Home – Home – Jornals – Siberian Journal of Forest Science 2017 number 6

One of the key problems of economic development of Siberia is space exploration. According to the authors opinion, there has been a very undesirable and unfortunate trend over the past 25 years, to make projects in the Arctic zone of the region autonomous from the development of economic centers located further South, mainly along the Trans-Siberian railway. However, the implementation of resource projects in the Arctic requires long-term and coordinated decisions and actions with great attention to the regional multiplier effects, which requires the creation of multilevel and multidimensional systems of interaction with a significant number of participants. Meanwhile, in the present, the effect of the implementation of the Arctic projects is evaluated primarily in terms of return on investment and revenue in the budget and reserve funds, while their influence on the regional socio-economic processes is not considered in a full range. In the authors opinion, such an evaluation of the effectiveness of oil and gas (especially the Arctic) projects cannot be considered correct. Obviously, it indicates the absence of a clear understanding of what the multiplicative effects include and how they work.

The report provides the results of the inter-regional economic relations analysis conducted with the application of Multiregional input-output model, the mathematical concepts of economic equilibrium and the theory of games, as well as methods of coalition analysis in accordance with which calculations for all possible coalitions of regions are carried out. The analysis shows that Federal districts in modern Russia are divided into donors and recipients exactly in half. «First level» donors are the North-Western and the far East Federal districts, «second level» donors are Siberian and Ural Federal districts. The Central Federal district, figuratively speaking, is a «parasite» on the «body of Russia». Its consumption of Russian Fund exceeds its input by more than a third. In addition, the author offers a classification and description of possible strategies for spatial socio-economic development of the country. One of the parts of this classification is based on the theories of economic equilibrium and game theory.

The main goal of the article was to develop an innovative method for determining the level of food security in the region, taking into account the qualitative characteristics of food products in a particular area. The article considers the criteria for assessing food security, which should be considered at three levels: world, state and regional. The necessity of harmonizing the concepts of «food security» and «healthy nutrition», which determines the innovativeness of the approach to assessing food security, is grounded. The opportunity that favorably affects the life expectancy and health of the population, conditioned by the consumption by local residents of a particular area of local food products, whose chemical structure corresponds most closely to the enzyme systems of the human body, is argued. The proposed methodology for assessing the level of food security is tested on the example of the Volgograd region and can find application in other regions of Russia.

Innovative bibliometric analysis based on the electronic bibliography EconLit for 1980-2017 is discussed in article. Author shows that at the beginning of the XXI century there was a sharp increase in the number of publications on the relationship between universities and entrepreneurship. Among the rapidly growing areas are «education and research institutes», «firm objectives and behavior», «research and development», «spatial analysis». At the same time, at the end of 2015, 90 % of the possible intersections of micro categories in the JEL subject classification were not covered. The analysis made it possible to identify a number of promising areas of research in the field of interaction between education (primarily the higher education) and important aspects of entrepreneurship. The report lists some useful scientific work-triggers that are available to Russian specialists.

In the recent economic history of the country the development of universities took place in difficult conditions: the establishment of the institution of private property, liberalization of prices and falling incomes have caused an outflow of scientific personnel in private business. The subsequent period after the first financial crisis was characterized by the accession of the Russian universities to the Bologna process and increased international cooperation with Western universities. The pressure of state on universities has increased. Introduction of monitoring indicators, a series of mergers and acquisitions have led to prioritizing the implementation of indicators for accreditation and formalization of scientific research. During this difficult period, the digital economy changes the role of higher education as a driver of competitiveness of national economies. Digital technology is in demand in Russia and raise scientific and consumer interest. Their socialization and mobility are ahead of the level of development of universities, their technological base. The result is a significant outflow of young researchers. In this situation, the development strategy of higher educational establishments should be aimed at development of multidisciplinary research and the creation of platforms to achieve economic superiority in the markets of goods and services. A necessary condition of achievement of such purpose is investment into development of the human capital.

The dynamic aspect of a knowledge-based economy is explored in the article. For this purpose, the content of the concept «knowledge» is disclosed, and its various forms are given. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the process of movement (circulation) and the transformation of knowledge at the macrolevel and level of organizations. Circulation of knowledge in the economy is characterized as a process of successive passage of certain stages and return to the initial stage, but already at a qualitatively new turn of the movement. At each of these stages, knowledge is appropriately transformed, resulting in a change in its form, socio-economic and functional characteristics. The dynamic approach proposed by the authors to the study of a new model of the economy made it possible to more fully reveal its essential features, to comprehensively characterize the economic foundation of a postindustrial society. On the basis of this approach, a conclusion is made about the economic role of knowledge in the postindustrial economic system. The article substantiates the need to manage the circulation of knowledge as an innovative process, examines the opportunities and forms of managing the transformation of knowledge at the macro and micro levels of the economy.

Formation of the concepts of interaction of ecological, social and economic development of the region not only now but also in future requires a complex statistical survey, based on application of the system approach, when the subject of the study is a system of factors and results rather than influence of certain factors on processes of development and results. The article is focused on formation of the methods of statistical survey, which can be used as a basis of studying the regularities of change and interaction of economy, nature and society with regard to the system approach.

Huge territory of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and underdevelopment of transport and energy infrastructure predetermine the need for development of new approaches and algorithms of complex dimensional analysis of the level of social and economic condition of municipal formations. The article considers description of the system of indicators of data, which form the basis of the database and reflect spatial social and economic processes at the level of population clusters, municipal regions and economic zones of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). At the moment there are a lot of approaches to assessment of the level of development of territories. The whole variety of the methods, used for assessment of the level of development of municipal formations, comes down to two categories. The first group is based on determination of particular indicators and calculation of the generalizing index on their basis. The second group of methods includes econometric assessments, where efforts to reveal cause-effect relations of municipal development are carried out. Distribution of municipal formations by groups is presented in the basis of per capita municipal product indicator; the distribution makes it possible to assess the level of social and economic development and significance of each municipal formation for economy of the region. The contribution of Lensky district to formation of GRP of the republic is analyzed; the district holds leading positions in macroeconomic indicators and makes a significant contribution to social and economic development of the republic. Forecasts of spatial development of the region require consideration of the approaches to development of the economic and mathematical model of dynamic interrelation between factors of economic advancement with allowance for individual characteristics of the territories. The article presents a long-time forecast of GWP indicator for two scenarios of development of Lensky district as an example.

The article examines the problems of assessing the social and economic development of single-industry towns and presents an overview of existing approaches to this aspect. A methodical approach to assessing the social and economic development of single-industry municipal entities is proposed. It involves selection of indicators, their standardization, the integration of selected characteristics on the basis of factor analysis, calculation of the aggregated level of social and economic development, determination of the level of differentiation of social and economic development of single-industry towns and the identification of their stable groups. The developed methodical approach was tested on single-industry towns of the Siberian federal district.

The article describes the evolution of accounting lease legislation. The author revealed the logic of demarcation of term «lease» from accounting and financial position, motives and principles, which guided legislators when they were allocated. It’s established that the main reason of leases reflection reform in accounting and reporting is a real demonstration of financial dependence level of a business entity. This is due to the fact that, regardless of the criteria for identifying types of leases, companies are more likely to enter into contractual arrangements falling under the operating lease category. Projects of changes in standards of IFRS and domestic Russian accountant system are considered. It’s proved that there’s no possibility to achieve an absolute comparability of reporting data, arising at reporting transformation in IFRS format because of the existing rules of the domestic account. The author considers different ways of the decision of the specified problems.

The article considers methodological approaches of obtaining qualitative assessments of potential of the regional bond market in view of the federal districts of the Russian Federation, degree of development of the market and its possible growth. The potential of development of the regional bond market was assessed in two aspects: potential bond market volume in a region («region - investor») and potential number of bonds issued («region - issuer»). Open official statistics data, characterizing investment opportunities and needs of macroregions most adequately, as well as agency Expert RA expert estimation of the investment potential of the regions of the Russian Federation were used to obtain qualitative assessment of the market potential. The survey results were followed by assessment of the degree of actual realization of potential of the bond market in federal districts of the Russian Federation. Index approach was used for analysis, assessment and comparison of the degree of realization of potential of the bond market by federal districts of the Russian Federation. Clustering of macroregions by integral index has been carried out. On the basis of the performed model analysis the article gives estimation and makes a forecast of development of the obligation market by regions with allowance for the factors, characterizing investment climate in macroregions and its influence on realization of their investment potential qualitatively. The Agency for Strategic Initiatives data of the ranking of the investment climate condition in regions and agency Expert RA data on indices of investment risk in regions were used for calculations. The conclusions of the possible growth of volumes of the bond market in the Russian Federation, as well as of the necessary measures, were drawn.

A necessary condition for the successful tax management, to ensure the performance of the state tax policy is tax control, and tax audit as one of the forms of which. Improving the way they are conducted allows identifying «unreliable» taxpayers with the aim of increasing the effectiveness of field tax audits in the region. Since the data of the tax reporting are the basis of the information base for carrying out tax inspections, increasing the efficiency of tax control is inextricably linked to the problem of improving the tax declarations (calculations) regarding the tax liabilities of economic subjects. Analysis of the key issues allowed forming principles of formation, requirements for information disclosure and assumptions for the preparation of tax reporting system, the criteria for the selection of items to optimize its structure. The use of the criteria in the design of new tax reporting formats with introduction of modern information technologies will optimize it to effectively meet the information needs of users: the tax authorities - in the implementation of the tax control, the taxpayers - to optimize the process of preparation of tax reports and reporting to tax authorities, government agencies - to improve normative legislation on taxes and tax control.

Effective management of a direct investment fund and determination of return on investment require determination of the optimal approaches to assessment of value of direct investment funds at the stage of their creation, monitoring and closing. The article considers classic and modern approaches and methods of assessment of companies in the fund portfolio; main advantages and disadvantages and use cases of each approach are revealed; optimal approaches and methods of assessment of funds depending on the stage of fund functioning are defined.

The article presents a practical interpretation of the issues, faced by water and sewage utilities enterprises at formation and protection of water and sanitation tariffs. As a result of statistical analysis of deviations of estimated volumes of implementation of water and sanitation services, confirmed at calculation of the tariffs for the next regulatory period, against their actual value, an estimate of precision of the applied formula of calculation was given and another mechanism of calculation of volumes of implementation of services, based on the principle of actuality of time period, was offered. Mechanisms of determination of the normative number of operating staff and labor costs at tariffs calculation were examined. A new method of calculation of the Russian uniform wage fund in water and sewage utilities on the basis of the federal level minimum wage was offered.

The impact of tax rates on the development of Russian small business in the manufacturing sector and the construction is estimated by the method «differenсе in differences». Rosstat data for the period from 2006 to 2014 for all subjects of the Russian Federation and regional laws on the tax rate on the difference of income and expenses for the simplified taxation system are used as the information base. Findings indicate that the lack of response of small business tax incentives with the exception of the number of construction companies per capita.

Officially the year of Novosibirsk region founding considered 1937, when Siberian district was separated into Novosibirsk Region and Altai Territory. If we will be guided by another criterion, birthday of our region must be different, because from Novosibirsk Region a number of cities and districts were separated, of which in 1943 Kemerovo Region and in 1944 Tomsk Region were founded. At the same time four administrative districts were transferred from Altai Territory to our region. At the moment of the Soviet Union’s collapse, Novosibirsk Region was one of the most powerful regions on the east of the country. Today economic structure of region is about the Russian average. It is characterized by that sort of structural anomaly: the transaction sector (trade, financial services, dealing with securities, real estate activities) is almost twice the real sector of economy. The Siberian Federal District’s position is worse than the Russian average by all of the most relevant indicators. This is due to the fact that almost all the advantages of our macroregion were negated and disadvantages (cold, distance, poor infrastructure, etc.) stayed. Novosibirsk region stands out with two indicators: positive migration balance and anomalously high growth rates and volume of housing construction.

The attempts of some experts, which have become more frequent during the last decade, to present the USSR and the Third Reich as similar totalitarian regimes, as a rule, are based on certain ideological and economic stereotypes. In this article, the authors evaluate the legitimacy of using the definition of «totalitarian regime» applied to the Soviet Union and Germany before the Second World War. Comparative analysis of the economic modernization is given. Recognizing some similar elements in their economic development, the authors review fundamental differences, both in the ideology and purposes of economic reforms. Based on this analysis, the authors come to a number of topical conclusions.

A number of documents on strategic economic planning are considered that highlight proposals on expanding segment output in the food-and-processing industry in some regions of the Russian Federation. The main study objective is to evaluate possible alternative developments of the analyzed industry in the Novosibirsk region in view of planning in the neighbouring regions, and regional tactical goal development priorities. The documents have been compared based on such indicators as industry development priorities by regions, intermediary regulatory goals, influencing external factors, methods of regulation, systems of measures designed to develop enterprises in the sectors of food-and-processing industry, etc. The paper contains an aggregated table of the documents that meet the content relevance criteria and gives an analytical characterization of the evaluated programs and strategies.

The report presents the results of a survey of entrepreneurs who have started their own business being unemployed. The survey covers three areas of entrepreneurship: individual entrepreneurship, farming and self-employment in the conditions of private farming. The role and support of the employment service in the region is shown. The scope and types of entrepreneurial activity, conditions of its implementation are reviewed. Particular emphasis is placed on the sociological aspects of self-employment: motivation, training needs, change in the socio-psychological state, financial situation in the entrepreneural environment, family support, etc. The problems hindering the development of entrepreneurship in villages, districts and cities of the Novosibirsk region are identified: difficulties with rent, financial problems, high interest rates on loans, administrative barriers unemployed citizens faced when opening and running their own business. The effective types of state support for the unemployed are defined.

The content of the article is aimed at apprehension of the possibilities of social capital as a resource for parties to conflict. The study reveals modern specifics of the content of social capital, stipulated by intensive development of information technologies and consolidation of the role of social media in system of social relations. Significance of social ties and quality of their possibilities for provision of assistance to parties to conflict situation are noted. Special characteristics of the content of social capital, influencing conflict management process, are revealed.

For Russian society over the past twenty years the problem of lobbying, as a form of manipulative practices were exacerbated by the transformation of the political regime. The socio-political crisis, the struggle for spheres of political and economic influence, the collapse of the Communist ideology, the devaluation of social values - all together this led to habitualization lobbying. The change of elites at all levels: Federal, regional, municipal, local led to the need to look for a new advocacy strategy appropriate to the new conditions. The analysis of documents, lists of elected deputies, published on the official websites of the eight considered legislative bodies of subjects of the Siberian Federal district to identify priority areas for lobbying activities of a particular region, you can highlight a specific feature.

The basic principles of functioning of professional culture of employees of the modern Russian publishing houses publishing translated popular scientific books on the natural sciences are considered: accounting of features of the natural sciences, ensuring scientific character, availability, connectivity and entertaining of statement, cooperation of various highly skilled staff of publishing house, understanding of a place and a role of the modern popular scientific translated book in the system of diverse forms of communication.

The importance of this study is due to the fact that at present one of the key tasks of any government is providing and guaranteeing national security, including both energy and food components. Food is a material basis for the existence of society. Worldwide, the problem of food security is linked not only to the economy of the state and the people’s well-being of all countries of the world, but also to ensuring peace and security on earth. In this regard, this article analyzes the strategy of the food industry in developed countries that have made great strides in creating competitive advantages.

The article deals with the basic economic concepts of proprietary rights, transaction, bargain, contract and market. The author emphasizes the need to develop a common system of concepts that meet the internal goals of social disciplines and allows forming an integrated idea of the behavior of economic actors.

The correlation of the general and the singular in Spinoza’s ontology was studied through the analysis of the related texts in his “Ethics”. I have found out that in Spinoza’s view, the general defines thinking which he qualifies as an attribute of substance, while the modes of the attribute of extension, i.e. of the body, are related to the area of the singular. At the same time, I have revealed that Spinoza defines bodies as the solitary as well. The analysis of the content of the Spinozian concept of the solitary made it possible to ascertain that the philosopher thought the solitary as a synthesis of the singular and the general.

The article deals with the hermeneutical component of the methodology of interdisciplinary studies. We consider the classical noetic-noematic structure of intentionality and reveal the form of its modification with reference to the problem of interaction of consciousness and quantum mechanical processes in an observer’s figure. Intentionality serves as an ontological and methodological principle of relation according to which states of quantum systems, active states of consciousness and classical alternatives are mutually defined. We formulate a methodological principle of conjugation of holistic notional configurations of various disciplines which bases on Husserl’s phenomenological philosophy and Whitehead’s process metaphysics.

The article deals with the interpretation of the concept of logical constants at the time of logical atomism by Russell and Wittgenstein, the Vienna Circle, and also in modern logic. A thesis is advanced that philosophical discussions with respect to this concept resulted in the conclusion that the syntactic expressive means of logical languages were suitable for formulating semantic concepts. We show that the analysis of the concept of logical constants played an important role in the semantic tradition of analytic philosophy.

Kolmogorov’s contemporaries Borel, Frechet and Levy believed that Kolmogorov’s request for the prox It is known that the efficiency of application of the probability theory, mathematical statistics and Bayesian networks depends on using the independence property. The article shows that there are no universal approaches to definition of independence. We believe that A.N. Kolmogorov’s and Yu.V. Shachkov’s opinion that the lack of philosophical study of the category of independence impedes providing a general definition of independence in mathematics is correct.

The representation of the structure of scientific knowledge levels as a set of the empirical, theoretical and meta-theoretical causes the problem of their relation. There are two possible solutions of the problem: demarcation (segregation of levels according to their meaning and determination of boundaries) and synthesis (negation of the independence of levels, reveal of the general). The article supports the synthetic solution, which is due to the following points: first, there are no definitions and essential features of each level; secondly, the thesis of the theoretical loading of experience and criticism of the standard concept of observation show the failure of segregating the empirical level. The introduction of the concept of «reflexive transformation» of the theoretical and empirical shows that a demarcation line between them is just conventional.

The author proves his belief that using any interpretation of the anthropic principle in scientific knowledge, especially under the tendency towards unification of physical theories, counteracts this very tendency. Nonconformance of the principle to scientific standards is the most obvious when developing concepts of the multiplicity of universes. Therefore, the anthropic principle is just of world-outlook interest, which makes researchers to focus on a false idea of anthropocentrism, but it has no scientific and methodological value.

The paper considers history of neurocomputing and ideology of parallel compiting as an alternative to digital computers. Such technologies are used not only to recognize images, but also to manage complex technical systems, e.o. in nuclear and defense industries. Significant advances in neurocomputing, especially in the defense industry, should cause concern because of some fundamental properties of neural networks and machine learning algorithms. In its most general form, this property can be called intellectual opacity. Despite the attractiveness of connectivism as a philosophical generalization of neurocomputing technology, we should not take it into account as a constructive classical type of rationality theory. It is as a heuristic natural philosophical wiev on the nature of the mind.

The article considers how Spinoza developed his conception of the essence of substance. We show the reasons for his anti-religious position and reveal the philosopher’s view of the nature of transcendence of substance. We trace how Spinoza eliminated the Cartesian dualism and came to ontological monism. We show that Spinoza’s concepts of substance, nature and god are equally important and identical, but it is the concept of substance that plays a key role in his philosophy. The concept of god used by Spinoza has nothing in common with traditional ideas of god.

At various times, many researchers dealing with the philosophy of geology drew attention to the fact that the principles of geological knowledge were very different from those of classical natural science, in particular of physics. This feature of geology gave rise to the problem of its scientific status. In the 20th century, two philosophical schools dealing with geological knowledge, viz. Anglo-American and Soviet-Russian (Marxian) ones, tried to solve it. This article presents an attempt to look at the problem of scientific character of geological knowledge in the view of semantic features of the concept of «geology» in various periods of the development of this discipline. We want to show that the problem of geological knowledge concerns not only the degree of its correlation with science standards, but also a considerable polysemy of the notion of «geology». We believe that the latter fact makes difficulties for understanding geological knowledge, as well as puts obstacles in the way of mutual understanding between philosophers and methodologists of geology keeping to different approaches. The article focuses on clarifying different meanings of the term «geology» and correlating each of these images of geology both with methodologies of human sciences and that which is traditionally related to the field of natural sciences in order to determine the scientific status of each «geology».

The most pressing issues of the philosophy of the scientific experiment were discussed at the international conference "Philosophy of scientific experimentation PSX5", which was held on September 22-23, 2016 in the capital of Serbia at the University of Belgrade in the format of a workshop. The meetings took place in the historical building of the university administration. On the part of the university, the organizers were the head of the philosophy department Slobodan Perovic and the director of the Center for Bioethics Studies Voin Rakic. This conference, the fifth in the series, was devoted to the interrelationship of various aspects of experimentation and scientific policy. In particular, discussed epistemically optimal ways to organize a scientific laboratory, the issue of epistemic division of labor in large, medium and small laboratories, including the results obtained from the use of computer simulations and quantitative methods. The focus of the philosophers were the experiments and the data produced by them in the biomedical (and partly in the physical) sciences, and the concomitant dilemmas related to science policy and philosophical approaches to resolving such dilemmas. During the conference, 12 reports were heard.

The subject of study are variations in relation to the place of basic and applied scientific research in American research universities that are the «home of basic science» in the United States. They arise from the fact that, on the one hand, on its original mission of a research University is, first and foremost, are the «home» of basic science and academic «scientific ethos», which is cultivated on a University campus among faculty and students. Uninterested basic researches are the basis of university education. On the other hand, applied research is becoming an important factor in the development of national defense and industry. A number of periods are destingwished: World War II and the subsequent arms race therein with Government orders when there is heavily weighted toward applied research; «golden age» of fundamental research after the launch of the Soviet satellite; the period of student unrest and politicized campuses; the period of active participation of universities in the development of knowledge-based technology and improve the economic competitiveness of the country, accompanied by the shift towards applied research. It is shown that the flow of «disinterested» basic science research continues to exist and is highly valued today yet, that academic basic science with her ethos and the type of problems is necessary for the production of scientists and relevant knowledge.

The paper contains a short analysis of theoretical and methodological backgrounds of transition to sustainable forest management in Russia (SFM). It is concisely considered the current state of forest management in Russia which is estimated as critical; expected impacts of climate change on the country’s forests; and theoretical and methodological prerequisites, specifics and risks of transition to SFM including 1) concept and general methodological basis of transition to SFM; 2) specifics of the required information; 3) problem of forest protection in conditions of growing risks; 4) strategic prerequisites of adaptation of forests to climate change and their use as a tool of climate change mitigation; and 5) necessity of a harmonized estimation of diversity of resources and other forest ecosystem services within the paradigm of risk resilient forest management. A crucial role of models of different complexity and destination is considered as a basic methodological tool of long-term planning of forest management actions. It is shown that there is no single strategy, which would allow reaching all goals of SFM. The scale of objects within which SFM is implemented might play a crucial role in finding the optimal decisions. Similar to many other countries, Russia is late with consideration and implementation of SFM. The paper is limited by theoretical and methodological questions and does not touch upon managerial, institutional and political problems of the up-to-date forest sector of Russia.

The article deals with the methodology of mapping the Holocene forest formations on the basis of the DEM and the key indicators of the climate - heat and moisture. The work is carried out by means of GIS. The test site is located within the boundaries of the axial West Sayan district of mountain taiga forests, which ensures homogeneity of natural and climatic conditions. Stages of the method: creation of rasters on groups of absolute heights, exposures and inclinations with their subsequent combination into a single Combine raster; obtaining the regularities of spatial distribution of heat and moisture and their representation in the form of rasters (digital models); and interactive mapping of the Holocene forests with various combinations of heat and moisture. The use of Combine raster makes it possible to refuse to use any other contours as - landscape, geomorphological, forest inventory. To determine parameters of climatic boundaries of forest formations, the types of forests are linked to the heat and moisture indicators. As a result of linking, a graphic image is produced, where forest formations and their productivity are located in a certain order. The mapping technique involves creating a dBASE table with a field containing information about forest formations. The row-wise change in the records of forest formations as they move to other values of heat and moisture is performed interactively. Each next combination of heat and moisture on maps corresponds to a certain distribution of forest formations and site productivity (bonitet) classes. (1900 ± 65) years ago the river valleys were treeless, flat meadows occupied meadows, and the slopes were steppes. As the hypsometric level increases, larch stands, spruce-Siberian stone pine with an admixture of larch, Siberian stone pine-larch with an admixture of fir, and the Siberian stone pine formations appear. (2200 ± 100) years ago the tundra prevailed. Larch forests of V-V^a classes of bonitet were located in river valleys. (2640 ± 70) years ago, landscapes were similar to modern ones. The differences (today) - the river valleys are treeless, there are no pine forests, the larch belt is higher, the productivity of tree stands is generally higher, distribution of the Siberian stone pine and the Siberian stone pine-larch woodlands is less.

The mid-latitude zone can be broadly defined as part of the hemisphere between 30°-60° latitude. This zone is home to over 50 % of the world population and encompasses about 36 countries throughout the principal region, which host most of the world’s development and poverty related problems. In reviewing some of the past and current major environmental challenges that parts of mid-latitudes are facing, this study sets the context by limiting the scope of mid-latitude region to that of Northern hemisphere, specifically between 30°-45° latitudes which is related to the warm temperate zone comprising the Mid-Latitude ecotone - a transition belt between the forest zone and southern dry land territories. The ongoing climate change reveals a substantial increase of temperature and simultaneous decrease in the amount of precipitation across vast continental regions in the mid-latitudes. According to climatic predictions, these tendencies will continue during the 21^st century, which will likely increase the frequency and severity of droughts and water stress of vegetation. Along with climate change, ongoing land degradation and deforestation are observed in many regions of the mid-latitude region. For example, the Korean peninsula, which is divided into South and North Korea, is characterized by drastically different forest conditions. Deforestation in North Korea has been exacerbating at a noticeable pace due to excessive logging and human intervention. Such problems are not confined to Korean peninsula but are witnessed across vast regions of the mid-latitude region. Within this context - acquiring better understanding in the role of terrestrial ecosystems located at different latitudes is critical - for building resilience against the negative impact of climate change and for maintaining the stability of the environment and landscapes.

Since 2013, new assortment tables have been adopted in the Republic of Belarus, and since 2015 new growth tables for pine, spruce, birch and aspen. Growth tables were compiled based on 1353 trial plots, where 2546 model trees were taken. New growth tables shows bigger values of forest inventory indicators comparing to modern normative tables: by average diameter, up to 20-30 % in young growth and 6-10 % at older age. The sums of cross-sectional areas and reserves at equal heights in new tables overestimate for pine and spruce for young and middle-aged stands by 6-10 %, and in older ages to 5 %. As a result, the relative abundances of pine and spruce forest stands at the age of 20 to 50 will decrease by approximately 10 %. This will lead to the fact that pine and spruce stands at the age of thinning, having a density of 0.8, will be protected as having a fullness of 0.7, which, in accordance with the rules of cutting the forest in Belarus, will lead to a reduction in thinning in pure stands. 5135 model trees were used for the development of assortment tables. In general, for all tree species, new table tables show a greater yield of commercial timber and valuable assortments comparing to the tables of F. P. Moiseenko by 3-7 %. The amount of large-scale commercial timber is lower according to the new tables than in the old ones. This is due to the decrease in the last 50 years of large trees in the main felling areas.

Here, we report studies on content and distribution of ¹³⁷Cs and ⁹⁰Sr artificial radionuclides in soil-vegetation cover at «Kraton 3» accidental underground nuclear explosion site. This site is located in the territory of northwestern Yakutia, within the northern taiga subzone of the permafrost-taiga region of eastern Siberia boreal belt. In geomorphological aspect, this object belongs to steep slope of the divide connecting the flood-lands of the Markha River and peneplain of the divide. Sod-carbonate (redzina) soils prevail in soil cover of «Kraton 3» underground nuclear explosion site. This type of soil is typically characterized by a thin soil profile, weak alkaline reaction, heavy granulometric composition, saturated soil-absorbing complex, and drastically decreasing profile distribution of humus. Despite the considerable time after the accident, the radiation situation at the site is still very disturbing. Gamma ray background radiation levels at the site varied from 10 to 200 μR/h, which were 2-25 folds higher than average natural background radiation. The isotope contamination densities in soils of sites interconnected along the drainage were 34-1025 kBq/m² for ¹³⁷Cs and 57-781 kBq/m² for ⁹⁰Sr, which exceeded 30-1000 times the global fallout levels of these radionuclides. The rates of vertical migration of studied radionuclides were also determined as 0.11-0.84 % (¹³⁷Cs) and 0.79-1.44 % (⁹⁰Sr) per year of total radiation contamination density. The minimum vertical migration rates of ¹³⁷Cs (0.11 %) were observed in leached sod-carbonate soil, while maximum rates (0.84 %) were determined in immature sod-carbonate soil, the profile of which lacks organogenic and humus-accumulative horizons. The migratory capabilities of ¹³⁷Cs and ⁹⁰Sr in this soil were very close and made 0.84 and 0.79 % respectively. Migration factors of ¹³⁷Cs and ⁹⁰Sr in permafrost soils of the studied area were determined with the use of principal component analysis. This study also revealed that radioactive contamination levels of local vegetation remain considerably high. The concentration of radioactive cesium in plants growing on the site of accidental underground nuclear explosion is 40-5000 times higher than its natural background levels.