The formation of a special type of cultural landscape, a field of battle, is considered by the example of the Borodino field. Particular attention is paid to the role of natural and cultural framework of the territory, the morphological structure of the landscape and the history of nature use that affected the «script» of the battle. This event, in turn, was the impulse for further development of the area. The threats and losses that a historical layer of the cultural landscape has undergone, are marked. It is shown that the Borodino field meets the relevant criteria established for the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The term of integrity of the heritage site, implementable through a landscape approach to its conservation and management, is updated.

In this paper the maps of the vegetation zonation in Africa for the Holocene Optimum and the Last Glacial Maximum periods as well as their comparison with the modern vegetation zonation are presented. For the paleozonation map composition the literature data about vegetation and climates of the past together with changes of lake level and coastal sea currents were used. Great importance was attached to the analysis of the climatic areas of existence of the modem vegetation zones and climatic characteristics changes in the past (annual precipitation and mean monthly temperature of the warmest month). The meteorological data from 343 African weather stations were used for the climatic area determination. Since the last glacial maximum the vegetation zonation of Africa has been changed greatly which was caused mainly by precipitation changes. Most significant vegetation zonation changes were peculiar to the subequatorial and northern parts of the continent, while in the south of Africa the transformation of the vegetation zonation was relatively insignificant.

In the recent years the synchronous measurements of the three-component current velocity vector U( z, t) on several horizons (z) were executed with the help of ADCP at the point located close to Cape Shepelevsky (Gulf of Finland, Baltic Sea). In the present paper the questions of description of the implementation U( z, t) properties in terms of expectation vector m_U(z), variance tensor D_U(z), co-variation tensor K_U(z), spectral density tensor S_U(ω, z) in stationary approximation are discussed. The method of statistical analysis of vector implementations (which is the generalization of earlier developed one dealing with two-component vector M( z,t) implementations on two horizons) is described. The presence of measurements of vertical component ( w) of vector U( z, t) allows to estimate its contribution in the current structure and to supplement the earlier existing representations of the vertical distribution of two-component (u, v) current velocity vector V( z, t). Vertical profile of current velocity in each time moment is approximated as the decomposition by the system of natural orthogonal functions (eigenvectors of variance tensor).

The aim of the article is to create a simple regional model, making possible to estimate changes of firn line on Altai-Sayan glaciers caused by climate change and to reconstruct the depression of firn line with the given climatic parameters in the past. Mongun-Taiga mountain massif which has the most arid conditions was chosen as a model polygon. According to the data of the closest meteostation Mugur-Aksy and observations in situ we calculated the average annual precipitation (269 mm) and average summer temperature (0.51 °C) on the firn line. We estimated vertical temperature and precipitation gradients in different areas of Altai-Sayan region on the basis of climatic data from pairs of meteostations, for the areas with lack of information we got the values from the functional dependance of vertical temperature gradients from annual precipitation. We calculated the position of 0.51 °C temperature level (H_0.51) and the annual precipitation (p_0.51) on this level for 13 other centers of Altai-Sayan. The difference in annual precipitation between these centers of glaciation and Mongun-Taiga massif (Δp, mm) was estimated by formula Δp= p_0.51 - 269. The difference in firn line altitude (ΔZ_f) between the glaciers of different areas of Altay-Sayan system and Mongun-Taiga massif, caused by different precipitation was estimated as: ΔZ_f = H_0.51 -Z_f. Linear dependence of ΔZ_f from Δp has correlation coefficient of 0.9. Verification of obtained dependence by the data on changes of altitude of firn line on glaciers of Mongun-Taiga massif and on changes of precipitation at Mugur-Aksy meteorological station from the middle of the 1960-s shows the proximity of calculated values of ΔZ_f to real ones.

The article reviews the seismogenic deformations («seismites», or «soft-sediment deformations») preserved in the Late Pleistocene-Holocene loose sedimentations of the 65-km-long zone adjacent to the Kola fjord, a structure with one of the most active seismicity at the Murman coast (North-East of the Baltic shield). The soft-sediment deformations have been revealed in different (glaciofluvial, glaciomarine, glaciolacustrine, lacustrine) genetic types of sediments and studied in cross-sections of several basic sites. The deformations manifest convolute laminae, flame structures, water escape structures, diaper-like injections, sandstone microdykes, «fault-graded beds». They may have been formed in the result of various processes, but the presence of different types of structure in one horizon, their relation with active faults, the difference of seismites from similar of nonseismic one and sedimentation preconditions testify to their seismogenic genesis. The obtained data specify the high seismic activity of the Murmansk coast zone during the Late-glacial and Early Holocene.

Sibiryakov island quaternary sediments were studied by the complex of methods. Sediments were dated by radiocarbon method and infrared-optically stimulated methods. For marine isotopic stage (MIS) 3 we reconstructed the environment with slightly warmer climate than today. During cold MIS 2 the alluvium sediments were accumulated with the formation of polygonal ground-ice wedges. In the Early Holocene climate becomes warmer and mild, the peal deposit is accumulated. Sea level rise in Late Holocene caused the formation of Sibiryakov island.