The problem geoecological aspects of weather and climatic extremes that violate the life of the population are discussed in article. The most important medical and ecological consequences of extreme weather conditions for the population of Central Russia and several European countries are considered. The author's view of geoecological processes arising as a result of modern fluctuations in the earth's climate system (atmosphere - ocean - land - cryosphere) is revealed. The idea of the greenhouse effect as a factor of modern climate change is discussed. A conceptual position on the future climate system and the leading role of solar activity in the environmental dynamics is formulated in article.

The results of studies on the vegetation of Bulganak mud volcanoes, located near Kerch on the Crimean peninsula, are presented. Spatial features of the distribution of plant communities are studied. Using the field data, the changes in the reserves of terrestrial biomass of plant communities of mud volcanoes on the example of Andrusov and Central Lake are traced. The dependence of the reserves of terrestrial biomass and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) are calculated. A technique for remote assessment of biomass stocks using the NDVI index from the Sentinel-2a satellite images is proposed.

Based on the results of long-term investigations, we present quantitative data on the biodiversity of conditionally native forests in the western low mountains of the Southern Urals and the Trans-Ural hilly foothill province of the Middle Urals. Available information about forest types is supplemented with information on the productivity and species abundance of the grass and shrub layers of conditionally native forests, which characterizes the natural level of biodiversity necessary to maintain the sustainability of natural ecosystems. It is revealed that the diversity of landscapes, humidification regimes and the complex ecotonic effect lead to a high variety of forest types. The analysis shows the advantages of sharing the methods of the genetic forest typology, landscape ecology, with obtaining quantitative characteristics of the productivity and ecosystem biodiversity and floral analysis for studying forest vegetation.

The paper considers the current environmental priorities that require priority attention for the territory of the Moscow region: the development of the system of protected natural areas, environmental rehabilitation of urban rivers and waste management system. For the territory of the Moscow suburbs, it is proposed to develop local forms of protected natural areas at the hierarchical level of landscape tracts aimed at maintaining the ecological balance and quality of life in dense building. The necessity of ecological rehabilitation of rivers and floodplain landscapes is shown, and the most important geoecological consequences of this restoration are considered also. On the example of rehabilitation of the Yauza river the main drawbacks of the ongoing works from the standpoint of landscape hydrology and geoecology are shown. The main ecological consequences associated with the work of landfills for waste storage are identified. Within the framework of the current waste management concept, the issue of the need for the development of engineering and geoecological studies to find optimal places for waste disposal and processing is raised.

We present the characteristics of a new waste management system, implemented by the structural division of the Finnish company L&T, The Russian-Finnish company ‘Ecosystem’ in the science town of Dubna, Moscow region. The operation of the waste sorting facility has helped to reach a 100% level of separate waste collection within the city by using the system of waste collection consisting of two containers and a waste sorting complex (WSC). The analysis of the data from the WSC shows that the yield of the secondary raw material out of municipal solid waste (MSW) has increased from 5.2% to 10.1% over a period of 5 years. Environmental and economic evaluation of the systems for the MSW management in Dubna is performed for two variants. The costs of recovery of secondary raw materials from the WSC, profit from the sale of the recovered secondary raw materials, costs of disposal of the MSW stream at the landfill are evaluated. It is shown that the annual environmental and economic effect of the introduction of the new system of MSW management on the territory of Dubna, Moscow region, is 4.36 million RUB.

The aim of the paper is to analyze the process of toponymic commodification from geographic prospective within the framework of critical toponymy. This study identifies two dominant groups of actors, three main strategic toponymic practices, and three types of toponymic commodification such as tourist, infrastructure and gentrification. As a result, two geographical problems associated with toponymic commodification are formulated including spatial social polarization and the formation of an artificial geo-cultural space. The study concludes that these processes neutralize possible positive economic results of the toponymic commodification and can lead to more complex transformations in the spatial organization of society.

Problems of spatial planning of transport at a regional level (on the example of the Stavropol region) are considered/ Modern problems and prospects of the transport infrastructure development at a level of separate means of transport and areas of the Stavropol region are described. Statistical, reference, town-planning, regulatory and other sources of information are used. Improvement of the regional transport system parameters of the Stavropol region is proposed on the basis of various measures of spatial planning. The actions offered and proved in the present paper have been used in the development of the strategy of spatial planning of the Stavropol region.

The potential of geography of culture in a solution of the problem of rational use of prehistoric objects of cultural heritage in science and practice is considered. Application of geographical methods allows one to use these objects as sources of information about nature and culture at the time of creation. The theoretical basis of such investigations is represented by definition of geocultural space according to V.N. Streletsky, the concept of the organization of territorial systems on the basis of orientation in V.I. Paranin's space-time and the navigation concept of informational modeling of the world developed by authors of the paper. The presented research methods make it possible to model the stages of development of geographical space at the local and regional level and to simulate geographical space and time in consciousness and culture (processes of parallel development of biological and sub-biological adaptation). The obtained results have practical value for optimization of recreational environmental management, preservation and museumification of objects of cultural heritage.

The paper studies the state of water bodies in Moscow. The methods of hydrological and hydrochemical research, allowing students to develop professional competence and to improve the level of environmental culture, are are considered in detail. The information about the results of surveys of water bodies and watercourses within the Kolomenskoe Museum Reserve and Teply Stan Landscape Reserve is presented. The obtained data indicate an increased anthropogenic load on water bodies of urban parks and can serve as a basis for further monitoring of water components of nature.

The black-dotted groundling Stenoleсhia gemmella L. hibernate in the egg stage under the squama of buds. Eggs measure 0.50х0.23 mm in size. Caterpillars burst at expansion of buds of an oak. The stage of a caterpillar is 1.1-1.5 months, with the width of the head capsule of larvae at the six age stages being 0.04, 0.19, 0.22, 0.38, 0.46, and 0.60 mm. A caterpillar of the first age damages the central vein of a young leaf in a bud, after the second molting the caterpillar damages the central part of one or several young shoots. Mortality of caterpillars does not exceed 31%. Pupates occurs in top or the mid-part of the gallery. Pupas of 4.4х1.2 mm in size develop for about two weeks, with the survival rate being equal to 59%. Duration of intensive flight of butterflies is about 10 days, the survival of butterflies is 90%, share of females is 57%, and fecundity is about 80 eggs. In years with the greatest number of pests, up to 30% of all shoots of the current year and 12% of the leaves dry up. The loss of foliage Y (%) is associated with the proportion of damaged shoots (%) by the equation Y = 0.319x + 1.422. Damage to shoots occurs in all parts of the crown. Low-density plantations and free-standing trees are damaged more severely.

The city becomes an ecological niche for birds which provides new sources of food, so they are developing it more actively. Different species react in various manners to an increase in anthropogenic impact. The problem has not been sufficiently studied due to an increase in anthropogenic impact and a wide range of behavioral responses of birds. An attempt is made to analyze the behavior of the synanthropic birds according to the established methods and to identify possible changes on the basis of the collected data.

Concentration distributions of the mixture’s components are analyzed in the ternary gas mixtures, where convective instability may occur due to the difference in the diffusion coefficients. It is shown that non-monotonic isoconcentration distributions are possible in multicomponent systems, where special diffusion regimes appear. The content influence of the system’s heaviest component on the degree of nonmonotonicity of the mixture density distribution is analyzed. The calculation results are compared with the experimental data.

Numerical simulation methods are used to study quasi-stationary mixing in binary mixtures when the density heavier gas is located in the upper part of the diffusion channel, and the second one is in the lower part. The slope angles, at which the regime changes from diffusion to concentration gravitational convection, are determined. The dynamics of structured convective flows at various angles of inclination is analyzed. The dependence of the intensity of convective flows on the slope angle of the diffusion channel for a binary mixture 0.15 Ar + 0.85 N2 - N2 is obtained.