This article presents social and environmental indicators of life quality affecting the health of population. The authors focus on the dynamics of such diseases as tuberculosis, HIV infection, and malignant neoplasms. The factors determining the unfavourable situation relating to life quality and disease rate in the Kaliningrad region are identified.
This article analyses the state of health of Saint Petersburg residents in the changing conditions of connatural and social environment. Saint-Petersburg is presented as a Russian metropolis and, simultaneously, an integral component of the Baltic region. The authors compare the health state trends in Saint Petersburg residents and the population of other Baltic countries. The environmental dependence of some diseases, including oncological ones, is emphasized. Three variants of population health forecasting are presented: inertiadepressive, stabilization, and stabilization-progressive ones. The article discusses the ways to increase the level of health of the city’s residents.
This article focuses on the results of many years’ research on phytoplankton production and chlorophyll concentration in estuaries of different types (the Vistula and Curonian Lagoons, and the Volga delta). A comparison with hydrological and chemical parameters helped identify the main factors determining the level of primary production and eutrophication. The productivity of an ecosystem is determined primarily by river runoff in the Volga delta, while in the Vistula Lagoon and Curonian Lagoon by the intensity of water exchange with the
sea. Today, deeutrophication is being observed in the delta of Volga, whereas eutrophication continues in the Vistula and Curonian Lagoons.
This article focuses on the features of heavy metal (HM) accumulation in carpet-floor species of mosses in the Kaliningrad region. A cross-spectrum analysis helped identify the patterns of HM accumulation depending on the amount of atmospheric precipitation. The authors calculated the indexes of HM concentration, which underlies the offered classification of the Baltic region countries by in the level of pollution.
This article analyses the role of Arctic cod—the most abundant representative of Arctic fish fauna in the food web of the Barents Sea ecosystems. The author estimates the degree of its consumption by the most abundant seabirds-ichthyophagist (northern fulmar, Brünnich's guillemot, black-legged kittiwake) and performs ccalculations that can serve as a basis for bioresource forecasting for the Barents Sea in order to minimise the damage to the ecosystem and water area biodiversity.
This article offers data on the temperature of surface air and soils in the aeration zone. The author comes to the conclusion that the soil temperature in the Karakum desert is favourable for the development of tree and shrubbery species.