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Aim. The aim of the research was to determine the relationship of winter wheat grain yields with meteorological parameters, the determination of the dynamics and current level and the selection and scientific justification of adaptive agricultural technologies.Material and Methods. Retrospective analysis was undertaken of meteorological conditions and gross winter wheat harvests by standard methods of correlation and regression analysis. The strength of the connection between the data of individual arrays was determined, as well as the identification of joint variation of productive and factorial features by pairwise comparison of their time series.Results. Six joint variations of time series of productive (gross grain harvest) and factorial features (hydrothermal conditions of vegetation periods and structural indicators of crops) with medium and high closeness of correlation, expressed in the form of multiple regression equations, were revealed.Conclusion. The results of the studies indicate a close direct relationship between gross grain harvest and yield from the harvesting area (r = 0.79), which in turn is inversely dependent (to an average degree) on the sum of the active air temperatures of the entire period from sowing to harvesting (r = 0.64). Из осадков различных периодов вегетации преимущественное прямое влияние на урожайность зерна оказывают осадки холодного периода года (r = 0.49) и всего активного периода вегетации от начала парования до уборки (r = 0.39). Of the precipitation of different periods of vegetation, the predominant direct effect on grain yield is exerted by precipitation during the cold period of the year (r = 0.49) and the entire active period of vegetation from the beginning of fallow to harvest (r = 0.39). The effect of amounts of precipitation for certain short periods of vegetation is much lower. Under current conditions, the stability of winter wheat grain production will be determined by the adaptability of agricultural technologies to the increasing aridity of the climate, which significantly worsens the moisture supply of plants.

Aim. The aim of this study was to conduct an analysis of long‐term changes in the number of sturgeon populations and its relationship with the fishing regime and the current state of the Ural River basin, as well as develop measures for the conservation and restoration of their resources.Discussion. Six sturgeon species inhabit the waters of the Ural River basin: Huso huso Linnaeus, 1758; Acipenser gueldenstaedtii Brandt & Ratzeburg, 1833; Acipenser persicus Borodin, 1897; Acipenser stellatus Pallas, 1771; Acipenser nudiventris Lovetsky, 1828 and Acipenser ruthenus, 1758. The degradation of the geosystems of the Ural River basin and the Caspian Sea due to changes in the hydrological regime, increased exploitation of oil and gas fields, as well as poaching has led to a decrease in the number of sturgeons. Moreover, the areas used for the development of petroleum hydrocarbons and the development of related infrastructure coincide with the main areas for feeding and migration of sturgeon and other commercial fish species. The Ural River is the only one in Europe with unregulated lower and middle reaches, thanks to which, until the 90s of the last century, favourable conditions were maintained for the natural reproduction of sturgeon and other fish species. In world practice, the development of commercial sturgeon breeding and reproduction of livestock in regional natural reservoirs provide a promising direction for the preservation of the unique sturgeon gene pool. At the same time, the principal role in the formation of the number and species composition of sturgeons, is given to natural reproduction. In the Ural River Basin, there are opportunities to restore the sturgeon population through a combination of natural reproduction and artificial farming.Conclusions. Despite a slight increase in the occurrence of sturgeons in recent decades, the state of their populations requires special conservation measures. It is necessary to develop joint measures for the protection and reproduction of fish stocks at the interstate level.

Aim. The goal is to consider landscape aspects of nature management optimisation in the transboundary basin of the Ural River which have not been taken into account until the present time through measures being developed to improve the ecological state of the basin and its main river.Materials and Methods. The long‐term data of the hydrological regime of the rivers of the basin are analysed. The article summarizes the experience of optimizing water management relations in the river basin and the main results of the activities of the Inter‐Republican Committee on the Ural River basin (1977–1994).Results. Cycles of low‐water and high‐water years in the 20th–beginning of the 21st century are revealed. A list of priority landscape restoration measures has been developed and their ordination according to natural zones and types of localities has been carried out.Conclusions. It is confirmed that the highest and most effective form of territorial protection of landscape and biological diversity are natural reserves – special natural protected areas forming a landscape‐ecological framework. A number of ecological‐stabilising protected natural territories are proposed including the Ural‐Caspian Protected Fisheries Zone, which is aimed at partial restoration of the sturgeon population of the Ural‐Caspian basin adapted to the changed hydrological regime.

Aim. To analyse the consequences of the virgin lands (1954‐1963) agrarian‐social megaproject, and of current land reforms. To elaborate contributions to the Russian post‐virgin land space development strategy.Material and methods. Historical records and sources, field geographical observations data and survey information have been used. The convergence principle, cartographic, comparative historical and comparative typological analyses, expert assessment and the logical method of generalizations have been applied.Results. A notion concerning the cumulative consequences of the largest agrarian‐social megaprojects, such as the Virgin Land campaign of 1954‐ 1963 and land reforms in Russia and Kazakhstan in the 1990s, has been developed. The actual socio‐economical and ecological problems of post‐ virgin land areas have been examined. A differentiated assessment of the self‐reconstruction potential of the steppe is given. The value of a system of formed steppe cores is demonstrated through the example of post‐ virgin land space in the Orenburgskaya oblast and a series of recommendations on these rational utlisation of these cores is proposed.Conclusion. The post‐virgin land space in Russia is characterised by a series of acute agroecological and conservational problems, such as poor development of adaptive animal husbandry and fodder production and priority accorded high risk dry crop farming. The realisation in practice of agronomy extensive approaches based on irreversible natural resources mobilization and on soil consumptive commercial crops expansion are accompanied by topsoil degradation. Under current conditions, the conservation and restoration of title (key) steppe biological objects and the more effective realisation of post‐virgin land space developmental potential both require urgent strategic initiatives by the Russiann Federation Government.

Forming a landscape‐ecological framework is an urgent task supporting the adoption of a strategy for the progress of specially protected natural territories in Russia by 2030. According to the author, the strategy does not fully reflect the specifics of the development of the network of territorial nature protection objects in the agricultural regions of the country.Aim Substantiate proposals for optimizing the network of protected areas.Materials and Methods. Methods of cartographic analysis of schemes of physical and geographical zoning, generalisation of the results of expedition research, assessment of the representativeness of the existing network of protected areas and a comparative assessment of the most valuable landscape and natural biotic plots were used in the paper.Results. As a result of this study a complex of new and promising sites has been identified for inclusion in the landscape and ecological framework, which can constitute the natural reserve fund of the regions as clusters. The study covers steppe and forest‐steppe landscapes of southern European and Asian Russia. The problem has been considered in the context of subjects relating to physical and geographical zoning. Proposals for the modernisation and expansion of the network of objects included in the landscape and ecological framework were compiled based on expedition studies, combined with quantitative and qualitative indicators of natural diversity.Conclusions There is a need to modernise the existing network and to create new nature reserves based, among other things, on as‐yetunrealised projects for the creation of reserves.

Aim. The aim of the study is to group municipalities by the volume (or scale) of municipal economies.Materials and Methods. On the basis of indicators of the volume of agricultural, industrial products, retail trade, investments, the cluster differentiation of municipal districts was carried out. According to the prevalence and combination of indicators, the sector is divided into 8 cluster groups: highly developed industrial, highly developed commercial, industrial and agricultural, commercial and agricultural, trade and logistics, agroindustrial, agricultural, depressed underdeveloped and single large oil producing.Results. According to the results of clustering, certain peculiarities were revealed: more highly developed districts gravitating towards administrative urban centers and major transport arteries. In the west and east of the mesoregion, two axes of advanced development have formed: the South Ural and Altai‐Siberian.Conclusion. In considering the forest‐steppe and steppes of the Urals and Siberia, they were compared with other natural zones that are part of the subjects of the federation studied. Depressed areas are concentrated in the centre of the mesoregion: in the Kurgan region and in the north of the Omsk region, and also gravitate towards the state border with Kazakhstan.

Aim. The aim is to show the relevance of the convergence of basic science in order to solve global environmental problems. Discussion. Solving the problems of critical areas of the biosphere which requires the combined efforts of various sciences and fields of knowledge is considered as an objective prerequisite for convergence. This article was written on the basis of the findings of our own long-term studies of the steppes of Northern Eurasia and central Arctic landscapes on relic loess-ice lithogenic basis, compared with historical and literary data. From the standpoint of steppe studies, two critical areas of the biosphere are distinguished: steppe zone of Eurasia and tundra of the Arctic which are justified as axes of convergence. The steppe studies are considered as a center of convergence around these axes with the possible formation of a new superdisciplinary field of knowledge and practice, steppenomy, in perspective. Nature-like technologies based on the principle of the co-creation of man and nature, aimed at overcoming the crisis phenomena in ecosystems and attaining high stability and productivity, are considered as an innovation product of the steppenomy. Conclusion. The spread and development of pasture ecosystems in various climatic zones is one of the priorities of constructive co-creation of man and the biosphere. An increase in tundra productivity and creation of “beef belts” in the steppes of Eurasia are regarded as a constructive analogue of Tselina, recreating grass ecosystems as a neo-hyperzonal phenomenon on tens of millions of hectares. In addition to contributing to the solution of the food problem, the pasture arrangement of the last territorial reserve under convergent scientific support will contribute to the global ecological restoration of the Earth’s unique ecosystems.