Geographic Envelope Research Articles

Zoning of highways of the Cherkasy region according to the degree of formation of ecosystem relations

The research is due to the great attention paid to the preservation and restoration of biodiversity in the countries of the European Union. Purpose. Carrying out zoning of the Cherkasy region according to the degree of completeness of the formation of roadside landscapes ecosystemsю Methods. From a methodological point of view, zoning is considered as one of the main methods of geographical analysis a nd synthesis. Zoning performs the function of a general geographic method of organizing spatial diversity in the geographic envelope and systematizing territorial formations at the regional level, which makes it an essential element of a systematic approach in geography. Results. The monitoring parameters of the infrastructure components of the main highways of the Cherkassy region (Kyiv-Odesa and Vinnytsia-Uman) used by us can be used for zoning, provided they are combined into logically formed factor groups. In particular, we combined all the initial parameters into the following groups of factors: natural-geographic factor: geolocation (geographic coordinates), air temperature and humidity, natural radiation background; degree of anthropogenic impact: noise level, dustiness, some geochemical indicators, proximity (or remoteness) of the road surface from agricultural land; the degree of manifestation of ecosystem relations: the number of plant species and their recurrence, the presence of invasive species and those that are indicators of salinity and waterlogging, the presence of species included in the National Catalog of Biotopes of Ukraine. Based on the list of main groups of factors, the main indicator of zoning will be the degree of completeness of the formation of roadside ecosystems. Conclutions. Taking into account the activation of ruderal flora at the exits from gas stations, or on remote sections of highways, it can be asserted that in these locations the Le Chatelier-Brown principle is fully in effect, according to which the biosphere compensates for the harmful effects from the outside with its diversity. The author sees prospects for further research in the expansion of the list of objects, in particular, it will be very interesting to investigate the formation of ecosystem relations on secondary communication routes.

COMPREHENSIVE GEOECOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE FEATURES OF URBANIZED TERRITORIES

Objective. The aim of the study is to identify important features of the geoecological study of cities, as well as to consider the main approaches and methods that are used in the geoecological analysis of morphologically heterogeneous indicators.
 Materials and methods. The object of research is geosystems in geography and ecosystems in ecological science. It is this systematic approach that brings ecology and geography closer together.
 Results. As a result of the interaction of society with the natural environment, one can see a new branch of knowledge - geoecology. So, it is necessary to take into account spatial or territorial patterns. The science of geoecology is the link between geography and ecology for solving various problems of the natural environment. Exactly, we can talk about the spatio-temporal features that have the interaction of organisms with the environment and territorially differentiated systems of relationships.
 Conclusion. At the present time, the modern interest of society in environmental science is quite explainable. Its main problem is survival in those conditions of the natural environment, which are greatly changed as a result of human economic activity. All over the world, a large role is assigned to the health of the population due to the problem of anthropogenic pollution of the environment. It causes significant damage in the geographical, biological, economic spheres, as well as its individual enterprises. There is a serious threat of violations not only of the biosphere, geosphere, atmosphere, but, in general, the entire geographic envelope. The first area is the subject of environmental research, and the second area is geography. As a result of these events, one can undoubtedly speak of a huge similarity and overlap between these sciences.

ЧИСЛЕННОЕ МОДЕЛИРОВАНИЕ ПРЕДЕЛЬНЫХ СОСТОЯНИЙ ПЛАНЕТАРНОЙ АТМОСФЕРЫ12

The atmospheric general circulation plays an important role in the formation of weather and climate processes, providing transport and redistribution of heat, moisture, and angular momentum. Climate changes can have a significant effect on the elements of the atmospheric general circulation. To understand the general circulation patterns and possible future changes in its components, it is important to study its state under the limiting properties of the geographic envelope, in particular, the type of the active layer. The paper presents the results of numerical modeling of the atmospheric general circulation under simplified conditions of the underlying surface, namely oceanic and desert surfaces. The numerical experiment was performed on a global model transformed from the WRF-ARW model and it reproduced the atmosphere dynamics during one year. The limiting scenarios – either global ocean or global desert – reflected the role of phase transitions in the Earth's atmosphere. In the first case, due to the greenhouse effect, the circulation is not pronounced owing to the absence of a significant interlatitudinal gradient. In the second case, the sandy surface, unlike the ocean, cannot accumulate a large amount of heat, so the air near the Earth's surface cools rapidly in thewinter hemisphere and heats up rapidly in the summer hemisphere, as a result of which there are no trade winds. The combination of oceanic and desert zones (all homogeneous along the meridian) leads to the situation that the large-scale atmospheric circulationacquires features close to those of the Earth, which allows us to consider this configuration as a basic one for further numerical experiments. The experiments have shown the leading role of the absorbed part of solar radiation (insolation) and the contribution of water vapor (greenhouse effect, release of latent heat) in the formation of large-scale atmospheric currents. The implemented WRFARW model can be successfully used for modeling the general circulation of the atmosphere under different initial and boundary conditions.

NATURAL FEATURES AND HYPOTHESES OF ORIGIN NEASHORE BARS IN THE COASTAL ZONE OF NON-TIDAL SEAS

Problems of the research. The article considers the origin, morphology and dynamics of unique forms of coastal-marine relief in the coastal zone of non-tidal seas, under the influence of the hydrogen factor, an exceptionally strong potential of mechanical energy, sufficiently large reserves of sand deposits (fractions of 0.05–1.00 mm), active influence of wave impulses and wave currents in the zone of energy dissipation, active nanoexchange between the shore and the underwater slope. It is shown that this issue has a long history of scientific research in different countries due to its important practical significance. Long years we researching the alongshore sand drifting between C. Bol. Fontain in North to Jebriyan Bay in South as a experimental natural object of the North-Western part of the Black Sea. Theoretical elaborations and methods. Among the natural features of the named landforms, the researchers distinguish 8 leading ones, which are manifested only in the environment of the coastal zone. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to consider the genetic hypotheses of the formation of underwater sand bars in the coastal zone of the seas over the past 100 years, and on this basis – to outline, evaluate, analyze several hypotheses about the formation of bars, show their positives and disadvantages, name the genetic features for the physical geographical. coastal environments As part of the eight most important and most common features, we have identified the following: distribution of wind wave sizes and wave current velocities; the value of the steepness of the underwater slope covered with sediments; value of sediment sizes and hydraulic value of coastal zone sediments; some processes of wave transformation and dispersion of wave energy; certain individual processes of sediment movement of different hydraulic magnitudes in a cell of a sandy coastal zone; steepness of wind waves during storms in the spray source; active action of sand drifts by movement along the coastline and under the influence of the regime of transverse sediments; the nature of underwater swells is different, because one of them moves from the underwater slope to the shore, another – from the shore towards the sea, and the third is dynamically stable. Main results and conclusions. As can be seen, the main hypotheses and the corresponding features of the formation of underwater swells act on their own, separately from the general process of development of the coastal zone of the seas. Such a principle does not meet the elementary requirements for the definition and evaluation of complex geographic natural systems. This is especially true for the coastal zone of the seas, where all the genetic components of the continental, oceanic, and coastal-marine types interact closely in a complex. They act unanimously. It is from such positions, according to this principle, that underwater sand bars and other coastal-marine landforms should be investigated. In other elements of the exogenous part of the geographic envelope, they are not found anywhere and determine the uniqueness of the coastal zone of the seas. The authors of these variants build their hypotheses on separate parts of natural coastal phenomena. Until now, researchers have avoided complex, systematic approaches to this topic. Therefore, the article provides recommendations for improving the theory of the genesis and development of underwater swells within different sites of alongshore sand drifting.

ВИЙШОВ З ДРУКУ ПЕРШИЙ В УКРАЇНІ «ГІДРОЛОГІІЧНИЙ СЛОВНИК» (2022 р.)

The article presents and analyzes the explanatory “Hydrological Dictionary” published in 2022. Authors of the Dictionary: V.K. Khilchevskyi, V.V. Grebin (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv), V.O. Manukalo (Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine and the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine). Hydrology is the science of the hydrosphere, which studies its properties, dynamics and interaction with other elements of the geographic envelope of the Earth. According to the objects under study, it is divided into hydrology. surface waters (or land hydrology), hydrology of oceans and seas (oceanology). In turn, the hydrology of surface waters is the hydrology of rivers (the study of rivers) and the hydrology of lakes (lake science or limnology). In water bodies, the following is studied: the dynamics of water masses (currents, waves, infiltration and other processes); dynamics of their bed (formation of banks and bottom of water bodies, channel processes, erosion, transport and sedimentation); thermal processes (heat exchange, heat balance, evaporation, water balance) and aggregate states of water (ice phenomena, snow cover), chemical and biological processes. The hydrology of groundwater (hydrogeology), the hydrology of soils, the hydrology of glaciers (glaciology) and the hydrology of swamps are also distinguished. Due to the commonality of the processes occurring in water bodies, along with the object-wise division of hydrology, it is often divided according to the processes studied into water dynamics, hydrophysics, hydrochemistry, and hydrobiology. Since these processes in each of the water bodies have their own characteristics, object disciplines have been developed in hydrology, including the study of a complex of issues in water dynamics, hydrophysics, hydrochemistry and hydrobiology. Since an ever wider range of specialists are involved in this area, including those who deal with the topical problem of the use, protection and reproduction of water resources, the issues of unification of hydrological terminology are becoming important. This goal is dedicated to the “Hydrological Dictionary”, which is the first in Ukraine scientific reference publication of this direction. The Dictionary includes more than 1600 terms and concepts that are widely used in the scientific literature on hydrology, as well as a number of terms in related scientific disciplines related to hydrology (hydrochemistry, geography, meteorology, geology, hydrogeology, hydrobiology, etc.). When working on the Dictionary, significant scientific and methodological experience of the scientific school of the Department of Hydrology and Hydroecology of the Faculty of Geography of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv was used. The dictionary is designed for students of universities specializing in “Earth Sciences” of educational programs in the hydrological profile. The dictionary will be useful to specialists in the field of hydrology, hydroecology, hydrochemistry, hydrogeology, geography.

Pacific ocean mega ecotone of Northern Eruasia as the belt of the origin of the modern continental biosphere

The Pacific Ocean margin of Eurasia includes the age row (at the geologic time scale) of geoecotone objects which can be imagined by certain nodal stages of the evolutionary trajectory of exogenous landscape genesis in the continental biosphere. The reported strategy of scientific research is aimed at the establishment of zonal-regional and local regularities of landscape organization of insular and marginal-continental land in different morphotectonic and macroclimatic sectors of the Pacific Ocean mega-ecotone of Northern Eurasia, which is considered as a natural laboratory for studying the modern stage of development of the geographical envelope The empirical statistical models of the island-arc stage of continental biosphere development in the North-West Pacific have been created by the example of experimental test ground of the active Mendeleev volcano on the Kunashir Island (the South Kuril Ridge). It was shown that on this initial stage local geomorphological and hydro-edaphic conditions created the centers of origin of diverse phytocoenological structures. An exceptionally high percentage of green mass in the structure of production results in the acceleration of the biological cycle as a factor of stability of forest community under unfavorable conditions of “cold” oceanicity. Geothermal energy induces rearrangement of the plant cover towards the increase in its flora- and phytocoenotic diversity to the detriment of biomass formation rate. The “climatically unjustified” but sufficiently stable sub-boreal forest ecosystems were formed, as well as the early stages of buffer forest communities. The multidimensional empirical-statistical modeling of landscape connections in the marginal-continental sector of the Pacific Ocean mega ecotone has been performed based on an experimental site in the Lower By-Amur Region. The ecology of the boreal-forest landscape of the continental margin characterizes the mature stage of evolution of the continental biosphere. The regularities and causal mechanisms of the formation of buffer forest communities typical of ecotone systems have been represented more integrally. Forests of this phenomenal buffer flora are distinguished by extremely high parameters of structural and functional development and have reached the state approaching the evolutionary climax. The previously advanced concepts of the Pacific ecotone of Northern Eurasia as a focus of evolutionary processes in the continental biosphere have been confirmed.

ABOUT CONCEPT FORMING OF «LANDSCAPE COVER» OF THE WORLD IN PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

The purpose of the article is genetic systematization for the hierarchical lines of natural complexes within Earth Geographical Mantle on the Land (mainland and islands), it is being notion “landscape” and “natural system” are synonyms. In base of the article did hostage information of long time the author′s geographical expeditions on the Land, in the Ocean and in the Coastal Zone, and analysis of published scientific information by other authors. At the same time, the main research method was integral. Landscape development reliable discovered boundaries of natural systems, its structure, diversity, natural properties, which were conceived and evaluated within land as geosystems and geocomplexes. Solely, within the Land should be logic is development “landscapes” as a natural system. Every of natural systems with different hierarchical the scale of ranks have name “aquaschaft” within the coastal zone surrounding and “thalassogen” within the Ocean surrounding. The article has inheriting character from working out of classic geographers of last century, especially during up to end of 1900th, before 2000. In the period theory of landscape science formed as a most full weight. What is why I developed scientific materials of second part of 1900th. Thus, the natural (anthropogenic and natural) systems complexes are not only the landscape system that is specific to mainland. The complexity and diversity of different akvashaftes and talassohenes are well-organized aggregate of various levels of organization in the coastal zone and the open ocean. Moreover, in the Ocean the largest megasystems serve the water and the ocean bottom. The process of differentiation of megasystems, the three main environments of the geographical envelope, is continuous and covers them simultaneously. This phenomenon is a reflection of the interaction between landscapes, aquascapes and thalassogens. The materials and conclusions outlined in this article open the perspectives for the positive development of landscape science and the rest of the geographical sciences. Further defining the hierarchical ranks of each mega-system requires detailed descriptions of each taxon to be used in the natural justification of any practical/economic projects. Oceanic natural systems (“complexes”) in the Ocean water layer were called thalassogens in 1940th yet. In the contact’s zone environment between them, they were called aquaschafts. Each of the shell parts has its separate hierarchical series, in which each taxon differs from the adjacent ones. In total, their area is 361 mln km2, or 70.78% of the area of the geographical envelope. In addition, including 9.95% is occupied by the coastal zone of the Ocean (aquaschaft), or 7.8 million km2. The remaining 60.83% is accounted for by the thalassogen area.

Physical-geographical natural systems within waters of the World Ocean

Based on the data of theoretical developments in the fields of ocean geography and system-geographical analysis, a hierarchical scheme of natural systems in the water layer of the World Ocean has been examined. The aim of the work is to carry out the first attempt to compare landscapes on land, natural systems in the coastal zone (the zone of contact between land and the World Ocean) and those in the World Ocean. The differentiation of the oceanic natural environment which is a possible version of a systematised list of systems ranging from individual oceans to individual eddies (or impulses) in the deep sea and on the shelf of shallow water are discussed. This work therefore, attempts to find new ways for the synchronous study of the hierarchical series of the coastal zone and the water layer of the World Ocean, along with land landscapes as part of the geographic shell of the Earth. This approach will make it possible to obtain a series of systems for the entire geographic envelope. This is a promising approach for an indebt development of physical geography in general.

FAR-EASTERN SPECIFICITY OF THE RELIEF FORMS’ ASYMMETRY (BY THE EXAMPLE OF THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST)

The purpose and objectives are to study the spatial-temporal anisotropy of the geomorphological processes and asymmetry of multi-ordinal forms of relief (by the example of the Russian Far East). The methods of “thorough study of the complex geographical envelope” (comparative-geographical, informational, paleogeographical) as well as other methods worked out by the author were used. The carried-out developments emphasizing the novelty of the study can be demanded in the practice of choice of optimum alternatives of the nature management with respect of minimizing the possible geo-ecologic risks.

SAPROPELIC SEDIMENTS OF THE VOLGA-AKHTUBA FLOODPLAIN

The widespread development of human civilization leads to the improvement of production potential in any of its manifestations. The question arises in which aspect: positive or negative? The harmonization of human activity with the natural components of the geographical envelope is the true achievement of civilization, to which it is necessary to strive and develop.

Geobotanical indication of flooding and salinization of lands the Volga region and Western Kazakhstan

In order to study the spatial distribution of biological and ecological patterns on the territory of the Volga region and Western Kazakhstan, geobotanical indication of flooding and salinization of the lands these regions was carried out. Geobotanical indication is used in the study, assessment, mapping and monitoring of territorial complexes and their components and is based on the analysis of the relationships of the geographical envelope as a whole. The article is the result of many years of interdisciplinary research. It is based both on the data obtained by the authors as a result of agro-landscape and ecological zoning and in the course of field expedition research, and on the analysis of long-term series of statistical information and literature sources. Intensive economic activity that requires the use of large amounts water resources, against the background of modern climate changes, leads to waterlogging in large areas. The weakening or termination of economic activity, the decrease in the volume of water resources used under certain conditions leads to the spread of land salinization. Flooding and sal-inization of arid lands near reservoirs, channels, reclamation facilities, functioning and abandoned irrigation fields, etc. occupy significant areas and are of great importance as environmental problems in the Volga region and Western Kazakhstan. The most dynamic and fast-responding biotic component of ecosystems to the occurrence of flooding and salinization is vegetation.

Thermal Regime of River Water as a Response to Climatic Processes in the Upper Don Drainage Basin

The modern thermal regime of the Upper Don rivers formed in the conditions of regional climate change in response to the challenge of global climate. The increase in the annual mean temperature of the atmospheric surface layer in the Upper Don in the first decade of the current century nearly by 1°С on average changes the thermal regime of the river water, which, in its turn, reflects the constant interaction between two spheres of the geographic envelope, namely, the atmosphere and hydrosphere. The water mass is concurrently in contact with the streambed, which affects thermal state of the water. Under the conditions of constant interaction and the interference of various environments, the thermal state of the atmosphere does not always remain the leading factor in behavior of the river-water temperature. In light of the unidirectional trend in the behavior of the regional air temperature and the increase in the latter over the entire Don River drainage area, the character of the water temperature response proves to be ambiguous and even contradictory. The maximum water temperature consistently declines in the right-bank Don River tributaries, such as the Krasnaya Mecha, Devitsa, and Chernaya Kalitva rivers, etc., which feed into the main stem from the Central Russian Uplands. The temperature rises in the left-bank Don River tributaries, e.g., Voronezh and Bityug, which feed into the Don River from the Oka–Don Lowlands. The Podgornaya River, which is also a left-bank tributary that feeds into the Don River from the Kalachskaya Uplands, exhibits a drop in temperature. A slight temperature increase is recorded in the streambed of the Don River itself. The ambiguous temperature response of the upper water layer can be attributed to the intra-annual redistribution of drainage, reduced snowmelt, and increase in the proportion and role of groundwater recharge during the formation of the maximum water temperature.

Bushveld superplume drove Proterozoic magmatism and metallogenesis in Australia

Large-scale mantle convective processes are commonly reflected in the emplacement of Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs). These are high-volume, short-duration magmatic events consisting mainly of extensive flood basalts and their associated plumbing systems. One of the most voluminous LIPs in the geological record is the ~ 2.06 billion-year-old Bushveld Igneous Complex of South Africa (BIC), one of the most mineralised magmatic complexes on Earth. Surprisingly, the known geographic envelope of magmatism related to the BIC is limited to a series of satellite intrusions in southern Africa and has not been traced further afield. This appears inconsistent with the inferred large size of the BIC event. Here, we present new radiometric ages for alkaline magmatism in the Archean Yilgarn Craton (Western Australia), which overlap the emplacement age of the BIC and indicate a much more extensive geographic footprint of the BIC magmatic event. To assess plume involvement at this distance, we present numerical simulations of mantle plume impingement at the base of the lithosphere, and constrain a relationship between the radial extent of volcanism versus time, excess temperature and plume size. These simulations suggest that the thermal influence of large plume events could extend for thousands of km within a few million years, and produce widespread alkaline magmatism, crustal extension potentially leading to continental break-up, and large ore deposits in distal sectors. Our results imply that superplumes may produce very extensive and diverse magmatic and metallogenic provinces, which may now be preserved in widely-dispersed continental blocks.

Основные закономерности геоботанической индикации затопления, подтопления и засоления земель Поволжья

In order to study the spatial distribution of biological and ecological patterns on the territory of the Volga region, geobotanical indication of flooding and salinization of the lands these regions was carried out. Geobotanical indication is used in the study, assessment, mapping and monitoring of territorial complexes and their components and is based on the analysis of the relationships of the geographical envelope as a whole. The article is the result of many years of interdisciplinary research. It is based both on the data obtained by the authors as a result of agro-landscape and ecological zoning and in the course of field expedition research, and on the analysis of long-term series of statistical information and literature sources. Intensive economic activity that requires the use of large amounts water resources, against the background of modern climate changes, leads to waterlogging in large areas. The weakening or termination of economic activity, the decrease in the volume of water resources used under certain conditions leads to the spread of land salinization. Flooding and salinization of arid lands near reservoirs, channels, reclamation facilities, functioning and abandoned irrigation fields, etc. occupy significant areas and are of great importance as environmental problems in the Volga region. The most dynamic and fast-responding biotic component of ecosystems to the occurrence of flooding and salinization is vegetation.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ПРАКТИЧОЇ ПІДГОТОВКИ МАЙБУТНЬОГО ВЧИТЕЛЯ ГЕОГРАФІЇ ДО ЕКОЛОГІЧНОЇ ДІЯЛЬНОСТІ

The article analyzes the practical preparation of the future teacher of geography for environmental activities. In addition the problems of environmental competence of a future geography teacher are substantiated. It will help to achieve a number of pedagogical goals for the development of students’ environmental culture, fostering a caring attitude to the environment, and improving environmental literacy. It is noted that the study of vocational training allows the future teacher of geography to understand the peculiarities of the influence of anthropogenic factors on the geographical envelope, to understand the need for rational use of nature, to form an ecocentric type of thinking in the context of globalization, to promote safe learning environment and to improve health-saving technologies in the process. It has been researched that the cycle of disciplines of practical training of future teachers of geography is aimed on improvement of general and professional knowledge, development of skills to apply modern pedagogical technologies, formation of professionally important personal qualities as a component of pedagogical culture. In the course of practical training, future specialists will systematize and improve the acquired knowledge, skills and skills in scientific, environmental, environmental and educational activities. It helps to develop the ability of the future specialist to use the methodological apparatus of teaching geography; the implementation of the educational process in all its diversity; mastering the algorithmic elements of pedagogical technologies and forming a creative attitude for their introduction. The analysis of scientific sources shows that the practical preparation of the future teacher of geography for environmental activity is characterized by a number of contradictions: between the traditional system of practical training of the future teacher of geography in pedagogical universities and the need for modernization of higher education; between the theoretical knowledge of the future teacher of geography in ecology and the ability to practically implement them in their professional activities.

The mapping results of the landscapes of the Upper and Middle Yenisei basin

The issues of displaying information about diversity, differentiation, integration, dynamics and evolution of conditionally-natural and anthropogenically-altered geosystems on medium-scale maps are considered. The mapping technique is based on the theory of geosystems and the principles of constructing the hierarchical structure of geometers by integrating their indicators. To demonstrate the organization of low-steppe and forest-steppe topogeosystems in southern Siberia on a large scale, a classification was developed based on the principles of the theory of geosystems and the concept of the interdependence of geosystem organization with the differentiation of matter. When compiling maps of geosystems of a smaller scale, the methodological approaches of landscape analysis, synthesis and detailed landscape survey that are applied at the topological level are impossible. The main sources for medium-scale maps are remote sensing materials, topographic, thematic maps only partially controlled by the results of a wide-scale landscape survey and detailed mapping of key areas. The maps of parts of the south of Central Siberia are generalized to create a single medium-scale geosystem map (1: 1000000). When compiling it, the author’s own ideas on the classification of geosystems obtained from the experience of landscape mapping of other regions are also used. In future information on geosystems obtained with landscape mapping will be interpreted from the positions of applied geography for the creation of landscape-evaluation maps in order to optimize nature management with the use of landscape planning. To adequately reflect the organization of the geographical envelope from the perspective of the theory of geosystems, it is necessary to develop a modern landscape classification based on correct quantitative data including three taxonomic series of geosystems: typological, horological and dynamic.

DEFORMATION MECHANISM OF STRUCTURAL BODY COMPRESSION

In order to prepare soil for sowing of agricultural crops it is necessary to have a number of engineering structures that ensure its qualitative treatment and protection from erosion. Modern equipment do not fully meet the whole complex of specified requirements. Application of tillage machinery being used for main soil cultivation is directed on suppression (destruction) of natural vegetation which is considered as the strongest competitor to cultivated plants. From the other side, vegetation on the Earth’s surface plays an important role for reliable protection of soil from erosion. Destruction of vegetation throughout the whole period of crop tending leads to the fact that the remaining cultivated plants are not able to protect soil from erosion by such natural aggressive factors as rain storms and strong winds. As a consequence, processes of soil structure destruction and losses of entire soil strata and its fertility occur in the geographical (landscape) envelope. Thus, equipment for primary and secondary soil tillage exerts double impact: from one side, killing of weeds takes place, and on the other hand, there is destruction (erosion) of soil structure and profiles of its geographical envelope. The soil, in the understanding of the earth, is the perfect place that gives life to plants and organisms, has a fertility. For the last 50 years analytical scope of physical processes occurring in the soil has been extended, physical methods for investigation of soil properties and application of technical equipment for assessment of physical-mechanical soil characteristics have got widespread use. However, there is no summative investigation on soil physics which includes and reveals thermodynamics, electrophysics and nuclear physics of soils. At the same time an integrated approach for studying such complicated object makes it possible to understand important nature of some processes occurring in the soil and to develop practical measures for fertility improvement and erosion reduction. The paper considers problems pertaining to deformation mechanism while forming soil structure and its compression under influence of external loadings: magnetic, electric, physico-chemical, gravitational and thermal fields and working organs of tillage tools.

Geographic envelope of the Moon and the identification of Moon landscapes with the use of the axiomatic method

Abstract Three consequent concepts that build up the algorithm of the identification of modern landscapes on the Moon surface are suggested. They are anaglyphonosphere axiomatic and landscape concepts obtained with the use of the axiomatic method. The first concept depicts the geographic envelope of the Moon as an anaglyphonosphere layer (relief) that is a continuum (total environment). The latter becomes the research subject for both a geomorphologist and a landscape researcher. Continuity, dynamics, range (amplitude), and erosion potential determine anaglyphonosphere. Axiomatic concept means constructing the sole scheme (mathematically determined) of the search for the elementary surface units using the geometric interpretation of surface patterns of the Moon and its landscape interpretation. The landscape concept is based on the classical principles of the landscape theory and the axiomatic principles of the previous concept. The synthesis of concepts is implemented in the models of Moon landscapes of four scales: zero, linear, two- and three-dimensional. The paper offers the last two models of Davy Catena. Proposed concepts with appropriate correction can be used in parallel studies of the natural environment: geological, geomorphological, climatic, etc. The advantages of the axiomatic method consist in the objective approach to the division of the surface into specific units (the landscapes in our case). The proposed method of identifying and displaying the landscape complexes on the lunar surface can be a significant complement for the study and mapping of terrestrial planets, satellites of planet-giants, etc.

Oldfield, Jonathan D. and Shaw, Denis J. B. The Development of Russian Environmental Thought: Scientific and Geographical Perspectives on the Natural Environment (review)

REVIEWS 543 One failing in the volume is that not all of the potentially interesting material is identifiable in the (generally good) index. For example, on page 30 Rady observes that several of the earliest surviving Hungarian wills are by women, a fact which he ‘suggests that they felt especially vulnerable to coercion but also to convenient lapses in the [non-textual] memory of kinsmen’. This is something of a throw-away remark, but there is obvious potential for further consideration from a gender history perspective. But the index has no entry for ‘women’, so one cannot always find such points without reading through the book. Unsurprisingly, there are also challenges in handling legal terms in a different language. This is to be expected. Legal terms are often specific to particular (geographic or cultural) communities, which have no ready alternatives to hand. But using technical English terms might mislead. For example, the protonotaries are described as linked with ‘inns’ (pp. 54, 55 and 122), with the index even referring to ‘inns of court’. Lawyers are described as being trained by ‘pupillage’ (pp. 159 and 161). I am not sure whether these English terms, associated with barristers, accurately describe the Hungarian model or not. These are important qualifications, but they should not detract from the achievement of this volume. Hungarian legal history has become much more accessible. It is thought-provoking, provides new insights and is full of material which should stimulate historians from a wide variety of perspectives. Rady has shown that the history of customary law in Hungary is central to the history of Hungary. Faculty of Laws, UCL Ian Williams Oldfield, Jonathan D. and Shaw, Denis J. B. The Development of Russian Environmental Thought: Scientific and Geographical Perspectives on the Natural Environment. Routledge, Abingdon and New York, 2015. xv + 196 pp. Maps. Illustrations. Tables. Glossary. Notes. Bibliography. Index.£95.00: $160.00. Russian scientists have developed distinctive ways of conceptualizing the natural environment over the past century and a half. Their ideas have drawn on diverse disciplinary traditions — everything from black earth pedology to early adventures in thinking about the cosmos — and traversed a fraught ideological terrain of statism, utilitarianism and Marxism. For Jonathan Oldfield and Denis Shaw these theories coalesced around the field of geography: a science with a rich and underappreciated past in Russia. The primary mission of their deeply researched and contemplated monograph is to SEER, 94, 3, july 2016 544 demonstrate the complexity and sophistication of these ideas and reveal their pertinence for the broader study of beliefs about the natural world in Russian and Soviet history. As historical geographers well-immersed in the fields of environmental history and the history of science, Oldfield and Shaw succeed in providing an informative and valuable synthesis for an interdisciplinary audience. The authors approach their topic chronologically, beginning with the appearance of the sciences in Russia in the era of Peter the Great and concluding with the period of Nikita Khrushchev’s rule. Such an organization allows them to chart the origins, developments and shifts in geographical thinking. For instance, they highlight how the genetic soil science of Vasilii Dokuchaev and his followers in the late nineteenth century played a significant role in the rise of ideas about natural complexes, physical-geographical regions and natural zones. Near the end of the book, Oldfield and Shaw also argue that geographers after Stalin were able to more effectively make the case for the rational application of science as a necessary means of both transforming and protecting the natural world. In doing so, they helped curtail the rampant Prometheanism of the Soviet Union in earlier periods. Throughout their chronological overview, the authors foreground three dominant concepts that developed in the Russian geographical sciences: landscape, geographical envelope and geographical environment. Attention to landscape as the key unit of geographical study preoccupied Lev Berg (1876–1950) in particular. He drew directly on German ideas from the tsarist era and indirectly on the soil science of Dokuchaev to theorize that specific formations on the earth’s surface were the proper unit of study for physical geographers. The broad range of natural processes and phenomena active in particular places gave rise to landscapes that...

The origin of life is the prerogative of primordial planets of novas

The scientific community has been trying to explain the phenomenon of the origin of life on our planet for many years. Contemporary knowledge makes it possible to establish the logically reliable fact of the formation of the hydrothermal conditions under which this phenomenon emerged naturally following the accretion of protoplanetary matter within the single process of the development of the geographical envelope of primordial planets of novas. Similar processes preceded the appearance of biomorphic remnants in meteorites (chondrites), a parent planet’s debris that fell to the Earth. Hence, the occasional attempts to revive panspermia (the hypothesis that life on the Earth appeared because so-called living embryos had been brought to it from outer space) of the Swedish physical chemist S. Arrhenius (1859–1927) appear irrelevant.