii Ermakov et al. 2002 – boreal forests with the participation of xeromesophilic moderately thermophilic species, widespread in the ultracontinental climate of East, South Siberia and Mongolia. The features of their ecology and geographic regularities and the participation of order communities in the formation of forest cover in different parts of the studied region were considered.

IT-enabled sustainable development in electric scooter sharing platforms: focusing on the privacy concerns for traceable information

ABSTRACT Electric scooter (e-scooter) sharing services have redefined the concept of urban transportation and development for cities around the world. These services, however, have raised concerns regarding information privacy in the wake of allegations that they are used by corporations and even government bodies to collect information. We introduce a new dimension of privacy concerns (i.e., privacy concerns for traceable information: PCTI) and utilize the antecedent-privacy concern-outcome (APCO) macro model to propose a research model for the relationships among privacy experiences and awareness, usage and geographical regularities, PCTI, and information privacy protective responses (IPPR). Our analysis suggests that privacy experiences and privacy awareness remain as salient antecedents and that geographical regularity should be included as a new antecedent for PCTI. This study contributes to the literature on information privacy in the sharing economy and provides implications for both stakeholders of e-scooter platforms and policymakers for urban transportation and IT-enabled development.

Economic Consequences of Adopting Local Spatial Development Plans for the Spatial Management System: The Case of Poland

The spatial management system in Poland struggles with serious costs as a consequence of local planning. The problem is the lack of appropriate value capturing mechanisms and cost compensation for municipalities, along with significant burdens. Private property is subject to special protection, but the public good is less valued. The article attempts to assess the situation in Poland, recalling also the experiences of spatial management systems from other European countries. It combines legal, economic, and geographical perspectives. The specific objectives were demonstration of geographical (interregional and functional) regularities related to the economic (financial) consequences of adopting local plans and identification of financial effects resulting from the implementation of local plans in communes, i.e., in particular, their size, structure of revenues (income), and expenditures, in relations with the budgets of municipalities and the population living in communes. First, the determinants of spatial policy were defined in the context of institutional economics and the real estate market. Then, a unique database of forecasted and realized budgetary revenues and expenditures of 2477 communes in Poland related to spatial development (infrastructure construction, land transformation, purchase, etc.) was analyzed statistically. Additionally, for five selected communes of different functional types, this issue was examined in detail. It has been shown that municipalities do not derive adequate income from spatial development, and improper policy of local self-governments results in heavy burdens, threatening to disturb their financial balance. The formulated conclusions regarding the legal, economic, and spatial mechanisms may contribute to building tools (instruments) for more effective spatial management in various countries.

Wpływ prawa i polityki Unii Europejskiej na planowanie przestrzenne i zarządzanie terytorialne państw członkowskich w zakresie wybranych kwestii środowiskowych = Impact of European Union law and policy on spatial planning and territorial governance of the Member States as regards selected environmental issues

The main objectives of the research carried out were identification of the strength of – and trends characterising – the impact of EU law and policy on spatial planning and territorial governance in Member States, in relation to selected environmental issues; as well as an attempt to determine geographical regularities. The first issue analysed issue concerned the impact of EU environmental law on Member States’ spatial planning, while the second sought to demonstrate the importance of major EU policies in relation to their environmental objectives. A third aspect saw impact (“clout” ) assessed and trends identified where two environmental priorities under EU policies were concerned, i.e. (I) the strengthening of ecological structures and cultural resources as added value for development, (II) sustainable growth – promoting a more resource efficient, greener and more competitive economy. Most attention was paid to the top-down impact of the EU on spatial planning and territorial governance, though studies als sought examples of bottom-up and horizontal influence as signalled by national experts. This article is based on the results of the ESPON COMPASS project entitled: Comparative Analysis of Territorial Governance and Spatial Planning Systems in Europe. Analysis of the very extensive questionnaire material available, as well as the results of the case studies, resulted in an acknowledgment that the top-down influence determines the impacts of EU environmental law and policy on Member States’ spatial planning. In sum, that impact of the EU environmental law was identifiable as quite strong at all levels of planning. Indeed, trends for an increasing influence applied to the vast majority of countries. There were three regularities identified in this respect: (I) it is a strong impact and increasing clout that prevail to a significant degree among EU-15 countries, (II) a constant impact is characteristic for the vast majority of the Nordic countries, and in both cases is mainly an aspect of countries caring for the quality of the environment, (III) the greatest variation in terms of the strengths and irections of impact can be identified within the group of post-communist countries, even as there is a prevalence of upward trends noted in these countries. Among the EU environmental regulations exerting the greatest impact on the spatial planning and territorial governance of the Member States, the ones highlighted most frequently were the Directives on environmental assessments (EIA and SEA), as well as the so-called Habitats and Birds Directives. In seeking to summarise the strength of impact of the selected EU environmental policy priorities on Member States’ spatial planning and territorial governance – as well as the trends for that impact – the largest group of countries pointed to an upward trend and a moderate impact. However, results obtained offered no basis for the identification of clear regularities However, the Europeanisation of environmental law and policy was shown also to have a significant impact on the Europeanisation of environmental spatial planning. It also proved possible to demonst ate how spatial planning, although constituting a reserved domain of each country, is actually the most Europeanised of all environmental issues. With regard to the top-down impact of environmental law, i.e. that exerted from the EU level down to the spatial planning and territorial governance of the Member States, the adoption of the acquis communautaire is to be indicated as the main reason for the significant impact. Equally, when it came to the impact of environmental policy, it was usual for a strong link with Cohesion Policy to be identified. The article also offers recommendations regarding the development of a more-effective connection between Cohesion Policy and spatial planning and territorial governance, in the sphere of the protection and strengthening of countries’ natural and cultural heritage.

Excess mortality in Europe and Serbia during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020

The 2020 pandemic came at a huge demographic cost, particularly regarding the increase in mortality. In this paper we examine excess deaths in Serbia and 34 other European countries in 2020. Methodological inconsistencies and big differences in how COVID-19 deaths were recorded across different countries make it difficult to make any cross-country comparisons, even with the scope limited only to Europe. Since the number of total deaths is a methodologically solid indicator, we looked at the differences between the total number of deaths in 2020 and compared that to deaths in 2019. The lowest increase in mortality - below 5% - occurred in countries in the north of Europe (Norway, Denmark, Finland, Latvia), while the highest increase - over 18% - was recorded in the southern and central parts of the continent (Albania, Northern Macedonia, Spain, Belgium, Poland, Slovenia, Russia). There is no clear geographical regularity. In 2020, Serbia had 12.6% more deaths compared to 2019, which was close to the European average. Within Serbia, statistical differences between regions were not large. Measuring the contribution of COVID-19 deaths to excess mortality is much more problematic. The excess death ratio is more helpful for understanding methodological and data-gathering issues than finding evidence about composition and divergence in mortality. According to this indicator (based on preliminary data), only 25% of excess deaths in Serbia in 2020 were caused by COVID-19, while the European average was 54%. However, in many (primarily Eastern European) countries in 2020, the indirect consequences of COVID-19 on the health of the population were more significant than the direct ones. It is precisely the ratio of COVID-19 diagnoses that led to death in total mortality that shows this. The final results may confirm this statement or indicate potential data manipulation. While this paper focuses only on the year 2020, as of Q1 of 2021, the pandemic is not nearing its end. Based on preliminary data published daily, Serbia had more COVID-19 deaths in the first four months of 2021 than for the whole of 2020. This indicates that the consequences of the pandemic for Serbia will be dire in 2021, regardless of the course the pandemic takes.

Identifying and revealing the geographical variation in Nemopilema nomurai venom metalloprotease and phospholipase A2 activities

Venom geographical variation is common among venomous animals. This phenomenon presents problems in the development of clinical treatments and medicines against envenomation. The venomous giant jellyfish Nemopilema nomurai, Scyphozoan, is a blooming jellyfish species in the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea that causes numerous jellyfish sting cases every year. Metalloprotease and phospholipase A2 (PLA2) are the main components in Nemopilema nomurai venom and may activate many toxicities, such as hemolysis, inflammation and lethality. Geographical variation in the content and activity of these enzymes may cause different symptoms and therapeutic problems. For the first time, we verified metalloprotease and PLA2 geographical variation in Nemopilema nomurai venom by performing a comparative analysis of 31 venom samples by SDS-PAGE, analyzing protease zymography, enzymatic activity, and drawing contour maps. Band locations and intensities of SDS-PAGE and protease zymograms showed geographical differences. The enzymatic activities of both metalloprotease and PLA2 showed a trend of geographic regularity. The distribution patterns of these activities are directly shown in contour maps. Metalloproteinase activity was lower near the coast. PLA2-like activity was lower in the Southern Yellow Sea. We surmised that metalloproteinase and PLA2-like activities might be related to venom ontogeny and species abundance respectively, and influenced by similar environmental factors. This study provides a theoretical basis for further ecological and medical studies of Nemopilema nomurai jellyfish venom.

Medium-Resolution Optical Range Space Images: Consumer Expectations

Our survey of various space image consumers identified that the geographic coverage, regularity, and frequency of observations are the most important aspects. It is followed by the quality of spectroradiometric characteristics in terms of their absolute performance and stability over the entire survey period, and the ability to provide such physical quantities as reflectivity, or spectral brightness of the reflected radiation/brightness temperature. The requirements for the spatial resolution of individual data classes or a panchromatic band are insignificant for most respondents. The consumers believe that the requirements for the Earth remote sensing (ERS) mission equipment should match the requirements for the raw ERS data. When developing advanced space-based ERS systems, the government consumers should regularly analyze the user expectations and preferences to coordinate and integrate them into the space system specifications. In general, to effectively generalize the different, often contradictory, functional expectations, it is reasonable to have a comprehensive discussion and establish feedback from both the authorized representatives of the key consumers and the designers of the ERS mission equipment and space-based ERS systems.

CALCIUM IN SOIL HUMUS OF WEST-SIBERIAN TRANSECT

The paper analyzes the behavior of one of the main components of humus (humic acids - calcium system) depending on the participation of calcium in the biological cycle of substances. The role of calcium in the formation of ecological stability of humic systems is shown, which largely determines the environmentally sustainable agriculture. It is shown that the changeable calcium amounts to no more than a half of its total content in humus horizon of automorphic zonal soils. Within the limits of the transect, the participation of calcium in binding of humic and fulvic acids is distributed according to their content in humus composition. Additional assessment of exchangeable calcium content to be determined by nontraditional method showed the same geographic regularity of its distribution in the soils of the transect as in the case of distribution of the main characteristics of humus.

Coupled Relationship between Rural Livelihoods and the Environment at a Village Scale: A Case Study in the Mongolian Plateau

Rural livelihoods, which are basic human activities, have long interacted with the environment. In light of the complexity of the human–environment system, more interdisciplinary analyses from geographical, environmental, and social sciences are needed. Using qualitative and quantitative methods from social, environmental, and geographical sciences, this study conducted a geographical regionalization and a comparative analysis of rural livelihoods in different zones in the Loess Plateau to explore the relationship between rural livelihoods and the environment. The results indicated that rural livelihoods are tightly coupled with the environment on a village scale, showing significant geographical regularity and spatial disparity. A combination of geographical location, resource endowment, and environmental sanitation affects rural livelihoods in terms of spatial patterns, development capacity, and quality of life in the context of the public ownership system, the utilization policy of land resources, and limited technical conditions. Coupling the relationship between rural livelihoods and a given environment on a village scale tends to lead to one of four types of relationships: “homeostatic”, “intense”, “transferred”, or “optimized”. Accordingly, governments and policymakers need to consider that countryside revitalization must be locally tailored and implemented through the four aspects of “rights revitalization”, “labor revitalization”, “industrial revitalization”, and “environmental revitalization”.

Geographical regularities of the permafrost-thermal regime of soils in Transbaikalia

We have estimated the freezing-thermal regime of Transbaikalia soils qualitatively and quantitatively. Perennial permafrost almost throughout the region makes such an estimation of the thermal condition of the soils rather topical in terms of the region’s climatic resource. We have attempted to determine and classify thermo-freezing regime of the soils for entire Transbaikalia and show the general geographical characteristics of the thermal regime of winterly Transbaikalia. The studies of the 3.2-m thick soil layer were based on the perennial data of 49 meteorological stations. For the analysis of the thermo-freezing regime of the soils, we used the mean monthly values of the smallest temperature at the standard depth of the soil profile. The entire array of the temperature data was divided into five grades of different widths and represented in the form of vertical profiles. The steps of the scale reflect the progressing increase in winter cooling of the entire soil layer. The weakest soil cooling is observed for the eastern shore of Lake Baikal: these are the moderately cold conditions. In the southern closure of the Barguzin depression, the state of the soil thickness transits smoothly from moderately cold to cold conditions. Very cold soil conditions are propagating from southeast to northwest in the perennial permafrost zone. Severe conditions of soil are present in local regions of the southern part of the territory and its northern part where the sandy-loam soil with pebble admixture allows perennial permafrost to lie at small depths. Extreme severe conditions mainly occupy the races of total perennial permafrost.

Representing Urban Forms: A Collective Learning Model with Heterogeneous Human Mobility Data

Human mobility data refers to records of human movements, such as cellphone traces, vehicle GPS trajectories, geo-tagged posts, and photos. While successfully mining human mobility data can benefit many applications such as city planning, transportation, urban economics, and public safety, it is very challenging to model large-scale Heterogeneous Human Mobility Data (HHMD) that are generated from different resources. In this paper, we develop a general collective learning approach to model HHMD at an individual level towards identifying and quantifying the urban forms of residential communities. Specifically, our proposed method exploits two geographic regularities among HHMD. First, we jointly capture the correlations among residential communities, urban functions, temporal effects, and user mobility patterns by analogizing communities as documents and mobility patterns as words. Also, we further combine explicit LASSO analysis and significant testing into latent representation learning as a regularization term by analogizing compatible Point-of-Interests (POIs) as the meta-data of communities. In this way, we can learn the urban forms, including a mix of functions and corresponding portfolios, of residential communities from HHDM and POIs. We further leverage these learned results to address two application problems: real estate ranking and restaurant popularity prediction. Finally, we conduct intensive evaluations with a variety of real-world data, where experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed modeling method and its successful applications for other problems.

Regional convergence clubs in China: identification and conditioning factors

This paper investigates club convergence in income per capita of 329 prefecture-level city regions in China over a period of 1990 to 2014. A nonlinear time-varying factor model is adopted to examine convergence trends as the model allows for transitional heterogeneity and divergence from the actual growth path. The study further explores the driving forces of convergence clubs using an ordered response model. Four convergence clubs are identified, showing no geographic regularity in club member locations. The highest income club and the lowest income club tend to converge strongly, whereas two middle-income clubs converge weakly. The findings indicate that initial conditions, sectorial characteristics, preferential development policy, general government spending, network effect, spatial effect, and the role of globalization are the significant factors responsible for the formation of club convergence in China.

Rare earth elements and yttrium in ferromanganese deposits from the South China Sea: distribution, composition and resource considerations

Ferromanganese nodules and crusts contain relatively high concentration of rare earth elements (REE) and yttrium (REY), with a growing interest in exploitation as an alternative to land-based REY resources. On the basis of comprehensive geochemical approach, the abundance and distribution of REY in the ferromanganese nodules from the South China Sea are analyzed. The results indicate that the REY contents in ferromanganese deposits show a clear geographic regularity. Total REY contents range from 69.1×10–6 to 2 919.4×10–6, with an average value of 1 459.5×10–6. Especially, the enrichment rate of Ce content is high, accounting for almost 60% of the total REY. This REE enrichment is controlled mainly by the sorption of ferromanganese oxides and clay minerals in the nodules and crusts. Moreover, the total REY are higher in ferromanganese deposits of hydrogenous origin than of diagenetic origin. Finally, Light REE (LREE) and heavy REE (HREE) oxides of the ferromanganese deposits in the study area can be classified into four grades: non-enriched type, weakly enriched type, enriched type, and extremely enriched type. According to the classification criteria of rare earth resources, the Xisha and Zhongsha platform-central deep basin areas show a great potential for these rare earth metals.

Хіміко-мінералогічний склад глинистої фракції чорноземів типових Подільської височини

The article presents data on gross chemical and mineralogical composition of clay faction found in typical chernozems occurred within the Podillia Upland. Geographical regularities of formation as regards clayey profile of Chernozems pertaining to the same genetic series are revealed. The relationship between conditions and Chernozem development stage, character of vertical differentiation of basic mineral phases of clayey plasma and its chemical and mineralogical composition are shown. Izoclayey profile of hydromicas is the consequence of their relative accumulation as a result eluviation of colloid-dispersible mica-smectite minerals. The character of clay profile observed in Chernozems is determined by the correlation of intensity of carbonates leaching, lessivage and soils argillisation. Typical Podolian Chernozems are characterised with the like weathering crust of silicate type. The modern Chernozem clayey profile originated mainly during a wetter stage of soil formation. In the ploughable layer a high content of clastic minerals (quartz, potassium feldspar, sodium plagioclase) is observed. Random mixed and stratified mica-smectite minerals with a high content (>50 %) of smectite packets (33–63 %), hydromica (33–52 %), and kaolinite plus chlorite (4–15 %) are present in the profile. The mineralogical composition of soils clay fraction indicates obvious signs of smectite eluviation and relative illite accumulation. Clayey profile of the Bug upstream plateau located within the Podillia Upland is atypical for Chernozems found in the eastern forest-steppe and steppe areas. The distribution character of layered silicates, especially smectite, is even more contrastive. Clayey plasma redistributes differentially through leaching and lessivage processes. Accumulative type of sludge deposits formed in Chernozems of the Dniester plateau located within the Podillia Upland, even profile distribution of basic oxides and molar ratios of SiO2 : Al2O3 and SiO2 : Fe2O3 against the background of decreased downward smectite content indicate weakened eluviation of fine-grained clays towards the Dniester. The prevalence of smectite over hydromicas within the entire profile indicates argillisation of Chernozems. Key words: Chernozem, chemical-mineralogical composition, clayey minerals, hydromica, smectite, kaolinite, leaching, lessivage, argillisation.

Community-based diffusion scheme using Markov chain and spectral clustering for mobile social networks

With the increase in the number of mobile devices such as tablets and smart watches, mobile social networks (MSNs) provide great opportunities for people to exchange information. As a result, information diffusion has become a critical issue in the emerging MSNs. In this paper, we address the problem of finding the top-k influential users who can effectively spread information in a network, which is referred to as the diffusion minimization problem. In order to minimize the spreading period, we can utilize the k-center problem, but which has a time complexity of NP-hard. We propose a community-based diffusion scheme using Markov chain and spectral clustering (CDMS) to minimize the spreading time by adopting a community concept based on the geographic regularity of human mobility in the MSNs. We exploit the Markov chain to predict a node’s mobility patterns and cluster the predicted patterns using the spectral graph theory. Finally, we select the top-k influential nodes in each community. Simulations are performed using the NS-2, based on the home-cell community-based mobility model, to show that the proposed scheme results in MSNs. In addition, we demonstrate that CDMS outperforms the noncommunity-based algorithms in terms of the number of nodes and ratio of k influential nodes.

Adaptive choice of livelihood patterns in rural households in a farm-pastoral zone: A case study in Jungar, Inner Mongolia

From a dynamic process perspective, this study examined households’ adaptive choice of livelihood patterns in the context of changing rural China based on a 12-year continuous household survey in Jungar Banner. By referring to households’ diversified income and vocation, we classified rural livelihood patterns into planting oriented, stockbreeding oriented, half labour and half peasant, non-agriculture oriented, and labour-losing. Results show that different livelihood patterns exhibit distinctive disparities and geographical regularities. Stockbreeding oriented and non-agriculture oriented livelihood patterns are relatively more lucrative. The former was traditionally widely adopted by rural households and the latter has become the most popular in recent years, while the other three patterns are emerging or transitional ones. Then we explored the internal mechanisms of households’ livelihood choices using a multinomial logit model. Results indicate that human capital and physical capital were key factors affecting the differentiation of livelihood patterns, and natural capital was the premise for livelihood pattern transformation. Based on a series of policy interventions, the overall trends in livelihood transitions revealed that the proportion of stockbreeding oriented households and half labour and half peasant households sharply decreased, while the proportion of non-agriculture oriented households and labour-losing households largely increased, and the proportion of planting oriented households increased slightly with their management style transforming from extensive to intensive and specialized. Therefore, government interventions must conform to the transition trends and be tailored to fit different livelihood patterns by adjusting and enforcing each type of capital.

Phenotypic diversity of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) landraces accumulated in the Vavilov collection from the centers of the crop origin

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is the second grain legume for the area of cultivation in the world, and the third for the production. However, modern cultivars of chickpea are typically susceptible to a variety of diseases, and have modest drought tolerance. The improvement of the crop for adaptability сould be carried out via introgression of valuable traits genes from old landraces collected in the centers of chickpea origin and diversity: the primary – Turkey and secondary – Ethiopia. The N.I. Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (thereafter VIR) preserves 3380 chickpea accessions, with landraces representing over a half of them. Here, the results of analysis of variability of 11 biological, morphological and economic-valuable traits in 1082 chickpea landraces descended from 60 countries are briefly driven. More in detail the sample of 75 landraces from Turkey and 24 landraces from Ethiopia (centres of chickpea origin) which had been sampled there 90 years ago have been studied. We analyzed the phenotypic variability with a treatment of 15 traits. The traits were studied using component analyses. Geographic regularities of certain traits in the studied accessions have been revealed. Ethiopian landraces are relatively homogeneous, belonging mostly to desi-type, and having fewer small, dark, and angular seeds, a short maturation period. They belong to the Abyssinian eco-geographical group, absolutely unique and endemic to Ethiopia. Turkish landraces are characterized by much higher diversity for the majority of phenotypes, covering almost the entire range of traits specified in chickpea descriptors. In this region, together with landraces typical for Turkey, there are those from the western Mediterranean and from the areas bordering with Turkey to the east. Landraces from primary and secondary centers of origin differed on the range of variability of the traits studied. The smaller degree of variation and primitiveness of the most traits and lower seed productivity in Ethiopian landraces in comparison with Turkish ones indicates a greater breeding advancement of the latter. Useful traits for breeding are present in the landraces from both centers of origin and diversity.