The Role of Legume Crops in Improving the Ecological State of the Soil

In this article is considered the role of legumes in improving the ecological state of the soil and the problem of developing energy-efficient, inexpensive, biologically and environmentally clean production technologies for crop production. The use of valuable chemical fertilizers and pesticides in order to obtain high yields from crops increases the pollution of the environment, ie soil, air and groundwater, the products contain nitrates, herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, residues harmful to human health.

Technogenesis and Ecological State of Natural Waters in Eastern Transbaikalia

The research on the state of water ecosystems is significant in terms of future biological impacts of natural and anthropogenic effects. The key branches of natural resources management in Eastern Transbaikalia (agriculture, hydraulic power industry) are based on using water resources. The findings show that technogenesis affects surface waters of the region. Alluvial gold mining represents a significant part of mining industry. Gold mining in river channels results in run-of-stream diversion and interferes with the ecosystem of watercourses. A newly formed structure of a water ecosystem is not favourable for self-purification capacity of rivers. This leads to pollutants accumulation in water objects and deteriorates ecological state of watercourses. Natural components in the technoecosystem of hydropower objects in Eastern Transbaikalia are Lake Kenon and the Kharanor Reservoir. Although the catchment area is polluted by TPP-1, the ecosystem of the lake is still capable of self-purification due to biodiversity of hydrobionts. Under the dry climate in recent years, the Kharanor Reservoir ecosystem turned as rather unstable due to constant refilling from the Onon River. However, generally, pigment indices show physiological activity of primary producers of organic matter.

Ensuring effective transit of electrical energy using the laws of environmental cybernetics and the foundations of automatic control

The necessity of constant monitoring and maintenance of the environmental component in the organization of electric energy transit is substantiated. An original technique aimed at improving the efficiency of the functioning of the air electric network, based on the laws of environmental cybernetics and the basics of automatic control, is considered. The proposed scientific tools allow you to automatically monitor and control all processes that affect the efficiency of electric energy transit from the point of view of its environmental friendliness, and also allows you to form optimal regulatory influences aimed at stabilizing negative processes and disturbing factors arising inside the artificial electrobiological organism “Electric Line - Nature - Man”, which violate the stability of its ecological state.

Regarding the choice of composite indicators of ecological safety of water in the basin of the Siversky Donets

The lack of effective mechanisms of the methods of basin management, control of and responsibility for the ecological state of surface sources of drinking water leads to the fact that the main man-made objects that determine the ecological state of surface water sources are most often located in one oblast, while the production and consumption of the drinking water from those sources occur in the territory of other oblasts, which complicates the effective management of environmental safety of surface water sources. This is especially true for the regions of Ukraine which are poor in surface water resources, located in the basin of the Siversky Donets River, the water bodies of which are the main sources of water supply in the eastern regions of the country. The main consumer of water is Donetsk Oblast (over 50 % of the annual volume), and Kharkiv and Luhansk Oblasts together consume approximately the same volume of water per year (up to 50 % of the annual volume). Therefore, it is important to substantiate the integrated indicators of the ecological status of the water body to improve the environmental safety of surface water sources. The paper shows that oxygen indicators play an important role in the ecology of a water body. They are associated with the assimilative ability of water, the ability of water to decompose organic matter. Therefore, the content of dissolved oxygen and biochemical oxygen consumption in water is of great interest not only in terms of life development, but also as a composite measure of the ecological status of the aquatic environment. The relationship between the value of the combined index of water pollution and the value of biochemical oxygen consumption makes the indicator of biochemical oxygen consumption important for the integrated assessment of water contamination with various organic substances. For the tasks for which we justify the choice of composite measures of the ecological condition of surface waters, it is more important to identify the effects of contamination not directly at the site of contamination, but at some distance from it and after some time. Therefore, the use of the amount of dissolved oxygen and biochemical oxygen consumption as indicators that characterize the oxidation of pollutants present in water is the most appropriate for the tasks of timely monitoring of water bodies. Therefore, as a composite indicator for characterizing the condition of the watercourse and conducting timely monitoring, we chose oxygen indicators.

The effects of silt fields of Bortnytska aeration station on ecological state of land and water in the adjacent areas

The article highlights the results of research on assessing the ecological state of the land near the silt fields №1 and №3 of Bortnytska aeration station in the Zolochiv village community of Boryspil district in Kyiv region. The presence of previously recorded increased content of heavy metals in soils compared to the background content, both in terms of their gross content and the content of mobile forms was confirmed within the certain areas near the silt fields. For the elements-pollutants (Zn, Cu, Cr, Pb) at some points within the agricultural land, exceeding the values ​​of their gross content and the content of mobile forms (Zn, Cu) of the maximum permissible concentrations was recorded at 1.1-6.2 and 1.1 -2.6 times, respectively. The average values ​​of heavy metals content for floodplains (settlement) and agricultural land near silt fields indicate their prevailing values ​​for the latter in almost all elements, as well as exceeding the background values ​​and maximum permissible concentrations for the land where silt deposits were previously applied as fertilizers. Within the surveyed areas, soils are classified as unsalted, but the increased content of exchangeable magnesium may adversely affect soil fertility. Increased mineralization and content of ammonium and nitrates in groundwater are observed near silt fields, which is obviously related to the impact of silt water and can lead to deterioration of groundwater quality in the area of ​​their transit and discharge, in particular within the village Gnidyn. The area of ​​land with an extremely dangerous pollution rate in terms of total heavy metal is about 300 hectares, with a dangerous pollution rate is 260 hectares, and the estimated damage from crop failure may be 1.65 million UAH/year and 0.3 million UAH/year respectively. Within the areas adjacent to the silt fields, the condition of soils, water resources, cultivated products and the health of the population should be constantly monitored, especially when using the polluted land for agricultural use or housing.

Strategy for achieving low carbon content in the Arkhangelsk region

In the Arkhangelsk region, there are many enterprises that have an impact on the ecological state of the region. Most of the enterprises are concentrated in the wood processing industry. To develop a strategy to achieve low carbon content for the region, the low-carbon strategies of the three largest enterprises in the Arkhangelsk industry are analyzed. The strategy focuses on compliance with standards for greenhouse gas emissions, the introduction of energy-intensive technologies used in production, as well as the generation of energy from its own energy sources.

Improving the methodology of cadastral land assessment

Methodological tools for improving the existing methods of cadastral land valuation are described. The basis of its development and improvement of objectivity is the ecological paradigm, the conceptual novelty of which consists in the cost accounting of changes in productive properties and at the same time the ecological state of arable land as a result of annual cycles of economic use. A conceptually new way of forecasting the potential costs associated with the cultivation of crop products has also been developed. It is based on the economic and mathematical models created by the author.

Evaluation of the Cost of Ecosystem Services of Urban Landscapes (by the Example of Moscow)

Abstract— The cost of park-recreational, residential, and residential-transport urban landscapes of Moscow has been estimated taking into account land use and the relationships between ecosystem services and ecological functions and properties of individual landscape components. On the basis of the methodology previously proposed by the authors, a wide range of ecosystem services of urban landscapes, mainly associated with soils and their ecological state, has been assessed. The cost of ecosystem services provided by the soil in urban landscapes is 20–30 times higher in comparison with that of green spaces, and some soil services can be considered invaluable because of the difficulty of renewing this natural resource. The cost of ecosystem services of undisturbed soils of park and recreational landscapes is 1.5–2 times higher than that of anthropogenically transformed soils of residential and residential-transport urban territories. The main contribution to the overall cost of ecosystem services of soils in urban landscapes is due to the following services: carbon sequestration, preservation of the genetic material of biota, and filtration and accumulation of chemical elements in the ecosystem. These services can be considered as promising in the monetization of ecosystem services in urban landscapes. The decline in the cost of ecosystem services from park and recreational landscapes to residential and residential-transport landscapes is largely determined by the deterioration of the ecological state of soils. The benefits provided by the natural block of landscapes are comparable to or greater than those of the cultural (human-created) block. In relation to the all-Russia assessment of ecosystem services, a specific feature of urban areas is a significant share (on average, 25%) of the cultural block in the total cost of ecosystem services and a decrease in the cost of regulatory services by about 30%. The results of the economic assessment of ecosystem services of urban landscapes indicate an underestimation of the value of natural components, a significant contribution of soil to the natural block, the need to search for simplified integral indicators of its state, and the presence of cost calculation problems. The methodological approaches and provisional results of this study can be used in urban planning with the aim to preserve the soil cover of urban landscapes and optimize their functioning.