Advanced Technologies for Sustainable Development of Urban Green Infrastructure: Proceedings of Smart and Sustainable Cities 2020 (Springer Geography) [1st ed. 2021] 3030752844, 9783030752842

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Springer Geography

Viacheslav Vasenev · Elvira Dovletyarova · Riccardo Valentini · Zhongqi Cheng · Carlo Calfapietra · Luis Inostroza · Michael Leuchner   Editors

Advanced Technologies for Sustainable Development of Urban Green Infrastructure Proceedings of Smart and Sustainable Cities 2020

Springer Geography Advisory Editors Mitja Brilly, Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia Richard A. Davis, Department of Geology, School of Geosciences, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA Nancy Hoalst-Pullen, Department of Geography and Anthropology, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA, USA Michael Leitner, Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA Mark W. Patterson, Department of Geography and Anthropology, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA, USA Márton Veress, Department of Physical Geography, University of West Hungary, Szombathely, Hungary

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Viacheslav Vasenev Elvira Dovletyarova Riccardo Valentini Zhongqi Cheng Carlo Calfapietra Luis Inostroza Michael Leuchner •

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Editors

Advanced Technologies for Sustainable Development of Urban Green Infrastructure Proceedings of Smart and Sustainable Cities 2020

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Editors Viacheslav Vasenev Agrarian-Technological Institute RUDN University Moscow, Russia Riccardo Valentini University of Tuscia Viterbo, Italy Carlo Calfapietra National Research Council Institute of Research on Terrestrial Ecosystem Porano, Italy

Elvira Dovletyarova RUDN University Moscow, Russia Zhongqi Cheng Brooklyn College New York, NY, USA Luis Inostroza Institute of Geography Ruhr University Bochum Bochum, Germany

Michael Leuchner Institute of Geography RWTH Aachen University Aachen, Germany

ISSN 2194-315X ISSN 2194-3168 (electronic) Springer Geography ISBN 978-3-030-75284-2 ISBN 978-3-030-75285-9 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Preface

This volume contains a selection of edited, refereed and revised papers, which were presented at the International Conference “Smart and Sustainable Cities – 2020 (SSC-2020)” entitled “Advanced technologies for sustainable development of urban green infrastructures.” For the second time, the SSC conference was organized by RUDN University, Moscow, Russia, on July 8–10, 2020. The SSC-2020 followed an international multi-disciplinary discussion on the challenges and opportunities for urban green infrastructures in context of sustainable urban development, started by the series of previous conferences on the topic: Megacities 2050 (2016), SUITMA 9 (2017) and SSC-2018. The program of SSC-2020 was mainly focused on the technologies available for environmental monitoring and assessment, sustainable urban planning and development. SSC-2020 attracted a broad expert audience, including municipal services, environmental protection agencies, landscape planners and researchers. The conferences coincided with the international summer school “modeling, monitoring and management of urban green infrastructures and soils,” which facilitated a broader dissemination of the conference outcomes and allowed addressing a future generation of researchers and practitioners to be involved in sustainable urban development. We would like to thank more than 200 participants and 80 speakers who contributed with plenary, oral and poster presentations, round tables and keynote lectures. We wish to express our especial gratitude to the authors who contributed to these proceedings. The volume contains from 29 research papers, which were selected by the scientific committee with additional help of over 40 external expert reviewers from over 60 submissions. The authors were asked to consider the reviewers’ comments and have made all necessary edits to improve the quality of the papers. The organizational and financial support to the SSC-2020 conference was provided by “RUDN University Program 5-100” and the “Erasmus+ Capacity Building project #586247-EEP-1-ITEPPKA-CBHE-JP “Training Capacities in Agriculture and Urban-Rural Interactions for Sustainable Development of Megacities (TAURUS)”. We would like to express our gratitude to all the people who put essential efforts to ensure this successful conference: members of v

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Preface

organizing and scientific committees, conveners of sessions and round tables, reviewers and technical editors. We wish to express our sincere thanks to Rajan Muthu, project coordinator, for his help and cooperation. We hope, these conference proceedings will be interesting and useful for researchers, practitioners and policymakers, involved in sustainable urban development. Viacheslav Vasenev Elvira Dovletyarova Riccardo Valenitni Zhongqi Cheng Carlo Calfapietra Luis Inostroza Michael Leuchner

Organized by

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Contents

Tree Health of Larix sibirica Ledeb. in the Railway Impact Zone on Kola Peninsula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Natalya V. Saltan and Ekaterina A. Sviatkovskaya The Influence of Soil Quality on Trees’ Health in Urban Forest . . . . . . Ksenia Makhinya, Sofiya Demina, Marina Pavlova, Irina Istomina, and Alexey Terekhin

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Ground Penetrating Radar Tomography Application to Study of Live Tree Trunks: Case Studies of Defects Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . Maria Sudakova, Eugenia Terentieva, and Alexey Kalashnikov

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Morphological and Macroanatomical Indicators of Long-Term and Current State of Trees of Quercus Robur L. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Natalia Kaplina

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Carbon Dioxide Fluxes of an Urban Forest in Moscow . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oliver Reitz, Alexey Yaroslavtsev, Joulia L. Meshalkina, Ivan Ivanovich Vasenev, Viacheslav Vasenev, Riccardo Valentini, and Michael Leuchner Regulating Ecosystem Services in Russian Cities: Can Urban Green Infrastructure Cope with Air Pollution and Heat Islands? . . . . . . . . . . . O. Illarionova, O. Klimanova, and Yu. Kolbovsky Effects of Small Water Bodies on the Urban Heat Island and Their Interaction with Urban Green Spaces in a Medium-Size City in Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gunnar Ketzler, Sophie Goertz, and Michael Leuchner Assessment of Soil Properties and Tree Performance on Fountain Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue Landfills in New York City . . . . . . . Saidan Qi and Zhongqi Cheng

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65

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Variability of Infiltration Rates at Selected Green Infrastructure Sites in New York City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bulent Alagoz, Anna A. Paltseva, Richard Shaw, and Zhongqi Cheng

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Assessment of Soil Heavy Metal Pollution by Land Use Zones in Small Towns of the Industrialized Arctic Region, Russia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Natalya Saltan, Marina Slukovskaya, Irina Mikhaylova, Evgeny Zarov, Pavel Skripnikov, Sergey Gorbov, Alexandra Khvostova, Svetlana Drogobuzhskaya, Anna Shirokaya, and Irina Kremenetskaya Activity Concentration of Natural Radionuclides and Total Heavy Metals Content in Soils of Urban Agglomeration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Denis Kozyrev, Sergey Gorbov, Olga Bezuglova, Elena Buraeva, Suleiman Tagiverdiev, and Nadezhda Salnik Metabolic Adjustments in Urban Lawns in Response to Soil Salinization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 O. Gavrichkova, R. A. Brykova, D. Liberati, M. C. Moscatelli, S. Moscatello, and Viacheslav Vasenev Impact of Overgrown Plant Deposit on Physicochemical Properties: SodPodzolic Soils During the Last 60 years in the Central State Biosphere Forest Reserve, Western European Part of Russia . . . . . . . . 132 Solomon Melaku Melese and Ivan Ivanovich Vasenev Culturable Airborne Fungi of Urban, Forest and Coastal Areas of the Kola Peninsula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 Maria V. Korneykova, Anastasia S. Soshina, and Olga V. Gavrichkova Toxic Cyanobacteria in the Arctic Lakes: New Environmental Challenges. A Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Dmitrii B. Denisov, Ekaterina N. Chernova, and Iana V. Russkikh Unfavorable Impact of the Urbanization on the Immune Antiviral Protection in Children: The Relationship with Recurrent Respiratory Infections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 I. V. Nesterova, E. O. Khalturina, S. V. Kovaleva, G. A. Chudilova, and V. V. Malinovskaya Urbanization Effect on Children’s Autonomic Nervous System . . . . . . . 185 P. V. Berezhansky and N. S. Tataurschikova The Prevalence of Atopic Dermatitis Among Children and Adults in Kazakhstan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 V. V. Khan, N. S. Tataurschikova, and T. T. Nurpeissov Some Features of the Key Phenotypes of Allergic Rhinitis Among Children in a Metropolis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 N. S. Tataurschikova and P. V. Berezhansky

Contents

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Playground Arrangement for Children with Special Health Needs . . . . 209 T. E. Zhukova, O. P. Krasilnikova, M. I. Podchernina, P. V. Zhukov, and D. V. Neyman Environmental, Social and Economic Potentials of Urban Protected Areas: Case Study of Moscow, Russia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 Vitaly A. Kryukov Assessing the Proposed Volume of Recreational Ecosystem Services: A Case Study of Moscow’s Urban Protected Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 Ksenia Aleksandriiskaia and Oxana Klimanova National Park «Elk Island» in the Moscow Region’s Green Infrastructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 Alla Pakina and Alla Lelkova Ecosystem Services in Russian Urban Legislation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 Olga Maximova Environmental Safety of Urbanized Territories as a Developing Institution for Ensuring the Vital Interests of Mankind . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 Marina Anatolievna Vakula and Irina Anatolievna Umnova-Koniukhova Environmental Assessment of Thermal Energy Facilities Impact on Ecosystem Services for the Production of Oxygen in Urban Settlements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272 Grigorii E. Artamonov, Ivan Ivanovich Vasenev, Vladimir A. Gutnikov, and Viktoria V. Erofeeva Ecological Assessment of Rapeseed Cultivation to Improve Chemically Degraded Urban Albic Luvisol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 Irina V. Andreeva, Miljan Samardžić, and Ivan Ivanovich Vasenev Cultural Ecosystem Services of Urban Green Spaces. How and What People Value in Urban Nature? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292 Diana Dushkova, Maria Ignatieva, Anastasia Konstantinova, and Fengping Yang Ecosystem Services Approach for Landscaping Project: The Case of Metropolia Residential Complex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319 V. Matasov, Alexey Yaroslavtsev, S. Bukin, P. Konstantinov, Viacheslav Vasenev, V. Grigoreva, O. Romzaykina, Yu. Dvornikov, A. Sayanov, and Olga Maximova Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

About the Editors

Viacheslav Vasenev is an associate professor at the Department of Landscape Design and Sustainable Ecosystems and coordinator of the Smart Urban Nature research center in RUDN University. The main research directions include ecosystem services provided by urban soils and green infrastrcutures as a core to support sustainable urban development. Elvira Dovletyarova is the director of Agrarian Technological Institute RUDN University of Russia and an associate professor. Under her leadership, RUDN University’s Department of Landscape Design and Sustainable Ecosystems was established. Dr. Dovletyarova is the vice-president of the Association of Landscape Architects of Russia and a Member of the Soil Science Society, named after V. V. Dokuchaev. Riccardo Valentini is a full professor of Forest Ecology at the University of Tuscia, Italy. He is a Nobel Price for Peace as member of the IPCC board. He is also involved through IPCC and governmental bodies on policies about the global carbon cycle and the role of land use changes and forestry. He is a coordinator of several EU projects aiming to understand and quantify the terrestrial carbon budget and greenhouse gases emissions. He is Doctor Honoris Causa Faculté Universitaire des Sciences Agronomiques de Gembloux, Belgium. His expertise concerns the role of land use changes and forestry in the carbon cycle, biodiversity and bioenergy. Zhongqi Cheng is a professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, director of the Environmental Sciences Analytical Center at Brooklyn College and a faculty member for the Earth and Environmental Sciences PhD Program at the CUNY Graduate Center and the Macaulay Honors College. Dr. Cheng is a co-founder of the NYC Urban Soils Institute, a member of the Healthy Soils Heathy Communities Project, CALs in NYC, the Legacy Lead Coalition,

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About the Editors

research committee for WRF Biosolids Research, and Board of Trustees for the Mid-Atlantic Biosolids Association. Carlo Calfapietra is the director of the Institute of Research on Terrestrial Ecosystems (IRET), National Research Council (CNR), Member of Czechglobe, Center of Excellence for Studies on Climate Change of AVCR, Brno (Czech Republic), and expert of European Commission for Nature-Based Solutions. Fields of interest include green infrastructure, urban forests, urban resilience and sustainability, plant ecophysiology in relation to stress, adaptation-mitigation to global change, air pollution, carbon and GHG fluxes, VOC, forest plantations, forest fires and extreme environments. Luis Inostroza is a researcher in Geography institute of Ruhr University of Bochum. His studies integrate spatially explicit quantitative analysis, remote sensing and GIS to investigate the metabolism of socio-ecological systems and its links to ecological and economic functions, from local to global scales. Luis Inostroza is an editor of the journals Change and Adaptation in Social-ecological Systems (CASES) and Ecosystem services. Michael Leuchner is a professor of Physical Geography and Climatology in RWTH University of Aachen. The research interests include atmospheric environmental research, energy and matter fluxes of terrestrial surfaces and the atmosphere, ecological climatology and ecohydrology.

Tree Health of Larix sibirica Ledeb. in the Railway Impact Zone on Kola Peninsula Natalya V. Saltan(B) and Ekaterina A. Sviatkovskaya Polar-Alpine Botanical Garden-Institute of Kola Science Centre of the Russian, Academy of Sciences, Apatity, Russia http://pabgi.ru

Abstract. The environmental conditions on Kola Peninsula are affected by industry and transport with substantial consequences for tree health. The research aimed to assess the tree health of Larix sibirica in the railway impact zone in four settlements: Apatity, Murmansk, Polyarnye Zori, and Olenegorsk. The methodology included determining the state of plants, a comparative analysis of the heavy metals’ content in soil and needles, and seed regeneration analysis. In results, the middle-weakened specimens were shown to dominate the forecourt areas in all locations excluding Murmansk, where only the highly weakened plants were observed. Soil survey revealed pollution by Ni, Cu and Zn, which contents were 2 to 6 times above the health thresholds. The content of Ni and Cu in needles was also 3 to 8 times higher compared to the natural references. The extremely high Fe contents in needles ranging from 1.87 g kg−1 in Murmansk to 4.28 g kg−1 in Apatity also witnesses the impact of railway transport. At the same time chloroses or any other damage to the assimilating apparatus were not found in the observed Larix sibirica trees. It was also shown that the ability to natural regeneration in Larix sibirica was preserved. Laboratory seed germination rates ranged from 4% (Murmansk) to 31% (Polyarnye Zori). No viable seeds were found in Olenegorsk. Based on the research outcomes, Larix sibirica can be recommended for introduction to the protective plantings along the railway track and used for greening train stations due to high resistance to pollution and long lifetime. Keywords: Subarctic climate · Urbanization · The rail station territory · Heavy metals · Greening

1 Introduction The ecological state of the cities of the Kola North is mainly affected industry and transport [18]. Rail transport is the core component of logistics in the Murmansk region, responsible for 60% of the total cargo turnover of coal, phosphorus fertilizers, black metallic nickel, and other raw materials and their products. Railway and road areas are exposed to the highest environmental impacts [4, 9, 11]. Oil products and heavy metals are the main pollution sources in these areas, whereas the impact zone can differ depending on the meteorological conditions, topography and other attributes of pollution sources [17]. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 V. Vasenev et al. (Eds.): SSC 2020, SPRINGERGEOGR, pp. 1–8, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9_1

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N. V. Saltan and E. A. Sviatkovskaya

Environmental stress adversely affects plant growth, productivity, reproductive capacity and survival. The toxic effects of pollution on the tree health can be expressed through plant injury, changes of plant anatomy, inhibition of seed germination, decrease of vegetative and reproductive growths, early senescence, and even mortality [14, 24]. However, other environmental factors (abiotic and biotic) can cause similar consequences [1, 23], therefore parallel observation of environmental factors and pollutants’ contents in soils and biomass is needed to assess the pollution effect on tree health in urban areas. Green spaces play an important role in improving quality of life in cities and maintaining favorable environmental conditions in urban areas [2, 3, 6, 15, 20]. Technogenic pollution, especially in the extreme climatic conditions of the Russian North, has a negative impact on urban vegetation and constrains greening and landscaping. The information on the impact of industrial pollution on the viability of tree plantings in the arctic cities is lacking but necessary to support sustainable urban development in this unique region. Selection of the tree species resistant to pollution is the basic research direction to support urban greenery on Kola North. Larix sibirica introduced into the world culture by the Komarov Botanical Institute of RAS (St. Petersburg) is a promising example [5, 21]. In the Kola North, Larix sibirica was introduced by the Polar-Alpine Botanical Garden Institute (PABGI) in the 1930s. It was included in the list plant for urban greening in 1956 [7]. In this paper, tree health of Larix sibirica was studied in the urban environment of the Kola North, specifically in the green areas adjacent to railway stations. The aim of this work was to assess the resistance of Larix sibirica in the impact zone of railway transport.

2 Objects and Methods The research was carried out in 2018 at observation plots located in areas adjacent to railway stations, in the immediate vicinity of the tracks (5–10 m) in Apatity, Murmansk, The Barents Sea

Apatity

Polyarnye Zori

Murmansk ●

● Olenegorsk Polyarnye Zori ●

● Apatity

Kola Peninsula

Murmansk

The nursery of the PABGI Olenegorsk

Fig. 1. Location and view of observation plots

Tree Health of Larix sibirica Ledeb. in the Railway Impact Zone

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Polyarnye Zori, and Olenegorsk (Fig. 1). The nursery of the PABGI (1 km from the city of Apatity) was selected as a natural reference. Railway transport in the Murmansk region has been developing since 1917, when the Murmansk railway was built (currently the Murmansk segment of the Oktyabrskaya railway) [22]. Large railway junctions are located in the cities of Murmansk and Apatity. Junction stations with a moderate transport load are located in Olenegorsk and Kandalaksha. The city of Polyarnye Zori has a station for stopping passenger trains and transit for freight trains, with minimal anthropogenic impact. In August, the state of Larix sibirica was evaluated at each site according to the study’s methodology, Table 1 [16]. The needles of the current year were sampled from the middle branches of middle-aged trees. Soil samples from the top 10 cm layer were collected at the same period [25]. The cones were sampled from model specimens belonging to the middle-aged category in November–December, when the seeds were fully formed. In the laboratory, the collected samples of soil and biomass were prepared for the analysis of the total content of heavy metals (Ni, Cu, Pb, Cd, Zn, and Fe). Soil suspension was ground to powder and decomposed with a mixture of the HF, HNO3 , and HClO4 acids (3:2:1). Biomass samples were decomposed with concentrated HNO3 . The content of the elements was determined by the atomic absorption method using Shimadzu 6800 and Quantum-AFA spectrophotometers. In laboratory conditions, seed germination was assessed by germination in triplicate. Table 1. Description of classes of the tree state [16] Classes of the tree state

Main signs

Additional signs

Without signs of weakening

The needles are green, dense canopy, the foliage is 100%

Weakened

The needles are green, up to 25% of dry branches

Local damage to branches, trunk

Middle-weakened

Crown thinning, dry branches 25–50%, the needles are smaller

Local damage to branches, trunk, presence of stem pests

Highly weakened

The crown is very thinned, dry branches 50–75%, the needles are smaller than the previous class

Local damage to branches, trunk, presence of stem pests, water shoots on the trunk and branches

Shrinking

In crown more than 75% dry branches, the needles are small, light yellow, falls off prematurely

The trunk and branches are inhabited by pests and diseases, a partially withered tree

Deadwood

No needles, 100% dry branches The trunk and branches are affected by pests and fungi

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N. V. Saltan and E. A. Sviatkovskaya

3 Results and Discussion Tree health assessment of Larix sibirica showed that Olenegorsk, Apatity, and Polyarnye Zori had the highest percentage of middle-weakened plants (47%, 43%, and 56%, respectively), characterized by sparse crowns and one-sided, dry branches (Fig. 2). In Apatity and Olenegorsk, the proportion of highly weakened plants was also significant (25% and 26%, respectively). There was dead wood, which was caused by damage during the construction of utilities. In Murmansk, all the plants belonged to the highly weakened category, which was determined by unilateral crowns, curved trunks, and reduced needle length. Healthy plants, without signs of weakening, were the minor class ranging from 7% in Olenegorsk to 14% in Apatity.

Murmansk

Olenegorsk

Apatity

Polyarnye Zori 0%

20%

40%

without signs of weakening middle weakened shrinking

60%

80%

100%

Weakened highly weakened deadwood

Fig. 2. The state of Larix sibirica in the cities

Soil survey on the station territories of cities showed different levels of metal contamination, which was estimated using the approximate permissible concentrations (APC: Ni-20 mg kg−1 ; Cu-33 mg kg−1 ; Pb-32 mg kg−1 ; Zn-55 mg kg−1 ; Cd-0.5 mg kg−1 , [8]). The highest metal content was found in the soil of Olenegorsk, where an excess of the APC was detected for Ni (6 times), Cu (3 times), and Zn (1.6 times). Increased amounts of Ni and Cu were found in the other cities, but to a smaller extent. It should be noted that the Ni content was slightly higher than the APC value in the soil of the PABGI nursery selected as a conditional background site. This indicates regional soil contamination associated with the activities of the copper-nickel enterprise located in the central part of the Kola Peninsula. The contents of Pb and Cd, which are highly toxic for living organisms, did not exceed the health thresholds. There are no legal threshold limit values for the Fe content in the soil of populated areas. However, the Fe content in Olenegorsk was very high, that was likely caused by the activity of the mining and processing plant, which produces iron ore concentrate.

Tree Health of Larix sibirica Ledeb. in the Railway Impact Zone

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The metal content in the assimilation organs of Larix sibirica varied significantly, depending on the location of growth. In comparison with the natural reference plot (data presented only for Ni and Cu), the contents of these metals were higher in all the cities: for Ni, from 3 (Apatity) to 8 times (Olenegorsk) and for Cu, from 4 (Murmansk) to 7 times (Olenegorsk). The selected background area, as shown above, is subject to partial pollution from regional sources, but Larix sibirica is an introduced species: there is not encountered naturally in the Murmansk region. The lowest contents of Zn, Pb, and Cd were recorded in Polyarnye Zori; the highest were found in Olenegorsk. The amount of Fe in the needles ranged from 1865 mg kg−1 (Murmansk) to 4278 mg kg−1 (Apatity), which is defined as extremely high in comparison with data from other regions [10]. The comparative analysis of the distribution of metal content in the needles of Larix sibirica and in the soil showed high correlation coefficients for Ni, Cu, and, especially, Pb (Fig. 3). The dependence of the metal content, except Fe in needles, on the load of railway transport was not revealed. Although Murmansk and Apatity are the busiest railway stations, the maximal contents of Ni, Cu, Pb, and Zn were found in Olenegorsk. Likely it can be explained by gas and dust emissions of the Severonickel plant, which is wind-tensported over considerable distances. The action of railway transport can be explained by the extremely high Fe content in needles (1.87–4.28 g kg−1 ) when its bioaccumulation occurs. It has been shown that an excess of active Fe can cause a disturbance in the course of photosynthetic processes and create a stress state in plants [13]. However, the assessment of the state of Larix sibirica did not reveal significant abnormalities, chlorosis, or other damage. The state of the plants was more affected by factors such as illumination, thickening of plantings, and violation of the root system due to trampling. The reproductive capacity of woody plants, especially conifers, is crucial for their continued existence and the creation of sustainable landscapes in urban areas. The success of seed reproduction depends on the quantity and quality of seeds formed and ripened in cones under the influence of climate conditions and plant habitat characteristics. This success also hinges on the conditions of seed germination and the further development of emerging young plants [12, 19]. Therefore, the study of seed productivity is the most important task of plant research. A study of the morphometric characteristics of the cones and seeds of Larix sibirica showed that they were within the size of the botanical description of the species. The largest cones, with the highest seed weight, were noted in Apatity (Table 2). The determination of the seed germination rate demonstrated that the germination interval varied from 4 to 20 days. The period of maximum emergence of seedlings fell between 7 and 10 days. The seed germination index was the highest in Polyarnye Zori, and no viable seeds were found in Olenegorsk. In other cities, laboratory germination was at the level of the background plot (PABGI nursery). When surveying the territory of railway stations in Apatity and Polyarnye Zori, seedlings (2–3 years old) of Larix sibirica were found on the railway track, which indicates their high viability.

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N. V. Saltan and E. A. Sviatkovskaya

Fig. 3. The ratio of metal content in the needles of Larix sibirica and in soils on railway station areas Table 2. Morphometric and weight characteristics of cones and seeds Place of selection

Length cone, cm

Width cone, cm

Weight, g 1000 seeds

Seed germination, %

Murmansk

2.21 ± 0.08

1.72 ± 0.06

7.76 ± 0.54

4.0–10.0

Olenegorsk

2.42 ± 0.11

1.49 ± 0.11

3.75 ± 0.70

0.0

Apatity

3.24 ± 0.16

1.86 ± 0.08

8.50 ± 0.72

4.0–25.0

Polyarnye Zori

2.78 ± 0.09

1.68 ± 0.07

6.65 ± 0.47

7.0–31.0

The tree nursery PABGI

2.85 ± 0.28

1.87 ± 0.12

6.93 ± 0.30

4.0–11.0

Tree Health of Larix sibirica Ledeb. in the Railway Impact Zone

7

4 Conclusion Larix sibirica is the only coniferous dendrointroducent used in landscaping of railway station territories in the cities of the Murmansk region. On the observation plots, middleweakened specimens dominated in Olenegorsk, Apatity and Polyarnye Zori) predominate, whereas highly weakened plants were mainly observed in Murmansk. Healthy plants make up a relatively low part - 7 to 14% from the sample. The environmental conditions for the health of Larix sibirica in the railway station areas are not satisfactory. The soils contain increased contents of Ni and Cu. The maximal contents of heavy metals (especially Fe) were found in Olenegorsk. Highly toxic metals for plants (Pb, Cd) are within the normal range. The heavy metals content in the assimilatory organs of Larix sibirica varied significantly, but were above the natural reference for all the experimental plots. Despite this, the assessment of the state of this species did not reveal significant deviations in the development of plants and at the same time showed a relatively high reproductive ability of Larix sibirica in the areas near the station. This proves the relevance of using Larix sibirica in protective plantings along the railway track.

References 1. Chelli-Chaabouni, A.: Mechanisms and adaptation of plants to environmental stress: a case of woody species. Physiol. Mech. Adapt. Strat. Plants Under Changing Environ. 1, 1–24 (2013) 2. Dochiger, L.S.: Interception of airborne particles by tree plantings. J. Environ. Qual. 2, 265– 268 (1980) 3. Dorney, R.S., Wagner-McLellan, P.W.: The urban ecosystem: its spatial structure, its scale relationships, and its system attritures. Environments 16(1), 9–20 (1984) 4. Dorsey, B., Olsson, M., Rew, L.J.: Ecological effects of railways on wildlife. In: van der Ree, R., Smith, D.J., Grilo, C. (eds.) Handbook of road ecology. Wiley, West Sussex (2015) 5. Firsov, G., Orlova, L.: Conifers Species in St. Petersburg. BIN RAS, St. Petersburg (2008) 6. Forman, R., Gordon, M.: Landscape Ecology. Wiley, New York (1986) 7. Gontar, O., Zhirov, V., Kazakov, L., Svyatkovskaya, E., Trostenyuk, N.: Green Building in Murmansk Region. Kola Science Center of Russian Academy of Science, Apatity, Russia (2010) 8. Health Standards 2.1.7.2042–06: Approximate Permissible Concentrations (APC) of Chemical Substances in Soil. Standards Press House, Moscow (2006) 9. Kazantsev, I., Matveeva, T.: The content of heavy metals in the soil cover in terms of technogenesis. Samara Sci. Herald 1(14), 34–37 (2016) 10. Kopylova, L.: Accumulation of iron and manganese in leaves of woody plants in technogenic regions of the Transbaikalia. Bull. Samara Sci. Cent. Russian Acad. Sci. 12(1), 709–712 (2010) 11. Korkina, S., Akimenko, Y., Rutskiy, V., Purygin, P.: Investigation of railway rolling stock exhausts by snow probes. Bull. Samara State Univ. S2, 127–134 (2003) 12. Kozubov, G.: Biology of Coniferous Species Fruiting in the North. Nauka, Leningrad (1974) 13. Lyanguzova, I.: Tolerance of components of forest ecosystems of the North of Russia to Aerotechnogenic Pollution. Abstract. Dissertation Doctor of Biological Sciences. The Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg (2010) 14. Mukti, G.: Heavy metal stress in plants: a review. Int. J. Adv. Res. 2(6), 1043–1055 (2014) 15. Neverova, O., Kolmogorova, E.: Woody Plants and Urban Environments: Environmental and Biotechnological Aspects. Nauka, Novosibirsk (2003)

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16. Nikolaevskiy, V., Yakubov, H.: Environmental Monitoring of Green Plantings in a Large City. Methods of Research: Practical Guide. MGUL, Moscow (2008) 17. Pavlova, E.: Ecology of Transport: Textbook for Universities. Transport, Moscow (2000) 18. Report on the state and environmental protection of the Murmansk region in 2018. https:// mpr.gov-murman.ru 19. Romanova, L., Tret’yakova, I.: Specific features of microsporogenesis in the Siberian larch growing under the conditions of technogenic load. Russian J. Dev. Biol. 36(2), 99–104 (2005) 20. Supuka, J.: Ecological importance of woody plants in reduction of the reduction on the solid particles impacts in settlements. Folia Dendrol. 1–2, 85–95 (1997) 21. Sviatkovskaya, E., Saltan, N., Gontar, O., Trostenyuk, N.: Assessment of the natural regeneration of Larix sibirica Ledeb on urban areas of the Kola North. Bull. Samara Sci. Cent. Russian Acad. Sci. 20(2), 147–153 (2018) 22. Transport: Kola Encyclopedia, vol. 1. Reference in 5 Books, 129–130. KSC RAS Publishing House, Apatity (2008) 23. Van Geel, M., et al.: Soil organic matter rather than ectomycorrhizal diversity is related to urban tree health. PLoS ONE 14(11), e0225714 (2019) 24. Viehweger, K.: How plants cope with heavy metals. Bot. Stud. 55, 35 (2014) 25. Zhuk, E.: Distribution of heavy metals in the upper layer of urban soils. Mineral. J. 26(2), 61–66 (2004)

The Influence of Soil Quality on Trees’ Health in Urban Forest Ksenia Makhinya(B) , Sofiya Demina, Marina Pavlova, Irina Istomina, and Alexey Terekhin RUDN University, Miklukho-Maklaya Street 6, 117198 Moscow, Russia

Abstract. Urbanization leads to a higher degradation of soil quality and trees’ health in the parks. A comprehensive assessment of the green spaces state and soil properties in the recreational zone of urban forest fund was carried out. The research work included chemical (pH, K2 O and P2 O5 content and heavy metals) and physical (bulk density) composition of urban soils, visual trees assessment with a species diversity description. It was found that the concentrations of trace elements in the soils located in different parts of the park differ depending on their localization. Therefore, two sample points with the same functional component produce various results. Correlation analysis did not reveal the effect of potassium on trees’ health. The phosphorus content in the soil was insufficient. The Nemerow Pollution Index showed heavy pollution of soil. High levels of cadmium and arsenic in the soil were observed in comparison with the backgrounds. The topsoil horizons (0–10 cm) are more polluted, but have less impact on generative trees’ quality. Other factors can also influence the ecology of parks, for instance, location, proximity to highways, filling functional zones, etc. Keywords: Urban soils · Trees assessment · Urbanization · Soil pollution

1 Introduction Urbanization is the main characteristic of civilization. More people live in urban areas with 55% of the world’s population residing in urban areas in 2018 and by 2050, 68% is projected to be urban [17]. Urbanized landscapes are highly dynamic, complex, and multifunctional. Cities around the world are facing challenges that making more sustainable urban futures vulnerable. Many of these challenges are being driven by increases in urban populations and climate change [5]. Monitoring of change landscape conditions in cities is required to receive correct data for good decision-making [4]. Every large city has its own functional zones, which are divided into the following: residential, municipal and warehouse zone, traffic zone and recreational zone. The recreational zone becomes an important place for people’s leisure activity [19]. It can be sport grounds, beaches, resorts, tourist places, and, of course, urban parks. Green infrastructure helps in preventing the urban heat island effect, creates a special microclimate, and improves urban infrastructure [20]. Also, it helps people feel well in an urban environment and it has a positive impact on peoples’ health [7]. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 V. Vasenev et al. (Eds.): SSC 2020, SPRINGERGEOGR, pp. 9–20, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9_2

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Urban trees are exposed to complex adverse environmental conditions, such as inadequate essential nutrient supply, very often an unfavorable water regime, polluted air, and soil [3, 11, 20]. Plants can act as indicators of air and soil pollution. The responses of trees to higher concentrations of soil contaminants are changed by environmental factors and by plant physiological status. Urban soils have versatile functions especially the ability to buffer and purify pollutants. Soil structure is often under degradation due to artifacts and technogenic substrata, mechanical compaction, and human trampling [18]. The increased content of heavy metals is also evidence of anthropogenic impact [12, 16]. The land-use history gives an idea of the urban landscape and how past human activity affects the urban parks. Comparing the two maps of 1981 and 2016 of epy New Moscow, we can see that in addition to increasing urban areas, forest areas also prevail over arable lands. Under the urbanization influence, the conversation of forests into urban forests has led to a negative effect on soil microbiota, while the conversation of arable lands into urban areas has shown an increase of soil microorganisms’ activity [8]. The research relevance conditioned by the fact that urbanization in the New Moscow is rapidly developing, the territories are expanding and being populated by a large number of new residents. This increases the need for recreational areas, for example, forest parks. In addition to the construction of new recreation areas, it is necessary to think about the environmental consequences and conduct a thorough study of effects on the structure and properties of soil [2, 18] and vegetation [7]. The study aims are to analyze the chemical and physical properties of soils and to identify their impact on trees’ health in the urban forest park.

2 Materials and Methods Research Area The object of research was the park of the 3-rd microdistrict in Moskovsky city, which is located in Moskovsky settlement in the New Moscow (Fig. 1). The eastern part of Valuevsky forest was reconstructed for the Moskovsky settlement needs in 2016. The main task of landscaping the territory was to create not only a recreational zone for residents, but also a communication zone. The park was built in 2017, with a total area about 16 ha. In the park 9 points were selected, trees were described inside each point with a radius of 20 m. Total amount of trees exceeded 10 species (Fig. 2).

The Influence of Soil Quality on Trees’ Health in Urban Forest

11

Fig. 1. The location of the study area in Moscow

Fig. 2. The master plan with description the functional zones and soil sampling points (1:1000)

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The park borders the Polio-institute district in the North, further - with the Kievskiy highway, the 3rd microdistrict of the city Moscovsky - in the South, Valuevsky forest park - in the West. The Eastern part connects with abandoned premises, garages and an old boiler house. Visual Trees Assessment The visual trees assessment was used Alekseev’s method where 1 point is a healthy type and 5 is old or young snag. Tree ratings are given based on visual inspection. Trees assessment is affected by mechanical damage, having hollows, cracks, trunk tilts, the presence of fungies, poor lighting [1]. There is also an age description of trees, such as immature, virgin, young generative, middle-aged generative, old generative. The description is based on the trunk diameter, vegetation, the order of branching, presence of skeletal roots, tree height, and canopy size [6]. Also, the species variety was described too. Soil Chemical and Physical Analysis Soil bulk density was analyzed by the weight approach as the mass of a unit volume of soil dried at 105 °C (FAO, 2006). Each sample was sifted through 2 mm sieve to do the chemical analysis. Soil pH in water (1:2,5) was determined using a pH meter (Ekoniks, Moscow, Russia) according to GOST 26423-85 [22]. The content of potassium (K2 O) and moving phosphorus (P2 O5 ) was determined according to GOST R 54650-2011 [21]. The method is based on the extraction of phosphorus and potassium compounds from the soil with a solution of hydrochloric acid (extraction solution) with a molar concentration of 0.2 mol/dm and subsequent quantitative determination of phosphorus compounds on a photoelectrocolorimeter, and potassium - on a flame photometer. Heavy Metal Analysis in Soils Before analysis, each sample was sifted through 2 mm sieve. Analysis for heavy metals was performed using portable X-ray fluorescence in laboratory (XRF). The method is based on recording and subsequent analysis of the spectrum obtained by exposure to the sample under study by x-ray radiation [13]. Each sample was scanned three times with 90 s exposure time. Samples were remixed between scans. The results were tabulated in a database. Mean concentrations from the three scans were recorded. The average value and standard deviation for each heavy metal of each sample were subtracted from three samples. The Single Pollution Index is mainly used to assess the risk of a kind of heavy metal pollution. Its expression is: PI =

Ci B

(1)

In the formula (1), where Ci - an actual content of the i-th HM in soils, mg/kg; B– the geochemical background contents of HM: Ni (29), Cu (38.9), Zn (70), Pb (27), Cd (0.41), As (0.67) [10]. If PI ≤1.0, it shows the content of this heavy metal is within its background value, and the soil is not contaminated; If PI > 1.0, it shows the content of this heavy metal has exceeded its background value, and the soil is contaminated [14].

The Influence of Soil Quality on Trees’ Health in Urban Forest

13

The Single Pollution Index can only evaluate the pollution situation of a kind of heavy metal. Nemerow Pollution Index evaluated a comprehensive pollution status of several heavy metals:   1 n 2 + (PI max )2 i−1 PI n (2) PI Nemerow = n In the formula (2), where PI - single pollution index of a particular heavy metal, PImax - maximal value of the single pollution index of all HMs, n - number of studied heavy metals. If PINemerow ≤0.7, it indicates no pollution; If 0,7≤ PINemerow ≤ 1, it means warning limit; If 1 ≤ PINemerow ≤ 2, it indicates a slightly polluted; If 2 ≤ PINemerow ≤ 3, it indicates a moderate pollution; PINemerow > 3, it indicates a heavy pollution [15].

3 Results and Discussion 3.1 Visual Trees Assessment A big variety of forest tree species was noted in park of the 3-rd microdistrict in Moscovsky city, such as Betula pendula, Betula alba, Acer platanoides, Quercus robur, Corylus avellana, Alnus incana, Alnus glutinosa, Sorbus aucuparia, Pinus sylvestris, Tília cordata, Populus tremula, Fraxinus excelsior (Fig. 3). Species diversity is represented by large amount of Acer platanoides, Betula alba and Betula pendula. There are quite common in Central Russia forests. The 2rd strata is dominated by shrubby plants, for example Cornus alba, Crataegus oxyacantha and Sambucus racemose.

Fig. 3. Diagram of species diversity as a percentage in the forest park

The forest park is mainly dominated by young generative and middle-aged generative tree species. Also, the trees vital condition in the park is good and healthy (Fig. 4). There are very few snags, damaged and weakened trees in the whole park. However, the point 5 in children playground includes weakened trees status close to 2 marks in Alekseev’s method.

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Fig. 4. Comparison of the visual trees assessment in park sampling points

3.2 Results of Chemical and Physical Analysis The soil in different parts of the forest park has an almost similar bulk density. It is obvious that point 2, which is located in the forest area of the park, has more compacted soil than point 6, located at the dog walking area (Table 1). Also, more compacted soil is represented at points 3 and 8, located near the picnic area and near road, respectively. Values of compacted soil range from 1.00 to 1.02, which indicates a weak compaction. The pH values in the topsoil horizons significantly differ across the functional zones in the forest park. In the forest zone (4 point) the value is less, about 5.37, than in playgrounds (9 point) - 8.21. The maximum dose of P2 O5 should not exceed 400 mg/kg, because phosphorus can dissolve heavy metals in the soil above this limit. The P2 O5 content norm is 100–200 mg/kg on average for sod-podzolic soils according Moscow Table 1. Topsoil (0–10 cm) bulk density, pH, content of P2 O5 and K2 O in in park’s points (mean and SD) Point

Bulk density (0–10 cm), g/cm3

pH (0–10 cm), unit pH

P2 O5 (0–10 cm), mg/kg

K2 O (0–10 cm), mg/kg

1

0,73 ± 0,01

7,64 ± 0,08

26,32 ± 1,23

97,50 ± 1,41

2

1,02 ± 0,08

6,16 ± 0,05

13,96 ± 0,31

180,00 ± 9,90

3

1,01 ± 0,18

6,55 ± 0,06

48,43 ± 3,68

196,00 ± 0,00

4

0,85 ± 0,00

5,37 ± 0,08

21,11 ± 4,91

84,50 ± 26,16

5

0,71 ± 0,00

6,14 ± 0,04

21,55 ± 17,17

98,00 ± 9,90

6

0,64 ± 0,05

6,59 ± 0,01

50,60 ± 15,95

147,25 ± 3,89

7

0,69 ± 0,02

5,72 ± 0,01

31,52 ± 0,61

118,75 ± 5,30

8

1,01 ± 0,13

6,77 ± 0,05

171,16 ± 4,91

101,75 ± 5,35

9

0,98 ± 0,06

8,21 ± 0,03

110,88 ± 2,45

62,75 ± 5,35

The Influence of Soil Quality on Trees’ Health in Urban Forest

15

government decree № 514. Points 8 and 9 located near road and playground have norm content of P2 O5 . The rest of the sample points are in low values (Table 1). The norm content dose of K2 O is 100–200 mg/kg. At least, half of points have norm values from 101.75 mg/kg to 196.00 mg/kg. The overall pH value in subsoils is similar to the values of topsoil horizons (Table 2). The highest average of 6.87 is also found in the playground area (9 point). However, the lowest average of 5.48 is located in a different children playground area (5 point) closer to the park’s center and in forest zone (2 point). Urbanization has an impact on the subsoil horizons through bulk topsoil horizons. In contrast to topsoils, the P2 O5 values in subsoils are significantly lower. The K2 O content at point 6 also remains excessive – 159.13 mg/kg, but still normal. However, at points 1 and 9 (the entrance zone and playground), the values were significantly higher than in topsoils. Table 2. Subsoil (10–50 cm) pH, content of P2 O5 and K2 O in park’s points (mean and SD) Point

pH (10–50 cm), unit pH

P2 O5 (10–50 cm), mg/kg

K2 O (10–50 cm), mg/kg

1

6,46 ± 0,65

46,05 ± 1,23

2

5,48 ± 0,15

19,05 ± 10,89

85,88 ± 11,14

3

5,83 ± 0,56

28,27 ± 1,23

101,75 ± 22,27

4

6,06 ± 0,04

16,02 ± 5,67

61,63 ± 4,42

5

5,48 ± 0,04

20,46 ± 0,31

90,25 ± 5,30

6

6,43 ± 0,06

91,15 ± 2,76

159,13 ± 11,14

7

5,74 ± 0,01

33,47 ± 16,87

94,25 ± 2,47

8

5,63 ± 0,14

47,13 ± 2,45

88,75 ± 1,06

9

6,87 ± 1,61

94,08 ± 93,37

125,50 ± 54,45

128,13 ± 13,97

The content of K2 O in the urban forest park is mainly average throughout the territory in different soil horizons. The P2 O5 content is significantly less in top- and subsoils. In other studies of the soils of parks and parkways in Moscow, they were slightly different in the content of phosphorus and potassium. However, a small variation in values is explained by a large difference in the horizon highs, where migration and accumulation of chemical elements occur [9]. 3.3 Heavy Metal Analysis in Soils The content of heavy metals in the soil varies from depth. In general, heavy metals do not exceed the backgrounds in topsoils (Table 3). However, Cadmium (Cd) and Arsenic (As) exceed the backgrounds levels in each points. Cadmium is very toxic to trees. It is easily absorbed from the soil through the root system, where it mostly localized. In the subsoils, the content of heavy metals is lower (Table 4). At points 9 (playground) and 8 (crossroad), it is significantly higher than the permissible level of arsenic. At point 1 (the entrance zone), the cadmium content is too high - 4.83 mg/kg.

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K. Makhinya et al.

Table 3. Content of heavy metals (mg/kg) in topsoil (0–10 cm) in Park’s points (mean) and their backgrounds (Bg) on right side of values №

Cd

Bg

Zn

Bg

Pb

Bg

Cu

Bg

As

Bg

Ni

Bg

1

5,0

0,41

52,3

70

11,3

27

22,0

38,9

7,6

0,67

21,6

29

2

7,0

0,41

69,0

70

18,6

27

18,3

38,9

8,6

0,67

31,6

29

3

1,6

0,41

86,6

70

23,0

27

23,0

38,9

9,6

0,67

32,3

29

4

5,3

0,41

59,0

70

30,0

27

16,6

38,9

9,6

0,67

31,3

29

5

9,6

0,41

55,0

70

12,6

27

19,3

38,9

23,0

0,67

16,0

29

6

4,3

0,41

66,6

70

10,6

27

17,3

38,9

16,0

0,67

20,0

29

7

5,0

0,41

66,3

70

16,3

27

25,0

38,9

10,3

0,67

34,0

29

8

8,3

0,41

68,0

70

9,0

27

22,3

38,9

10,6

0,67

35,6

29

9

4,3

0,41

112,0

70

19,3

27

22,6

38,9

8,3

0,67

16,0

29

Table 4. Content of heavy metals (mg/kg) in subsoil (10–50 cm) in Park’s points (mean) and backgrounds (Bg) on right side of values №

Cd

Bg

Zn

Bg

Pb

Bg

Cu

Bg

As

Bg

Ni

Bg

1

4,8

0,41

60,5

70

14,5

27

16,3

38,9

7,6

0,67

26,3

29

2

1,6

0,41

61,3

70

14,6

27

20,5

38,9

9,5

0,67

32,5

29

3

3,5

0,41

65,0

70

15,5

27

20,8

38,9

10,0

0,67

36,6

29

4

3,6

0,41

63,3

70

42,0

27

16,0

38,9

10,8

0,67

29,8

29

5

3,6

0,41

60,3

70

21,0

27

25,3

38,9

9,3

0,67

35,0

29

6

2,8

0,41

66,3

70

67,6

27

16,1

38,9

10,8

0,67

25,3

29

7

3,3

0,41

62,0

70

17,0

27

18,3

38,9

7,6

0,67

25,0

29

8

1,6

0,41

62,0

70

13,6

27

28,0

38,9

11,3

0,67

37,0

29

9

4,1

0,41

143,0

70

21,1

27

40,7

38,9

11,7

0,67

30,5

29

The Single Pollution Index is calculated in order to compare visually the extent of heavy metal pollution in each point (Figs. 5 and 6). The Single Pollution Index (SPI) of Arsenic (As) is too high in each depth than others metals. Also, the SPI > 1.0 exceeds Cadmium (Cd). The most polluted topsoils is located at 5 point (children playground). It’s very dangerous, because the SPI exceeds about 30 times by Arsenic (As). The most contaminated point in subsoil is 4 (forest zone) and 8 (crossroad). If the 8 point can be explained by its location close to parking, then the 4 point is located in a forest area, where an old boiler house and garages are located nearby.

The Influence of Soil Quality on Trees’ Health in Urban Forest

17

Fig. 5. The Single Pollution Index of topsoils (0–10 cm) in park’s points

Fig. 6. The Single Pollution Index of subsoils (10–50 cm) in park’s points

The Nemerow Pollution Index (PINemerow ) in topsoil (0–10 cm) of all the nine study areas is heavy polluted (Table 5). The PINemerow in 5 point (playground) are too high– 13.37. The PINemerow of the other points was around 6 and still belongs to heavy pollution. The PINemerow in subsoil (10–50 cm) close to 6, which also determines as heavy pollution. Among them, the PINemerow of 9 point (playground) is the highest (PINemerow = 6.83), which is moderate pollution. Research on heavy metal contamination of soil is explained by human activity and urbanization in general. For example, a study of Xiangtan Park areas in China found that pollution decreases gradually along with the increasing of the distance from the city center [19]. Locally in the park, this can be explained by the same distance to the nearest industrial zones or to major highways.

18

K. Makhinya et al. Table 5. The Nemerow Pollution Index in park’s points

Points

The Nemerow Pollution Index in topsoil (0–10 cm)

The Nemerow Pollution Index in subsoil (10–50 cm)

1

4,82

4,64

2

6,70

5,48

3

5,54

5,82

4

5,66

6,29

5

13,37

5,43

6

9,24

6,27

7

6,05

4,45

8

7,94

6,51

9

4,89

6,83

3.4 Soil Quality and Trees’ Health Statistical analysis showed a positive correlation (r = 0.61; p < 0.05) between the Nemerov Pollution Index of topsoil horizons and trees’ life state (Table 6). There is a negative correlation (r = −0.41; p < 0.05) between the PINemerow of subsoil horizons and trees’ life state. This might indicate a slightly dependency between them. The content of K2 O is practically unrelated to the visual trees assessment. However, it can be noted that the less P2 O5 is in the soil, the worse the trees assessment. The correlation gave a negative relationship between these observations. Comparing the visual trees assessment and soil characteristics can be said that trees’ 9 point are the healthiest relative to the rest. There is a high Zn content, although it is not enough higher than the background value. The PINemerow at point 1 is the lowest at different soil depths. The most weakened trees are located at point 5. Here the PINemerow is extremely high and the P2 O5 content is low. These two points are located in the same functional areas (children playgrounds), but in different parts of the park-5 points located in the center park close to parking zone and 9-in the center of south part. It is possible to say that a strong difference between two points is due to the location relative to closeness of highways. Table 6. Pearson correlation coefficients between the content of heavy metals, Nemerow Pollution Index, content of P2 O5 , K2 O and visual trees assessment Depth,cm

PINemerow

Cd

Zn

Pb

Cu

As

Ni

P2 O5

K2 O

0–10

0,61

0,25

−0,63

−0,24

0,02

0,69

−0,02

−0,27

0,01

10–50

−0,41

0,18

−0,63

0,10

−0,45

−0,40

0,05

−0,38

−0,12

In studies of urban parks in Poznan (Poland), a positive correlation was found between the content of K in the soil and the trees’ health [11]. The trees’ health depends

The Influence of Soil Quality on Trees’ Health in Urban Forest

19

on their location. After making a statistical analysis, trees growing on polluted soils are the most damaged. Other studies of the relationship between tree health and soil pollution have also found a correlation relationship. A large amount of heavy metals accumulated in the topsoils longterm pollution from various sources, such as air pollution that originated from fuel combustion, and additionally from abrasion of tires and asphalt and from car lubricants [3].

4 Conclusion The research led to the following conclusions: 1) There are mostly healthy trees in the park, but they are close to a weakened status. 2) The pH values show neutral or slightly alkaline soils, especially at points located near playgrounds and roads. The soil in the park is slightly compacted. Soil analysis showed a lack of P2 O5 and an almost average content of K2 O. 3) The Soil Pollution Index in different parts of the forest park showed moderate soil contamination of heavy metals. Most of them were found to be contaminated with Cadmium (Cd) and Arsenic (As). 4) The comparative analysis showed a small correlation between trees’ health and soil contamination of heavy metals. Also, the effect of K2 O and P2 O5 is practically unrelated to the trees’ health. 5) The subsoil horizons have lower content of K2 O and P2 O5 than in bulk topsoils. In addition, the content of heavy metals in subsoils is lower in the case of Nemerow Pollution Index. 6) Two points located near playgrounds have completely different values of soil pollution and visual trees assessment. This can be explained by the proximity of the road and parking zone to one of them.

Acknowledgements. Tree survey and evaluation were supported by the RSF project # 19–77-30012. The analysis of soil chemical and physical properties was performed with the support from Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Project No 19-34-90133). Data analysis and land-use mapping was prepared with the support of “RUDN University program 5–100”.

References 1. Alekseev, V.A.: Diagnostics of the vital state of trees and stands. Some questions of diagnostics and classification of forest ecosystems damaged by pollution. Forest ecosystems and atmospheric pollution. - L.: Science, 38–53 (1990) 2. Ander, E.L., Johnson, C.C., Cave, M.R., Palumbo-Roe, B., Nathanail, C.P., Lark, R.M.: Methodology for the determination of normal background concentrations of contaminants in English soil (2013). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.03.005 3. Andrejic, G.: Assessment of heavy metal pollution of topsoils and plants in the City of Belgrade (2015) https://doi.org/10.2298/JSC150829096A

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4. Antrop, M.: Landscape change and the urbanization process in Europe (2004) https://doi.org/ 10.1016/S0169-2046(03)00026-4 5. Childers, D.L., Cadenasso, M.L., Grove, J.M., Marshall, V., McGrath, B., Pickett, S.: An ecology for cities: a transformational nexus of design and ecology to advance climate change resilience and urban sustainability (2015). https://doi.org/10.3390/su7043774 6. Chistyakova, A.A., Kutyina, I.S.: Elm rough, or mountain elm. In: Diagnoses and Keys of Age-Related Conditions of Forest Plants. Trees and Shrubs, pp. 82–89. Prometheus, Moscow (1989) 7. Coutts, C., Hahn, M.: Green Infrastructure, Ecosystem Services, and Human Health (2015)https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph120809768 8. Demina, S., Vasenev, V., Ivashchenko, K., Ananyeva, N., Plyushchikov, V., Hajiaghayeva, R., Dovletyarova,E.: Microbial Properties of Urban Soils With Different Land-Use History in New Moscow. RUDN, Moscow (2018) https://doi.org/10.1097/SS.0000000000000240 9. Ermakov, V., Perelomov, L., Khushvakhtova, S., Tyutikov, S., Danilova, V., Safonov, V.: Biogeochemical assessment of the urban area in Moscow. Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry of Russian Academy of Sciences (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/ s10661-017-6363-y 10. Kabata-Pendias, A.: Trace Elements of Soils and Plants. CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton (2011) 11. Kleiber, T.: How does the content of nutrients in soil affect the health status of trees in city parks (2019) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0221514 12. Krami, L.K., Sefiyanian, F., Shariff, A., Pradhan, T.: Spatial patterns of heavy metals in soil under different geological structures and land uses for assessing metal enrichments (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-013-3298-9 13. Ravansari, R., Wilson, S.C., Tighe, M.: Portable X-ray fluorescence for environmental assessment of soils: not just a point and shoot method. Environ. Int. 134, 105250 (2019) 14. Shang, E., Zhang, H., Yang, X., Xu, E., Xiao, L., Dong, G.: Assessment of soil heavy metal of paddy field in four provinces in southern China. Acta Scientiae Circumstantiae. 37(2017), 1469–1478 (2017) 15. Shi, Z., Wu, C., Lu, Y.: Comparative study on soil heavy metal content of urban green ground near parks and roads in Shenzhen City. Chin. J. Soil Sci. 38, 133–136 (2007) 16. Sun, Y., Zhoua, Q., Xiea, X., Liua, R.: Spatial, sources and risk assessment of heavy metal contamination of urban soils in typical regions of Shenyang, China (2009). https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2009.09.074 17. United Nations World Population Prospects, New York (2018) 18. Yang, J.L., Zhang, L.: Formation, characteristics and eco-environmental implications of urban soils – a review (2015). https://doi.org/10.1080/00380768.2015.1035622 19. Zhang, Y., Chen, Q.: Contents of heavy metals in urban parks and university campuses (2017)https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/108/4/042060 20. Zipper, S.C., Schatz, J., Singh, A., Kucharik, C.J., Townsend, P.A., Loheide, S.P.: Urban heat island impacts on plant phenology: intra-urban variability and response to land cover (2016)https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/5/054023 21. GOST R 54650-2011: Soils. Determination of mobile phosphorus and potassium compounds by Kirsanov method modified by ClNAO (2011) 22. GOST 26423-85: Methods for determining the specific electrical conductivity, pH and dense residue of water extract (1986)

Ground Penetrating Radar Tomography Application to Study of Live Tree Trunks: Case Studies of Defects Detection Maria Sudakova1,2(B) , Eugenia Terentieva1 , and Alexey Kalashnikov3 1 Geology Faculty, Seismic Department, MSU Lomonosov, 119991 GSP-1, 1 Leninskiye Gory,

Moscow, Russia 2 Earth Cryosphere Institute Tyumen Scientific Centre SB RAS, 625000,

Maligyna 86 Tyumen, Russia 3 Moscow State University of Civil Engineering, 129337 26,

Yaroslavskoye Shosse, Moscow, Russia

Abstract. The report describes the use of the method of ground penetrating radar (GPR) ray tomography, applied to non-living objects , as a tool for studying the internal structure of trunk of living trees. Due to the lack of mechanical impact on the object of study and high resolution, GPR has an advantage in comparison with other methods of examining the state of trees , such as micro-drilling or acoustic tomography. Field experiments were conducted on different tree species in different states. The results obtained on healthy oak, dry spruce and chestnut with a cavity inside are described. Observations were made in summer of 2017. A two-channel GPR “Zond 12e” (“RadarSystems”, Latvia) with two 2 GHz antennas was used in experiment. GPR tomography is used to determine the distribution of permittivity in the trunk, which is directly related to the moisture of wood. Different parts of the trunk (bark, core, sapwood), as well as healthy and affected areas differ in humidity, so the method of GPR tomography allowed us to see both the structure of the trunk of a healthy tree, and the presence and dimensions of defects. Keywords: Non-destructive testing · Cavities searching · Tree health

1 Introduction The preservation and maintenance of trees are of global concern. Many trees are endangered by natural defects and biological degradation. The necessity of monitoring of live trees in large cities, nature reserves and parks is indisputable, since most of the plantings in parks and recreation areas of urban agglomerations are old trees. Many of them have great life potential, while some may be hazardous to human beings or constructions. Trees are easily broken and collapse in adverse weather conditions bringing unnecessary losses to lives and property. In addition to visual inspection of trees, which may not reveal internal damage, instrumental monitoring methods such as a probe and penetrometer, a resistograph (measuring the moment of resistance to drilling and dividing wood © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 V. Vasenev et al. (Eds.): SSC 2020, SPRINGERGEOGR, pp. 21–30, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9_3

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into hard, loose or void) are widely used to determine the state of a living tree [11], as well as acoustic methods that also include ultrasound and acoustic tomography [8, 19, 23]. Diagnostics of wood based on drilling has obvious disadvantages associated with violation of integrity of the bark, which can lead to tree loss. Even minimally invasive method as acoustic tomography carries some risks, because nails are driven into the bark of the tree to install sensors. Acoustic studies in source-transducer zero-offset modification are able to estimate the extent of internal defects only if a defect occupies 20% of the trunk cross-sectional area [4, 18, 20]. A more accurate method – acoustic tomography – also has a number of disadvantages. Apart from slight damages of the upper layer of the bark, there are other limitations of acoustic tomography. The velocity of sound in a healthy tree is much higher than in voids (hollows) or in a rotten tree. According to the Fermat’s principle, which states that the path taken by a ray between two given points is the path that can be traversed in the least time and therefore the sound will propagate outside the void. A standard acoustic technique involves measuring the travel time of acoustic wave from one sensor to another. If there is a hollow between two sensors, the sound will not propagate through the hollow. When using the tomographic method, the acoustic beam does not pass through the void, and therefore, the accuracy of velocity measurement in the void will be low. After all, the accuracy of velocity measurements in tomography is based on density of rays penetrating a zone of interest. In addition, different defects in a tree may result in the same tomographic image [8]. In other words, acoustic tomography can detect defects, but cannot determine their type: crack, rot [21, 31], circular cracks, voids [26, 32]. Some papers report that acoustic tomography overestimates the dimensions of internal defects [15, 16, 31]. Gilbert and Smiley (2004) [7] claim that acoustic tomography successfully detects internal defects with an area of more than 10% of the cross-sectional area, with minimum size of a defect as small as 5-10 cm. We have proposed a method for studying the internal structure of live tree trunks by GPR tomography. Our approach is clear of limitations of the acoustic tomography: ambiguity of interpretation, insufficient accuracy of velocity determination, as well as measurement conditions. First, it is absolutely non-destructive, and second, the void (in terms of electromagnetic waves) represents a high-velocity medium, and therefore, the accuracy of velocity estimation will be much higher. The GPR method is applied quite often to solving engineering problems, such as searching for underground mines, pipelines, and cables [5, 12, 24, 33]. Groundpenetrating radars are steadily expanding their scope. Among the problems solved one can report detection and 3D mapping of tree roots and evaluation of root biomass [1– 3, 10, 22, 27], assessment of damage caused by tree roots [25], study of the electrical resistance of tree [22], etc. The use of GPR to study internal tree defects is discussed in a number of papers [13, 16, 18, 23]. GPR tomography is rarely applied to study live tree trunks, but this modification may result in assessing electrical conductivity and permittivity, which in turn may be related to moisture content in a live tree trunk and may indicate important internal processes [6, 9]. Tomographic method provides full beam coverage due to convenient access to a tree trunk, which ensures high resolution in the field of electromagnetic waves (up to several centimetres) and detecting and outlining defects (voids, internal rot). The

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produced velocity values are associated with distribution of humidity inside the trunk and its fluctuations during monitoring. According to known correlations [17, 29], velocity values can be related to humidity. An example of GPR tomography application to study of live tree trunk is given in the article [28], where the theoretical background and principles of solving the direct and inverse problems of ray tomography are discussed in more detail. The present paper renders the results of experiment conducted on live tree trunks of different species in different conditions: a “healthy” English oak, a dry spruce and a horse chestnut with rot inside. GPR is applied to accurately locate internal abnormalities in trees and present the size of the abnormal regions.

2 Radar Data Acquisition Methodology GPR (ground penetrating radar) Zond-12e was used in data acquisition. Shielded butterfly antennas with a central frequency in the air of 2000 MHz were used as radiating and receiving antennas. The source and receiver points were located in a horizontal plane along the perimeter of the trunks. A schematic SP (source points) and RP (receiver points) diagram is shown in Fig. 1. The transmitting antenna was placed against the trunk of a tree and the receiver moved circumferentially to acquire a complete radar gram of the selected trunk elevation. To get rid of the influence of induction and conduction currents, the minimum distance between the transmitting and the receiving antennas was 20 cm. The antenna orientation on the profile was co-polarized broadside. The step between the radiation points was 10 cm. The work was carried out in continuous mode and field trace spacing was about 1 mm. During processing the trace spacing was increased to 1 cm. The traces calibration was performed using a tape measure and markers placed in 10 cm increments. As a result, for each “slice” of the trunk, several thousands of traveltime samples were acquired. Data processing involved geometry update, decimation of trace spacing, and delay removal based on direct arrival. After processing, the direct arrival was picked. The picking was performed on a maximum phase, and then shifted to the first break time. The traveltimes were used to solve the inverse problem of ray tomography. The tree trunk was approximated by cylinder shape. Velocity sections were produced in GeoTomCG software, the grid cell size was 2 cm2 .

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Fig. 1. Sketch of GPR tomography technique on tree trunks. S11 – «section» number one, source position number one, S21 – «section» number two, source position number one, R - receiver is being moved around tree trunk.

3 Results 3.1 The English Oak (Quércus róbur) The photo of the oak tree is shown in Fig. 2. White stripes correspond to masking tape that was used for labelling and data tie. After the survey, the tape was removed. Visual inspection demonstrates that the oak is healthy. There are no external defects of the trunk. There are no dry branches or dry leaves. The leaves are green without discoloration. Oak bark is uniform. The height of the tree is about 7 m, the trunk circumference at 140 cm from the ground is about 280 cm. The GPR survey was carried out at a height of 140 cm from the ground surface. An example of the data obtained is shown in Fig. 3. The first break clearly shows an air wave propagating at velocity of 30 cm/ns (blue colour in the figure). We can also pick other event corresponding to refracted multiples from the boundaries inside the trunk. Direct arrival propagating inside the trunk can be easily distinguished from air waves by its apparent velocity and apparent frequency, which are lower than that of air waves. The red colour corresponds to the direct wave. 3.2 Fir Tree (Pícea ábies) Photo of fir is shown in Fig. 4. The height of the tree is about 12 m, the girth at 140 cm from the ground is about 165 cm. The tree is visually “dry”: about half of the branches with dried needles are orange, but without trunk defects. The bark is uniform. An example of acquired GPR data is shown in Fig. 5, a. The air wave is shown in blue, and direct wave is shown in red. In comparison with the data acquired on the oak, the following features can be distinguished: the direct wave arrival time is lower, and the amplitude

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Fig. 2. English oak photo. July 2017.

a)

b)

Fig. 3. a) example of English oak trunk GPR tomography data. Blue dotted line – air wave, red dotted line – direct wave, b) EM velocity distribution in the oak trunk.

is greater. Refracted multiples are not observed. This wave pattern indicates increased velocity values and reduced attenuation of electromagnetic waves inside the trunk and indirectly denotes that the fir is drier than the oak. This conclusion is also endorsed by the result of tomographic inversion: the average velocity is higher (9 cm/ns) than in live oak (7 cm/ns), and high-velocity (11 cm/ns and higher) areas are detected. The structure of the trunk is heterogeneous, the structural layers are not clearly distinguished.

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Fig. 4. Fir tree photo. July 2017.

a)

b)

Fig. 5. a) example of fir tree trunk GPR tomography data. Blue dotted line – air wave, red dotted line – direct wave, b) EM velocity distribution in the fir tree trunk.

3.3 Chestnut (Aésculus) The tree is about 10 m high, the trunk circumference at a height of 140 cm from the ground is about 195 cm. The tree has internal trunk defects: a hole filled with humus is observed inside the tree. The hole can be seen visually at a height of about 2 m, the hole depth is more than 1 m. However, the tree visually alive: no dry branches and leaves, leaf color is uniform, no signs of disease. To explore the variation of internal defect in the trunk, measurements were taken at two heights: 150 cm and 95 cm. Examples of GPR data are shown in Fig. 6 a, b. The wave penetrating through the trunk of a chestnut tree (shown in red) is not as distinct as in the case of fir and oak. The signal-to-noise ratio is lower than in the previous examples, which indicates an

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increased absorption of electromagnetic wave energy in the chestnut trunk. The velocity section demonstrates a reduced velocity zone (4.5–5.5 cm/ms) with an increased gradient, corresponding to a cavity filled with water and humus. The size of the cavity is about 50% of the cross-section area both at a height of 95 cm and at a height of 150 cm. The cavity is located asymmetrically relative to the center. The average velocity in the trunk is about 6 cm/ns.

a)

b)

с)

Fig. 6. Examples of chestnut trunk GPR tomography data at different heights (a - 95 cm, b 150 cm) and the results (c).

Figure 7 demonstrates the GPR results superimposed with a chestnut photo. This representation helps to see more clearly the spatial location of the internal defect.

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Fig. 7. Comparison of results from Fig. 6, and a photo of the chestnut.

4 Conclusion GPR tomography is used to determine the distribution of electromagnetic wave velocity in the trunk, which is directly related to the moisture of wood. Different parts of the trunk (bark, core, sapwood), as well as healthy and affected areas differ in humidity, so the method of GPR tomography allowed us to see both the structure of the trunk of a healthy tree, and the presence and dimensions of defects.

References 1. Bassuk, N., Grabosky, J., Mucciardi, A., Raffel, G.: Ground-penetrating radar accurately locates tree roots in two soil media under pavement. Arboric. Urban Forest. 37(4), 160–166 (2011) 2. Butnor, J.R., Johnsen K.H., Wikström, P., Lundmark, T., Linder, S.: Imaging tree roots with borehole radar. In: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Ground Penetrating Radar, Columbus, OH, USA, pp. 1–8, 19–22 June 2006

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3. Butnor, J.R., Doolittle, J.A., Kress, L., Cohen, S., Johnsen, K.H.: Use of ground-penetrating radar to study tree roots in the southeastern United States. Tree Physiol. 21, 1269–1278 (2001) 4. Comino, E., Socco, L.V., Martinis, R., Nicolotti, G., Sambuelli, L.: Ultrasonic tomography for wood decay diagnosis. In: Backhaus, G.F., Balder, H., Idczak, E. (eds.) International Symposium on Plant Health in Urban Horticulture, p. 279. Parey Buchverlag, Berlin (2000) 5. Daniels, D.J.: Ground Penetrating Radar, 2nd edn. London, Institution of Engineering and Technology (2004) 6. Fu, L., Liu, S., Liu, L.: Internal structure characterization of living tree trunk cross-section using GPR: numerical examples and field data analysis. In: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Ground Penetrating Radar, Brussels, pp. 155–160 (2014). https://doi. org/10.1109/icgpr.2014.6970405 7. Gilbert, E.A., Smiley, E.T.: Quantification of decay in White Oak (Quercus Alba) and Hickory (Carya spp.). J. Arboric. 30(5), 277–281 (2004) 8. Göcke, L., Rust, S., Weihs, U., Gunther, T., Rucker, C.: Combining sonic and electrical impedance tomography for the non-destructive testing of trees. In: Proceedings of 15th International Symposium on Nondestructive Testing of Wood, Symposium Conducted at the Meeting of the Forest Products Society, Duluth, MN, U.S.A., 10–12 September 2007 9. Hagrey, S.A.: Al: geophysical imaging of root-zone, trunk, and moisture heterogeneity. J. Exp. Bot. 58, 839–854 (2007) 10. Hruska, J., Cermák, J., Sustek, S.: Mapping tree root systems with ground-penetrating radar. Tree Physiol. 19, 125–130 (1999) 11. Johnstone, D., Moore, G., Tausz, M., Nicolas, M.: The measurement of wood decay in landscape trees. Arboric. Urban Forest. 36(3), 121–127 (2010) 12. Joll, H.M.: Ground Penetrating Radar: Theory and Application, 1st edn. Elsevier Science, Amsterdam (2009) 13. Leong, E.-C., Burcham, D., Fong, Y.-K.: A purposeful classification of tree decay detection tools. Arboric. J.: Int. J. Urban Forest. 34(2), 91–115 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1080/030 71375.2012.701430 14. Liang, S., Wang, X., Wiedenbeck, J., Cai, Z., Fu, F.: Evaluation of acoustic tomography for tree decay detection. In: Proceedings of the 15th International Symposium on Nondestructive Testing of Wood. Symposium Conducted at the Meeting of the Forest Products Society, Duluth, MN (2008) 15. Lin, C.-J., Kao, Y.-C., Lin, T.-T., Tsai, M.-J., Wang, S.-Y., Lin, L.-D., Wang, Y.-N., Chan, M.-H.: Application of an ultrasonic tomographic technique for detecting defects in standing trees. Int. Biodeterior. Biodegradation 62, 434–441 (2008) 16. Lorenzo, H., Pérez-Gracia, V., Novo, A., Armesto, J.: Forestry applications of groundpenetrating radar. Forest Syst. 19(1), 5–17 (2010) 17. Mai, T.C., Razafindratisma, S., Sbartaïa, Z.M., Demontoux, F., Bosa, F.: Non-destructive evaluation of moisture content of wood material at GPR frequency. Constr. Build. Mater. 77, 213–217 (2012) 18. Nicolotti, G., Socco, L.V., Martinis, R., Godio, A., Sambuelli, L.: Application and comparison of three tomographic techniques for detection of decay in trees. J. Arboric. 29(2), 66–78 (2003) 19. Rabe, C., Ferner, D., Fink, S., Schwarze, F.: Detection of decay in trees with stress waves and interpretation of acoustic tomograms. Arboric. J. 28, 3–19 (2004) 20. Ross, R.J., Brashaw, B.K., Wang, X., White, R., Pellerin, R.F.: Wood and Timber Condition Assessment Manual. Forest Products Society, Madison (2004) 21. Rust, S., Göcke, L.: Combining sonic and electrical impedance tomography for the nondestructive testing of trees. In: Proceedings of 15th International Symposium on Nondestructive Testing of Wood, Symposium Conducted at the Meeting of the Forest Products Society, Duluth, MN (2008)

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22. al Hagrey, S.A.: Geophysical imaging of root-zone, trunk, and moisture heterogeneity. Imaging Stress Responses Plants Spec. Issue J. Exp. Botany 58(4), 839–854 (2007). https://doi. org/10.1093/jxb/erl237 23. Sambuelli, L., Socco, L.V., Godio, A., Nicolotti, G., Martinis, R.: Ultrasonic, electric and radar measurements for living trees assessment, Bollettino di Geofisica Teorica ed Applicata 44(3–4), 253–279 (2013) 24. Sato, M., Yokota, Y., Takahashi, K., Grasmueck, M.: Landmine detection by 3DGPR system. Proc. SPIE 2012(8357), 23–27 (2012) 25. Satriani, A., Loperte, A., Proto, M., Bavusi, M.: Building damage caused by tree roots: laboratory experiments of GPR and ERT surveys. Adv. Geosci. 24, 133–137 (2010) 26. Sasaki, Y., Iwata, T., Ando, K.: Acoustoelastic effect of wood II: effect of compressive stress on the velocity of ultrasonic longitudinal waves parallel to the transverse direction of the wood. J. Wood Sci. 44, 21–27 (1998) 27. Zhu, S., Huang, C., Su, Y., Sato, M.: 3D ground penetrating radar to detect tree roots and estimate root biomass in the field. Remote Sens. 6, 5754–5773 (2014). https://doi.org/10. 3390/rs6065754 28. Terentieva, E.B., Sudakova, M.S., Kalashnikov, A.Yu.: Using the ground penetrating radar tomography for a living trees trunk studying. Lesovedenie 2020(2), 1–13 (2020) (in Russian). https://doi.org/10.31857/s0024114820020096 29. Torgovnikov, G.: Dielectric Properties of Wood and Wood Based Material, 196 p. Springer, Heidelberg (1993) 30. Wang, X., Allison, R.B., Wang, L., Ross, R.J.: Acoustic tomography for decay detection in red oak trees. Research Paper FPL-RP-642. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, WI (2007) 31. Wang, X., Allison, R.B.: Decay detection in red oak trees using a combination of visual inspection, acoustic testing, and resistance microdrilling. Arboric. Urban Forest. 34(1), 1–4 (2008) 32. Wassenaer, P., Richardson, M.: A review of tree risk assessment using minimally invasive technologies and two case studies. Arboric. J. 32, 275–292 (2009) 33. Youn, H.; Chen, C.: Neural detection for buried pipes using fully-polarimetric ground penetrating radar system. In: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Ground Penetrating Radar, Delft, The Netherlands, pp. 231–234, 21–24 June 2004

Morphological and Macroanatomical Indicators of Long-Term and Current State of Trees of Quercus Robur L. Natalia Kaplina(B) Institute of Forest Science, Russian Academy of Sciences, Uspenskoe, Moscow Region, Russia

Abstract. The study’s purpose was to examine the conjugacy of the dynamics of morphological and macroanatomical indicators of the long-term and current states of oak trees. The data were collected in upland and floodplain oak groves on the southern border of the forest-steppe zone. The average dynamics of the groups of 10 most developed oak trees each was studied as a model of well-sunlit urban trees. The indicators used are nonspecific, which makes it possible to assess the complex impact of the factors, acting in urban conditions. A correlation between the 25–35-year cyclical dynamics of the crown development and the number of vessels rows of the radial increment of stem earlywood as indicators of the long-term state of oak trees. The stages of damage and restoration of crown foliage were compared with the extremes of 8–12-year cycles of the number of vessels rows of stem earlywood as indicators of the current state of oak. The superposition of the minimums of 25–35- and 8–12-year cycles of oak trees state increased the risk of damage and death. In both types of oak groves, the cyclical state of the oak was similar, and its trends differed depending on the age and density dynamics of the stands. Based on the proposed approach, retrospective and predictive assessments of the long-term and current state of oak trees are possible. Keywords: Quercus Robur · State of trees · Crown development · Damages · Restoration and state · Number of vessels rows of stem earlywood increment

1 Introduction Monitoring tree state in cities is necessary for assessing the risk of tree damage and death. The crown morphology and radial increment of a tree stem contain information about its growth, development, and condition [1–3]. The original classification of oak crowns by their development types was used for the analysis of long-term dynamics of oak trees, including the objects of research [4, 5]. It was also used in the forests and parks of the Moscow region [6]. The features of radial growth of early and late oak stem wood under various unfavorable factors are well studied [7–13]. Cyclic components make a significant contribution to dynamics of radial stem increment [14, 15]. Currently, considerable attention is paid © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 V. Vasenev et al. (Eds.): SSC 2020, SPRINGERGEOGR, pp. 31–39, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9_4

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to the parameters of earlywood vessels, primarily in order to highlight the climate signal [10, 11, 16, 17]. However, the problem of their implication to indicate the vitality and condition of the oak is not solved. The vessels of stem earlywood provide the crown with an ascending sap flow. It was revealed a correspondence between the type of crown development and the number of vessel rows of the radial increment of stem earlywood (NR). This allows us to speak about the development type of the tree as a whole. For the trees with spreading crown type - 3 vessels rows of stem earlywood radial increment, for the umbrella-like crown type - 2 rows, and for the narrow-crowned type - 1 row is typical. Earlywood increment is approximately: more than 0.8 mm, 0.4–0.8 mm, less than 0.4 mm, respectively [13]. We consider the state of a tree as a set of parameters that ensure the stability of its functioning: the long-term state – usually for more than 10 years, the current state – for less than 10 years [5]. The purpose of the study was to examine the conjugacy of the dynamics of morphological and macroanatomical indicators of the long-term and current states of oak trees. The indicators used are nonspecific, which makes it possible to assess the complex impact of the factors, acting in urban conditions.

2 Materials and Methods 2.1 Material Data is collected in two contrasting forest types of Tellerman Experimental Forestry of RAS (Fig. 1). The forestry is located on the southern border of the forest-steppe zone (the east of the Voronezh region, the right bank of the Khoper River). The climate is temperate continental. The most unfavourable factors for oak are droughts and simultaneous activation of insects-phyllophagous. In the period 1949–1975, the average precipitation during the growing season was 203 mm. In the period 1976–2004, it increased to 282 mm [12]. Upland glague-sedge oak groves (51°20 53 N, 41°58 35 E) is of artificial origin, I site class, 80 years old. Floodplain lily-of-the-valley-blackberry oak groves (51°19 28 N, 41°58 23 E) is of natural origin, II site class, 120 years old. The average dynamics of the groups of 10 most developed trees were selected for each stand (from more than 70 trees in the floodplain oak forest and more than 100 trees in the upland oak forest). Thus, we have largely eliminated the competition factor. 2.2 Methods Morphological Indicators. The classification of oak trees by types of crown development is used. At low intensity of unfavorable factors, oak crown usually is spreading type; at average its intensity, after an dieback of large bottom branches, the type of crown becomes umbrella-like; further, after an dieback of all primary branches and replacement with its epicormic shoots, the crown becomes narrow type [4]. The type of tree

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Fig. 1. The location of research objects

development is closest to the term vitality in phytocenology. Crown types are stable and affect tree size, quality and survival. It is also quite close to the term Kraft social class, but in contrast it is suitable for assessing stand-alone trees. The stages of damage and restoration of the crown foliage were used: in particular, the stage of leafy shoots loss and one of new shoots development. The type of crown development and the stages of its damage were determined visually in the field for all trees on the on permanent sample plots in 1985–2017 periodically after 1–5 years. Macroanatomical Indicators. The stem cores were taken with Haglöf Sweden increment borers for hardwoods at a height of 1.3 m in 2013–2016. NR indicators were defined from the images of cores treated with a knife and scanned on Epson Perfection V37at 1200 dpi resolution (Fig. 2). The last row was taken into account if it was filled with vessels for more than 20% of its length. We studied only the mature wood increment, formed approximately, starting from the 35-year-old age of the tree [18]. The NR indicator is quantitative and fairly easy to calculate. It seems to be more objective for evaluating the type of development of the crown and tree as a whole than morphological indicators. NR Dynamics Cycles. The NR time series was approximated by a linear functions for upland (1) and floodplain oak (2) using Microsoft Exel. Xt = −0.01303 t + 28.91 R2 = 0.19

(1)

Xt = 0.01026 t − 17.49 R2 = 0.24

(2)

34

N. Kaplina

Fig. 2. The core images, the increments 1992–2002 (from left to right). Upland (above) and floodplain (below) oak trees

where t is the year. In addition, the NR time series was smoothed by 5- and 11-year moving averages using Eq. (3). Xt =

1 n−1 NRt− n−1 +i i=0 2 n

(3)

where t is the year, n is the smoothing interval. The 25–30-year cyclic component obtained by the subtraction of the linear trend of the 11-year moving average, the 10–12 year one – as the difference between 5- and 11-year moving averages, the 2–5-year one - as the difference of the time series NR and 5-year moving average.

3 Results and Discussion 3.1 Long-Term State The dynamics of NR (Fig. 3) is consistent with the data from long-term monitoring of oak crowns morphological indicators. In the 1980s and 1990s, NR in both oak forests averaged more than 3 rows and the development of tree crowns of the spreading type was stable. In the mid-1990s and early 2000s, NR declined to almost 2 rows. According to visual determination, only 32% of trees in the upland oak forest and 53% in the floodplain have preserved the spreading type [5]. According to the dynamics of NR and its trend, in the floodplain oak forest after the mass oak drying in 1970s, the crowns of surviving oaks improved their development. It is due to the high density of floodplain oaks before oak drying and increased sunlight in them after drying. The NR trend in upland oak that has not been affected by mass oak drying reflects the adverse effect of its density on crown development. In the years of the 25–35-year cycles minima (Fig. 4) in the late 1960s - early 1970s, and the late 1990s - early 2000s, there was a mass oak drying and its increased drying, respectively.

Morphological and Macroanatomical Indicators

35

Fig. 3. Time series of NR and their trends of the most developed trees in upland (a) and floodplain (b) groves

Fig. 4. 25–35-year NR cycle of the most developed trees in upland and floodplain groves

In floodplain oaks, mass drying began and ended several years earlier than in upland oaks. It is consistent with the shift of the minimum of the 25–35-year NR cycle of

36

N. Kaplina

these oak groves by about 7 years and the maximum by 9 years. In 1983, there was an improvement in the state of oak in the floodplain and its weakening in upland oak grove [19]. The studied upland stand did not suffer from oak drying, which was typical for oak trees younger than 50 years old. In 1986, a large number of epicormic shoots appeared in the oak forests, from which secondary crowns developed below the primary crowns in the floodplain oak forest [19]. Apparently, this contributed to an increase in the maximum NR in the floodplain oak forest and the elongation of the 25–35-year cycle. Radial increment of earlywood is closely related to NR [13, 17]. The results obtained indicate that the peculiarities of the dynamics of the long-term state of oak in both oak forests are reflected in the parameters of the 25–35-year HR cycle and the increment of earlywood. It is also clear that denser oak forests are at greater risk of weakening and drying during the minimums of 25–35-year cycles. 3.2 Current State The NR indicator is also sensitive to changes in the tree current state. Like increment of earlywood, it depends on stocks of non-structural carbohydrates of previous year. One 25–35-year NR cycle accounted for 4 cycles with a period of 8–12 years (Fig. 5). The registered stages of damage to oak leafy shoots in early 2000 s and in 2009–2010 and the stages of maximum leafy crown in 2007 [20] and 2017 correspond to the minimums and maximums of 8–12-year cycles, respectively.

Fig. 5. 8–12-year NR cycle of the most developed trees in upland and floodplain groves

The minimum of the 8–12-year NR cycle beginning of the 1970s (about −0.4) superimposed on the minimum of the 25–35-year cycle (about −0.3), which reduced NR by almost 1 row and corresponds to the transition tree in less developed type of the

Morphological and Macroanatomical Indicators

37

crown. The minimums of the 8–12-year cycles in the early 2000s and 2009–2010 (up to −0.5 and −0.3, respectively) coincided with the minimum of the 25–35-year cycle (about −0.2), which caused a smaller, though significant, deterioration of the oak. In the floodplain the minimum of the 8–12 year cycle in 1990 (about −0.3) was compensated by the maximum of the 25–35-year cycle (about +0.2) and did not have a negative impact. Up to 60–70 years of age in both oak forests, the amplitude of 8–12 year cycles and therefore the risk of oak weakening is significantly less than at an older age. Obviously, this is facilitated by the renewal of the upper part of the crowns with rapid growth of the oak in height. Thus, the risk of oak weakening and drying is highest during periods of overlapping minima of 25-35 - and 8-12-year cycles in trees older than 60 years. The periodic factor that most strongly affects the state of oak trees both in urbanized environments and on the southern border of their natural area is droughts. We consider it is possible to determine critical values of the parameters of 25–35and 8–12-year cycles of NR and earlywood increment, which allow us to assess the long-term and current state of oak in retrospective and perspective. It is also important to determine critical values of the parameters of oak stands. Cycles with a period of less than 8 years are characterized by a slightly larger amplitude (−0.7–0.7). They cause annual fluctuations, apparently without increasing the risk of oak weakening. The oak is adapted to short-term adverse factors due to the reserves of non-structural carbohydrates and buds [12]. Many authors point to the cyclical oak weakening and drying in the 20th century [21]. The dynamics of NR allows us to forecast the minimum of 8–12-year cyclical component in the period of 2020–2022 against the background of low values of the 25–35-year component. Then a more than 10-year-long period is likely to be favorable for oak growth and development.

4 Conclusions 1. The cyclic state of oak is obviously related to the periodicity of droughts that is typical for both urbanized and southern territories. The long-term state of the oak is characterized by a 25–35-year cycle, and the current state is characterized by an 8–12-year cycle. 2. The superposition of the minimums of 25–35- and 8–12-year cycles of the oak state significantly increases the risk of its weakening and drying. 3. In both types of oak groves, the cyclical state of the oak was similar, and its trends differed depending on the age and density dynamics of the stands. 4. The proposed approach allows us to give a retrospective and predictive assessment of the long-term and current state of the oak.

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References 1. Eichhorn, J., Roskams, P., Potocic, N., et al.: Part IV: visual assessment of crown condition and damaging agents. In: UNECE ICP Forests Programme Coordinating Centre (ed.) Manual on Methods and Criteria for Harmonized Sampling, Assessment, Monitoring and Analysis of the Effects of Air Pollution on Forests. Thünen Institute of Forest Ecosystems, Eberswalde, Germany, 49 p.+Annex (2016). http://www.icp-forests.org/pdf/manual/2016/ICP_Manual_ 2017_02_part04.pdf 2. Dobbertin, M., Neumann, M.: Part V: tree growth. In: UNECE ICP Forests, Programme Coordinating Centre (ed.) Manual on Methods and Criteria for Harmonized Sampling, Assessment, Monitoring and Analysis of the Effects of Air Pollution on Forests. Thünen Institute of Forest Ecosystems, Eberswalde, Germany, 17 p.+Annex (2016). https://www.icp-forests.org/pdf/ manual/2016/ICP_Manual_2016_01_part05.pdf 3. Dobbertin, M.: Tree growth as indicator of tree vitality and of tree reaction to environmental stress: a review. Eur. J. For. Sci. 124, 319–333 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-0050085-3 4. Kaplina, N.F., Selochnik, N.N.: Morphology of crowns and english oak state in the middleaged forest-steppe plantations. Lesovedenie 3, 32–42 (2009). (in Russian) 5. Kaplina, N.F., Selochnik, N.N.: Current and long-term state of the english oak in three contrasting forest types in southern forest-steppe. Lesovedenie 3, 191–201 (2015). (in Russian) 6. Selochnik, N.N., Kaplina, N.F.: Assessment of oak stands with regard to tree crown development in unfavorable conditions both anthropogenic (Moscow Region) and climatic (Forest-Steppe). Lesnoj vestnik 4(80), 103–108 (2011). (in Russian) 7. Dolezal, J., Mazurek, P., Klimesova, J.: Oak decline in southern Moravia: the association between climate change and early and late wood formation in oaks. Preslia 82(3), 289–306 (2010) 8. Nechita, C., Chiriloaei, F.: Interpreting the effect of regional climate fluctuations on Quercus Robur L. Trees under a temperate continental climate (southern Romania). Dendrobiology 79, 77–89 (2018). https://doi.org/10.12657/denbio.079.007 ˇ 9. Rybníˇcek, M., Cermák, P., Žid, T., et al.: Exploring growth variability and crown vitality of sessile oak (Quercus Petraea) in the Czech Republic. Geochronometria 42(1), 17–27 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1515/geochr-2015-0003 10. Fajvan, M.A., Gottschalk, K.W.: The effects of silvicultural thinning and Lymantria dispar L. Defoliation on wood volume growth of Quercus spp. Am. J. Plant Sci. 3, 276–282 (2012). https://doi.org/10.4236/ajps.2012.32033 11. Merlin, M., Perot, T., Perret, S., et al.: Effects of stand composition and tree size on resistance and resilience to drought in sessile oak and scots pine. Forest. Ecol. Manag. 339, 22–33 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2014.11.032 12. Rubtsov, V.V., Utkina, I.A.: Adaptive Reactions of Oaks to Defoliation. Institut lesovedeniya, Moscow (2008). (in Russian) 13. Kaplina, N.F.: Influence of crown development on radial increment of early and late stem wood of Quercus Robur. Vestnik of Volga State University of Technology. Ser.: Forest. Ecol. Nat. Manag. 1(41), 17–25 (2019). https://doi.org/10.25686/2306-2827.2019.2.17. (in Russian) 14. Douglass, A.E.: Solar records in tree growth. Science 65, 220–221 (1927). https://doi.org/10. 1126/science.65.1679.220 15. Matveev S., Milenin, A., Timashchuk, D.: The effects of limiting climate factors on the increment of native tree species (Pinus sylvestris L., Quercus robur L.) of the Voronezh Region. J. For. Sci. 64(10), 427–434 (2018). https://doi.org/10.17221/36/2018-jfs

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16. García-González, I., Eckstein, D.: Climatic signal of earlywood vessels of oak on a maritime site. Tree Physiol. 23(7), 497–504 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1093/treephys/23.7.497 17. González-González, B.D., Rozas, V., García-González, I.: Earlywood vessels of the subMediterranean oak Quercus pyrenaica have greater plasticity and sensitivity than those of the temperate Q. petraea at the Atlantic–Mediterranean boundary. Trees–Struct. Funct. 28(1), 237–252 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-013-0945-2 18. Heli´nska-Raczkowska, L.: Variation of vessel lumen diameter in radial direction as an indication of the juvenile wood growth in oak (Quercus petraea Liebl). Ann. For. Sci. 51, 283–290 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1051/forest:19940307 19. Selochnik, N.N.: The dynamics of phytopathologic situation in Tellerman forest (southern Forest-Steppe of Russia), 1983–1999. LesnoyVestnik 2, 54–59 (2003). (in Russian) 20. Kaplina, N.F., Zhirenko, N.G.: Dynamics of leaves phytomass, state and growth of limbs of trees of the mountain oak forest in the south-eastern Forest Steppe in unfavourable conditions of the last decade. Vestnik of Volga State University of Technology. Ser.: For. Ecol. Nat. Manag. 2, 3–11 (2012). (in Russian) 21. Tsaralunga, V.V.: Cyclicity of accelerated oak mortality. Lesnoy Vestnik 2, 31–35 (2002). (in Russian)

Carbon Dioxide Fluxes of an Urban Forest in Moscow Oliver Reitz1(B) , Alexey Yaroslavtsev2,3 , Joulia L. Meshalkina2,4 , Ivan Ivanovich Vasenev2 , Viacheslav Vasenev3 , Riccardo Valentini3,5 , and Michael Leuchner1 1 Geographisches Institut, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

[email protected]

2 Russian Timiryazev State Agrarian University, Moscow, Russia 3 Peoples’ Friendship, University of Russia, Moscow, Russia 4 Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia 5 University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy

Abstract. Mitigation of urban carbon dioxide (CO2 ) emissions is crucial to combat climate change. Although urban forests are expected to sequester atmospheric carbon, few studies have evaluated net CO2 fluxes of extensive urban vegetation. In order to assess the mitigation potential of an urban forest, we measured CO2 fluxes with an eddy covariance tower in the Timiryazevsky urban forest located in northern Moscow during the two vegetation periods 2014 and 2017 and analyzed them regarding diurnal and seasonal patterns. Results of the carbon budget indicate that the forest area was on average a CO2 source in every month, although in early summer it was consistently a sink during daytime and also at daily scale on few occasions. The warmer and drier vegetation period of 2014 was in general a stronger source than the cooler and wetter vegetation period 2017. The results expand the sparse evidence of urban forests’ CO2 fluxes, though the impact of anthropogenic source contributions to the measured fluxes cannot be completely excluded. In order to validate our findings, independent verification of net CO2 flux components, enhanced footprint calculations and observations spanning over larger periods of time should be the next step. Keywords: Eddy covariance technique · CO2 fluxes · Carbon sinks and sources · Urban vegetation

1 Introduction The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (2014) concluded that urban areas generate about 75% of global carbon emissions mainly from energy consumption [1] and the urban energy use is expected to increase rapidly in the next decades [2]. In addition, the urbanization of natural land further alters regional carbon cycles [3]. Moscow is among the top 20 urban clusters with the largest carbon footprint in the world [4] and it is hence of special interest to reduce the carbon footprint of the city. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 V. Vasenev et al. (Eds.): SSC 2020, SPRINGERGEOGR, pp. 40–50, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9_5

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Urban vegetation is able to mitigate urban greenhouse emissions directly by carbon sequestration and storage [5, 6]. This applies especially to urban forests with limited maintenance [7, 8]. Indirectly, urban forests can also mitigate the carbon footprint by reducing energy demands for cooling through increased shading and evapotranspiration [9]. However, urban forests can also emit CO2 to the atmosphere through respiration, decomposition of organic matter and maintenance related activities [10]. The mitigation of carbon emissions by urban forests is mainly assessed by biomass productivity estimates, whereas the measurement of net CO2 fluxes is rare, leading to the conclusion that additional scientific evidence is required to assess the net CO2 reduction potential of urban forests [11]. The eddy covariance (EC) technique has the advantage of directly measuring flux densities without disturbing the vegetation, representing an extended sample of the ecosystem and providing high resolution time series [12]. The EC-technique was already applied to measure fluxes of urban areas with vegetation, such as a suburban area with a multitude of trees in gardens and along streets [6], a campus site with scattered groups of trees [13], and a residential urban area with extensive vegetation [14]. Fluxes of extended urban forests, however, have been measured rarely, such as measurements in Nagoya, which indicate that urban forests are weaker sinks than comparable rural forests [15]. Hence, our aim is to expand the evidence of carbon fluxes of urban forests for a better assessment of their mitigation potential of urban CO2 emissions. Therefore, we measured CO2 fluxes with the EC-technique mounted on a tower above the Timiryazevsky urban forest located in northern Moscow during the two vegetation periods 2014 and 2017 and analyzed them regarding seasonal and diurnal courses.

2 Materials and Methods 2.1 Study Site and Eddy Covariance Measurements The Timiryazevskiy Park is an urban forest located in the north of Moscow at an elevation of 170 m a.s.l. (Fig. 1). It is a mixed forest whose main species are Quercus robur, Tilia cordata, Larix sibirica, Pinus silvestris, Betula pendula. Despite the fact that most of the forest is an autochthonous mixed forest, there are many experimental forestry sites distributed throughout the territory, where only one species is present - Larix sibirica, Betula pendula, Pinus silvestris. The undergrowth is mainly represented by young trees of Acer platanoides. The park is surrounded by residential areas to the east, south and west, and the campus of the Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy including agricultural test fields to the north. The forest is established since at least 300 years and is known as a recreational area for about 150 years. The soil cover consists of sod-podzolic soils. The humus horizon exhibits different degrees of development and has high humus content (more than 3%). It is further characterized by a well-developed profile of sod-podzolic soil with a thin litter cover. Measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2 ), water vapor (H2 O) and sensible heat fluxes were carried out with the EC-technique in the central part of the park (55° 49 04.075 N; 37° 33 22.684 E) during the 2014 and 2017 vegetation periods. 2015 and 2016 were not included in the analysis due to large gaps in the data. In 2014, measurements started on April 3rd and lasted till September 29th and in 2017, the measurement period

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lasted from March 4th to October 31st . However, ancillary meteorological data were missing between May 22nd and July 8th 2017. Thus, we used monthly temperature and precipitation data from the Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy (VDNH) weather station, about 4 km away from the tower, to describe the weather characteristics during the vegetation periods [16].

Fig. 1. Position of the eddy-covariance tower (red triangle) within Moscow (left) and within the urban forest and surroundings (right). Projection is WGS84 /UTM 37 N. Administrative boundaries source: GADM database 2018; Photography source: Esri (Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics, CNES/Airbus DS, USDA FSA, USGS, Aerogrid, IGN, IGP, and the GIS User Community).

Wind components and sonic temperature were measured with an omnidirectional sonic anemometer (Gill WindMaster, Gill Instruments Limited, Lymington, Hampshire, UK) with a north offset of 45°. CO2 and H2 O gas densities were measured with a closedpath unheated infrared gas analyzer (LI-7200, LI-COR Inc., Lincoln, NE, USA). These instruments were mounted on a tower at 35.5 m above ground and recorded data with a 20 Hz sampling rate. Ancillary radiation measurements at 30 min intervals were carried out with a net radiometer (NR01, Hukseflux, Delft, the Netherlands). 2.2 Processing of Eddy Covariance Data High resolution (20 Hz) eddy covariance measurements were used to compute 30-min fluxes with the software EddyPro [17]. At first, raw anemometer measurements were corrected for the w-boost bug of the Gill WindMaster leading to an underestimation of vertical wind speed [18]. Axis double rotation was applied for tilt correction. Time lags between raw anemometer and gas analyzer measurements were detected and compensated for with the covariance maximation with default method. Furthermore, raw data were screened using the statistical tests implemented after Vickerts and Mahrt [19]. Spectral corrections of calculated fluxes were carried out after Ibrom et al. [20] as this

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method is recommended for closed-path systems over rough canopies [21]. Lastly, density fluctuations were compensated for using the WPL-terms [22]. Additionally, the random uncertainty of fluxes was estimated after Finkelstein and Sims [23] and each flux was quality checked with the 0-1-2 flagging policy after Mauder and Foken [24]. Only fluxes with flag 0 (good quality) and flag 1 (moderate quality) have been considered for further analysis. The flux footprint was calculated after Kljun et al. [25] with an estimated static roughness length (z0 ) of 3.75 m and zero displacement height (d) of 16.75 m. Flux data was further selected to only include footprints where at least 70% of the flux contribution was within a certain distance along wind. Due to the tower position in the southeastern part of the park, this threshold was set variably by wind direction quadrant: 1300 m to the NW, 300 m to the NE, 100 m to the SE and 1000 m to the SW. In this way it was ensured to have only the urban forest within the estimated footprint in every wind direction. Lastly, the REddyProc software [26] was used to fill the resulting gaps from quality flag and footprint filtering.

3 Results The footprint analysis indicates that the majority of the fluxes had their source area from the urban forest alone (Fig. 2). Only to the southeast and to a lesser extent to the northeast a sizable fraction of the data was removed due to buildings and streets located within the estimated footprint. In 2014 and 2017, 83.0% and 74.0%, respectively, of the half-hourly data remained after quality flag filtering and 61.6% and 60.3%, respectively, after further footprint filtering. Hence, a little more than one third of the data was gap-filled for both years. These gap-filled data were labeled by REddyProc according to their reliability. 79% were classified as most reliable, 17% as medium reliable and 4% as least reliable.

Fig. 2. Modelled footprints after Kljun et al. [27] for 2014 (left) and 2017(right). Each red line represents 10% contribution to the flux. Ticks mark the distance to the tower in m. Photography source: Google imagery (2020).

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Table 1. Monthly averages of air temperature and precipitation measured at the VDNH weather station [16]. Deviations from the 1981–2010 long-term averages are displayed in brackets. Mar Temperature [°C] (Deviation)

Apr

2014 2.8 7 (+3.8) (+0.3)

May

Jun

Jul

16 (+2.8)

16.1 21.1 (−0.9) (+1.9)

Aug

Sep

19.2 12.3 (+2.2) (+1)

Oct 3.7 (−1.9)

2017 2.4 5.3 10.9 14.4 17.9 18.8 13 5 (+3.4) (−1.4) (−2.3) (−2.6) (−1.3) (+1.8) (+1.7) (−0.6) Precipitation [mm] 2014 18 22 (Deviation) (−17) (−15) 2017 57 (+22)

77 (+40)

70 (+21)

74 (−6)

4 (−81)

82 (0)

38 36 (−30) (−35)

83 (+34)

139 (+59)

103 (+18)

68 38 93 (−14) (−30) (+22)

Table 1 shows monthly averages of air temperature and precipitation measured at the VDNH station. April-September 2014 was about 1.2 °C warmer than the 1981– 2010 average with May, July and August standing out. On top of that, July was also exceptionally dry with only 4 mm of precipitation. In contrast to this, April-July 2017 was markedly colder and wetter than the long-term averages. So overall the vegetation period of 2014 was warmer and drier than in 2017.

Fig. 3. Daily averages of CO2 flux displayed points and as rolling means over 7 days (lines) for 2014 (red) and 2017 (blue). The horizontal line at zero marks the boundary between CO2 sources (above) and sinks (below).

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The average CO2 flux was 4.19 gC m−2 d−1 during the 2014 measurement period and 3.75 gC m−2 d−1 during the 2017 measurement period (3.14 gC m−2 d−1 for the same timeframe available for 2014). Thus, the footprint was a clear CO2 source in both years. Only individual days in June were a sink in 2014, whereas significantly more days from late May to early July where a sink in 2017 resulting in a short period around day of year 160 visible as a sink in the 7-day rolling means (Fig. 3). The relatively cool and wet vegetation period of 2017 was, except for a distinct spike in late July – early August, a weaker source than the rather warm and dry vegetation period of 2014. We also analyzed the mean daily course of CO2 fluxes by month for each year, as shown in Fig. 4. In both years a clear diurnal course can be observed from May to September where the footprint was a sink around noon and in the early afternoon, depending on the month. In both years, however, the most negative fluxes occurred in June. 2017 generally was a stronger sink during the day than 2014 while nighttime fluxes in summer, which can be attributed to respiration, were slightly higher than in 2014. This results in a generally higher daily amplitude in 2017 compared to 2014.

Fig. 4. CO2 fluxes aggregated by half-hourly intervals and by month for 2014 (red) and 2017 (blue) displayed as points and smoothed lines. The horizontal line at zero marks the boundary between CO2 sources (above) and sinks (below).

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CO2 fluxes aggregated by wind direction quadrant and month (Table 2) reveals that the footprint was a CO2 source in every month and wind direction except for June 2017 from the NE. Over the whole monitored season, southern directions were in general a consistently stronger source of CO2 (+25%) than northern directions for both years, although the SW sector was found a smaller source in several instances within the growing season (May–August) (Table 2). Table 2. CO2 fluxes in gC m−2 d−1 aggregated by month and wind direction quadrant for 2014 (left) and 2017 (right). Sinks are marked bold. 2014

NE

SE

SW

NW

2017

SE

SW

NW

Mar

NA

NA

NA

NA

Mar

NE 4.0

4.7

4.8

4.1

Apr

5.4

6.2

6.1

5.0

Apr

4.9

4.8

5.4

3.7

May

3.7

4.0

3.4

1.8

May

2.8

4.8

2.4

2.9

Jun

2.7

3.8

1.4

2.1

Jun

−1.1

2.7

2.9

0.8

Jul

2.8

2.9

3.8

3.2

Jul

1.9

3.9

1.8

3.2

Aug

3.7

5.9

5.5

3.6

Aug

3.4

4.7

2.8

3.5

Sep

5.8

8.2

5.2

5.3

Sep

3.4

4.4

4.9

4.5

Oct

NA

NA

NA

NA

Oct

4.6

5.9

6.6

7.1

4 Discussion 4.1 Is the Urban Forest a Carbon Source? The footprint being a clear carbon source is a remarkable result. In this section we want to discuss possible reasons behind this outcome. Anthropogenic sources of CO2 can be included in the fluxes from two different origins. Firstly, from inside the urban forest, such as campfires, barbecues. Furthermore, there are several buildings inside the footprint area which including a residential house and office, several workshops, a gas heated green house, a hangar for cars and forestry machinery and a lumber yard. Secondly, from outside the forest, mainly from the surrounding traffic on streets and gas ovens from buildings. Most buildings in the neighborhood have central heating from thermal power stations and gas ovens for cooking. Although we excluded fluxes that had a source area from outside the forest based on the estimated footprint, it is possible that this footprint is not adequately representing the true source area. We calculated the footprint based on static z0 and d height values. Though, actual values of z0 and d are likely to improve the footprint model and could be obtained via wind profile measurements [28]. In order to investigate the impact of emissions from traffic on the measured fluxes, we assumed that these emissions are lower on weekends than on workdays. Thus, we aggregated the CO2 fluxes by day of week to find out whether such a decrease is perceptible on Sundays. If that would be the case, it would be a strong indicator that the footprint includes areas outside the forest. As shown in Table 3, in 2014 there were only slightly lower values on Saturdays and Sundays. In 2017, a more distinct decrease is visible, especially for fluxes from the western wind directions. Hence, it is possible that the actual footprint includes traffic and that our modelled footprint may be too small, especially since the perceptible

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decrease on Sundays might be moderated due to increased emissions from park visitors on weekends. However, when the distance thresholds on footprints were drastically tightened (NE: 50 m, SE: 0 m; SW: 300 m, NW: 300 m), and thus large amounts of data excluded, fluxes were even more positive and the decrease on Sundays was still visible in 2017 (3.1 gC m−2 d−1 compared to a 4.1 gC m−2 d−1 average on workdays). So we assume that CO2 from traffic emissions might be vertically transported into the forest via localized wind systems and thus appears in the EC-measurements from within the forest. Table 3. CO2 fluxes in gC m−2 d−1 aggregated by day of the week and wind direction quadrants (Wind Dir). Year Wind Dir Mo Tu We Th Fr 2014 NE SE

Sa Su

3.4 3.1 5.4 3.3 3.6 4.7 3.7 5.6 7.4 5

5.8 4.9 4

5.5

SW

5

NW

3.1 3.2 3.4 2.4 3.9 5

5.1 4.8 6.2 4.8 2.1 3

All

4.3 4.5 4.6 4.0 4.3 4.0 3.7

2017 NE

2.7 3.8 3.1 2.8 4.7 2.3 2.5

SE

5.1 5.9 5.1 4.6 2.5 2.9 4.8

SW

4.3 4.6 5

4

4.4 3 3

3.5

2.7

NW

4.2 3.9 3.4 3.2 3

All

4.0 4.3 4.2 3.6 3.7 2.9 2.9

2.3

The forest can be regarded as mature with an average canopy height of about 25 m according to UAV based photogrammetry. Thus, it can be discussed if the forest is therefore, in the long term, not sequestering CO2 anymore and is carbon neutral [29]. Luyssaert et al. [30] indicated that temperate and boreal old-growth forest continue to be a carbon sink for centuries. However, it remains questionable whether this is applicable to urban forests which are highly disturbed and managed by humans. Likewise, it was discovered that mature forests are a carbon sink but secondary forests can be a carbon source due to soil emissions and increased decomposition [31]. In our case, it is expected that the forest is exposed to various exhaust gases from motor vehicle emissions and industry. Those are likely to stress the trees, e.g. injuries to the needle surface of Picea abies from exhaust gas from combustion resulting in accelerated senescence are proven [32]. Between 2014 and 2019, there were cut more than 80 dead or storm-damaged trees within the footprint, mainly Betula alba and Pinus sylvestris. 4.2 Limitations CO2 concentration profile measurements were not conducted and hence the storage flux provided by EddyPro is just an approximation assuming a linear profile and nullifying

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gradients at ground level, which probably are not met in many cases [20]. Therefore, storage terms were not summed to the turbulent CO2 fluxes in order to get Net Ecosystem Exchange values. This adds uncertainty to flux values presented here as magnitudes were likely undervalued, especially on calm nights. While this error can be high for individual half-hourly data, it is regarded minor for long-term averages [33]. The missing meteorological measurements in 2017 affected the quality of gap-filling during this period. Ideally, global radiation, vapor pressure deficit and air temperature should be provided for REddyProc. If missing, the Mean Diurnal Course method is used which shows only a medium performance [34]. During this period 23% of data had to be gap-filled (8% most reliable, 13% medium reliable and 2% least reliable), which further increased the uncertainty of presented averages. Lastly, carbon flux estimates of forest ecosystems are shown to vary among gap-filling methods and especially different years [35]. So the results from only two vegetation periods might differ from long-term observations especially with regard to the remarkably dry July 2014.

5 Conclusion We have expanded the sparse evidence of CO2 fluxes of urban forests by analyzing seasonal and daily courses of an urban forest in Moscow for two vegetation periods. Our results indicate that the urban forest was on average a CO2 source in both years and hence give reasons to discuss the potential of urban forests to mitigate urban CO2 emissions. However, some days in early summer were a sink on average, and the forest was also a sink around noon and in the early afternoon in both vegetation periods. The impact of anthropogenic sources contributing to the measured fluxes could not be determined. So in order to further validate our results, future work should include more years of data as well as wind and CO2 profile measurements for better assessment of footprints and storage fluxes respectively. Furthermore, the analysis could be enhanced by the combination of eddy covariance fluxes with Tree Talker data, comprising in particular tree radial growth, as well as chamber measurements of soil CO2 emissions. Acknowledgements. The research was supported by Russian Scientific Foundation Project # 17-77-200-46. We thank one anonymous reviewer for very helpful comments during the review process, which improved the manuscript substantially.

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Regulating Ecosystem Services in Russian Cities: Can Urban Green Infrastructure Cope with Air Pollution and Heat Islands? O. Illarionova(B) , O. Klimanova, and Yu. Kolbovsky Faculty of Geography, Department of World Physical Geography and Geoecology, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

Abstract. Urban green infrastructure (GI) performs a number of ecosystem services that can improve urban environment. Many studies are dedicated to regulating services (RS), heat mitigation and air pollutants removal in particular, since they directly effect the urban comfortability and human health. Most methods of RS assessment require time-consuming field works, usually not suited for multicity scale, but limited by smaller urban areas. We offer time-efficient methods to evaluate heat mitigating and air purifying services in 16 largest Russian cities, using available statistics, remote sensing data and results of similar works. For the assessment indicators we took 1) the percentage of removed pollutants by vegetation from total emissions from transport; 2) from point sources; 3) the percentage of urban area, influenced by the GI’s cooling effect. Our study revealed that the majority of cities do not have enough tree vegetation to absorb a significant part of all emissions, especially carbon oxide. At the same time, in many cases GI has a potential to cool more than 100% of urban area. However, the distribution of green elements is mostly uneven, leaving densely populated city centers not effected enough by cooling islands. The method we applied is still to be improved, as it does not consider meteorological and landscape differences for air purifying service, or all forms and sizes of GI to differentiate their cooling range. It enables, however, to get a general picture of the situation with RS volume in large cities of Russia, to define and locate the most problematic parts. Keywords: Urban green infrastructure · Regulating ecosystem services · Heat mitigation · Air pollutants removal · Urban climate regulation

1 Introduction The largest cities of Russia with population over one million people now concentrate more than 25% of total country’s population. The increasing density of central urban core and the sprawling outskirts decouple people from natural areas which are capable of mitigating cities’ negative effects on air, soil and water quality, erosion, biodiversity and local climate. The concept of effective green infrastructure aims to integrate well-maintained vegetated areas into the urban fabric to improve the urban environment, quality of life and health. Urban green infrastructure (GI) is a planned network of interconnected natural and semi-natural areas and features in cities which deliver a wide range of benefits to © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 V. Vasenev et al. (Eds.): SSC 2020, SPRINGERGEOGR, pp. 51–64, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9_6

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humans [9, 23]. These benefits the city-dwellers receive from functioning green elements are ecosystem services that, according to the common classification of The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, include provisioning, regulating, cultural and recreational services [34]. The provision of ecosystem services is defined not only by the quantity of green infrastructure, but by its quality and spatial structure. Moreover, the types and volume of ecosystems services depend on the elements’ genesis (natural, semi-natural or artificial), size, form and composition. Thus, relatively large areas of wetlands, natural and semi-natural forests and grasslands provide the widest variety of ecosystem services, from regulating water cycle and soil nutrients to providing leisure activities. Other elements, like small parks and vegetated playgrounds, perform more cultural and recreational services than any other. In contrast, abandoned pits and quarries make a significant input into supporting ecosystems, but barely provide any cultural services [5]. GI’s regulating services, particularly local climate moderation and air purification, are of utter importance in large cities with heat pollution and enormous emissions from both transport and point sources on the one hand, and vast sealed land with high solar radiation absorption and low convective cooling on the other. Even though the majority of the largest cities in Russia have more than 50% of green space from total area, central urban cores are rarely vegetated enough to completely avoid heat island impact [16]. Meanwhile, its effect on nearby areas can be reduced by vegetation’s evapotranspiration (by 0,5 °C–4,0 °C), trees’ shades and open to winds spaces, while the cooling range of green elements varies from 20 to 450 m, depending on its size, wind-flows and tree cover density [11]. Gaseous air pollutants are removed by plants’ leaf stomata and during the reactions after the emission of biogenic volatile organic compounds. Airborne particles are also deposited on vegetation, and can be later removed by rains or with leaf fall [4]. Some services suppress or improve the other ones. In this aspect, air cooling and purification functions of GI are strongly interconnected. By reducing the temperature, vegetation also curbs the photochemical reaction of surface ozone, hence it prevents the formation of smog [19, 31]. Despite the known benefits of regulating services, the interactions between both air quality and cooling effect, and GI are complex, since its efficiency is influenced by numerous area’s features like climate and meteorological conditions, landscape, urban fabric, vegetation type, etc. Moreover, the input of GI into air purification in general is controversial. Trees along roads and in street canyons, on the contrary, increase the concentration of hazardous gases in the surface layer [34]. However, numerous works, dedicated to the estimation of air pollutants removed by vegetation prove that there are positive results [1, 3, 14, 26, 28, 36]. Among the most common methods of assessing the volume of removed air pollutants is dry deposition modeling that requires local hourly air pollutant flux, meteorological characteristics and field data on species diversity and composition, Leaf Area Index (a value of the leaf area per area unit [10]), trees’ health and parameters [25]. The monitoring devices, used in this method, allow to evaluate carbon sequestration and heat mitigation services on a local level by collecting data on the sap-flow density, diameter growth, light transmission, temperatures under canopies, etc. [22].

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As to the urban heat island effect, GI’s positive contribution was studied in many works [7, 12, 24] with study areas in different climatic zones. To determine the GI’s influence and its scale, daily mean air temperatures are usually received from measurements at the ground level. However, this method is difficult to apply to a large area due to the lack weather station network. Thus, another common method bases on remote sensing data that allows to study a vast territory by calculating Leaf Area Index. The drawback, however, is that the results are much less accurate for capturing night-time temperatures, hence for calculating heat storage [33]. Cooling effect of green elements differs mainly because of the trees shape and size. Elements with wide dense canopies and high Leaf Area Index provide more shade and have significantly less radiation absorption at the ground level [13]. Large green spaces have higher evapotranspiration, thus forming stable “cooling islands” and influencing larger areas [2]. Spatial distribution of green area is another crucial parameter to consider when assessing the efficiency of GI heat mitigating service. Effective vegetated spaces should not only be present within the urban borders, but they must be incorporated into the densely built-up core - the main source of heat. GI impacts on air purification are more complex. The volume of absorbed or intercepted pollutants depend more on the configuration of the surrounding built-up area, the element GI’s location and weather conditions. However, it was noted that species with hairs and waxes catch more particulate matter than broadleaf ones. The duration of trees’ in-leaf season also determines the removal of pollutants [1]. Emissions from point sources are mostly captured by green belts around the industrial areas or by suburban forests, while pollutants from transport are deposited on individual trees and forest strips along the roads. In 12 out of 16 largest cities of Russia emissions from transport exceed the ones from point sources, meaning that street and highway trees probably capture more pollutants than plants in huge green massifs, which often concentrate the major part of urban vegetation. Most methods for assessing heat mitigation and air pollutant removal by GI needs detailed field data, thus meant mainly for local studies. [28], however, conducted research on Canadian cities, using i-Tree model to evaluate air purification by urban vegetation. The similar method cannot be applied for the urban or multi-urban level, though, due to the lack of data on meteorological conditions, daily pollutants flux, detailed species composition and trees parameters. Thus, in this work we made an attempt of evaluating these two regulating services for 16 largest cities of Russia, basing on the remote sensing data and existing results for other study areas.

2 Methods and Materials 2.1 Study Area In this work we studied the largest cities of Russia with population over one million people: Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg, Nizhniy Novgorod, Kazan, Chelyabinsk, Omsk, Samara, Rostov-on-Don, Ufa, Krasnoyarsk, Voronezh, Perm, Volgograd, Krasnodar. Nine out of sixteen cities are situated in the European part of the country, four in the Urals and three in Siberia. The most populated city is the capital

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– Moscow. According to the international indicators, it is also the only Russian “megacity”. Also, Moscow is among top-25 world cities with the highest GDP and GDP growth [8]. The second most populated city in Russia is Saint Petersburg. The highest rate of population increase is found in Voronezh and Krasnoyarsk, in contrast, the population decrease is particularly rapid in Nizhny Novgorod. Population growth is crucial to consider when studying ecosystem services of urban GI; it means a growing demand for GI on the one hand, and more land for residential and business area on the other. There are two ways to enlarge the city’s physical capacity. The first one is to create a compact city that has a dense multi-storey building type with usually little space left for GI inside the urban core. Another way is to allow an urban sprawl, when the suburban green belt is partially destroyed for new neighbourhoods, but on the positive side, more green area is preserved inside the city. We have determined, that nowadays it is the second way of urban enlargement that is more common for Russian cities. Most of them still preserve the remains of urban green network that was planned and created during the Soviet period [17]. The outskirts, however, do suffer the decrease in green area, especially it concerns the largest cities (Moscow, Saint Petersburg). Unlike other cities, where the change of total GI area during the 2000–2018 period did not exceed 2–3%, green area was diminished by 12% in Saint Petersburg. In our case, GI does not drastically change in structure, meaning that a range of ecosystem services also mostly remains the same for old green elements. However, a gain of tree cover in Voronezh and Samara (by 5–7%) can mean an increase in the volume of regulating services in 2018 in comparison to 2000, since trees perform more heat mitigation and air pollutants removal than other plants. Few cities exceed 1% decrease in tree cover (Ekaterinburg, Moscow, Perm). Overall, the supplied volume of studied regulating services should not have significantly transformed. Omsk, Chelyabinsk, Ufa and Krasnoyarsk are big industrial cities with significant emissions from point sources. These industrial centers especially need purifying ecosystem services, but unfortunately, they lack the efficient green elements most than other cities. The share of transport emissions varies from 34% in Krasnoyarsk to 94% in Moscow [30]. All of these cities are administrative centers of Russian federal subjects, with most of them being the main drivers of regional economic development. They undoubtedly demonstrate the best practice of urban planning in the country. However, they still face a lot of challenges and environmental problems, needing a number of measures to improve urban green infrastructure [16]. In this work we considered large green elements of mainly tree vegetation to consist of those tree species which are specific for the forest zones where the cities lie. Seven cities are situated in the small-leaf forest zone with dominating species of Bétula pendula and Pópulus trémula. Five others are in the mixed forest zone with same dominating species and coniferous trees like Pinus cembra and Pícea ábies. Krasnoyarsk lies in the Siberian dark coniferous forest zone with Lárix sibírica being the most common species. Perm also belongs to the zone of dark coniferous forest, but in the European part of Russia with Pícea ábies dominating. Finally, Voronezh lies in the broad-leaf forest zone with common species of Ácer platanoídes and Tília cordáta. In fact, Krasnodar, Rostov-onDon, Samara and Omsk are situated in a steppe zone with a relatively small area of tree

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vegetation, however, parks and woods along the rivers and other water bodies consist of species common for small-leaf and broad-leaf forests [18]. 2.2 Methods and Materials In the beginning, it was necessary to evaluate the total urban green area that can perform regulating ecosystem services. We used the remote sensing data to inventory the GI, particularly summer Landsat satellite images for 2018 with 30 × 30 m spatial resolution. They were processed in ArcMap 10.3 to get Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) raster for all cities. Since our study areas are situated in different natural zones and NDVI values of vegetation vary, in each case we used the values of nearby forests for reference. In result, we defined that values for tree vegetation in different zones and landscapes were ranging between 0,35 and 0,50. Considering, that tree vegetation is more efficient for heat mitigating and air purifying services, in this study we worked with this type of GI. To verify the tree cover class, defined from NDVI images, we turned to the ready tree cover rasters by M.C. Hansen from Maryland University web-site Global Forest Change. Our results generally corresponded with those rasters. To evaluate the volume of removed air pollutants from point sources, we needed to define sanitary buffers around the industrial areas. According to Russian sanitary standards and regulations (SanPiN 2.2.1/2.1.1.1200-03), there are four danger classes of industrial areas. Depending on the level of their impact on human health, each class requires a specific size of a surrounding buffer with at least 50% of its area vegetated. Class I includes extremely dangerous facilities and must have 1000 m buffers; class II consists of highly dangerous industrial zones and requires 500 m buffers; class III has moderately dangerous facilities with 300 m buffers; and class IV includes practically not dangerous industrial zones that need only 50–100 m buffers. Since we work with highly populated urban areas, we assume that these cities do not have any factories above class III. Thus, we build 300-m buffers around industrial areas to assess the volume of removed air pollutants from point sources. Vector data with industrial areas themselves was taken from OpenStreetMap. Since emissions from transport are diffused in the atmosphere more intensely and cannot be located to one place, we considered all urban tree vegetation, no matter the vicinity to highways, capable of absorbing and capturing gaseous pollutants and particulate matter. As mentioned above, it is extremely difficult and time-consuming to conduct full research on air pollutant removal by trees on the multi-city level, especially with the lack of required data on hourly pollutant flux and vegetation composition. Because of this, we based our study on Nowak’s [28] results on air pollutants removal by trees in Canadian cities, which are situated in similar forest zones with similar dominant species. At the first stage, we classified all Canadian cities from [28] by five forest zones they belong to: dark coniferous, light coniferous, broadleaf, small-leaf and mixed. Then we chose the most populated cities. The second step was to calculate mean values of air pollutants removal (t/ha/year) by urban tree vegetation in each zone. In result, we got mean values of removed volume of four main air pollutants (carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides) for different forest zones (Table 1). Our indicator of the GI’s efficiency in air purifying service was the ratio between the emissions and the absorbed volume of air pollutants – the percentage of pollutants removed by vegetation from total emissions. The removed volume was calculated by

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multiplying the area of tree vegetation by the mean value of annual pollutants’ absorption by a corresponding forest type. GI in one city is considered to have one forest type. Data on the total annual volume of emissions from transport and point sources was received from Federal State Statistics Service. Table 1. Average values of air pollutants removed by different forest types, according to Nowak’s [28] research SO2 , t/ha/yr

NOx , t/ha/yr

CO + SO2 + NOx , t/ha/yr

Total, t/ha/yr

0,0002

0,0022

0,0072

0,0096

0,0124

0,0002

0,0025

0,0078

0,0105

0,019

0,0006

0,0033

0,0081

0,012

0,0171

Forest zone

CO, t/ha/yr

Dark coniferous Light coniferous Broad-leaf Mixed

0,0004

0,001

0,0055

0,0069

0,0136

Small-leaf

0,0002

0,0007

0,0047

0,0056

0,0144

According to [21, 37, 38], large elements of urban GI in the temperate climate zone can mitigate urban heat island effect in a range more than 500 m. Parks, bigger than 500 ha, can cool the surrounding area in a 1500 m buffer. Thus, to evaluate the heat mitigating service, we calculated a cool island influence coefficient that shows in how many times the cooled area is larger than the GI’s element itself: Kci = (S1 + S2, )/S1

(1)

where Kci is a cool island effect coefficient; S2 – cooled zone, S1 – the element’s area (500 ha). We assumed, that the area of an average effected zone for elements larger than 500 ha is 1500 m. Then, the cool island influence coefficient is 3,8. First, to assess the performed service’s volume, we defined all GI elements with area more than 500 ha. Next, the elements’ areas were multiplied by 3,8 to get the size of the effected zones. Finally, we calculated the percentage of cooled zones from the total urban area. This method is not as accurate as the ones, carried out by using thermal maps or direct temperature measurements. It does, however, show the general level of GI efficiency in heat mitigation and the most problematic areas. It is also a vivid example of how the volume of regulating services depends on the parameters of GI elements (size, in this case): the city can have a lot of parks, but they are of little use to climate regulation unless they are large enough.

3 Results 3.1 Removal of Air Pollutants from Transport Most studied cities have exceeding transport emissions with carbon oxide being the major pollutant. Its annual emission volume ranges from 50 000 t (in Krasnodar, Volgograd

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and Krasnoyarsk) to 750 000 t (in Moscow). Though in most cases there is a correlation between the percentage of transport emissions from total emissions and the volume of CO, the main factor of CO quantity is still the total number of car. For instance, 89% of emissions are from transport in Voronezh and Ekaterinburg, but emissions of CO in the latter are three times the emissions in the former. Nitrogen oxides are not released in volumes as large as CO. The biggest releasers of NOx are Kazan, Saint Petersburg (>35 000 t/yr) and Moscow (79 000 t/yr). The emissions of SO2 are the smallest, the released volume usually does not exceed 300 t/yr, except the largest cities – Moscow and Saint Petersburg (>2 000 t/yr). Having the largest number of vehicles, they also have the largest volume of total annual emissions (825 000 and 400 000 t/yr). In our study, the volume of removed pollutants for the most part depend on the quantity of GI and its type. Broad-leaf species absorb more NOx and SO2 than others. Voronezh does not only have relatively small emissions, but the is also situated in the broad-leaf forest zone and has about 60% of GI from total urban area (with 70% of it being tree vegetation), hence Voronezh shows the best results in NOx (3,2%) and SO2 (23%) removal. Krasnodar also has broad-leaf forests, however, being situated in the steppe zone, only 38% of total urban area is occupied by tree vegetation. Thus, even having relatively low emissions, Krasnodar’s GI removes a small amount of pollutants. The removed volume is directly connected to the area of tree cover in the city, hence the best results are found in Moscow (913 t/yr), Perm (502 t/yr) and Voronezh (335 t/yr). Cities of the steppe zone with little area of tree vegetation like Chelyabinsk (31 t/yr), Rostov-on-Don (64 t/yr) and Omsk (58 t/yr) demonstrate the lowest values of removed pollutants. The research revealed that in all 16 cities the values of ratio between removed pollutants and total emissions is extremely small, meaning that now urban trees can absorb only 1% of all emissions from transport. The leaders are Perm and Voronezh (with about 0,5% of pollutants from transport being absorbed). Both cities belong to the forest zone, they also have the largest share of GI from urban area and a significant area of tree cover, while their emissions are close to mean. Results for the removal of Sulphur dioxide are the most positive ones, with mean values of 3% and maximum values of 23%. The worst situation is with carbon oxide, due to the surplus emissions and low CO absorption capacity by vegetation. In most cases, the ratio values are below 0,01%. 3.2 Removal of Air Pollutants from Point Sources The intensity of emissions from point sources diffusion, the range of their influence and the distance of their descent to the ground air-layer depend not only on meteorological conditions, but also on the pipes’ height, other technological traits and factories’ location. Due to the lack of information on emissions from each industrial zone, we considered GI inside the 300-m sanitary buffer capable of removing air pollutants. Moreover, we can also assume that urban factories of low danger-class have low pipes, meaning that pollutants are not transported to large distances and are concentrated in the factories’ vicinity. Thus, green buffers can mitigate the air polluting effect of industrial areas. The results for the absorbed volumes vary between 6 t/yr (Chelyabinsk, Omsk) and 104 t/yr (Moscow). The values directly depend on the percentage of GI area from the buffers area. Unfortunately, even though it is recommended by SanPiN that industrial

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sanitary buffers should be vegetated by at least 50%, not a single city has reached this mark. Some industrial areas at the green outskirts follow these regulations, but the majority does not. Perm has the highest share of GI inside the buffers (30%), thus it is also among the leaders of absorbed pollutants’ volume (31 t/yr). Most cities have sanitary buffers, which are vegetated only by 10%, so mean values of removed pollutants usually do not exceed 20 t/yr. High results in Moscow are explained by a generally big number of industrial sites, but the percentage of GI area from buffers’ area is also remarkably high (27%). The least vegetated sanitary zones are found in the steppe zones in Chelyabinsk (7%) and Volgograd (9%), with Krasnodar having the “greenest” industrial areas among these non-forest cities (15%). The results for the ratio between the emissions and the absorbed volume was even worse for the point sources than for the transport, due to the significantly smaller areas of GI, responsible for the service. The mean value for this indicator is 0,08% with the best results of 0,3% and 0,2% found in Voronezh and Rostov-on-Don. If the former is a city with a generally large area of GI and tree vegetation in particularly, the latter shows quite a positive result, considering its location in the steppe and a low level of urban GI. Though, Rostov-on-Don has one of the smallest amount of emissions (12 000 t/yr), thus explaining a relatively high volume of air pollutants removed there. Chelyabinsk, Omsk and Krasnodar illustrate the worst results. The first two do not only have little green area inside the buffers, but they are also among the most industrial cities in Russia, annually emitting about 140 000 t and 170 000 t of air pollutants. In general, the greenness of sanitary buffers correlates with the total area of GI in the city. Also, the percentage of green area from industrial buffers’ area is smaller than the share of GI area from the urban area. Since the results depend on the volume of emissions as well, the major volumes of removed pollutants are found in agricultural cities. Similar to the pollutants with transport, SO2 is absorbed better than NOx and CO. Emissions of carbon oxide are again much greater than of Sulphur dioxide or nitrogen oxides. However, the absolute values of removed NOx are about 5 times larger than of SO2 . 3.3 Heat Mitigation According to our indicator, the heat mitigation service is performed in a sufficient volume if at least 100% of urban area is influenced by the cooling effect of GI. Out of 16 cities, 6 do not have enough GI’s potential for an optimal climatic effect. Volgograd (65%), Omsk (68%), Chelyabinsk (46%), Krasnodar (23%) and Samara (90%) are among them. Being southern cities in semi-arid zone with the highest average summer temperatures, they need this regulating service most of all. Since natural tree-vegetation is scarce in the steppe-zone, more heat-tolerant or native vegetation should be planted, especially in central parts. In this aspect, Rostov-on-Don (122%) and Voronezh (176%) have a much better climate regulation. Densely built-up Saint Petersburg also has only 63% of its area cooled by GI, however there is a lot of “blue” infrastructure (rivers, channels and other water bodies) that cause a significant influence on the urban microclimate. Cities from forest zone (Moscow, Nizhniy Novgorod, Perm) with a high share of tree vegetation have the cooled area two times larger the urban area itself. However,

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these high results do not guarantee an ideal level of GI’s development that is enough to fully mitigate the urban heat island effect. An efficient performance of this service first and foremost depends on the location of green elements, which should be situated within the densely populated urban center and not only at the outskirts. This is the builtup core of the heat island that concentrates the major share of city-dwellers, especially exposed to the heat risk. Our research allows to assess the spatial configuration of GI. The results reveal that central districts have the smallest share of green area, while it is the outskirts that have more than 60% of total urban GI [15]. Moreover, administrative borders in cities like Perm and Moscow include large practically unpopulated forest areas which are not incorporated into the urban core and influence only its outer parts. Among the well-provided cities with more than 100% of area cooled, Ekaterinburg and Nizhniy Novgorod have the smallest difference in green area between the center and the outskirts. This uneven distribution of vegetation can become the main problem for urban adaptation to climate change in all largest cities of Russia. All the results of the GI’s ecosystem services in the larges Russian cities are presented in Table 2.

4 Discussion Many other works, devoted to assessing urban GI’s contribution in the air purification, marked a low percentage of removed pollutants from total emissions. For instance, Selmi [32] revealed, that green area in Strasbourg (France) removes only 0,5% of NO2 , 0,03% of CO and 0,5% of SO2 . Nowak [27] also found out that the average percent air quality improvement due to GI is less than 1% in the majority of large US cities. At the same time, another study of Pugh [29] shows that air at the ground-level in street canyons along the roads in London is efficiently improved by trees (up to 16% reduction of NO2 ), proving that there are significant differences in air pollutants removal between locations. Lin [20] evaluated GI’s heat mitigation on the urban level in Sydney (Australia) by using hyperspectral and thermal data. The method of this work was based on the comparing average temperatures different land use surface, adjacent to green elements, thus revealing positive cooling effects by both public and private green space. Zardo [39] evaluated the GI’s cooling capacity at city scale of Amsterdam by calculating evapotranspiration of all green elements according to their tree canopy and soil coverage. Park cooling effect at urban level was also addressed by Cao [6]. This research focused on the correlation between GI’s form/size and its cooling intensity by using satellite data on land surface temperatures in Nagoya (Japan), taking a 500-m buffer for the influenced zone. The current state of GI in Russian cities is not efficient enough to absorb a significant volume of CO and NOx. However, even if we suppose that cities with the worst results have twice the green area, the percentage of removed air pollutants will still be extremely low. Hence, it is not only the problem of GI’s condition, but a volume of emissions within the city, and vegetation cannot cope with it. Considering, that city is a densely populated area by definition, it is not supposed to be vegetated by 100%. But GI should be able to neutralize at least some negative effects of urban life. It is possible

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O. Illarionova et al. Table 2. Regulating ecosystem services in the largest cities of Russia

City

Share of tree GI from the total urban area, %

Volume of point emissions, ths. tones/yr

Volume of vehicle emissions, ths. tones/yr.

Share of point emissions, removed by trees, %

Share of vehicle emissions, removed by trees, %

Share of urban area under the GI’s cooling effect, %

Volgograd

15

23

57

0,03

0,14

64

Voronezh

42

11

76

0,34

0,44

175

Ekaterinburg

38

24

174

0,07

0,06

143

Kazan

27

32

286

0,08

0,04

106

Krasnoyarsk

31

129

62

0,001

0,21

23

Moscow

47

63

826

0,02

0,11

126

Nizhniy Novgorod

43

32

86

0,17

0,17

206

Novosibirsk

37

85

109

0,06

0,10

257

Omsk

18

171

78

0,03

0,08

153

Perm

61

39

98

0,00

0,51

68

Rostov-on-Don

29

12

69

0,08

0,09

235

Samara

43

29

94

0,18

0,08

122

Saint-Petersburg 32

73

401

0,09

0,04

91

Ufa

47

141

73

0,07

0,26

61

Chelyabinsk

12

140

79

0,01

0,04

194

Krasnodar

43

12

59

0,0014

0,0026

23

to improve its efficiency by distributing green elements evenly over the urban fabric and by enhancing the green area in those districts that keenly need them. Most cities are situated on large rivers and generally have many water bodies that can not only provide the regulating services themselves, but also form natural green elements along their banks. The latter is especially urgent for cities of the steppe zone with little vegetation. Keeping and preserving riparian GI means having a natural source of heat mitigating and air purifying services in the arid zone, where planting parks and trees is water-consuming and expensive. Among the studied objects we can mark GI of Voronezh as the most efficient one. Even though the city is situated in a transitional zone between steppes and forests, there is still enough vegetation to mitigate heat. The pollutants’ removal is still quite low in Voronezh, but these results are better than in most other cities. The study lacks detailed descriptions, spatial localization and accurate values of absorbed pollutants. To receive this kind of data for a city-scale, it is crucial to create an open base with information on emissions and trees’ allometry like i-Tree that provides

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database for a number of countries, but not Russia. It requires more small-scale research on elements of GI in different cities and a unifying system. The evaluation of removed air pollutants from transport also needs field measurements for getting an accurate idea about gases concentration under canopies, along the open roads, etc. We believe, however, that our methods of assessing GI regulating services can be used for generalizing field data (a necessary step from a local level to an urban one) and supplementing it with remote sensing data. Moreover, these results give a general picture of the required and the supplied volume of regulating services. It allows to draw conclusions on the main problems the GI of large Russian cities face and the level of its efficiency in air purification and heat mitigation. The assessment of climate regulation can be improved by studying the temperature differences of effected zones and the intensity of the urban heat island. This knowledge will enable to define the cooled area more precisely and to consider the different effect of GI elements of different size, form and composition. It will also determine the hottest sites that require cool island effect more than others. Another way to broaden the assessment is to evaluate the cooling effect particularly on the residential area and households. In this case, the required volume of regulating service is not the total urban area that should be influenced, but the area of the residential zone where average daily temperatures are abnormally high. The supplied volume then is the residential area that is cooled.

5 Conclusion In this study, we used a combination of different data sources to assess the volume of air purifying and heat mitigation services by urban GI in 16 most populated cities in Russia. The first contribution is a relatively quick method to evaluate air pollutants removal by tree vegetation at the urban level, basing on the i-Tree works (Nowak, 2018) for other regions with similar natural conditions. To make our results more accurate, we considered the population, climate zone and main forest type of cities the i-Tree assessment was conducted for. We also offer a way to evaluate the volume of removed air pollutants by point sources without an access to open pollutant flux data from individual factories by using average sanitary buffers around industrial zones and calculating the green area inside of them. In this method we used the required and supplied volumes of regulating ecosystem services to calculate the ratio between the two. This ratio is our main assessment indicator that demonstrates the percentage of removed pollutants from the total emissions. The research revealed that, considering the current volume of emissions from both sources, urban GI cannot cope with air pollution and is capable of removing only a small part. We also determined that tree vegetation can absorb sulphur dioxide better than other main pollutants. Our second contribution is a time-efficient method to assess the level of climate regulation in urban areas by GI. We introduced our heat mitigation indicator that demonstrates the percentage of total city’s area under the GI’s cooling effect. It allows to localize the problematic zones that lack the necessary cooling effect and also shows the general scale of this service influence in the city. That way we discovered that most cities have enough GI to cool the area twice its size. However, the major part of GI is concentrated at the outskirts, while there is a deficit of green areas in densely populated and built-up centers that require heat mitigation service the most.

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Thus, even though most cities have a large share of GI from their total area, the volume and the efficiency of the performed regulating services are not satisfactory in many cases. Urban GI needs a right spatial structure that can ensure the optimal green elements’ location for air pollutants interception and even cooling effect distribution.

References 1. Abhijith, K.V., et al.: Air pollution abatement performances of green infrastructure in open road and built-up street canyon environments–A review. Atmos. Environ. 162, 71–86 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2017.05.014 2. Aram, F., et al.: Urban green space cooling effect in cities. Heliyon 5(4), 13–39 (2019). https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e01339 3. Baró, F., et al.: Contribution of ecosystem services to air quality and climate change mitigation policies: the case of urban forests in Barcelona. Spain. Ambio 43(4), 466–479 (2014). https:// doi.org/10.1007/s13280-014-0507-x 4. Bottalico, F., et al.: Air pollution removal by green infrastructures and urban forests in the city of Florence. Agric. Agric. Sci. Procedia 8, 243–251 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aas pro.2016.02.099 5. Breuste, J., et al.: Scaling down the ecosystem services at local level for urban parks of three megacities. Hercynia 46, 1–20 (2013) 6. Cao, X., et al.: Quantifying the cool island intensity of urban parks using ASTER and IKONOS data. Lands. Urban Plan. 96(4), 224–231 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2010. 03.008 7. Coronel, A.S., et al.: Effects of urban green areas on air temperature in a medium-sized Argentinian city. AIMS Environ. Sci. 2(3), 803–826 (2015). https://doi.org/10.3934/enviro nsci.2015.3.803 8. Dobbs, R.: Urban World: Mapping the Economic Power of Cities. McKinsley Global Institute, New York (2011) 9. European Commission. Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, The Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Green Infrastructure (GI)–Enhancing Europe’s Natural Capital. European Commission, Brussels (2013) 10. Fang, H., Liang, S.: Leaf area index models. encyclopedia of ecology: 2139–2148 (2008) 11. Gunawardena, K.R., et al.: Utilising green and bluespace to mitigate urban heat island intensity. Sci. Total Environ. 584, 1040–1055 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017. 01.158 12. Herath, P.: Evaluation of green infrastructure effects on tropical Sri Lankan urban context as an urban heat island adaptation strategy. Urban Forest. Urban Green. 29, 212–222. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2017.11.013 13. Jamei, E., et al.: Review on the impact of urban geometry and pedestrian level greening on outdoor thermal comfort. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 54, 1002–1017 (2016). https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.rser.2015.10.104 14. Jayasooriya, V.M., et al.: Green infrastructure practices for improvement of urban air quality. Urban Forest. Urban Green. 21, 34–47 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2016.11.007 15. Illarionova, O.: Green infrastructure as an instrument for climate adaptation: case study of Moscow. In: Materials for Lomonosov-2018 Conference, Moscow (2018) 16. Klimanova, O., Illarionova, O.: Green infrastructure indicators for urban planning: applying the integrated approach for Russian largest cities. Geogr. Environ. Sustain. 13(1), 251–259 (2020). https://doi.org/10.24057/2071-9388-2019-123

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17. Klimanova, et al.: The ecological framework of Russian major cities: spatial structure, territorial planning and main problems of development. Vestnik Saint Petersburg Univ. Earth Sci. 63(2), 127–146 (2018) 18. Klochko, A.A.: National Atlas of Russia, Volume 2: Nature and Environment. GOSGISCENTER, Moscow (2004) 19. Kumar, P., et al.: The nexus between air pollution, green infrastructure and human health. Environ. Int. 133(A), 1051–1081 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2019.105181 20. Lin, B., et al.: Urban green infrastructure impacts on climate regulation services in Sydney, Australia. Sustainability 8, 788 (2016). https://doi.org/10.3390/su8080788 21. Marsh, W.M.: Landscape Planning Environmental Applications. Wiley, New York (2010) 22. Matasov, V., et al.: IoT monitoring of urban tree ecosystem services: possibilities and challenges. Forests 11(7) (2020). https://doi.org/10.3390/f11070775 23. Naumann, S., et al.: Design Implementation and Cost Elements of Green Infrastructure Projects. European Commission, Brussels (2011) 24. Norton, B., et al.: Planning for cooler cities: a framework to prioritise green infrastructure to mitigate high temperatures in urban landscapes. Lands. Urban Plan. 134, 127–138 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2014.10.018 25. Nowak, D.J., et al.: The urban forest effects (UFORE) model: field data collection manual. USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station (2005) 26. Nowak, D.J., et al.: Air pollution removal by urban trees and shrubs in the United States. Urban For. Urban Green. 4, 115–123 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2006.01.007 27. Nowak, D.J., et al.: Tree and forest effects on air quality and human health in the United States. Environ. Poll. 193, 119–129 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2014.05.028 28. Nowak, D.J., et al.: Air pollution removal by urban forests in Canada and its effect on air quality and human health. Urban Forest. Urban Green. 29, 40–48 (2018). https://doi.org/10. 1016/j.ufug.2017.10.019 29. Pugh, T., et al.: Effectiveness of green infrastructure for improvement of air quality in urban street canyons. Environ. Sci. Technol. 14, 7692–7699 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1021/es3 00826w 30. Russian Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat). Environment. www.gks.ru/wps/wcm/con nect/rosstat_main/rosstat/ru/statistics/environment/ 31. Sandstro, U.G.: Green infrastructure planning in urban Sweden. Plan. Pract. Res. 17(4), 373–385 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1080/02697450216356 32. Selmi, C., et al.: Air pollution removal by trees in public green spaces in Strasbourg city. France. Urban For. Urban Green 17, 192–201 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2016. 04.010 33. Sheng, L., et al.: Comparison of the urban heat island intensity quantified by using air temperature and landsat land surface temperature in Hangzhou. China. Ecol. Indic. 72, 738–746 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2016.09.009 34. Tallis, M.J., et al.: The impacts of green infrastructure on air quality and temperature. Handbook on Green Infrastructure. Edward Elgar Publishing, Camberley (2015) 35. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB). Ecosystem Services of Russia. Prototype National Report. Russia, Volume 1: Terrestrial Ecosystems Services. BCC Press, Moscow (2018) 36. Tiwari, A., et al.: Considerations for evaluating green infrastructure impacts in microscale and macroscale air pollution dispersion models. Sci. Total Environ. 642, 410–426 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.03.350 37. Tyrväinen, L., et al.: Benefits and Uses of Urban Forests and Trees, pp. 81–114. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)

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Effects of Small Water Bodies on the Urban Heat Island and Their Interaction with Urban Green Spaces in a Medium-Size City in Germany Gunnar Ketzler(B) , Sophie Goertz, and Michael Leuchner Geographisches Institut, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany [email protected]

Abstract. We analyze urban temperature data from mobile measurements on a late summer day in combination with land use data to identify climate effects of urban water bodies in the German city of Münster. Direct effects on urban air temperature are heterogeneous and – in the evening – rather warming than cooling, while effects of urban green spaces are clearly cooling in the afternoon and evening. Depending on the distance to the next water body, cooling effects of urban green spaces are clearly intensifying, which can be interpreted as a result of better water supply of urban green. Keywords: Urban climatology · Urban water bodies · Urban green · Climate adaptation · Münster

1 Introduction Urban climate effects had been well known when the IPCC Climate Change Synthesis Report 2007 [1] clearly expressed that under climate change conditions the frequency of warm spells and heat waves will very likely increase over most land areas: the major impacts for industry, settlement and society will result in “reduction in quality of life for people living in warm areas without appropriate housing; impacts on the elderly, very young and poor”. In the recent years, extensive research was carried out to identify possible climate adaptation strategies for cities; an overview over present knowledge and strategies can be found in Oke et al. [2]. Among these strategies, two are the use of urban green and water bodies for urban cooling. Irrespective of the question how such cooling effects can be improved by measures of urban planning, here, cooling effects of existing water bodies are analyzed and especially interdependencies with effects of urban green spaces. Some of the typical urban land use types, like built-up or sealed areas - often summarized under the term ‘urban grey’ – and urban green spaces are present in all or nearly all cities. However, this is not the case with urban water bodies. Urban - or in a similar way: peri-urban, i.e. situated outside, but affecting a city - water bodies can have a wide range of appearance: they can be quite formative like in coastal towns or virtually absent in in-land cities with effective technical drainage. This is resulted only in a few systematic © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 V. Vasenev et al. (Eds.): SSC 2020, SPRINGERGEOGR, pp. 65–76, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9_7

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studies found in the literature, related to the effects of water bodies on urban climate. Water also shows special physical characteristics like its great heat capacity and its special vertical energy transport mechanisms in connection with forming of layers based on temperature, which differ completely from characteristics of solid land surfaces. Thus, water bodies are defined as a separate local climate zone (LCZ) according to the general assignment of climatologically relevant urban and landscape classes of Stewart et al. [3]. In publications of the last decade, different approaches are used to determine and evaluate urban cooling effects related to water. For example, Goldbach et al. [4] analyzed data from turbulent flux measurements at certain locations within the city and one result was that the Bowen ratio, indicating the relation between sensible and latent heat flux, increased clearly after the last rain event. Such results clearly show the importance of water disposability for evapotranspiration and – indirectly – cooling effects of urban green (and also form the ‘missing link’ between data for state variables measured with classical weather stations and fully understanding the urban energy balance). On the other hand, there are investigations using remote sensing data (i.e. Sun et al. [5]) that examined relationships between the land surface temperature from remote sensing data and water body descriptors like area, geometry, distance to city center and surrounding built-up density and found among others average cooling effects proportional to water body area. Yang et al. [6] analyzed the effects of water bodies on land surface temperature on the basis of regression analysis instead of average values and the result was in a similar way that the quantity and spatial pattern of urban water body affect cooling intensity. In an inverse perspective, warming effects of the urban heat island on a lake were found by Cosgrove et al. [7], revealing that a city (Chicago metropolitan area) can have heating effects over a large lake (Lake Michigan) even in 70 km distance. Further, modelling experiments were conducted, to e.g. determine the amount of water required to cool down a subtropical city [8]. No direct relationships were found, but in dryer surroundings the cooling effect proved to be more distinct. In a study, O’Malley et al. [9] discussed the effects of the main climate adaptation strategies and – amongst others - also urban green and water bodies on urban temperature on the basis of modelling results; they rated the temperature reduction by water bodies lower than of urban green but higher than the effect of high albedo materials. In a meta-analysis on the base of different studies, Gunawardena et al. [10] highlighted the role of the diurnal cycle as there is not only daytime cooling but also a nocturnal warming effect from water bodies, which may be a secondary effect for the intention of urban cooling. Wu et al. [11] analyzed thermal remote sensing data and found out that existing cooling effects of a water body changed the correlation between temperature and land cover, e.g. green space, in a certain distance from the water body. Thus, there are several studies on cooling effects of water bodies (and green spaces) in cities but the outcomes for one of the relevant questions in this context, namely if there is a cooling effect on ground level air temperature, which is the most important temperature measure especially for purposes of bioclimatology, are sparse. Especially, there is a lack of studies based on a broad data basis and analyzing the interaction of water and green spaces as well. The present study intends to improve knowledge on

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these effects and interactions using an extensive ground level air temperature data set from an urban area with different water bodies. Motivation, Methods and Study Area In the context of investigations for the Climate Adaptation Plan of the City of Münster, Germany [12], the special situation and climate effects of Lake Aasee (0.4 km2 ) near the city center was subject to a small analysis within these investigations on options for combined lake and urban climate management which finally initiated the present study. Temperature effects of a lake on urban surroundings largely depend on the great heat capacity of water in relation to air, leading to nearly no daily course of lake water temperature compared to urban air temperature. Here, an oscillation of air temperature around water temperature was found (according to [11]) and, depending on the weather, a day-by-day shift of start and end of cooling effects (Fig. 1; [12]). Thus, a cooling effect for this lake has been shown to be possible: on warm days with an air temperature maximum Tmax ≥ 30 °C, water temperature was lower than urban air temperature in all 6 cases until 20:00 h CEST, in 5 of 6 cases until 22:00 h CEST and in 3 of 6 cases until 00:00 h CEST or longer [12]. Other temperature effects of water (and urban green) were not previously analyzed in these studies.

Fig. 1. Urban air and Lake Aasee temperature during a summer period in Münster [12]

In the present study, we analyze air temperature data from the former investigation at numerous sites in Münster measured by mobile sensors (by car and bicycle) at different day times (during afternoons and evenings) [12] in a combination with data processing and a geostatistics based on land use classes according to [13] to reveal the spatial relationships between water, urban green spaces and air temperature at the ground level. The main approach used in this study was the regression analysis between mobile T measurements and land use types [14]. The general concept of this approach is to obtain fast sensor data to minimize the area of spatial uncertainty along the route, to find the radii of land use characteristics with optimal regression results representing the land

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Fig. 2. Münster (Germany), urban structures, water bodies and data points (base map: Geobasis NRW 2020 [15])

use footprint of the air temperature data points and to quantify the effects of the land use classes from the regression coefficients, if significant. Here, temperature differences between the data points and a sub-urban weather station (T) were used because the mobile measurements have not been made at the same time but were calculated for the given time stamps using this weather station as reference station. The T values were used as dependent variable and water fraction (λw ) and green space fraction (λg ) as independent variables, where λw calculated from the area of water surfaces in different radii Sw /π * r2 , where r is 100 m, 250 m and 500 m; in the same way distances from

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water bodies are used to extract data subsets within a GIS system; here, the selection criterion is the distance of each point to the next water object. To indicate the maximal expected temperature effect, the regression coefficients were calculated for a 100% area of the specific land use type. The measurements with the Urbmobi temperature sensor [13] took place in clear and calm weather on September 4th 2014 in the City of Münster, Germany [12], which exhibits different types and a greater number of water bodies. Münster is a city of medium size (298,518 inhabitants in 2013) in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia situated in rural surroundings in the German Northern Lowlands. The municipal area is mostly planar (about 40 m a.s.l to 100 m a.s.l), main urban structures in Münster are mostly distributed concentrically around the city center (Fig. 2). Water bodies (Fig. 2) exist in the form of a canal, some artificial lakes, small natural rivers, a greater number of small creeks, drainage channels and a huge number of small dew ponds (only partly visible in the map). Some are very close to the city center (especially Lake Aasee and Dortmund-Ems-Canal, which below are refered to as “large water bodies”).

2 Results The regression analysis showed significant correlation coefficients for a cooling effect of water bodies in late afternoon (16 h: not significant; 19 h; −0.52°C, expressed as the maximum effect i.e. of 100% water fraction in a 100 m radius) and a warming effect in late evening (22 h: +1.47 °C; Fig. 3, upper part). The late afternoon temperature effect is linked to a small radius (and smaller in absolute values), late evening warming with greater radius (and greater in absolute values). If only the urban data points with water bodies nearby are analyzed, the afternoon cooling effect is more intense (−0.63°C to − 0,82°C; Fig. 3, lower part, only data points within double maximum radius [= 1000 m] from Lake Aasee and Dortmund-Ems-Canal) and more significant; the late evening effect is weaker or even indifferent and not significant.

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Fig. 3. Results of regression analysis (T in relation to water fraction) for all data points including those near smaller, rural water bodies (upper part) and the urban data points (near the larger water bodies, lower part). T (100%): temperature effect of an area of 100% water fraction.

The plots of selected data sets on temperature effects of water fraction in Fig. 4 (only for the radius of 250 m at 1600 CEST and 2200 CEST) show – beside the reason for the poor correlation – the small differences between the two points in time and between the complete data set and the selected data points near the greater water bodies.

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Fig. 4. Scatterplots of T and water fraction, here, for the radius of 250 m around every data point. Upper plots: afternoon situation (1600 CEST), lower plots: late evening situation (2200 CEST); left plots: all data points, right plots: only data points near large water bodies.

The statistical analysis of the relation between T of all points and fraction of urban green spaces showed significant correlation coefficients in all cases with cooling effects between −0.73°C (for 100% green space fraction in 100 m radius) in the afternoon up to -2.77°C in late evening (Fig. 5, upper part). At all times the effects were weaker in case smaller radii was used. For the data points with larger water bodies nearby (Fig. 5, lower part), the afternoon cooling effect is smaller (−0,45°C to −0,89°C compared with −0,73°C to −1,31°C) while the evening effect is more intense (−1,39°C to −3,26°C compared with −1,15°C to −2,77°C).

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Fig. 5. Results of regression analysis (T in relation to green space fraction) for all data points including those near smaller, rural water bodies (upper part) and the urban data points (near the larger water bodies). T (100%): temperature effect of an area of 100% green space fraction.

The explained variance as given by R2 for green space is between 5.7% and 45.3% (Fig. 5, lower part) and very small for water (3rd inch) is observed from our results (Table 3). This could be due to several complicated factors (such as soil wetting fronts) that can lead to non-linear hydraulic behavior when the soil is starting to get wet. It can be observed that results from the two different methods were not always consistent (Fig. 2). For five sites (CPM, CPB-O, EP-O, HA-O, HA-I), the average doublering infiltration rates are similar to the Cornell Sprinkler Infiltration rates. At three sites (CPB-I, EP-I and BA-A) the double-ring method resulted in higher infiltration rates, while at the other three sites are lower. At BA-A, the double-ring method rates are more than one magnitude higher. Based on the average double-ring method results, the infiltration rates varied significantly among different sites, from 1.8–8.1 in/h (4.6–20.6 cm/h). The highest infiltration

Variability of Infiltration Rates

95

%silt %>2mm %moisture vegetation

0.22 0.53

0.12 0.45

0.30 0.25 0.20 0.55 0.98 0.28

0.41 0.04

0.04 0.64

0.32 0.43

0.40

0.88 0.68

0.13 0.74

0.11 0.52

0.38 0.01 0.40

0.53 0.19 0.53

0.04

0.45

0.36

%>2mm

%silt

BD

0.04 0.25 0.20

compaction

%clay

0.54 0.44

0.28 0.18

vegetation

%sand

0.21

0.08

%moisture

BD

0.31

%clay

SOM

0.32

%sand

Cornell

Organics

Double ring

Cornell

Table 3. Correlation coefficients among infiltration rates, soil properties and field variables. Numbers >0.5 or 1 were used for calculating Zc. The approximate permissible concentrations (APC) of the total content of heavy metals in the soil were used to assess pollution. These values in Russia as well as the Zc index are used for assessing the ecological state and soil pollution level [13].

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Fig. 1. Sampling point location and bar-plots of heavy metals concentration (a - Monchegorsk; b - Kirovsk; c - Apatity. Some similar bar-polts have been excluded from the maps for better visibility)

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Since the content of heavy metals is not normally distributed, the geometrical rather than arithmetic mean was used to analyze the data sample.

3 Results and Discussion 3.1 Content of Various Fractions of Heavy Metals in Soils The results of the total content of heavy metals study, and the content of their water- and acid-soluble forms in the soils of different land-use categories in the cities are presented in Fig. 2. The maximal Ni content of all forms was found in the soils of Monchegorsk, due to a long-term impact of the Kola MMC copper-nickel plant (Monchegorsk site, former Severonikel plant) near the town. The total content of nickel in the soils of Monchegorsk is much higher than the regional background (69 mg•kg−1 ) and the sanitary and hygienic standard (50 mg•kg−1 ). The highest values (640–1364 mg•kg−1 ) were found in the recreational zone. The content of Ni in the soils varied within the regional values in Kirovsk and Apatity. The exception was the soils of a dividing strip near railway station where high values of the total content (385–513 mg•kg−1 ) were found due to the imported heavily contaminated man-made soil. In farmland soils, the content of the element was estimated as equal to the background level. The acid-soluble form of Ni in the soils was 26–61% in Monchegorsk, from 10 to 21% in Apatity, 9–10% in Kirovsk, 8% - in agricultural soils, and 5% - in background soils. The share of a water-soluble form of nickel in the background plot was 0.2% and less than 0.1% in other soils. In the soils of Monchegorsk, a tendency for an accumulation of copper was revealed, especially in the soils of the forest-park zone (474 mg•kg−1 ). This is associated with the operation of the copper-nickel enterprise. The background total copper content was 115 mg•kg−1 and exceeded the sanitary-hygienic standard (100 mg•kg−1 ), which is associated with the regional level of pollution. In the soils of Kirovsk park, a copper content exceeded the background, while in the zone of heavy traffic its concentration was lower. In Apatity a high copper content (221 mg•kg−1 ) was found in areas close to roads, while in the soils of the dividing strip it was extremely high (1268–1609 mg•kg−1 ). An increased proportion of acid-soluble forms of heavy metals (ASF) indicates their technogenic origin [2]. Due to a chronic impact of the plant, the share of acid-soluble copper in the soils of Monchegorsk was 92–99%. The highest values were found in the recreational zone where there was no addition of fresh soil. In other soils, the share of ASF was lower: 22–44% in Apatity, 11–17% in Kirovsk, 13% on agricultural lands, 10% in the background soil. For the background area, a share of copper water-soluble form in the total content was 1.22%; it was less than 0.3% in other areas. The total content of cobalt varied from 8.6 mg•kg−1 (Kirovsk) to 35 mg•kg−1 (Monchegorsk) and corresponded to the sanitary-hygienic standard (50 mg•kg−1 ). Cobalt content in the background soils was higher than in the urban soils of Kirovsk. The share of ASF cobalt varied from 10 to 15%, and in Monchegorsk - 19 to 49% since cobalt is a component of emissions from the non-ferrous metallurgy enterprise. The total zinc content in agricultural soils was 84 mg•kg−1 (with a once extreme value of 260 mg•kg-1), which corresponded to the regional background (84.5 mg•kg−1 ). Zinc content in urban soils was high, and the maximal value was found in Apatity (a park

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2000 1800

Heavy metal content, mg kg -1

1600 1400 Co total

1200 1000 800

Pb total Zn total Mn total Cu total Ni total

600 400 200 0

1,5

Heavy metal content, mg kg-1

1,2 Co WSF

0,9

Pb WSF Zn WSF Mn WSF

0,6

Cu WSF Ni WSF

0,3

0

Heavy metal content, mg kg-1

800

600 Co ASF Pb ASF Zn ASF

400

Mn ASF Cu ASF Ni ASF

200

0

Fig. 2. Metals concentration in soil by land use category: total content, content of acid-soluble fraction (ASF), content of water-soluble fraction (WSF) (geometric mean, mg•kg−1)

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area). A share of ASF of the total content was 16% for the background plot, 70–79% in the soils of Monchegorsk, 22–26% in Apatity, 47–54% in Kirovsk, ~30% in the farmland soils. The lead content in the agricultural soils was at the regional background level (8.2 mg•kg−1 ). Its highest value was found in the soils of the recreational zone of Monchegorsk (31 mg•kg−1 ), which is close to the sanitary-hygienic standard (32 mg•kg−1 ). The lead content in the recreational zone was higher than in the zone of heavy traffic, which is associated with a long-term impact of the pollutants’ deposition. The share of ASF in urban soils varied from 50 to 80%, in the background territory and from 20 to 30% in agricultural soils. The low average total content of manganese in urban and agricultural values is recorded in the soils of Monchegorsk, especially in the recreational zone (345 mg•kg−1 ). High negative correlation coefficients were revealed between the content of Mn/Ni = −0.56 and Mn/Pb = −0.54. Manganese is a biophilic element and takes part in redox processes, photosynthesis, respiration [16]. Any decrease in its levels can negatively affect the whole ecosystem. The total content of heavy metals (Ni, Cu, Co, Pb, Zn, Mn) demonstrated that agricultural soils and urban soils of Kirovsk and Apatity, according to the accepted standards, belong to the permissible category of pollution (Zc < 16). The abnormally high contents of Ni and Cu in the soils of the dividing strip of Apatity had a local character with an insignificant effect on the total contamination index (Fig. 3). In Monchegorsk, soils of the natural recreational zone are assigned to the moderately polluted category. 40 35 30

Zc

25 20 15 10 5

Park Monchegorsk

Park Apatity

Park Кirovsk

Traffic Monchegorsk

Traffic Apatity

Traffic Kirovsk

Agricultural

0

Fig. 3. The total contamination index (Zc) distribution between the land use categories (where the grey dot in the box indicates mean value, black line - median value)

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4 Soil as a Geochemical Barrier for Heavy Metals Migration The behavior of many heavy metals and their toxicity in the soil depends on the soilecology factors (organic matter content, soil acidity, oxidation-reduction conditions, soil density, etc.) [2, 13, 17–20]. It was revealed that the soil organic matter affected the binding of heavy metal ions. Organic carbon and nitrogen played a significant role in fixing of Ni, Co, and Pb. High correlation coefficients were obtained for these elements, especially for the acid-soluble form (Fig. 4). Less toxic elements, Cu and Zn, had high lability. The affinity of a copper depends not only on the composition of the carrier phases but also on the content of copper in the soil [21]. Manganese showed the lowest affinity for organic carbon (the correlation coefficient was −0.61).

Fig. 4. The ratio of the total content of Ni, Co, Pb separately for the total, acid-soluble and water-soluble forms and the content of total carbon and nitrogen in soils (r is the correlation coefficient)

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The organic carbon content was equal to the total carbon content due to the absence of calcium carbonates coupled with inorganic carbon in the studied soils. At the same time, a hot-water extractable carbon (HWC) content had a moderate degree of correlation with a total carbon (r2 = 0.51). HWC is a component of the labile SOM and determines a fraction of carbon most actively consumed by living organisms [15, 22]. The HWC is closely related to the soil microbial biomass and micro aggregation and therefore can be used as an indicator of soil quality in the soil-plant systems [15]. The highest HWC content found in the soils in park zones (900–1220 mg•kg−1 ); the minimum HWC content found in urban soils corresponded to the areas of a high anthropogenic load near road rings and main streets - both open and lawn-covered (484–502 mg•kg−1 ). The content of HWN in urban soils did not always correlate to the content of HWC in the soils of specific sites. But the general trend was the same as for carbon: the maximum values (30–49 mg•kg−1 ) corresponded to the park areas with trees, minimum (4–7 mg•kg−1 ) corresponded to the areas close to highways. For the agricultural areas, the maximum values of HWC and HWN corresponded to the least plowed areas with the presence of vegetation (C - 850–888 mg•kg−1 ; N - 33–48 mg•kg−1 ). For the plots used for a long-time agricultural crop, the minimum HWC values varied in the range of 313–467 mg•kg−1 , HWN – 5–15 mg•kg−1 . Hot-water extracted organic matter is directly related to the life activities of plants and microorganisms [22]. Thus, its content was influenced by the age of the vegetation cover and the degree of its violation, including the presence of aboriginal species in the grass-dwarf shrub layer and the tree layer. Heavy metals and organic matter in the soil had been less affected by those factors.

5 Conclusion The urboecosystems of small towns in the industrialized region of the Russian Arctic zone are affected by airborne metal-containing emissions from the large enterprises extracting and processing the polymetallic ores. Large areas of pollution, a lack of background soils, and an increased regional background of some heavy metals complicate the ecological assessment of the urban soils in the region. According to the total pollution index (Zc), the soils of Apatity and Kirovsk towns are assigned to the permissible category of pollution, and the soils of the recreational zone of Monchegorsk and the dividing lane in Apatity - to the moderately category of pollution. A share of the mobile fraction of metals relative to the total content in urban soils was for 10–80% higher than in the background and agricultural soils. The share of mobile copper in the recreational area of Monchegorsk, which is in the immediate vicinity of a large non-ferrous metallurgy plant, was 92–99% of its total content, which indicates its completely technogenic origin. Agricultural soils had an intermediate soil quality position between urban and conditionally background soils, that is associated with the remoteness from mobile sources of pollution with the simultaneous influence of large enterprises. At the same time, special attention should be paid to the control of zinc content in the soils and agricultural products.

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Urban soils are natural geochemical barriers that deposit metals and prevent their migration into the environment. A high positive correlation was found between the content of organic matter and metals, which may be associated with the fixation of metals in forms of organometallic complexes. The deposition of metals and their presence in soils, including mobile forms, did not have a significant correlation with the content of hot-water extracted organic matter as an indicator of the state of the microbial community. The content of readily available carbon and nitrogen was maximal in areas with aged and intact ecosystems (for example, town parks). There was found the greatest amount of metals due to the long-term air deposition. At the same time, the minimal contents of readily available carbon and nitrogen were observed in the areas near roads and on dividing lines, i.e. in areas with relatively young vegetation. Existing metallurgical enterprises and an increased regional background for heavy metals in several regions of the Russian Arctic zone cause a need for natural green areas preservation, a regular greening, and maintenance of high-quality vegetation cover and urban soils. These measures are needed in terms of the aesthetic attraction of cities in the Far North, and to reduce the technogenic impact on the urban environment and human health. Acknowledgements. Soil sampling and analysis of metal fractions were carried out within the framework of the theme of the State Assignment № 0226-2019-0032 (Kola Science Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences). Analysis of organic carbon and hot-water extracted organic matter was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research project № 19-29-05187. Manuscript preparation was supported by Russian Science Foundation, project № 19-77-30012.

References 1. Adriano, D.C., Bolan, N.S., Vangronsveld, J., Wenzel, W.W.: Heavy metals. In: Hillel, D. (ed.) Encyclopedia of Soils in the Environment, pp. 175–182. Elsevier, Amsterdam (2005). https://doi.org/10.1016/b0-12-348530-4/00196-x 2. Antoniadis, V., Levizou, E., Shaheen, S.M., Ok, Y.S., Sebastian, A., Baum, C., Prasad, M.N.V., Wenzel, W.W., Rinklebe, J.: Trace elements in the soilplant interface: phytoavailability, translocation, and phytoremediation–a review. Earth Sci. Rev. 171, 621–645 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2017.06.005 3. Arora, S., Jain, C.K., Lokhande, R.S.: Review of heavy metal contamination in soil. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Nat. Resour. 3(5), 139–144 (2017) 4. Ashraf, M., Ozturk, M., Ahmad, M.S.A.: Plant Adaptation and Phytoremediation. Springer, Dordrecht, Heidelberg, London, New York (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-4819370-7 5. Chibuike, G.U., Obiora, S.C.: Heavy metal polluted soils: effect on plants and bioremediation methods. Appl. Environ. Soil Sci. 2014, 1–12 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/752708 6. Grzebisz, W., Cie´sla, L., Komisarek, J., Potarzycki, J.: Geochemical assessment of heavy metals pollution of urban soils. Polish J. Environ. Stud. 11(5), 493–499 (2002) 7. Toth, G., Hermann, T., Da Silva, M.R., Montanarella, L.: Heavy metals in agricultural soils of the European Union with implications for food safety. Environ. Int. 88, 299–309 (2016) 8. Kashulina, G.M.: Extreme pollution of soils by emissions of the copper–nickel industrial complex in the Kola Peninsula. Eurasian Soil Sci. 50(7), 837–849 (2017). https://doi.org/10. 1134/S1064229317070031

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9. Lyanguzova, I., Yarmishko, V., Gorshkov, V., Stavrova, N., Bakkal, I.: Impact of heavy metals on forest ecosystems of the European North of Russia. Heavy Metals, 92–114 (2018). https:// doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.73323 10. Lisitsyn, A.P.: Arid sedimentation in the oceans. Scattered sedimentary matter of the atmosphere. Geol. Geophys. 52(10), 1398–1439 (2011) (in Russian) 11. Vinogradova, A.A., Ivanova, Y.A.: Air pollution in central Karelia during long-range transport of anthropogenic impurities in the atmosphere. Bull. Russ. Acad. Sci. Geogr. Ser. 5, 98–108 (2013). https://doi.org/10.15356/0373-2444-2013-5-98-108 (in Russian) 12. Karaca, A., Turgay, C., Tamer, N.: Effects of a humic deposit (Gyttja) on soil chemical and microbiological properties and heavy metal availability. Biol. Fertil. Soils 42, 585–592 (2006) 13. Romzaykina, O.N., Vasenev, V.I., Paltseva, A., Kuzyakov, Y.V., Neaman, A., Dovletyarova, E.A.: Assessing and mapping urban soils as geochemical barriers for contamination by heavy metal(loid)s in Moscow megapolis. J. Environ. Qual. 1–16 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1002/ jeq2.20142 14. Vodyanitskii, Y.: The affinity of heavy metals and metalloids to carrier phases in soils. Agrochemistry 9, 87–94 (2008) 15. Ghani, A., Dexter, M., Perrott, K.W.: Hot-water extractable carbon in soils: a sensitive measurement for determining impacts of fertilization, grazing and cultivation. Soil Biol. Biochem. 35(9), 1231–1243 (2003) 16. Andresen, E., Peiter, E., Küpper, H.: Trace metal metabolism in plants. J. Exp. Botany 69(5), 909–954 (2018) 17. Li, X., Volger, I., Schwendenmann, L.: Soil aggregation and soil fraction associated carbon under different vegetation types in a complex landscape. Soil Res. 57(3), 215–227 (2019) 18. Lock, K., Janssen, C.R.: Influence of aging on metal availability in soils. Rev. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 178, 1–21 (2003) 19. Pastuszko, A.: Soil organic matter. Environ. Prot. Nat. Res. 30, 83–98 (2007) 20. Wang, X.S.: Correlations between heavy metals and organic carbon extracted by dry oxidation procedure in urban roadside soils. Environ. Geol. 54, 269–273 (2008) 21. Pampura, T.V., Pinsky, D.L., Ostroumov, V.G., Gershevich, V.D., Bashkin, V.N.: Experimental study of the buffer capacity of Chernozem pollution with copper and zinc. Eurasian Soil Sci. 2, 104–110 (1993) 22. Orlov, D.S., Biryukova, O.N., Rozanova, M.S.: Revised system of the humus status parameters of soils and their genetic horizons. Eurasian Soil Sci. 37(8), 798–805 (2004)

Activity Concentration of Natural Radionuclides and Total Heavy Metals Content in Soils of Urban Agglomeration Denis Kozyrev1 , Sergey Gorbov1(B) , Olga Bezuglova1 , Elena Buraeva2 , Suleiman Tagiverdiev1 , and Nadezhda Salnik1 1 Academy of Biology and Biotechnology, Southern Federal University, Bolshaya Sadovaya

Street 105/42, 344006 Rostov-on-Don, Russia [email protected], {sngorbov,osbesuglova,salnik}@sfedu.ru 2 Research Institute of Physics, Southern Federal University, Stachki Avenue 194, 344090 Rostov-on-Don, Russia [email protected]

Abstract. The total heavy metal content and activity concentration of natural radionuclides were obtained in native and anthropogenically transformed soil of the Rostov agglomeration (south of the Russia). The specific activity of natural radionuclides in soils of the has been comparable with indicators typical for chernozems of the Rostov region. The increase of radionuclides activity is observed in the lower horizons, which is due to the nature of the radionuclides themselves and to the fact that the main source of their inflow into the soil cover and biosphere is the parent rock. The correlation between activity concentration of radionuclide and total content of heavy metals were derived by Spearman’s Rank-Order Correlation. The study was revealed that the activity concentration of thorium and radium doesn’t provide significant correlation with the total content of heavy metals. The group of buried horizons have shown a positive correlation with naturally occurring 40 K in contrast with humus horizon (A). The carbonates-accumulating group of horizons (B, B b) have random correlation sign by each of metals. The most significant correlation was observed for the B horizons group. Keywords: City soil cover · 40 K · 232 Th · 226 Ra · Urban soils · Radionuclide · Heavy metals

1 Introduction The intensification of urban processes sets a necessity of indicators elaboration to assess the human impact on the soil cover [35]. Inclusion of radionuclide activity in the monitoring indicators list is absolutely necessary. Moreover, it is important to implement comprehensive monitoring of soils, as the degree of load on the soil cover determines the change of physico-chemical properties of soil, which in turn affect the accumulation and migration profile of heavy metals and the radionuclides. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 V. Vasenev et al. (Eds.): SSC 2020, SPRINGERGEOGR, pp. 111–122, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9_11

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Determination of the natural radioactivity of settlements and natural areas is necessary not only to identify areas with elevated levels of radionuclides, but also because the vertical profiles affect the inflow of radioactive substances into plants and groundwater, as well as the level of radiation on the surface [24, 32]. The study of vertical and horizontal distribution of natural radionuclides in different soils is the subject of many articles [29, 33]. The main attention is given to the formation of radiation dose on the soil surface due to natural radionuclides [1, 28], assessment of radionuclide relationships to determine the disturbance of the radio equilibrium in areas with a high natural background [12], the use of some natural radiocuclides (e.g., 210 Pb) as one of the markers for indication of erosion and accumulation processes [13] and to assess the radon danger of territories and objects [10]. Studies of heavy metals content in urban soils of Rostov agglomeration were conducted [22, 25]. The content of metals in the soils of Rostov region varies in a wide range and is determined by two main factors. First of them is the natural background controlled by geochemical aspects. The second factor is the anthropogenic contamination of soils with heavy metals from different sources [14]. In the beginning of the twenty-first century, 12 zones of soil pollution were distinguished in the Rostov region. According to the data of [27], soil anomalies of zinc, lead, copper, vanadium, cadmium, mercury, and some other metals were detected in Rostov-on-Don, the highest concentrations being are typical for chromium, copper, lead, and zinc. The aim of this work is to study the radioactivity of native and anthropogenically transformed soils of Rostov agglomeration, as well as the study of the correlation between activity concentration of radionuclide and total content of heavy metals. The research of the processes of pollutants entering the soil, the cognition of the regularities of their accumulation and movement in soils helps to reduce further detrimental effects on ecosystems [15, 34].

2 Objects and Methods 2.1 Objects The objects of study were selected Urbic Technosols of Rostov-on-Don town and its satellites and the Calcic Chernozems of recreation areas of agglomeration [19]. For an objective analysis of the results obtained, soils were divided into four groups: herbaceous and woody vegetation (native), as well as shielded and unshielded, ATS. Soils formed on loesslike loam of watersheds, namely native and anthropogenically transformed soil of the Rostov agglomeration, have been investigated (Fig. 1) [4–6]. Horizons were grouped into several units according to their properties. In native soils, the following horizons were identified: A d — humus-accumulative horizons (turf) with a developed rhizosphere due to the grassy vegetation in the upper layer 15-20 cm; A— humus accumulative horizons; B— illuvial carbonate-accumulative (calcic) horizons; and C—parent material. We also examined their analogues buried under the thickness of the anthropogenic layers (urbic sediments): A b, B b, and C b [18].

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a)

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b)

Fig. 1. a) Calcic Chernozems; b) Urbic Technosol

2.2 Methods Analysis of Heavy Radionuclides in Soils To study the activity of natural radionuclides (226 Ra, 232 Th, 40 K) in the soil, soil samples were taken from all soil horizons to a depth of 120 cm. The envelope method involves the selection of a levelled square area at the test site. Soil samples were taken at the corners of the square and its centre [16]. All soil samples were dried at 100°C, ground to a particle size of no more than 1.0 mm, and sealed in 1 L and 0.5 L Marinelli vessels, Petri dishes, and Dent plates (cylinders with a height of 7 mm and a diameter of 70 mm). The concentration of radionuclides in the soils was measured by the gammaspectroscopic method of radionuclide analysis. We used a low-background spectrometric unit [9] based on a coaxial semiconductor detector made of high-purity germanium (GeHP) with an efficiency of 25% in the range of 13–1,500 keV and a peak/Compton ratio of 51.7: 1 (model 7229 N-7500sl-2520, Canberra Industries, France). The level of 226 Ra was determined based on the decay products of 222 Rn: 214 Pb (by photopeaks at 295.2 keV (18.9%) and 352.6 keV (36.3%)) and 214 Bi (by a photopeak at 609.3 keV (45.5%)) at the conditions of their radioactive equilibrium with 222 Rn; to determine the level of 226 Ra, the data for the three photopeaks were averaged. The level of 210 Pb was determined by a photopeak at 46.5 keV (4.05%) [8]. In natural objects, 232 Th is mainly found in radioactive equilibrium with radionuclides of its family: 228 Ac, 211 Pb and 208 Tl. The level of 228 Ac was determined by its three photopeaks at 338.3 keV (11.4%), 911.2 keV (27.7%) and 969.6 keV (17.3%). The level of 211 Pb was determined by a photopeak at 238.6 keV (44.6%). The level of 208 Tl was determined by a photopeak at 583.2 keV (84.6%) [8]. The level of 40 K was determined by a photopeak at 1,460.8 keV (10.4%).

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The contents of heavy metals were determined by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry with equipment of Spectroscan MAKS-GV use certified method, which is recommended by Russian Federation as a method suitable for government ecological control and manufacturing inspection. Some researchers also confirm the possibility of using this method for the analysis of the heavy metal content in soils, including urban areas [11, 17, 26]. To guarantee high quality of the achieved results, standard reference material (SRM) was used to test precision and accuracy of the method [3]. Pollution degree was estimated using integral index (Zc), which is calculated as a sum of concentration coefficients of chemical pollutant elements [31]:   n  Kc − (n − 1), Zc = i=1

Spirman’s correlation coefficient was used to estimate the correlation between the activity of radionuclides and the gross chemical composition of soils. This method of mathematical statistics has several advantages in comparison with Pearson’s correlation. Spearman correlation is a non-parametric method, which allows to use it without preliminary verification of samples for normal distribution. Lower sensitivity to (clogged) samples is also important, i.e. those in which several values are strongly knocked out, which is quite common in the objects we study.

3 Results and Discussion 3.1 Activity Concentration of Radionuclide and Heavy Metals Content in City Soil Cover of Rostov Agglomeration To study the peculiarities of content and distribution of natural radionuclides, soils of Rostov agglomeration were divided into two groups - native and anthropogenic transformed. Native soils of the specially protected areas of the chernozem zone (Reserve “Persian Steppe”, “Botanical Garden of the Southern Federal University”) were used as background areas. Figure 2 presents diagrams of radionuclide specific activity distribution in the studied soil groups.

Activity Concentration of Natural Radionuclides and Total Heavy Metals

а

115

b

Fig. 2. Distribution of natural radionuclides in anthropogenic transformed soils Technosol (a) and in natural soils Calcic Chernozems (b) of Rostov agglomeration

Peculiarities of radionuclide specific activity distribution in natural and anthropogenic-converted soils of Rostov agglomeration, namely the results of statistical analysis of the studied soils are presented in Table 1. As we can see from Fig. 2 and Table 1, the distribution of radionuclides in native and anthropogenic-transformed soils of the Rostov agglomeration mainly tends to normal, with a slight shift to the right: asymmetry coefficients are negative. The average specific activity of natural radionuclides in Urbic Technosol and Calcic Chernozems coincide within the limits of the definition error (7–10%). Average specific activity of 226 Ra, 232 Th and 40 K in background soils of specially protected natural areas of Rostov region is 24.3 Bq/kg, 28.5 Bq/kg and 430.8 Bq/kg respectively. It should be noted that modal values of 226 Ra in Urbic Technosol are higher than modal values of this radionuclide

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Table 1. Results of statistical analysis of specific activity of radionuclides in urban soils of Rostov region (Bq/kg) Parameter

Urbic Technosol 226 Ra

232 Th

Calcic Chernozems 40 K

226 Ra

232 Th

40 K

Minimum

4,1

5,2

110,0

7,1

11,5

101,5

Maximum

34,3

45,1

811,0

38,9

45,0

707,0

Arithmetic mean

21,5

30,3

473,2

24,8

30,6

442,7

Median

22,1

31,0

458,0

25,5

30,5

442,0

Moda

14,7

32,8

424,0

14,7

26,6

471,0

0,5

0,5

8,5

1,9

1,9

−0,3

−0,3

Standard errors of means

0,7

0,8

13,7

Kurtosis

−0,1

2,1

0,6

Asymmetry coefficient

−0,5

−1,1

−0,03

Sample amount

90

0,8 −0,7

133

in the chernozems of protected areas twice (14.7 Bq/kg and 30.2 Bq/kg respectively). Similar natural radionuclides content in soils of Rostov agglomeration is comparable with literature data on radionuclide composition of soils of other regions [1, 2, 7, 10, 21] and is typical for the territory under study. Average values of activity concentration of natural radionuclides in the soil horizons, including turf (sod), and maternal breed in native soil are at approximately the same level regardless of the type of phytocenoses (Table 2). The distribution of natural radionuclides in the Calcic Chernozems profile has common features: the highest activity of radionuclides is characteristic of the upper sod horizons, down the profile there is a gradual decrease in activity. In some cases, the activity of radionuclides in the mother rock may increase due to increased natural radioactivity of these parental rocks. Comparison of the obtained values of specific activity of natural radionuclides under herbaceous and woody phytocoenoses has shown that the difference is minimal. This indicates that the accumulation of natural radionuclides is primarily determined by their nature, as well as by how they enter the biosphere. The properties of the solid phase of soil also matter. Many authors point to high absorption capacity of soils and clay minerals in relation to such radionuclides as 90 Sr. [20, 23, 30]. Anthropogenically transformed soils have the values of the activity concentration of natural radionuclides also differ only by the magnitude of the error (Table 3). Some of Urbic (UR) horizons show sharp changes in the values of specific activity of URN, which is partly associated with a change in the content of SOM in the anthropogenic thickness, as well as a change in the reaction of the medium from neutral to weakly acidic. It is difficult to give a more accurate confirmation of such dependencies, as the studied soils in the process of their formation experienced increased anthropogenic impact and there are construction and household waste, which affect the physical and

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Table 2. Activity concentration of radionuclides in Calcic Chernozems Radionuclide

Horizon

Activity concentration ± SE, Bq/kg Minimum

Maximum

Arithmetic mean

Calcic Chernozems under grassy phytocenoses 226 Ra 232 Th 40 K

Ad

14,7 ± 1,5

38,9 ± 3,9

23,5 ± 2,4

C

20,5 ± 2,0

28,1 ± 2,8

25,2 ± 2,5

Ad

30,5 ± 3,0

33,3 ± 3,3

32,4 ± 3,2

C

21,3 ± 2,1

34,6 ± 3,5

30,6 ± 3,1

Ad

427,0 ± 42,7

628,0 ± 62,8

490,5 ± 49,1

C

326,0 ± 32,6

571,0 ± 57,1

425,4 ± 42,5

Calcic Chernozems under wood phytocenoses 226 Ra

Ad C

13,3 ± 1,3

30,9 ± 3,1

25,7 ± 2,6

232 Th

Ad

23,6 ± 2,4

41,6 ± 4,2

32,1 ± 3,2

C

26,2 ± 2,6

33,6 ± 3,4

29,5 ± 3,0

40 K

Ad

399,0 ± 39,9

643,0 ± 64,3

473,0 ± 47,3

C

360,0 ± 36,0

562,0 ± 56,2

423,4 ± 42,3

14,7 ± 1,5

28,3 ± 2,8

23,0 ± 2,3

chemical properties of soils. However, the dependence of the content of natural radionuclides on particle size distribution is clearly traced. With increased content of physical sand activity of radionuclides decreases. Studies conducted between 2012 and 2016 [3] show that the concentrations of heavy metals in the parent rock of Rostov-on-Don exceed the background values. For some elements, they even exceed the MPCs (mg kg − 1): Zn, 72.7 ± 5.1; Cu, 56.3 ± 3.0; Co, 19.3 ± 2.0; Pb, 29.7 ± 6.4; Ni, 52.0 ± 4.3; V, 96.3 ± 7.8; Cr, 104.0 ± 6.5. This is one of the reasons for the elevated contents of these elements in the soil profile. Another reason is the input from anthropogenic sources, as is evidenced by the accumulation of such elements as chromium, nickel, and zinc in the surface horizons. The contamination factors (Zc) vary from 1.55–1.31 for lead to 1.01–1.14 for chromium. The segregation of fill horizons and buried chernozemic soils by all studied parameters is observed in the profiles of Urbic Technosol Ekranic. The level of contamination is estimated as permissible throughout the profile. The profile distributions of heavy metals in soils are heterogeneous. The studied soils are characterized by the following types of heavy metal distribution: with biogenic and anthropogenic surface accumulation, with a maximum in the calcareous horizon, and with a maximum in the parent rock. 3.2 Corelation of Activity Concentration of Radionuclide on Heavy Metals The study revealed that the activity concentration of thorium and radium doesn’t provide reliable correlations with the total content of heavy metals. In contrast with humus

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D. Kozyrev et al. Table 3. Activity concentration of radionuclides in Technosol

Radionuclide

Horizon

Activity concentration ± SE, Bq/kg Maximum

Minimum

Arithmetic mean

Urbic Technosol 226 Ra

232 Th

40 K

UR

31,7 ± 3,2

7,9 ± 0,8

20,0 ± 2,0

A

29,4 ± 2,9

7,1 ± 0,7

18,1 ± 1.8

C

33,6 ± 3,4

13,4 ± 1,3

24,8 ± 2,5

UR

38,6 ± 3,9

11,2 ± 1,1

27,7 ± 2,8

A

45,0 ± 4,5

32,9 ± 3,3

38,2 ± 3,8

C

34,9 ± 3,5

29,6 ± 3,0

32,1 ± 3,2

UR

707,0 ± 70,7

257,0 ± 25,7

436,8 ± 43,7

A

525,0 ± 52,5

440,0 ± 44,0

487,7 ± 48,8

448,0 ± 44,8

379,0 ± 37,9

417,4 ± 41,7

C

Urbic Technosol Ekranic 226 Ra

232 Th

40 K

UR

30,4 ± 3,0

Ab

33,2 ± 3,3

Cb

28,3 ± 2,8

7,2 ± 0,7

21,8 ± 2,2

0,0 ± 0,0

26,3 ± 2,6

UR

40,1 ± 4,0

Ab

39,5 ± 4,0

Cb

45,1 ± 4,5

4,1 ± 0,4 15,6 ± 1,6

15,0 ± 1,5 9,2 ± 0,9

20,3 ± 2,0 24,5 ± 2,5

29,6 ± 3,0 31,4 ± 3,1

UR

644,0 ± 64,4

110,0 ± 11,0

412,3 ± 41,2

Ab

811,0 ± 81,1

208,0 ± 20,8

455,2 ± 45,5

Cb

777,0 ± 77,7

123,8 ± 12,4

515,5 ± 51,6

horizon (A), at the group of buried horizons, naturally occurring 40 K shows a positive correlation. At the carbonates-accumulating group of horizons (B, B b) correlation has random sign by each of metals. The largest number of reliable correlations was observed in the group of horizons B (Table 4). The highest number of reliable correlations were found in the B horizons. An interesting fact is that all of correlations correspond to the laws of exchange sorption of cations in soil, according to which elements with higher degrees of oxidation first of all replace elements with the lowest degrees of oxidation. In the case of 40 K, elements with an oxidation degree of +3 replace elements with an oxidation degree of +2 firstly. This can be explained by the fact that this element is a heavier isotope. The number of valid correlations decreases sharply in the buried horizons B b, possibly due to changes in redox conditions due to difficult gas exchange in the buried state.

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Table 4. Spearmen correlation of total content of heavy metal and activity concentration of 40 K (* marked a significant values, P < 0.05) Element V

A n = 41 0,06

A b n = 20 0,55*

B n = 27 0,25

Bb n = 18 0,42

C n = 13 −0,09

C b n = 14 0,14

Ni

0,16

0,59*

0,52*

0,47*

0,44

0,19

Sr

−0,1

−0,05

−0,53*

−0,47*

−0,52

−0,19

MnO

0,35*

0,47*

0,5*

0,51*

−0,15

0,16

SiO2

0,25

−0,09

0,5*

0,21

−0,39

Al2 O3

0,15

0,51*

0,43*

0,42

−0,03

TiO2

0,22

0,4

0,52*

0,44

−0,38

0,3 0,16 0,01

Fe2 O3

0,24

0,57*

0,57*

0,43

0,03

0,21

CaO

−0,33*

−0,12

−0,66*

−0,34

0,12

−0,37

P2 O5

−0,32*

0,05

−0,12

−0,22

−0,45

−0,51

MgO

−0,2

0,09

−0,63*

−0,39

−0,06

−0,27

K2 O

0,07

0,48*

0,52*

0,46

−0,33

0,44

4 Conclusion The specific activity of natural radionuclides in the soils of the Rostov agglomeration is comparable in size with indicators typical for the chernozems of the Rostov region. Natural radionuclides in soils in Calcic Chernozems are evenly distributed in the profile. Some increase in specific activity is observed in the lower horizons, which is associated with the nature of the radionuclides themselves and the fact that the main source of their entry into the soil cover and the biosphere as a whole are parent rocks. Radium and thorium have not shown significant correlations between specific activity of radionuclides and gross chemical composition of soils. The activity of 40 K showed a number of significant correlations with the gross chemical composition of soils. It should be noted that all correlations generally correspond to the laws of exchange sorption of cations in the soil. The greatest number of correlations is observed in A b horizons for buried soils and B horizon for natural soils. No reliable correlations were found in horizon C and horizon C b. Thus, the distribution of 40 K and heavy metals in the soil profile depends on soaking of the soil by atmospheric precipitation, and the strong correlation is achieved in the lower boundary of soaking, which determines the depth of the horizon of carbonate neoplasms. This indicates the sorption of 40 K and most metals on the carbonate barrier. Acknowledgements. The research, including data processing, analysis, and collection, was performed with financially supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian

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Federation within the framework of the state task in the field of scientific activity (no. 0852-20200029). Analytical work was partially carried out on the equipment of Centers for Collective Use of Southern Federal University “Biotechnology, Biomedical and Environmental Monitoring”.

References 1. Alatise, O.O., Babalola, I.A., Olowofela, J.A.: Distribution of some natural gamma-emitting radionuclides in the soils of the coastal areas of Nigeria. J. Environ. Radioactivity 99(11), 1746–1749 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2008.06.014 2. Al-Hamarneh, I.F., Awadallah, M.I.: Soil radioactivity levels and radiation hazard assessment in the highlands of northern Jordan. Radiation Measur. 44(1), 102–110 (2009) 3. Bezuglova, O.S., Gorbov, S.N., Tischenko, S.A., Aleksikova, A.S., Tagiverdiev, S.S., Sherstnev, A.K., Dubinina, M.N.: Accumulation and migration of heavy metals in soils of the Rostov region, south of Russia. J. Soils Sediments 16, 1203–1213 (2016). https://doi.org/10. 1007/s11368-015-1165-8 4. Bezuglova, O.S., Hyirhyirova, M.M.: Soils of the Rostov region. Rostov-on-Don. 352 (2007). ISBN 978-5-9275-0397-1. (in Russian) 5. Bezuglova, O.S., Yudina, N.V.: Interrelationship between the physical properties and the humus content of chernozems in the south of European Russia. Eurasian Soil Sci. 39(2), 187–194 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1064229306020098 6. Bezuglova, O.S., Zviagintseva, Z.V., Goryainova, N.V.: Humus losses in soils of the Rostov Province. Eurasian Soil Sci. 28(4), 40–53 (1996) 7. Blanco, P., Vera Tome, F., Lozano, J.C.: Fractionation of natural radionuclides in soils from a uranium mineralized area in the south-west of Spain. J. Environ. Radioactivity 79(3), 315–330 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2004.08.006 8. Bodrov, I.V., Buraeva, E.A., Davydov, M.G., Mareskin, S.A.: Instrumentational determination of uranium and thorium in natural objects. At. Energ. 96(4), 246–249 (2004). https://doi.org/ 10.1023/B:ATEN.0000035994.57721.26 9. Buraeva, E.A., Davydov, M.G., Zorina, L.V., Stasov, V.V.: Components of the background Of Ge(Li) And Ge detectors in passive shielding. At. Energ. 103(5), 895–900 (2007). https:// doi.org/10.1007/s10512-007-0142-8 10. Doering, C., Akber, R., Heijnis, H.: Vertical distributions of 210 Pb excess, 7 Be and 137 Cs in selected grass covered soil in Southeast Queensland. Australia. J. Environ. Radioactivity 87(2), 135–147 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2005.11.005 11. Dos Anjos, M.J., Lopes, R.T., de Jesus, E.F.O., Assis, J.T., Cesareo, R., Barradas, C.A.A.: Quantitative analysis of metals in soil using X-ray fluorescence. Spectrochim Acta B. 55, 1189–1194 (2000) 12. Dowdall, M., O’Dea, J.: 226 Ra/238 U disequilibrium in an upland organic soil exhibiting elevated natural radioactivity. J. Environ. Radioactivity. 59(1), 91–104 (2002). https://doi. org/10.1016/S0265-931X(01)00038-8 13. Gennadiev, A.N., Golosov, V.N., Chermyanskiy, S.S., Markelov, M.V., Kovach, R.G., Belyaev, V.R., Ivanova, N.N.: Comparative assessment of the content of magnetic spherules, 137 Cs and 210 Pb in soils for the purposes of erosion-accumulative processes indication. Pochvovedenie 10, 1218–1234 (2006). (in Russian) 14. Gorbov, S.N.: Genesis, classification, ecological role of urban soils in the south of the European part of Russia (on the example of the Rostov aglomeration). Moscow. 448 (2018). (in Russian)

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Metabolic Adjustments in Urban Lawns in Response to Soil Salinization O. Gavrichkova1(B) , R. A. Brykova2 , D. Liberati3 , M. C. Moscatelli3 , S. Moscatello1 , and Viacheslav Vasenev2 1 Research Institute on Terrestrial Ecosystems, National Research Council,

05010 Porano, Italy [email protected] 2 Peoples Friendship University of Russia, RUDN University, 117198 Moscow, Russian Federation 3 Department for Innovation in Biological, Agro-Food and Forest Systems, University of Tuscia, 01100 Viterbo, Italy

Abstract. Soil salinization is typical for urban environment where de-icing agents are released in considerable amounts. Urban lawns with turf grasses are the primary components of the urban green infrastructure and are exposed to different rates of soil salinity, depending on the distance to the paved surfaces where de-icing agents are released. Plant metabolic adjustments supported by nutrients availability in soil are the key parameters necessary to cope with soil salinity. In this study we evaluated the mechanisms activated at a plant level in response to low and moderate soil salinity in a popular turf-grass mixture used for urban lawn greening. Carbohydrates and starch content as well as content of chloride were measured in plant biomass after 2.5 months of continuous irrigation with salt solution. Nutrients availability and plant-soil interactions were assessed by analyzing extracellular soil enzymatic activity in the rhizosphere and N content of plant tissues. Plants increased the amount of compounds involved in the osmotic regulation in expense of storage compounds and isolated the toxic ions to old tissues. Increased plant demand for N at soil salinity was accompanied by an increase in the activity of chitinase in the rhizospheric soil, suggesting no potential restrictions for future accumulation of osmotic N-containing compounds in vegetation. Keywords: Grasses · Soil salinity · Carbohydrates · Toxic ions · Enzymatic activity

1 Introduction Urban green infrastructure has been recognized as one of prerequisites for sustainable urban development [1]. Urban lawns are the key elements of urban green infrastructure, given their extension which accounts for up to 75% of green open spaces [2]. The ecosystem services released by urban green infrastructure, ecological and aesthetic, are crucial for the improvement of the quality of life of humans in the cities. The aesthetic and ecological value of lawns vary in response to management and anthropogenic stressors, © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 V. Vasenev et al. (Eds.): SSC 2020, SPRINGERGEOGR, pp. 123–131, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9_12

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typical for urban environment [3]. Soil salinization with de-icing agents is one of the factors affecting the functioning of primary producers and decomposers in urban lawns [4]. Soil salinity limits the plant growth and productivity through the instauration of the osmotic stress, accumulation of toxic compounds and reduction of plant photosynthesis [5]. Given that, different species and even cultivars have different sensitivity to soil salinization [6]. The mechanisms activated at the plant level in order to cope with salinity include adjustments of osmotic metabolism through the accumulation of osmolites [7, 8], avoidance of toxic ions or their tolerance [9] and growth regulation [10]. Metabolic adjustments are often associated with the variation of nutrient demand and require a prompt uptake of the required elements from the environment. Nutrients availability in the conditions of soil salinity will depend on the response of the microbial community to these conditions. Inhibition of microbial activity in response to salinity have been frequently reported [11] which can compromise efficient nutrient cycling and elements availability. On the other hand, modifying the rhizodeposition quality and quantity, plants execute direct effects on microbial community functioning [12]. The interplay between plant metabolic needs and soil capacity to fulfill these needs have been rarely addressed. In this mesocosm experiment we aimed to study the metabolic response of a turfgrass mixture, frequently used for urban greening, to low and moderate soil salinization rates. Metabolism of carbohydrates, nutrient metabolism and accumulation toxic compounds have been addressed at the leaf level. The activity of extracellular enzymes in the rhizosphere was measured in order to test whether plant nutrient requirements in response to salinization could be supported by nutrients mobilization at the soil level.

2 Methodology Seeds of a turf grass mixture containing Festuca rubra (70% of weight), Lolium perenne (20%) and Poa pratensis (10%), were sown in pots filled with a combination of peat and sand. Pots were kept in an open green house at IRET CNR (Porano, Italy), so that the air temperatures were similar to the ambient conditions but allowing to control the irrigation regime. The irrigation was adjusted to keep the soil relative humidity at 80% of the water holding capacity. During the experiment conduction, the average daily air temperature varied between 2°C (March) and 28°C (May). Plants were managed by regular mowing to 4 cm height. Salinity treatments were started four months since the plants germination, in the first of March, in correspondence to seasonal minimum night temperatures, which dropped down below zero degrees. Three treatments were established: 1. Control treatment, watered with tap water; 2. Low salinity treatment, watered with the NaCl solution at 30 mM, which mimics the salinity rate at a distance of approximately 3 m to the paved surfaces where de-icing agents are released [13]; 3. Moderate salinity treatment, watered with the NaCl solution at 90 mM, which mimics soil in a close vicinity to the paved surface. Salinity treatments were maintained for 2.5 months. Detailed experimental setup could be found in Gavrichkova [4]. In May, after the plants had reached the maximum biomass development, soil, aboveground and belowground biomass were harvested. Aboveground biomass was sorted into new leaves (above the mowing point) and old leaves (below the mowing point). Collected plant material was milled to a fine powder,

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dried and stored till further analyses. Soil samples were air dried and conditioned at 60% of their water holding capacity prior to biochemical analyses.

3 Results and Discussion Soil salinization resulted in changes of carbohydrate metabolism in the studied grass mixture (Fig. 1), with contrasting responses of new and old leaves. Compared to control, at moderate salinity, old leaves accumulated more soluble sugars, while in new leaves the amount of soluble sugars declined (Fig. 1a). A trend in the decline of starch content with soil salinity could be seen for old leaves, although the differences between the treatments were not significant (Fig. 1b). At these conditions, the soluble sugars/starch ratio increases (data not shown). Hence, in mature tissues, soluble sugars involved in osmotic regulations, are formed partially at the expense of storage not osmotically active carbon pools. Also the decrease in the sucrose-to-hexoses (glucose and fructose) ratio contributed to the osmotic potential regulation (data not shown). A similar shift in sugars/starch ratio has been reported for osmotic (drought, salinity) and non-osmotic stressors (temperature stress) [14, 15]. On one hand, on the long-term, it may compromise the productivity of grasses since the transient starch is involved in night-time metabolic expenses and in fueling heterotrophic organs with carbohydrates [16]. On the other hand, the new formed biomass can compensate for the lack of storage metabolites. In fact, in this study, starch/soluble sugars ratio tended even to grow in new leaves with increase of salinization. However, the range of variation was too big to confirm the differences between the treatments (data not shown). The amount of chloride was progressively increasing in old leaves with salinity, whereas it remained stable in the biomass of new growth (Fig. 2). It could be hypothesized that old leaves in this grass mixture store the toxic ions protecting in this way the new leaves, that represents the more photosynthetically active part of the plant. Turf grass mixture at the low and moderate salinity was visibly greener in comparison to control treatment (data not shown). A small increase of photosynthetic pigments expressed on mass basis was observed in old leaves in saline treatments. However, the data leveled when expressed per m2 of leaf surface (Table 1). Leaves at low salinity were considerably thicker as demonstrated by their high mass per area ration (Table 1), which could explain, at least partially, the variation in the vegetation greenness. Besides changes in carbohydrates status and in leaf thickness there was also registered an increase in leaf N content. Leaf N, expressed per both leaf mass (Nm ), and leaf area (Na ) was higher in saline treatments (Fig. 3). The effect was particularly pronounced for moderate salinity treatment. Because the leaf nitrate content was invariable between the treatments (data not shown), we can conclude that N excess was due to accumulation of organic N-containing molecules. Organic N-containing compounds, like amino acids, were reported to increase with the osmotic stress onset, with the final scope to regulate water metabolism [5]. Plant demand for N should be met by the availability of N in the soil. Efficiency of nutrient cycling was assessed in this study through the activity of extracellular enzymes in the rhizosphere soil (Table 2). Significant salinity effects were measured for butyrate esterase,

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Fig. 1. a) Soluble sugars content and b) starch content in leaves below the mowing point (old leaves) and in leaves of the new re-growth 2.5 months after the salinity treatment start

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Fig. 2. Chloride content in old and new leaves plotted versus soil electrical conductivity measured 2.5 months since start of the salinity treatment.

Table 1. Leaf mass per area ratio (LMA, average value for old and new leaves) and chlorophyll content on mass and area basis (mean ± SE) after 2.5 months of continuous salinity treatment. Letters indicate the significance of difference at p < 0.05. Old leaves Treatments

LMA, g m−2

Chl, mg g−1

New leaves Chl, g m−2

Chl, mg g−1 DW

Chl, g m−2

DW Control

37.98 ± 0.11b

3.60 ± 0.15b

0.14 ± 0.01a

12.57 ± 0.72a

0.48 ± 0.03a

Low salinity

44.09 ± 1.35a

3.83 ± 0.38ab

0.17 ± 0.02a

12.55 ± 0.56a

0.55 ± 0.02a

Moderate salinity

38.01 ± 1.79b

3.83 ± 0.02a

0.15 ± 0.01a

12.58 ± 0.96a

0.48 ± 0.06a

leucine aminopeptidase and chitinase. The variability of other enzymes within the treatments was too high to assess differences among treatments. The best predictor of soil enzymatic activity was soil pH (Table 3). Soil salinity resulted in soil acidification, although non-significant (chemical soil characteristics could be found in Gavrichkova [4]), lowering down the activity of enzymes involved in the cycling of C and P. Enzymes involved in the cycling of N, leucine and chitinase, showed significant and contrasting response to salinity. Leucine aminopeptidase activity declined as soil salinization increase, whereas chitinase activity increased at higher salinity levels (Table 3). The activity of chitinase in rhizosphere soil was also positively related to root N content,

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Fig. 3. a) Leaf N content on mass basis in old leaves, new leaves and roots; b) Leaf N content on leaf area basis in old leaves and new leaves. Letters indicate the significance of difference at p < 0.05.

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suggesting that N requirements could be met in the conditions of soil salinity. Increase of the chitinase activity could be explained by the sensitivity of the fungal community to soil salinization and consequent release into the soil of dead fungal biomass [4]. Table 2. Rhizosphere extracellular enzyme activity in turf-grass mixture at different salinity rate (mean value ± SE). Chit = N-acetyl-b-glucosaminidase; b-Glu = b-glucosidase; a-Glu = aglucosidase; Pho = acid phosphatase; Aryl = arylsulphatase; Xyl = b-xylosidase; But - butyrate esterase; L-Leu = leucine-aminopeptidase. Significant changes in respect to control treatment are marked in grey.

Extracellular enzymatic activity, nmol MUF/AMC g-1 h-1 Treatment s Control Low salinity Moderate salinity

Cel

Chit

β -glu

α-glu

Pho

Aryl

Xyl

But

LLeu

117 ± 33

341 ± 57

416 ± 151

149 ± 67

497 ± 132

130 ± 39

165 ± 60

913 ± 27

344 ± 18

146 ± 11

542 ± 91

260 ± 25

94 ± 22

508 ± 54

137 ± 64

123 ± 45

1095 ± 199

259 ± 26

160 ± 89

661 ± 123

180 ± 44

54 ± 12

362 ± 101

95 ± 67

55 ± 14

1229 ± 106

233 ± 15

Table 3. Results of the regression analysis between soil properties (electrical conductivity, soil pH and root N content) and enzymatic activity (raw data from different treatments pooled together). Non-significant correlation coefficients are marked as ns. Cel = b-cellobiohydrolase; Chit = N-acetyl-b-glucosaminidase; b-Glu = b-glucosidase; a-Glu = a-glucosidase; Pho = acid phosphatase; Aryl = arylsulphatase; Xyl = b-xylosidase; But - butyrate esterase; L-Leu = leucine-aminopeptidase. Parameters

correlation coefficient of raw enzymatic data with other parameters, r Cel

Chit

β -glu

α-glu

Pho

Aryl

Xyl

But

L-Leu

pHH2O

ns

ns

0.82

0.74

0.75

ns

0.75

ns

ns

Electrical conductivity

ns

0.74

ns

ns

ns

ns

ns

ns

-0.82

Root N content

ns

0.79

ns

ns

ns

ns

ns

ns

ns

4 Conclusions Different mechanisms are activated by urban lawn vegetation to cope with soil salinization. Among which could be mentioned accumulation of compounds involved in osmotic regulation (soluble sugars and N-containing compounds) as well as compartmentalization of the toxic ions and their accumulation exclusively in mature and old tissues. While soil enzymatic activity responds primary negatively to soil acidification

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induced by salinity, the increased activity of chitinase in response to salinity promoted also under salt stress the N uptake, necessary to support the osmotic adjustment based on N osmolytes. Considering the different functional role of new and old leaves in the response to the salt stress, the role of periodical mowing in lawn management under soil salinization should be studied on hoc: on one hand it allows a development of new biomass free of toxic ions, on another hand this biomass is mowed afterwards. To promote a detoxification of the environment from toxic ions carried by deicing agents, lawn management strategies may consider a periodical removal of old leaf tissues accumulating Cl− and Na+ . Taking into account the grass productivity, considering the duration of the growing season of 180 days and hypothesizing the fraction of old biomass removed is 10% of total, the amount of NaCl removed from the environment will account to 6.5 g m−2 yr−1 .

Aknowledgements. The work was prepared with the financial support of RSF 17-77-200-46 grant.

References 1. Li, F., Liu, X., Zhang, X., Zhao, D., Liu, H., Zhou, C., Wang, R.: Urban ecological infrastructure: an integrated network for ecosystem services and sustainable urban systems. J. Clean. Prod. 163, S12–S18 (2017) 2. Ignatieva, M., Ahrné, K., Wissman, J., Eriksson, T., Tidåker, P., Hedblom, M., Kätterer, T., Marstorp, H., Berg, P., Eriksson, T., Bengtsson, J.: Lawn as a cultural and ecological phenomenon: a conceptual framework for transdisciplinary research. Urban Forest. Urban Green. 14(2), 383–387 (2015) 3. Watson, C.J., Carignan-Guillemette, L., Turcotte, C., Maire, V., Proulx, R.: Ecological and economic benefits of low-intensity urban lawn management. J. Appl. Ecol. 57(2), 436–446 (2020) 4. Gavrichkova, O., Brykova Ramilla, A., Brugnoli, E., Calfapietra, C., Cheng, Z., Kuzyakov, Y., Liberati, D., Maria, C.M, Pallozzi, E., Viacheslav, I.V: Secondary soil salinization in urban lawns: microbial functioning, vegetation state and implications for carbon balance. Land Degrad. Dev. 31, 2591–2604 (2020) 5. Dawalibi, V., Monteverdi, M.C., Moscatello, S., Battistelli, A., Valentini, R.: Effect of salt and drought on growth, physiological and biochemical responses of two Tamarix species. iForest-Biogeosciences Forest. 8(6), 772 (2015) 6. Tang, J., Camberato, J.J., Yu, X., Luo, N., Bian, S., Jiang, Y.: Growth response, carbohydrate and ion accumulation of diverse perennial ryegrass accessions to increasing salinity. Sci. Hortic. 154, 73–81 (2013) 7. Hu, T., Hu, L., Zhang, X., Zhang, P., Zhao, Z., Fu, J.: Differential responses of CO 2 assimilation, carbohydrate allocation and gene expression to NaCl stress in perennial ryegrass with different salt tolerance. PLoS ONE 8(6), (2013) 8. Krasensky, J., Jonak, C.: Drought, salt, and temperature stress-induced metabolic rearrangements and regulatory networks. J. Experiment. Botany 63(4), 1593–1608 (2012) 9. Munns, R., Tester, M.: Mechanisms of salinity tolerance. Annu. Rev. Plant Biol. 59, 651–681 (2008) 10. Fahad, S., Hussain, S., Matloob, A., Khan, F.A., Khaliq, A., Saud, S., Hassan, S., Shan, D., Khan, F., Ullah, N., Faiq, M.: Phytohormones and plant responses to salinity stress: a review. Plant Growth Regul. 75(2), 391–404 (2015)

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11. Rath, K.M., Rousk, J.: Salt effects on the soil microbial decomposer community and their role in organic carbon cycling: a review. Soil Biol. Biochem. 81, 108–123 (2015) 12. Broeckling, C.D., Broz, A.K., Bergelson, J., Manter, D.K., Vivanco, J.M.: Root exudates regulate soil fungal community composition and diversity. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 74(3), 738–744 (2008) 13. Vasenev, V.I., Smagin, A.V., Ananyeva, N.D., Ivashchenko, K.V., Gavrilenko, E.G., Prokofeva, T.V., Patlseva, A., Stoorvogel, J.J., Gosse, D.D., Valentini, R.: Urban soil’s functions: monitoring, assessment, and management. In: Adaptive Soil Management: From Theory to Practices, pp. 359–409. Springer, Singapore (2017) 14. Gavrichkova, O., Scartazza, A., Guidolotti, G., Kuzyakov, Y., Leonardi, L., Mattioni, M., Nawrocka, J., Pallozzi, E., Skwarek, M., Tomczy´nska, M., Calfapietra, C.: When the Mediterranean becomes harsh: heat pulses strongly affect C allocation in plant-soil-atmosphere continuum in Eucalyptus camaldulensis. Environ. Experiment. Botany 162, 181–191 (2019) 15. Kempa, S., Krasensky, J., Dal Santo, S., Kopka, J., Jonak, C.: A central role of abscisic acid in stress-regulated carbohydrate metabolism. PLoS ONE 3(12), (2008) 16. Stitt, M., Zeeman, S.C.: Starch turnover: pathways, regulation and role in growth. Current Opinion Plant Biol. 15(3), 282–292 (2012)

Impact of Overgrown Plant Deposit on Physicochemical Properties: SodPodzolic Soils During the Last 60 years in the Central State Biosphere Forest Reserve, Western European Part of Russia Solomon Melaku Melese(B) and Ivan Ivanovich Vasenev Department of Ecology, Russian State Agricultural University-MTAA, Moscow, Russian Federation

Abstract. Podzols are highly influenced by the creation of a thick organic layers. A study was conducted to assess the Impact of succession on physicochemical properties of sod-podzolic soils during the last 60 years, Western European part of Russia, CFSNBR. Samples were taken from three representatives pedons: MGD, DOB (20–30 years) and DBAS (50–60 years). The data were processed and analyzed using standard methods in laboratory. Statistical analyzed was using ANOVA in accordance with GLM procedure (IBM SPSS) version 25. There was a significant (p < 0.05) difference in SOM, SOC, BD, P2 O5 & K2 O between succession stages & soil depth. However, there was no significant difference (p < 0.05) in Ph of (H20 & KCL). Among the succession stages, DBAS (50–60 years) resulted is the highest MOC, MOM & MTN. The greatest Mean P2 O5 & K2 O was found in DOB (20–30 years). The highest MBD and high pH acidity of KCl & H2 O were recorded in MGD. Considering the soil depth, the amount of SOM, TN & SOC soil contained in the surface horizons (A and E) is comparatively higher than the subsurface horizons (B, C) confined in Pedon under DBAS (50–60 years). The correlation analysis showed a positive and highly significant correlation (p < 0.01) between SOC, SOM, K2 O and negatively correlation in soil bulk density. It has been noted that overgrown plant in different succession stage have a profound impact on soil physicochemical properties. Keywords: Succession · Soil · Physicochemical properties · Soil depth

Abbreviations MGD Meadow Grass Deposits DOB (20–30 years) Deposits Overgrown with birch Forests for 20–30 years DBAS (50–60 years) Deposits in the Birch Forest mixed with aspen and spruce for 50–60 years GLM General Linear Model SPSS Statistical Package for Social Sciences SOM Soil organic Matter © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 V. Vasenev et al. (Eds.): SSC 2020, SPRINGERGEOGR, pp. 132–149, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9_13

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SOC TN BD ANOVA LSD CFSNBR MOC MOM MBD

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Soil organic Carbon Total Nitrogen Bulk Density Analysis of Variance Least Significance Difference Central Forest State Nature Biosphere Reserve Mean organic carbon Mean organic matter Mean Bulk Density

1 Introduction Forest ecosystem are both environmentally and economically important. It is arguable that forest soil is the most important component of the forest ecosystem.[1]. Forest soil is used to maintain the sustainability of ecosystem [2]. Soil is a living and complex natural body that plays a variety of key roles in terrestrial ecosystems, such as plant nutrient sources, hydrological stability conservation, and biological diversity [3, 4]. The inherent characteristics of the soil, which are mainly the result of parent material and climate change, undergo subtle changes due to different land management practices [5]. Changes in land use patterns, including restoration, are the most important factor determining soil quality [6]. Upon reclamation, the impact of time and land use on soil biogeochemistry as well as native plants are of great importance to sustainable environmental management [7]. Soil alteration due to succession is a significant impact to the soil’s sustained productivity and is considered one of the main factors influencing the nutrient distribution practices in the soil [8, 9]. Restoration as the canopy created by trees, shrubs and underground vegetation shields the soil & impacts on soil nutrients and associated soil processes such as erosion, degradation, mineralization, leaching and thus protects the soil from splash erosion and surface or sheet erosion, further reducing soil acidity by reducing basic cation leaching [10–13]. The drastic changes in vegetation, therefore impacting on environmental sustainability [13, 14]. Sustaining Soil and environmental are the most important approaches to enhance soil quality [15]. Changes in soil characteristics are caused by human management & weathering [16]. These observations supported the thought that soil properties respond to depths across the various types of land use [16]. On the other hand, understanding the effects of soil depth on the dynamics of soil properties under different succession stage is essential to establishing appropriate management options aimed at sustaining soil health and restoring degraded soils [17, 18]. A few years ago, CFSNBR was used as arable land. The legacy of management activity during this transition is reflected in the physical and chemical properties of soil years after abandonment / reforestation succession. The assessment of the quality of our soil resource has thus been simulated by a growing awareness that soil is a critical component of the Earth ‘s biosphere, not only in the production of food and fiber, but also in the protection of local, regional and global environmental sustainability [19–22]. In Russian and abroad there are studies on Podzolized soils properties and functional

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relationships between forest plant communities. However, most of the previous studies emphasized the growth performance of plant species with less exposure (attention) to morphological and physicochemical soil properties in the reforestation areas and lack of research studies on the qualitative and quantitative effects of succession reforestation on soil quality. In addition, the research work has concentrated solely on the top soil, without examining the characteristics of the distribution of horizons (soil depth) in different profiles. Provided that our analysis assessed & create better understanding on the relative dynamics of soils resources due to successional change in Central Forest State Nature Biosphere Reserve, Western part of Russia.

2 Materials and Methods Description of Studied Area Central Forest State Nature Biosphere Reserve is located in western part of European territory of Russia, in the immediate watershed of the upper Volga and Zapadnaya (West) Dvina Rivers at the southwestern edge of the Valdai highlands, (Fig. 1). It was first established in 1931 on 31 December. The territory’s climate is steadily humid and cold, with a weakly articulated 50-year portion of temperature and precipitation fluctuations. The average annual rainfall is 700 mm. The Reserve’s flora includes 1228 species of

Fig. 1. Location map of the study area, Central Forest Biosphere Reserve

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plants. The reserve is dominated by soil characteristic of the Southern Taiga zone in: sod-pale-medium and weakly podzolic, soddy-weakly and medium-podzolic, gleyous, agro-soddy podzolic, podzolic (gleyous), peat-podzolic, loamy, loamy podzolic gley (gley), peat-gley, peat, humus-humus gley [23], https://clgz.ru/, https://www.zapoved. net/index.php?option=com_mtree&task=viewlink&link_id=3708). Table 1. General characteristics (Morphology) of overgrown plant deposits Successional Stage & its characteristics

Projective degree of coverage, %

Closure of the crown, %

Dominant stand species (herbaceous & tree)

Meadow grass deposits (0-moment)

80–85

0

✓ Centaurea jacea L., Hypericum maculatum, Equisetum pratense, Bromopsis inermis (Leyss), Aegopodium podagraria L., Phleum pratense L., Elytrigia repens L, Alchemilla, Potentilla intermedia L., Agrostis capillary, Poa pratensis L., Trifolium pratense L.

Deposits overgrown with birch forests (20–30 years)

10–15

75–80

✓ Betula, Potentilla erecta L., Melampyrum nemorosum L., Alchillea millefolium, Poa pratensis L., Aegopodium podagraria L.

Deposits in the birch forest mixed with aspen and spruce (50–60 years)

60–65

70–75

✓ Populus tremuloides, Picea, Vaccinium myrtillus, Majanthemum bifolium, Festuca altissima, Equisetum sylvaticum, Carex nigra, Hepatica nobilis, Stellaria nemorum

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Soil Sampling and Laboratory Analysis Random representative sampling techniques were employed as a major survey tool [24]. For each site of deposits/succession/, the GPS navigator was geo-referenced and the profiles of the soils studied were compiled. Three major overgrown plant deposit i.e. successional age: Meadow Grass Deposits, Deposits Overgrown with birch Forests (2030years) & Deposits in the Birch Forest mixed with aspen and spruce (50-60years) were selected in CFSNBR (Fig. 1). Finally, three representative pedons were excavated at the site. After a proper identification of soil mapping units, three soil pits were opened and profiles described according to procedures and criteria indicated in [25]. The horizons for each pedons have been identified & described in situ in accordance with FAO guidelines for soil description [25, 26]. Details on the history of the deposits and the characteristics of the overgrown plant /successional stage/ have been taken from the written record (Table 1). Which means that the age of the plots was distinguished on the basis the history of the studied plots of forest-growing deposits (Krasnoye Urochishche), an analysis of the plans for forest-growing of the Central Forest Reserve (http://www.clg z.ru/), as well as a comparison of the spatial images (https://www.google.com/earth/). Samples of disturbed and undisturbed soil from each representative site were obtained. The soil was placed into plastic bags for disturbed composite soil samples, air-dried at room temperature, compressed, homogenized, and passed through a 2 mm sieve in the laboratory. All soil samples were analyzed following standard procedures and methods. (Table 2). Soil bulk density was determined on the undisturbed samples, collected at each soil horizon depth and was measured by collecting a known volume of soil using a metal ring pressed into the soil (intact core), and determining the weight after drying [27]. The soil pH was determined in H2 O (pH-H2 O) and 1M KCl (pH-KCl) using 1:2.5 soil to solution ratio using pH meter as described by [28]. Available soil phosphorus was determined by the Bray I extraction method and finally determined spectrophotometrically as described by [29]. The total N content in soil was determined through digestion, distillation and titration procedures of Kjeldahl method [30]. Determination of potassium compounds (K20) was determined on a flame photometer using a light filter with a maximum transmission range of 766–770 nm and a volumetric method was used for soil organic matter and soil organic carbon using [31]. The soil analysis was carried out in the soil testing laboratory of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences named after K.A. University of Timiryazev, Department of Ecology. Data Analysis Statistical variations between Successional Stage and soil depth were evaluated using ANOVA following the IBM SPSS version 25 General Linear Model (GLM) Method. For those properties which have been found to be significant different, Least Significance Difference (LSD) at 0.01 and 0.05 was used for mean separation. Correlation analysis was also carried out to detect relationships among soil variables.

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Table 2. Methods of analysis of different soil parameters Soil parameters

Methods

Material used

Bulk density

Intact core method

[27]

Total nitrogen

Kjeldahl method

[30]

Soil (pH-KCl) and Soil (pH-H2 O)

1:2.5 soil: water ratio

[28]

Availability mobile form of P2 O5

Bray I extraction method & spectrophotometrically

[29]

Content of mobile forms K2 O

Flame photometer

[31]

Soil Organic Matter

Volumetric method

Soil organic carbon (SOC)

3 Result and Discussion Successional Changes of Soils in the Chronological Sequence of Plant Deposits The studies were conducted in a chronological series of comparable sites on soddy-palepodzolic soil. In the three sites of different ages of deposits, the succession of soil changes due to overgrown plants. Soil Properties from soil profiles under different successional stage have been shown in Table 1 and Appendix. The analysis of the succession dynamics of the Podozolic soil properties in the upper and lower horizons of the soil profile showed that the depth of A and E as well as the C&D horizon (surface and subsurface horizon) in the overgrown area of the Podozolic soil were different in some properties, leading to the possibility that the reforestation sites might have been due to the supply of raw materials from the forest. Soil Bulk Density The soil bulk density was found significantly different across Successional Stage & soil depth (p < 0.05) and the values are shown in Table 3 & Table 4. Bulk density (BD) values ranged from 2.19 g/cm3 –1.48 g/cm3 with maximum density in MGD which was followed by DOB (20–30 years) & DBAS (50–60 years) respectively (Table 3). The lower bulk density was registered in DBAS (50–60 years) relative to MGD. The disturbed had a higher bulk density and a lower C content than the undisturbed stands indicating an effect on land use [32]. Higher bulk density values were observed in bare soils and the lowest values were associated with the afforestation site [33]. The reason for the lowest soil bulk density on the DBAS (50–60 years) could be due to a relatively high amount of organic matter content and availability of evergreen plants which increases the soil volume without affecting its weight and due to the less disturbance of the land under DBAS (50–60 years) which is in agreement with the result of [11, 13, 34–38]. The highest bulk density was found in MGD due to an anthropogenic factor in agreement to the results of [9, 17, 39, 40]. All the horizons mentioned were limited by the depth of parent materials relative to the creation of the soil horizon (Table 4, Appendix). The value of soil bulk density increased from the eluvial horizons to the iluvial horizons (Appendix). There are

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therefore profile differentiation processes leading to the formation of an initial morphologically expressed podzolic horizon. (Table 4 and Appendix). Variations in the nature of the horizon may indicate variations in the processes that have formed the soil and, in some cases, reflect anthropogenic impacts due to overweight and decrease in soil organic matter (SOM) as an increase in depth in line with [17, 41, 42]. Table 3. Soil Variables in relation to Successional Stage. Values are Mean ± SE. LSD is shown at p < 0.05. Soil variable

BD, g/cm3

Successional Stage & its characteristics

F

Meadow Grass Deposits Deposits 0 Moments Overgrown with birch Forests 20-30 years old

Deposits in the Birch Forest mixed with aspen and spruce age 50-60 years

2.19 ± 0.19

1.48 ± 0.11

1.49 ± 0.09

8.19

P

0.003

SOC, kg m−2

0.91 ± 0.36

2.09 ± 0.33

2.11 ± 0.42

3.65

0.041

SOM%

1.29 ± 0.31

2.18 ± 0.38

2.83 ± 0.48

3.95

0.037

N tot, %

0.051 ± 0.00

0.052 ± 0.01

0.053 ± 0.02

62.80

0.000

pH KCl

3.78 ± 0.06

3.88 ± 0.06

3.82 ± 0.05

0.76

0.482

pH H2 O

4.67 ± 0.15

4.89 ± 0.13

4.73 ± 0.05

0.83

0.452

P2 O5 mg/kg

121.7 ± 7.33

139.21 ± 11.62

92.18 ± 5.65

6.28

0.008

K2 O mg/kg

36.62 ± 5.03

63.98 ± 8.36

59.09 ± 9.79

3.85

0.039

Note: BD = Bulk Density, SOC = Soil organic Carbon, SOM = Soil organic matter, N tot = total nitrogen,

Soil Organic Carbon The result showed significant variations in soil organic carbon (SOC, %) with Successional Stage and soil depth (p < 0.05) (Table 3 & Table 4). The overall SOC concentration was higher under DBAS (50-60 years) (2.11 ± 0.42) and lower under MGD (0.91 ± 0.36), (Table 3). The SOC inventory follows the pattern: DBAS (50–60 years) > DOB (20- years) > MGD. Since in DBAS (50–60 years) Forest can store carbon by sequestering atmospheric carbon in the growth of wood biomass by photosynthesis, thus increasing the organic carbon content of the soil. Upper soil horizons with prevailing trend compaction, and accumulation-eluvial horizons studied a gradual increase in the total soil profile stock C org in upper soil profile horizons [6, 74]. Carbon concentrations in the surface soil at Pedon MGD are lower than those of at DBAS (50–60 years) and DOB (20–30 years), which could be a result from the lack of plant input, reduced organic matter input and increased decomposition rates causes total organic carbon contents decrease along with soil depth finding in line with [38, 44]. The concentrations of SOCs in Pedon under DBAS (50–60 years) were higher in 0–10 cm (2.63), 10–25 cm (3.91) and lower in Pedon under MGD in 0–10 cm (1.51) and

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10–25 cm (1.20) respectively (Appendix). Practices of reforestation have led to a rise in SOC, particularly in the top soil (first 25 cm) [45]. SOC stock showed a decreasing trend with soil depth that is certainly caused by shade and various plant decay that dissolves there and possibly the consequence of reduced amounts of organic materials (litter decay) and exposure of organic micro-aggregates to microbial decomposition by weaker physical defense of organic matter in the soil. (Table 4 and Appendix) this result is consistent with [17, 74]. In addition, due to the existence of a lower accumulation of organic matter in the subsurface layer resulting from lower underground root biomass, this is in line with [3, 46]. Soil Organic Matter Soil Organic Matter (SOM, %) varied significantly at (p < 0.05) Successional Stage and Soil depth (Table 3). The overall concentration of SOM was higher under DBAS (50–60 years) (2.83 ± 0.48) and lower under MGD (1.29 ± 0.31). Forest soils vary in the fractional composition of soil organic matter, soil usage significantly impacted the stability and size distribution of soil aggregates by increasing the SOM in soil [47]. The higher SOM recorded under DBAS (50–60 years) could have been due to the accumulation of plant residues in the upper few centimeters of soil depth, lower disturbance & large amounts of organic matter produced by litter decomposition each year are similar findings with [6]. This indicate that SOM had a strong response to the various successional stage supported by [48]. DBAS (50–60 years) can attributed to the continuous accumulation of decomposed surface soil plants, the high rate of infiltration and/or the minimizing of erosion agreed [49]. Lower SOM in MGD due to the prevalence of erosion, decomposition and disturbance of tillage equipment. Tillage combines different soil layers and reduces the microbial process to the cycling of nutrients. Increases the decomposition of organic matter capable of fastening soil acidity. This also improves the vulnerability of soil particles to oxidation and water loss during erosion similar with the results [50]. In our study, the maximum content of the sod-podzolic soil profile falls on the horizon of the humus associated with the biogenic accumulation of these elements in similar with the findings of [51]. Considering the soil depth, a higher amount of SOM was recorded on the top soil that disrupt soil aggregates and thus increase the aeration and microbial accessibility of SOM in consistency with [52]. The profile distribution of the main physicochemical properties of the sod- podzolic soils: a gradual increase in the density. This implies that the amount of SOM material presents in the horizons of the surface (A and E) is comparatively greater than the horizons of the subsurface (B, C, B(t)D). In A and E soil horizons the content of organic matter (OM) ranged from 2.42% in MGD to 4.28% in DBAS (50– 60 years), while in B, C and B(t)D it ranged from 0.18% in MGD to 1.61% in DBAS (50–60 years) respectively; (Table 4 and Appendix).This could be due to the fact that the biological activity in the surface horizons was relatively higher and decreased with the depth of the horizons that could be correlated with declining root biomass, increasing

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compaction, decreasing rooting and organic matter content aeration, nutrients and soil management effects in line with [53, 70]. Total Nitrogen Total Nitrogen was significantly different (p < 0.05) in a different Successional Stage and soil Depth. (Table 3). Higher total nitrogen (TN) was observed in DBAS (50–60 years) followed by DOB (20–30 years) and MGD respectively. This could be linked to the availability of different plant species, higher organic matter content and the highest dense forest in DBAS (50–60 years) in accordance with [59, 610Plants can also disrupt the carbon and nitrogen balance, and the amount of organic matter in the soil it consistent with the findings of [59, 60, 70]. Total nitrogen in MGD may have been lower because it removed important plant nutrients from the soil and therefore exerted soil fertility pressure. High rainfall, leaching loss of nitrate-N may also be a factor in the decline of TN in MGD resulting in a decreasing trend of TN with increased soil depth this result agrees with studies by [38, 72]. The total nitrogen content in the soil surface horizons ranged from 0.1% in MGD to 0.30% in DBAS (50–60 years), while it ranged from 0.02% in MGD to 0.22% in DBAS (50–60 years) in the subsurface horizons. (Appendix). Total N content of the soils showed a decreasing trend with soil depth. TN content of all land use types change significantly by the depth of soil, surface TN contents are greater than the deeper layer [71, 72]. Clearly, SOM and TN raise the surface soil due to significant quantities of root biomass, external inputs such as animal waste and other plant debris that remain in the top soil compared with the lower soil depths in line with [53]. Mobile Form of P2 O5 and K2 O Availability mobile form of P2 O5 was significantly affected by Successional Stage & Soil Depth (Table 3 and Table 4) (P < 0.05). The amount of available P2 O5 in DOB (20– 30 years) land tended to be higher than the other two deposits, while DBAS (50–60 years) was the lowest in P2 O5 . The results of [50] were similar. Soil phosphorus was shown to decrease concurrently with an increase in SOC following forestation (e.g. conifers) of former grassland, r-esult was in line with [66]. The low available P2 O5 concentration in DBAS (50–60 years) types could be due to the inherently low soil P and/or the presence of P in unavailable form. These results were similar to the findings of [61]. The second higher in P2 O5 contents in soils of MGD were due to continuous application of mineral P fertilizer for few years ago finding were similar with [44]. The P2 O5 concentration were lack of consistently decreased or increased in depth in our study may be due to no external source of phosphorus, no chemical and organic fertilizer especially after long-term afforestation. (Appendix). This result is in agreement with the findings reported by [64, 67]. In the case of soil depth, the highest (197.7 mg kg-1 ) of 0–10 cm and the lowest (76.5 mg kg-1 ) of the 55–70 cm P2 O5 content were recorded in the DOB (20–30 years) surface soil layer and DBAS (50–60 years), subsurface soil layer, respectively (Appendix). Content of mobile forms K2 O was significantly affected by the Successional Stage & soil depth at (p < 0.05) (Table 3 & Table 5). K2 O level in the DOB (20–30 years) (63.98 ± 8.36) was found to be higher than all other successional stage. The higher content of K2 O in DOB (20–30 years) may be due to the young trees & root system,

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141

which is trees functioning as a nutrient pump, extracting nutrients from deep subsoil horizons and recycling them through leaf fall into the surface layer [68].The occurrence of high rates of accessible K2 O in the DOB (20–30 years) could be attributed to the highest value of CEC of the sampled soils which indicate their greater storage capacity and supplying power of potassium, other than the rest of Successional Stage. However, those results are in contrast to the findings of [59] who reported no difference in K2 O in land use. Relatively the highest Content of mobile forms (K2 O) 97.33 mg kg-1 in topsoil and 57.05 mg kg-1 in the subsoil under DBAS (50–60 years) in a sampled depth. Whereas, the lowest value 52.65 mg kg-1 in topsoil and 25.70 mg kg-1 in the subsoil of K2 O in a sampled depth under MGD was attributed to high browsing, erosive nature of the soil (sandy soil) and high-level erosion (Table 5). Soil Reaction Soil reactions were highly acidic for all soil samples, according to [63] and www.nrcs. usda.gov soil pH classification. This was attributed to the overall acidity situation that may have arisen from the prevailing humid and cool weather conditions in the study areas, outcome agreement with [64]. Tests suggested that the soil pH (H2 O) and soil pH (KCL) values were not significantly affected by the Successional Stage and soil depth (p < 0.05) (Table 3 and Table 4). The absence of significant variation in soil pH with Successional Stage might be higher microbial oxidation that produces organic acids, which provide Al3 + and H + to the soil solution and, thereby, lowers soil and thereby increases soil acidity [64]. The soils found to be acidic in nature will have a narrow pH range between land use systems [34]. Although not Significant, soil pH value of H2 O (4.89 ± 0.13) & pH value of KCL (3.88 ± 0.06) was higher in DOB (20–30 years) than in the MGD pH value of H2 O (4.67 ± 0.1) and soil pH value of KCL (3.78 ± 0.06). (Table 3). The acidity was higher in MGD due to the loss of base forming cations downthe soil profiles, even beyond sampling depths, through leaching, depletion and removal of basic cations and drainage into streams in runoff generated from accelerated erosion as a result of continuous soil disturbance the result was in line with [44]. In forest area intake of fresh leaf falloff portions has led to an increase in the pH values of water and salt suspensions from litter and gray humus horizons, there may be a reason to reduce the mobility of aluminum and iron. Whereas opposed to our findings by [67] due to canopy, which causes the rain to form large drops, thereby increasing the leaching of basic cations as well as the release of organic acids associated with the mineralization of organic matter. In all of the identified representative Horizons, soil pH-H2 O values were consistently greater than the pH-KCl ones, which could be due to indicating the existence of net negative charges on the exchange complex which is agreed with the finding of [53]. The lower soil pH-KCl values could also indicate the presence of substantial quantity of exchangeable hydrogen and aluminum ion as outlined by [54]. The pH horizons of the soil were slightly higher in the DOB (20–30 years) due to the effects of organic matter trapping base cations compared to the MGD. In contrast, higher H2 O pH acidity at a depth of 35–55 cm (IIEBt horizons) and KCl pH at a depth of 85–100 cm (B3(t)(g) horizons) were observed in MGD. (Table 5). Even though there is little fluctuation in general, soil pH value increases with depth from the surface (0) to sub surface (130) cm for all the soil profiles of studied area as shown in Appendix. This suggests that

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the acidification process tend to be higher in the surface horizon than the subsoil. [54] reported that the high acidity in the surface soil was associated with contents of Al3+ , H+ and Fe2+ . Table 4. Soil depth effects on selected physical & chemical soil Variables Depth

Soil variables BD, g/cm3

SOC, kg m−2

SOM %

Ntot, %

pH KCl

pH H2 O

P2 O5 mg/kg

K2 O mg/kg

0–10

1.19 ± 0.15

2.22 ± 0.36

3.40 ± 0.53

0.18 ± 0.06

3.75 ± 0.02

4.73 ± 0.08

154.14 ± 23.67

82.73 ± 12.25

10–25

1.43 ± 0.16

3.57 ± 0.21

3.43 ± 0.46

0.16 ± 0.06

3.81 ± 0.06

4.83 ± 0.03

144.32 ± 23.57

72.97 ± 12.28

25–35

1.57 ± 0.12

2.04 -± 0.70

2.56 ± 0.53

0.12 ± 0.07

3.85 ± 0.10

4.82 ± 0.13

103.90 ± 7.26

55.94 ± 19.75

35–55

1.68 ± 0.15

1.39 ± 0.41

1.92 ± 0.31

0.10 ± 0.07

3.63 ± 0.09

4.66 ± 0.02

110.27 ± 13.15

49.41 ± 4.67

55–70

1.82 ± 0.19

1.17 ± 0.42

1.36 ± 0.29

0.10 ± 0.07

4.02 ± 0.09

5.04 ± 0.14

110.10 ± 17.90

33.09 ± 6.37

70–85

1.95 ± 0.27

0.92 ± 0.33

1.22 ± 0.25

0.09 ± 0.06

3.93 ± 0.08

4.52 ± 0.18

112.06 ± 12.95

37.02 ± 2.15

85_100

2.31 ± 0.57

0.76 ± 0.47

0.91 ± 0.32

0.03 ± 0.01

3.85 ± 0.11

4.58 ± 0.79

122.00 ± 9.50

43.15 ± 9.75

100–130

2.40 ± 0.58

0.62 ± 0.40

0.65 ± 0.47

0.02 ± 0.00

3.79 ± 0.03

4.95 ± 0.26

96.05 ± 3.65

39.75 ± 14.05

F value

10.641

22.148

29.973

25.535

2.371

0.635

9.882

5.314

P value

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.090

0.720

0.000

0.006

Relationships Between Response Variables and Successional Stage Pearson’s correlation coefficient study showed a positive and highly significant correlation (p < 0.01) between SOC and SOM (r = 0.91**), K2 O (r = 0.8**) & negative and highly significant correlation with the bulk density of soil (r = −0.772**) (Table 5). In addition, as like [55], there is a positive and significant association (p < 0.05) between SOC storage and TN content (r = 0.471*) in soil. The increase in N could support the fixation of soil C [56]. There was also a positive association (p < 0.05) between P2O5 and K2 O (r = 0.460*). The strong and positive association between SOM, SOC, K2 O and P2O5 shows that SOM contributes to the soils. Soil Variable is strongly associated with SOC fractions compared with land use or management practice [57]. The outcome of the bulk density association of Pearson was highly significant (p < 0.01) & negatively correlated with SOM (r = −0.847 **), K2 O, (r = −0.714 **) and total nitrogen (r = −0.521 *); (Table 5). As reported by [40], this is due to the application of organic materials from the plant system leading to a reduction in the density of bulk surface soil [58] also indicated that the compaction resulting from the weight of the top layer & It relates to the lower SOC and the impact of soil compaction.

Impact of Overgrown Plant Deposit on Physicochemical Properties

143

Table 5. Correlation coefficient (r-values) between Soil variables BD, SOC, kg SOM, % TN, % PH of g/cm3 m-2 KCL BD, g/cm3

1.00

SOC, kg m-2 SOM, % TN, % PH of KCL PH of H2 O P2 O5 mg/kg K2 O mg/kg

−0.77** −0.85** 1.00

PH of H2 O

P2 O5 mg/kg K2 O mg/kg

−0.52

−0.07 −0.33 −0.34

−0.71**

0.91**

0.47*

−0.01 0.14

0.37

0.80**

1.00

0.66** −0.14 0.07

0.30

0.85**

1.00

−0.09 −0.04 −0.31 1.00

0.40

0.44*

−0.10

−0.22

1.00

0.05

0.04

1.00

0.46* 1.00

**Correlation is significant at 0.01 level (2-tailed). *Correlation is significant at0.05 level (2tailed). Note: BD = Bulk Density, SOC = Soil organic Carbon, SOM = Soil organic matter, N tot = total nitrogen.

4 Conclusion Study have shown that Successional stage affect the podzolic soils in the Southern Taiga region. The SOC, BD, SOM, TN, P2 O5 and K2 O had significant differences under Successional Stage and soil depth at p < 0.05. Whereas there is no significant difference in the Soil PH of H2 O and PH of KCL across the Successional Stage & soil depth considered in the study area. This indicates that overgrown plant (composition and substitution of tree species) has a direct impact on the physicochemical properties & morphological characteristics of the soil as it transforms into forest soils (a distinct shift in sod-podzolic soil properties & depth of soil). As a result, Surface soil had higher in SOC, SOM & TN. However, in the subsurface layers as the depth increase the compaction of soil will be more which has less organic matter & carbon content. Higher BD has been observed in the subsurface horizons, while P2O5 and K2O are changeable in the surface and subsurface horizons. The correlation analysis showed both a negative and a positive as well as a significant, in some cases a non-significant relationship between soil variables. It was observed that succession on certain types of vegetation exert a profound influence on soils. Therefore, overgrown plant in different successional age is the most effective use to maximize and preserve favorable soil physicochemical properties. Acknowledgments. We appreciate the cooperation of Central Forest Nature Reserve workers and Timiryazev Ecology Laboratory workers.

Appendix Effects of Soil Depth & Succession on Selected Soil Physicochemical Properties

2.42

0.14

3.78

4.89

148. 42

58.4

Ntot,%

pH KCl

pH H2O

P2O5 mg/kg

K2O mg/kg

52.6 5

156. 1

4.83

3.75

0.11

2.68

19.5

111. 8

5

3.93

0.04

1.52

0.78

5.1

3.4 7

4.6 2

40. 95

21. 45

116 .2

4.0 5

0.0 3

115

0.0 3

1.3

40. 95

121 .2

4.4 7

3.7 7

0.0 3

0.7 5

0.8 4

33.4

112. 5

3.79

3.74

0.02

0.59

0.29

2.29

25.7

92.4

4.69

3.75

0.02

0.18

0.22

2.48

92. 47

19 7.7

4.7

3.7 1

0.1 1

3.5 7

2.5 3

1.0 4

0_ 10

SOM %

1.2

0.3 1

2.1 6

0.3 3

0.6 2

1.9 6

1.8 8

100_ 130

1.51

1.78

85_1 00

SOC, kg m -2

1.74

70_ 85

95.0 7

177. 96

4.77

3.75

0.09

3.33

3.61

1.33

10_2 5

87.3 7

110. 5

4.9

3.97

0.06

3.28

3.19

1.38

25_3 5

EA1( 30)

1.5

55_ 70

35_ 55

EA1( 20)

d,г/см3

25_ 35

IIIB C(g)

10_ 25

B3(t )(g)

0_1 0

IIB 1t

Respons e Variable

IIB t

A1 E

IIE Bt

A1P 2(20)

A1P 1(10)

A2F 3S

DOB (20-30 years)

MFD (0 Moments)

Successional stage

50. 22

130 .3

4.6 7

3.6 4

0.0 4

2.3

2.0 3

1.4 4

35_ 55

E

43. 4

137 .6

5.2 4

4.1 6

0.0 4

1.4

1.6 8

1.5 7

55_ 70

EB

36. 57

128 .47

4.2 5

4.0 3

0.0 3

1.2 9

1.4 5

1.6 4

70_ 85

B1F

52.9

131. 5

5.36

3.95

0.03

1.22

1.23

1.74

85_ 100

B2g s

53.8

99.7

5.21

3.82

0.02

1.12

1.01

1.82

100_ 130

IIBC F

97.3 3

116. 3

4.61

3.75

0.3

4.22

2.63

1.04

0_1 0

A1E (P)

71.2

98.9

4.89

3.93

0.27

4.28

3.91

1.21

10_ 25

EA1 (P)

60.9 5

89.4

4.56

3.65

0.25

2.88

2.14

1.56

25_ 35

E(f) (g)

DBAS (50-60 years)

57.0 5

85.5

4.69

3.78

0.24

2.15

1.52

1.64

35_ 55

EBF (g)

34.4 3

76.5

4.78

3.85

0.23

1.84

1.49

1.68

55_7 0

BF(g )90

33.5 5

86.5

4.85

3.98

0.22

1.61

1.01

1.72

70_ 100

B(t) D

144 S. M. Melese and I. I. Vasenev

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37. Mulugeta L.: Effects of land use changes on soil quality and native flora degradation and restoration in the highlands of Ethiopia: implication for sustainable land management. Presented to Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Ph.D. Dissertation, pp. 31– 44 (2004). ISSN 1401-6230, ISBN 91-576-6540-0. https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se: slu:epsilon-273 38. Molla, E., Gebrekidan, H., Mamo, T., Assen, M.: Effects of land use change on selected soil properties in the Tara Gedam Catchment and adjacent agroecosystems, north-west Ethiopia. Ethiop. J. Nat. Resour. 11(1): 35-62 (2009). https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ejst.v11i1.4 39. Takele, L., Chimdi, A., Abebaw, A.: Impacts of land use on selected physicochemical properties of soils of Gindeberet Area, Western Oromia, Ethiopia. Sci. Technol. Arts Res. J. 3(4), 36 (2015). https://doi.org/10.4314/star.v3i4.5 40. Kizilkaya, R., Dengiz, O.: Variation of land use and land cover effects on soil some physicochemical characteristics and soil enzyme activity. Zemdirbyste Agric. 97, 15–24 (2010). UDK 631.41:631.434:631.465:631.48 41. Cools, N., De Vos, B.: Sampling and analysis of soil. Manual part X, 208 pp. In: Manual on Methods and Criteria for Harmonized Sampling, Assessment, Monitoring and Analysis of the Effects of Air Pollution on Forests, UNECE, ICP Forests, Hamburg. ISBN 978-3-926301-03-1 (2010). https://www.icp-forests.org/Manual.htm 42. Fetene, E., Amera, M.: The effects of land use types and soil depth on soil properties of Agedit watershed, Northwest Ethiopia Ethiop. J. Sci. Technol. 11(1), 39–56 (2018).https://doi.org/ 10.4314/ejst.v11i1.4 43. Yihenew, G., Selassie, Ayanna, G.: Effects of different land use systems on selected physicochemical properties of soils in Northwestern Ethiopia. J. Agric. Sci. 5(4) (2013) 44. Selassie, Y., Anemut, F., Addisu, S.: The effects of land use types, management practices and slope classes on selected soil physico-chemical properties in Zikre watershed, North-Western Ethiopia. Environ. Syst. Res. 4, 3 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40068-015-0027-0 45. Muñoz-Rojas, M., Jordán, A., Zavala, L.M., De la Rosa, D., Abd-Elmabod, S.K., AnayaRomero, M.: Impact of land use and land cover changes on organic carbon stocks in Mediterranean soils (1956–2007). Land Degradation Develop. 26(2), 168–179 (2015). https://doi. org/10.1002/ldr.2194 46. Mikola, J., Yeates, G., Barker, G., Wardle, D., Bonner, K.: Effects of defoliation intensity on soil food-web properties in an experimental grassland community. Oikos 92(2), 333–343 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1034/j.1600-0706.2001.920216.x 47. Zhao, J., Chen, S., Hu, R., Li, Y.: Aggregate stability and size distribution of red soils under different land uses integrally regulated by soil organic matter, and iron and aluminum oxides. Soil Tillage Res. 167, 73–79 (2017) 48. Vågen, T.-G., Winowiecki, L.A., Abegaz, A., Hadgu, K.M.: Landsat-based approaches for mapping of land degradation prevalence and soil functional properties in Ethiopia. Remote Sens. Environ. 134, 266–275 (2013) 49. Morgan, M.F.: Chemical diagnosis by the universal soil testing system. In: Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 450. USA (1941) 50. Mulugeta, D., Karl, S.: Assessment of integrated soil and water conservation measures on key soil properties in south Gondar, North-Western Highlands of Ethiopia. J. Soil Sci. Environ. Manage. 1(7), 164–176 (2010). https://www.academicjournals.org/JSSEM 51. Gracheva, N.M.: The influence of anthropogenic pollution on the forest-growing properties of sod-podzolic (Moscow: Moscow Order of Lenin and The Order of Labor of The Red Banner Timiryazev Agricultural Academy) (1992) 52. Solomon, D., Lehmann, J., Mamo, T., Fritzsche, F., Zech, W.: Phosphorus forms and dynamics as influenced by land use changes in the sub-humid Ethiopian highlands. Geoderma 105(1–2), 21–48 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1016/S0016-7061(01)00090-8

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Culturable Airborne Fungi of Urban, Forest and Coastal Areas of the Kola Peninsula Maria V. Korneykova1,2(B) , Anastasia S. Soshina2 , and Olga V. Gavrichkova3 1 RUDN University, Moscow, Russia 2 Institute of North Industrial Ecology Problems – Subdivision of the Federal Research Centre,

“Kola Science Centre of Russian Academy of Science”, Apatity, Russia 3 Institute of Research on Terrestrial Ecosystems, National Research Council,

05010 Porano, Italy http://www.rudn.ru, http://inep.ksc.ru

Abstract. The quantitative and qualitative indicators of airborne fungi of different areas on the territory of the Kola Peninsula, which is part of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, were evaluated. The air above the coast was the cleanest, the number of culturable airborne fungi varied from 11 to 75 CFU/m3 compared to the 55–260 CFU/m3 in the forest and 350 CFU/m3 in the city. In the urban environment, there was an increase in the species diversity of fungi, the appearance of new species from genera Alternaria, Torula, Aspergillus, Paecilomyces, Penicillium, Oidiodendron, Pseudogymnoascus, Acremonium, and Acaulium, that are not found in the forest and coastal areas. In the city, the changes in the species structure of airborne fungi community were revealed. On the coast, Penicillium decumbens, P. raistrickii dominated; in the forest, P. raistrickii, Aureobasidium pullulans and fungi with white sterile mycelium dominated; in the city, Cladosporium cladosporioides, Aspergillus fumigatus, Penicillium glabrum prevailed. In the city, the increase (up to 60%) in the portion of pathogenic, allergenic and toxigenic fungi compared to the forest and coastal areas was found. Keywords: Colony-forming units (CFU) · Taxonomic diversity · Airborne fungi · Opportunistic fungi · Arctic zone

1 Introduction Aeromycology, the study of the dispersal of fungal spores in the air, is actively studied all over the world. However, the number, distribution, and composition of fungal spores are studied primarily from the perspective of risk assessment for human health indoors (Antropova et al., 2003; Petrova-Nikitina et al. 2000; Zheltikova et al. 2004). The distribution of airborne fungi outdoors, in both natural and anthropogenic areas, is studied considerably less (Marfenina et al. 2011; Wen-Hai and Li 2000). Nevertheless, it is known that the composition of airborne fungi in open spaces depends on many factors (e.g., climate, level of anthropogenic load), and it has a significant impact on the health of people living in local region. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 V. Vasenev et al. (Eds.): SSC 2020, SPRINGERGEOGR, pp. 150–160, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9_14

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The Kola Peninsula is part of the Arctic Zone and is characterized by severe natural and climatic conditions, such as low temperatures, high relative humidity, and heavy aerodynamic conditions. The immune systems of people of the Far North are extremely unstable and very susceptible to negative effects (mycoses, allergic reactions and other diseases of the respiratory system). In this regard, fungi with toxic, allergenic, and pathogenic properties pose a threat to human health (Marfenina 2007). It is necessary to monitor airborne fungi content in the air and develop recommendations to reduce potential health risks. The purpose of this work is to study airborne fungi in urban, forest and coastal areas on the territory of the Kola Peninsula: to assess the quantitative (number of CFU) and qualitative parameters (species diversity) of fungal complexes, to determine the portion of opportunistic fungi and to compare these parameters for different areas.

2 Materials and Methods Site Descriptions. Airborne fungi were sampled at three areas on the Kola Peninsula: Apatity city, a pine forest, and a bluff on the Barents Sea coast (Fig. 1). The urban area was in the city center near traffic (67°57’N 33°41’E). The forest area was in the central part of the Kola Peninsula (67°12’N 32°25’E). The coastal area was at the Kola Gulf close to the Dalnie Zelentcy settlement (69°05’N 35°58’E).

Fig. 1. Map of sampling sites.

Sample Procedure. Sampling of airborne fungi was carried out in 2019 from May to September once per month at 11 am with a PU1B Sampler (Himko, Russia). Airborne fungi were deposited on the wort agar nutrient medium with lactic acid addition. This medium covers a higher diversity of fungi. Totally 192 air samples in different areas were collected and analyzed. We passed from 250 to 350 L of air, depending on the expected degree of contamination, at each site in 3 replications at a height of 1.2 m.

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Calculation. The amount of the airborne fungi was expressed as CFU per 1 m3 according to the formula: C = P × K, where P is the number of colonies on the Petri dish, K – permanent coefficient (K = 4, with the volume of air passed 250 L, K = 2.86, with the volume of air passed 350 L). Fungi Identification. Identification of fungi was carried out according to cultural and morphological characteristics (Klich 2002; Domsh et al. 2007; Seifert et al. 2011). We determined the portion of fungi dangerous for humans (allergenic, toxigenic and opportunistic fungi) to the total CFU of identified species in each location (Hoog et al. 2011; Sanitary Rules 1.3.2322-08; Satton et al. 2001).

3 Results and Discussion

СFU/m3

CFU Number of Airborne Fungi Currently, several limiting concentrations of fungal spores in the air that are safe for human are proposed: 500 CFU/m3 (Human Development Report, 1990), 1000 CFU/m3 (US Occupational Safety and Health Administration, 1992) (OSHA.., 1992), 300 CFU/m3 (Indoor Air Quality Association (IAQA), 1995). The most common level currently considered is 500 CFU/m3 . The number of CFU in the air of various areas (urban, coastal and forest) was lower than this indicator. The number of airborne fungi on the Barents Sea coast varied from 11 to 75 CFU/m3 during the summer (Fig. 2). The air above the coast was relatively clean due to the absence of industrial enterprises and traffic. In contrast, the number of airborne fungi in the city was maximum and varied from 50 to 350 CFU/m3 . This result was quite expected, since the air in the urban environment is constantly polluted by people, transport, and industrial emissions. In addition, urban green infrastructure is usually represented by a rich diversity of plant species and contributes to the microbiological composition of the air. At the same time, the high 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 Coastal

Urban

Forest

Fig. 2. CFU of airborne fungi in the different areas.

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concentration of fungi in the forest area (from 55 to 260 CFU/m3 ) was unexpected. This can be explained by the high natural content of fungi from abundant vegetation, which is predominant in quantity but less diverse in composition than in the forest zone. For comparison, in the cities of southern regions, the number of culturable fungi in the summer period was: up to 1500 CFU/m3 in Moscow (Marfenina et al. 2011), up to 2750 CFU/m3 in Yokohama, Japan (Takahashi 1997), up to 800 CFU/m3 in SaintPetersburg (Bogomolova et al. 2012). Diversity of Airborne Fungi The lowest taxonomic diversity of fungi was in the coastal area with 12 species belonging to 6 genera, 6 families, 6 orders, 5 classes, and 2 divisions (Table 1). The same number of species was identified in the air of the forest and in the city —27 for each. However, in the urban area, diversity of genera, families, and orders was higher than in the forest zone. Thus, fungi in the urban area belonged to 13 genera, 11 families, 9 orders, 5 classes, and 2 divisions, whereas the forest contained 9 genera, 8 families, 8 orders, 6 classes, and 2 divisions. The species composition of airborne fungi community differed significantly for different areas. The high similarity was found for fungi community of coastal and forest areas (50%) while the similarity of the species composition of fungi of the coastal and urban areas was low (only 20%). These data are confirmed by a dendrogram for similar species composition of airborne fungi community in the different areas (Fig. 3). Only 3 species of fungi (Juxtiphoma eupyrena, Penicillium raistrickii, and P. spinulosum), as well as fungi with sterile mycelium were found in all areas. The urban fungal community included 27 species, 18 of which were found only in this area. These are fungi genera Alternaria, Torula, Aspergillus, Paecilomyces, Penicillium, Oidiodendron, Pseudogymnoascus, Acremonium, and Acaulium. The airborne fungi community of the forest is also represented by 27 species, 14 of which were found only in this area. These are fungi genera Cladosporium, Aureobasidium, Penicillium, Acremonium, Sclerotinia, and Mortierella. In the air of the coastal area, there were only 3 species that were not isolated in other habitats: Periconia macrospinosa, Verticillium terrestre, and Gliomastix roseogrisea. The specificity of the airborne fungi community for each zone is determined by the characteristics of the habitat. So in the urban area, there are species of dark-pigmented fungi that are known to be resistant to external factors, as well as genera of fungi belonging to the pathogen group Aspergillus, Alternaria, Torula. In the forest appear fungiepiphytes, as well as phytopathogens on the coast - fungi of marine habitats, which are probably brought by air currents from the sea. Urban airborne fungi community significantly differed from others in structure. On the coast, Penicillium decumbens, P. raistrickii dominated in abundance; in the forest, P. raistrickii, Aureobasidium pullulans and fungi with light-colored sterile mycelium dominated; in the city, Cladosporium cladosporioides, Aspergillus fumigatus, Penicillium glabrum prevailed.

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M. V. Korneykova et al. Table 1. Taxonomic diversity of airborne fungi in different areas.

Species

Area Coastal

Urban

Forest

Ascomycota, Pezizomycotina, Dothideomycetes, Dothideomycetidae, Capnodiales, Cladosporiaceae *Cladosporium cladosporioides (Fresen.) G.A. de Vries

+

*C. herbarum (Pers.) Link

+

*C. oxysporum Berk. & M.A. Curtis

+

+

Dothideales, Saccotheciaceae *Aureobasidium melanogenum (Herm.-Nijh.) Zalar, Gostinˇcar & Gunde-Cim.

+

*A. pullulans (de Bary & Löwenthal) G. Arnaud

+

+

+

+

Pleosporomycetidae, Pleosporales, Didymellaceae *Juxtiphoma eupyrena (Sacc.) Valenz.-Lopez, Crous, Stchigel, Guarro & Cano

+

Incertae sedis Periconia macrospinosa Lefebvre & Aar.G. Johnson

+

Pleosporaceae *Alternaria alternata (Fr.) Keissl.

+

Cemectvo Torulaceae Torula herbarum (Pers.) Link

+

Eurotiomycetes, Eurotiomycetidae, Eurotiales, Aspergillaceae *Aspergillus flavus Link

+

*A. fumigatus Fresen.

+

*A. niger Tiegh.

+

*A. versicolor (Vuill.) Tirab.

+

*A. wentii Wehmer

+

*Paecilomyces variotii Bainier

+

Penicillium adametzii K.W. Zaleski

+

+ (continued)

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Table 1. (continued) Species

Area Coastal

*P. aurantiogriseum Dierckx

Urban

Forest

+

P. chermesinum Biourge

+

P. citreonigrum Dierckx

+

*P. citrinum Thom

+

*P. commune Thom

+

P. corylophilum Dierckx

+

*P. decumbens Thom

+

+

P. dierckxii Biourge

+

*P. glabrum (Wehmer) Westling

+

P. hirsutum Dierckx

+

P. hirsutum var. hirsutum Dierckx

+

P. implicatum Biourge P. jensenii K.W. Zaleski

+ +

+

*P. miczynskii K.W. Zaleski

+

P. multicolor Grig.-Man. & Porad.

+

P. nalgiovense Laxa

+

P. raistrickii G. Sm.

+

+

+

P. restrictum J.C. Gilman & E.V. Abbott

+

+ +

*P. simplicissimum (Oudem.) Thom

+

*P. spinulosum Thom

+

P. thomii Maire

+

+ +

+ +

Leotiomycetes, Leotiomycetidae, Erysiphales, Amorphothecaceae Oidiodendron griseum Robak

+

Helotiales, Sclerotiniaceae Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib.) de Bary

+ (continued)

The similarity of the dominant species in the cities of different climatic zones was revealed. They are characterized by the dominance of dark-pigmented fungi gg. Cladosporium, Alternaria (Takahashi, 1997; Bogomolova et al., 2012), especially in the

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M. V. Korneykova et al. Table 1. (continued)

Species

Area Coastal

*Verticillium terrestre (Pers.) Sacc.

Urban

Forest

+

Thelebolales, Thelebolaceae *Pseudogymnoascus pannorum (Link) Minnis & D.L. Lindner

+

Sordariomycetes, Hypocreomycetidae, Hypocreales, Incertae sedis *Acremonium felinum (Marchal) + Kiyuna, K.D. An, R. Kigawa & Sugiy.

+

*A. rutilum W. Gams

+

*Acremonium. sp *Gliomastix roseogrisea (S.B. Saksena) Summerb.

+ +

Microascales, Microascaceae *Acaulium acremonium (Delacr.) Sand.-Den., Guarro & Gené

+

Mucoromycota, Mortierellomycotina, Mortierellomycetes, Incertae sedis, Mortierellales, Mortierellaceae Mortierella alpina Peyronel

+

Mucoromycotina, Mucoromycetes, Incertae sedis, Mucorales, Mucoraceae *Mucor plumbeus Bonord.

+

Umbelopsidomycetes, Incertae sedis, Umbelopsidales, Umbelopsidaceae Umbelopsis isabellina (Oudem.) W. Gams

+

+

Incertae sedis Sterilia mycelia

+

+

+

Note: * - potentially pathogenic fungi

autumn period (Marfenina et al. 2011). The air of forest fungal communities in different climatic zones differed significantly. Opportunistic Fungi Scientists from different countries use differing classifications of fungi dangerous to human health. One of the most common is the Hoog’s classification (2011), which divided fungi into three groups according to their potential health hazards: BSL1 (low), BSL2 (medium), and BSL3 (high). The abundance of potentially pathogenic fungi of the BSL1 and BSL2 groups in an environment is much wider since they can assimilate a wide range of substrates. In Russia, the classification of fungi by pathogenicity groups

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Fig. 3. Dendrogram of airborne fungi species similarity at the different areas.

(Sanitary and epidemiological rules 1.3.2322-08) is reverse numbered (I–IV in descending order of risk to the human health). Most pathogens of opportunistic mycoses belong to the IV group of pathogenicity. Special attention is also paid to a group of allergenic fungi, many of which are also potentially pathogenic. In the urban air, there was an increase in the portion of fungi that pose a threat to human health to 70%, in comparison with the coastal area and in the forest, where the portion of pathogenic fungi was 50–55%. In the last two cases, the largest number of pathogenic species belonged to the genus Penicillium. In the forest, a group of potentially dangerous fungi is also represented by gg. Cladosporium, Aureobasidium, Acremonium. In the city, pathogenic species are mostly represented by fungi of the genus Aspergillus and slightly less by the genus Penicillium. It should be noted that fungi of the genus Aspergillus are one of the most dangerous and cause severe diseases of the respiratory system, as well as internal and external mycoses. Based on the international classification, data analysis showed that only fungi belonging to the BSL1 group were identified near the sea and their portion was about 30% of the total number of isolated species (Fig. 4). In the forest and in the city, the portion of pathogenic fungi was higher, and the appearance of species belonging to the BSL2 group was noted. In the forest, their number was maximum. According to the Russian classification, pathogenic fungi belonging to the IV hazard group are marked on the coast. Their portion was 60%. In the urban area, the amount of pathogens also increased due to the appearance of fungi belonging to the III hazard group. Both III and IV hazard groups were identified in the forest. Thus, the analysis of two classifications (international and Russian) allows us to conclude that the most cleanest air on the coast. It does not contain fungi belonging to the BSL2 group according to international classification nor to the III hazard group according to the Russian one.

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А

Fig. 4. The relative abundance of potentially pathogenic, allergenic, and toxigenic species in the air of coastal (A), urban (B) and forest (C) zones.

To assess the portion of fungi that can cause allergic reactions, the difference between areas is more significant. Thus, the portion of allergenic species increased to 60% in the city, whereas on the coast it was only 15%, and in the forest was about 40% (Fig. 4). The portion of toxigenic fungi in the air of forest and the city was the same and amounted to almost 60%, compared to 40% on the coast. I – According to Satton et al. (2001); de Hoog et al. (2011): ( 1) pathogenic microfungi of the BSL2 group, ( 2) pathogenic microfungi of the BSL1 group; II – According to the sanitary and epidemiologic rules 1.3.2322-08 (2008): ( 3) potentially pathogenic microfungi (group III), ( 4) potentially pathogenic microfungi (group IV); III – According to Vijay et al. 2005; Niedoszytko et al. 2007; Simon-Nobbe et al. 2007; Beezhold et al. 2008; Benndorf et al. 2008; Das et al. 2010; Ovet et al. 2012: ( 5) allergenic species; IV - According to Hamshou et al. 2010; Rosa et al. 2010; Fallon et al., 2011; Chekryga 2014; Darsih et al. 2015; Bignell et al. 2016; Diniz 2016; Antipova et al. 2018; Sahib 2019 : ( 6) toxigenic species; ( 7) – microfungi that are not marked as pathogenic, allergenic, or toxigenic species.

4 Conclusion Thus, a comparison of quantitative and qualitative parameters of airborne fungi at three areas allows us to conclude that the air of the coastal territory was the cleanest. In the city, the number of airborne fungi increased by an order of magnitude compared to the coastal areas of the Kola Peninsula. In urban and forest ecosystems, the diversity of species increased, and species that are specific to a particular habitat appear. For

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the most part, these are dark-pigmented and potentially pathogenic fungi. In the city, the portion of pathogenic, allergenic, and toxigenic fungi was maximum compared to the forest and coastal zones. This can probably be explained by the large number of sources of pollution in the city (vehicles, industry, household garbage, etc.), as well as the variety of vegetation. In the urban environment of the northern part of Russia, the appearance of fungi characteristic of the southern regions is noted: for example, fungi of the genera Aspergillus, Alternaria. A similar trend was previously detected in the region near industrial enterprises. Acknowledgments. This research was funded by state task AAAA-A18-118021490070-5 and partially supported by the RFBR 19-05-50112 grant.

References Antipova, T.V., Zhelifonova, V.P., Baskunov, B.P., Kochkina, G.A., Ozerskaya, S.M., Kozlovskii, A.G.: Exometabolites the Penicillium fungi isolated from various high-latitude ecosystems. Microbiology 87(5), 642–651 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1134/S002626171805003X Antropova, A.B., Mokeeva, V.L., Bilanenko, E.N.: Indoor aeromycota in Moscow. Mycol. Phytopathol. 37(6), 1–11 (2003). (in Russian) Beezhold, D.H., Green, B.J., Blachere, F.M., Schmechel, D., Weissman, D.N., Velickoff, D., Hogan, M.B., Wilson, N.W.: Prevalence of allergic sensitization to indoor fungi in West Virginia. Allergy Asthma Proc. 29(1), 29–34 (2008). https://doi.org/10.2500/aap2008.29.3076 Benndorf, D., Müller, A., Bock, K., Manuwald, O., Herbarth, O., von Bergen, M.: Identification of spore allergens from the indoor mould Aspergillus versicolor. Allergy 63(4), 454–460 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1398-9995.2007.01603.x Bignell, E., Cairns, T.C., Throckmorton, K., Nierman, W.C., Keller, N.P.: Secondary metabolite arsenal of an opportunistic pathogenic fungus. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B, Biol. Sci. 371(1709), 20160023 (2016) https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0023 Chekryga, G.P.: Ecological factors in the formation of microbiota and the method of its regulation in the products of honey bees. Dr. Sci. Thesis, Krasnoobsk, Russia (2014). (in Russian) Darsih, C., Prachyawarakorn, V., Wiyakrutta, S., Mahidol, C., Ruchirawat, S., Kittakoop, P.: Cytotoxic metabolites from the endophytic fungus Penicillium chermesinum: discovery of a cysteine-targeted Michael acceptor as a pharmacophore for fragment-based drug discovery, bioconjugation and click reactions. RSC Adv. 5(86), 70595–70603 (2015). https://doi.org/10. 1039/c5ra13735g Das, S., Saha, R., Dar, S.A., Ramachandran, V.G.: Acremonium species: a review of the etiological agents of emerging Hyalohyphomycosis. Mycopathologia 170, 361–375 (2010). https://doi.org/ 10.1007/s11046-010-9334-1 de Hoog, G.S., Guarro, J., Gené, J., Figueras, M.J.: Atlas of clinical fungi. CD-ROM vers. 3.1. CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre, Utrecht, The Netherlands (2011) Diniz, S.D., Paulo, S.: Mycotoxins: Biochemical Approach. Editora Albatroz (2016) Domsch, K.H., Gams, W., Anderson, T.H.: Compendium of Soil Fungi, second ed, IHW–Verlag, Eching (2007) Fallon, J.P., Reeves, E.P., Kavanagh, K.: The Aspergillus fumigatus toxin fumagillin suppresses the immune response of Galleria mellonella larvae by inhibiting the action of haemocytes. Microbiology 157(5), 1481–1488 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.043786-0 Hamshou, M., Smagghe, G., Shahidi-Noghabi, S., De Geyter, E., Lannoo, N., Van Damme, E.J.: Insecticidal properties of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum agglutinin and its interaction with insect tissues and cells. Insect Biochem. Mol. Biol. 40(12), 883–890 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.ibmb.2010.08.008

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Klich, M.A.: Identification of Common Aspergillus Species. CBS Fungal Biodiversity Centre, Utrecht (2002) Marfenina, O.E., Fomicheva, G.M.: Potentially pathogenic mycelial fungi in the human environment. Current trends. In: Dyakov, Y.T., Sergeev, Y.V. (eds.) Mycology Today, vol. 1, p. 376. National Academy of Mycology, Moscow (2007) Marfenina, O.E., Makarova, N.V., Ivanova, A.E.: Opportunistic moulds in soils and upper soil air layers in megapolis (on an example of region Tushino, Moscow). Mycology and Phytopathology. 45(5), 397–407 (2011). (in Russian) Niedoszytko, M., Chełmi´nska, M., Jassem, E., Czestochowska, E.: Association between sensitization to Aureobasidium pullulans (Pullularia sp) and severity of asthma. Ann. Allergy Asthma Immunol. 98(2), 153–156 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1016/s1081-1206(10)60688-6 Ovet, H., Ergin, C., Kaleli, I.: Investigation of mold fungi in air samples of elementary schools and evaluation of allergen-specific IgE levels in students’ sera. Mikrobiyol. Bul. 46(2), 266–275 (2012) Petrova-Nikitina, A.D., Mokeeva, V.L., Zheltikova, T.M., Chekunova, L.M., Antropova, A.B., Mokronosova, M.A., Bilanenko, E.N., Sizova, T.P.: Mycobiota of house dust in Moskow. Mycol. Phytopathol. 34(3), 25–33 (2000). (in Russian) Rosa, C.A., Keller, K.M., Oliveira, A.A., Almeida, T.X., Keller, L.A., Marassi, A.C., Kruger, C.D., Deveza, M.V., Monteiro, B.S., Nunes, L.M., Astoreca, A., Cavaglieri, L.R., Direito, G.M., Eifert, E.C., Lima, T.A., Modernell, K.G., Nunes, F.I., Garcia, A.M., Luz, M.S., Oliveira, D.C.: Production of citreoviridin by Penicillium citreonigrum strains associated with rice consumption and beriberi cases in the Maranhão State. Brazil. Food Addit. Contam. Part A. 27(2), 241–248 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1080/19440040903289712 Sahib, R.A.: The effects of toxic compounds of cladosporium herbarum on hormones of female rats and ability of ascorbic acid to decrease growth of C. herbarum. Int. J. Pharm. Sci. Res. 11(3), 1136–1139 (2019) Sanitary-and-epidemiologic rules 1.3.2322-08 (2008): Safety of work with microorganisms of the III-IV groups of pathogenicity (danger) and causative agents of parasitic diseases » . Rospotrebnadzor, Moscow. (in Russian) Satton, D., Fotergill, A., Rinaldi, M.: Key Pathogenic and Conditionally Pathogenic Fungi. Mir, Moscow (2001). (in Russian) Seifert, K.A., Morgan-Jones, G., Gams, W., Kendrick, B.: The Genera of Hyphomycetes. CBS, Reus, Utrecht (2011) Simon-Nobbe, B., Denk, U., Pöll, V., Rid, R., Breitenbach, M.: The spectrum of fungal allergy. Int. Arch. Allergy Immunol. 145(1), 58–86 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1159/000107578 Vijay, H.M., Abebe, M., Kumar, V., DeVouge, M., Schrader, T., Thaker, A., Comtois, P., EscamillaGarcia, B.: Allergenic and mutagenic characterization of 14 Penicillium species. Aerobiologia 21(2), 95–103 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10453-005-4179-7 Wen-Hai, L., Li, C.-S.: Associations of fungal aerosols, air pollutants, and meteorological factors. Aerosol Sci. Technol. 32, 359–368 (2000) Zheltikova, T.M., Antropova, A.B., Petrova-Nikitina, A.D., Mokeeva, V.L., Bilanenko, E.N., Chekunova, L.N.: Ecology of residential premises and Allergy. Allergology 3, 37–39 (2004). (in Russian) Bogomolova, Ye.V., Velikova, T.D., Goryayeva, A.G., Ivanova, A.M., Kirtsideli, I.Yu., Lebedeva, Ye.V., Mamayeva, N.Yu., Panina, L.K., Popikhina, Ye.A., Smolyanitskaya, O.L., Trepova, Ye.S.: Microfungi in the air of Saint Petersburg. P.C. Khimizdat, Saint Peterburg, Russia (2012). (in Russian) Takahashi, T.: Airborne fungal colony-forming units in outdoor and indoor environments in Yokohama, Japan. Mycopathologia 139(1), 23–33 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:100683 1111595

Toxic Cyanobacteria in the Arctic Lakes: New Environmental Challenges. A Case Study Dmitrii B. Denisov1(B) , Ekaterina N. Chernova2 , and Iana V. Russkikh2 1 Institute of North Industrial Ecology Problems, Subdivision of the Federal Research Center

“Kola Science Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences”, Apatity, Russia 2 St. Petersburg Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SPC RAS) Scientific Research Centre for Ecological Safety of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia http://inep.ksc.ru

Abstract. From the beginning of the XXI century, due to eutrophication along with arctic climate warming, algae blooms have become a typical feature in the waters of some areas, along with an increase in the proportion of cyanoprokaryota in the plankton. The presence of toxic cyanobacteria in arctic Imandra Lake (N67,57° E32,89°) have been found since 2006. Sporadic cases of HABs (bloom spots) were caused by cyanobacteria Dolichospermum lemmermannii. Its biomass reached to 85.2 mg/L in bloom spots, where cyanotoxin presence was evaluated using mass-spectrometry method. The profile of the detected toxins was represented by arginine-containing congeners of microcystins (MC-LR, MC-RR and their demethylated forms). In 2017, MC-LR concentration exceeded the WHO standard for drinking water more than twice, which creates new risks to public health especially in drinking and fishery water bodies. Keywords: Harmful algal blooms · Arctic lakes · Cyanobacteria · Toxins · Environmental challenges

1 Introduction Surface waters are a natural resource that largely determines the economic and social development of the Arctic regions, including such important industries as energy, fishing, aquaculture, tourism, recreation, etc., and also serves as a source of drinking water and food. Lakes and rivers are associated with the cultural heritage of indigenous peoples and are an integral part of their living environment. Moreover, they are the most vulnerable components of the Arctic nature. A deterioration in water quality, and decrease of the hydrobionts biodiversity have been noted in many lakes of the industrial regions of the Arctic. Industrial impact is a powerful factor in eutrophication and water pollution. United influence of arctic climate warming and environmental pollution reduces the stability of aquatic ecosystems, their socio-economic significance. Negative changes are possible in the most important sectors of the economy for the region: health care, energy, commercial fishing, aquaculture, tourism, which will cause social tension due to a deterioration in the quality of life. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 V. Vasenev et al. (Eds.): SSC 2020, SPRINGERGEOGR, pp. 161–170, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9_15

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The problem of the harmful algae blooms (HABs) of potentially toxic Cyanobacteria has acquired a global scale. HABs studies of a various water objects have been widely developed all over the world (Stroom Kardinaal 2016; Elliott 2012; Paerl and Paul 2012; Ernst et al. 2009), including Russian Federation (Chernova et al. 2017; Chernova et al. 2019). Currently, these phenomena have become regular for lakes of the Arctic zone, which poses a new environmental challenge to the quality of water and hydrobiological resources in the region. It is known that cyanobacteria can produce highly toxic metabolites. The most widespread among cyanobacterial toxins in freshwater systems are microcystins (MCs) − chemically stable cyclic peptide hepatotoxins (van Apeldoorn et al. 2007). Potentially toxic cyanobacteria can cause not only fish death, but also harm the population health. In this regard, the study of Cyanobacteria in freshwater bodies of the urban Arctic region and the assessment of their ecosystem role seems to be one of the most urgent ecological challenges.

2 Materials and Methods Lake Imandra (Murmansk region) (N67,57° E32,89°) is one of the largest Arctic reservoirs of major socio-economic importance (Fig. 1). On the Imandra Lake catchments, there are large industrial enterprises of the metallurgical and apatite industry. The Lake has been used as a cooling reservoir for the nuclear power plant and for technical and drinking water supply. Long-term industrial pollution and anthropogenic impact led to the ecosystem environment changes, namely significant hydrogeochemical heterogeneity in different parts of the Imandra Lake, as well as a large deviation of hydrochemical parameters, which affected the biota in a great extent (Moiseenko et al. 2002, 2009; Moiseenko and Denisov 2019; Terentyeva et al. 2017). Water samples have been collected regularly in the sampling stations in a summer period during 2006–2017 (Fig. 1). Water chemistry was determined at the resource sharing center of the Institute of North Industrial Ecology Problems (INEP) Kola SC RAS using the same methods described in Guidelines (1977) and Standard Method (1975). For the quality control of the measurements of pH and alkalinity the specialized ALPEFORM software suite was used, including an assessment of ion balance, measured and calculated electrical conductivity. The quality of the laboratory analytical measurements was evidenced by annual international verification (NIVA 2016). The phytoplankton sampling and analysis were performed following the Russian state’s standards (1982) and the standard techniques recommended in Guidance on Methods and Guidance on Hydrobiological Monitoring (Abakumov 1983, 1992), according to the scheme defined in the INEP (Methods… 2019). The phytoplankton was sampled using a Ruttner bathometer with a 2.2-l capacity, then concentrated with a plankton net (29 µm) to the volume of 50 ml. The final sample was placed into an Eppendorf tube and fixed with a Lugol solution. Further the phytoplankton samples were concentrated in the laboratory through sedimentation. The phytoplankton biomass was determined using the counting-volume technique by calculating the volume of an individual cell (or dense colonies) of each species (Denisov and Kashulin 2013; Guseva 1959, Kuzmin 1984, Tikkanen 1986, Pick and Lean 1987). The abundance calculation and the taxonomic

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Fig. 1. Imandra Lake and the sampling stations location

identification of the algae were performed in a 0.1 mL Nageotte chamber through a light microscopes Motic BA300 and Nikon eclipse E200, with an immersion lens. The taxa names were updated according to taxonomic nomenclature of the international algae database (Guiry and Guiry 2020). To determine the concentration of chlorophyll “a” in the plankton, the water samples (600 mL) were passed through a membrane filter with a pore diameter of 0.47 µm using a Millipore injector and a filtering nozzle immediately after sampling. Chlorophyll was extracted with pure acetone solution (90%, PA) and the optical density of the extracts was measured using the Hitachi UV-VIS 181 spectrophotometer. The chlorophyll “a” concentration was calculated using standard methods, following the scheme employed at INIEP KSC RAS (Methods… 2019; Mineeva 2004; Determination… 1966). The plankton biomass for the cyanotoxin analysis was sampled in summer 2015, 2017 and 2018 in the one of the bloom spots, then concentrated on paper filters with subsequent drying. The biomass was frozen until analysis. Cyanotoxin analysis (the definition of the profile of toxins and quantification) were performed in the St. Petersburg Scientific

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Research Center for Environmental Safety of the Russian Academy of Sciences using the high-performance liquid chromatography – high-resolution mass-spectrometry (HPLCHRMS) method. Sample preparation included extraction from the biomass collected on the filters with 1 ml of 75% methanol in an ultrasonic bath according Chernova et al. (2016). Analysis of extracts were run using the LC-20 Prominence HPLC system (Shimadzu, Japan) coupled with LTQ Orbitrap XL Hybrid Ion Trap − Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer (Thermo Fisher Scientific, San Jose, USA) according to Chernova et al. (2016). Separation of the toxins was achieved on a Thermo Hypersil Gold RP C18 column (100 mm × 3 mm, 3 µm) (Thermo Fisher Scientific) by gradient elution (0.2 ml min−1 ) with a mixture of water and acetonitrile, both containing 0.05% formic acid. Mass-spectrometric analysis was run using electrospray ionization in the positive ion detection mode. The identification of target compounds was based on the accurate mass measurement of [M+H]+ or [M+2H]2+ ions (resolution of 30000, accuracy within 5 ppm), the collected fragmentation spectrum of the ions and the retention times. The standard microcystin compounds from Enzo Life sciences, Inc. New York, USA was used in the study.

3 Results and Discussion 41 taxa of Cyanobacteria with a rank below the genus in 19 genera were identified in plankton of the Imandra Lake. Among Cyanobacteria Anabaena (6) and Dolichospermum (7) genera were in the highest abundance. The most numerous were Dolichospermum lemmermannii (Ricter) P. Wacklin, L. Hoffmann & J. Komárek; Anabaena flosaquae G.S. West; Microcystis aeruginosa (Kützing) Kützing; Planktothrix agardhii (Gomont) Anagnostidis & Komárek (Table 1). On average, the Cyanobacteria abundance in phytoplankton of the Lake Imandra was 11%, while by biomass was relatively low – less than 1%. Cyanobacteria can be founded in plankton from May to October, but their maximum biomass occurs in the period from June to September. In 2016– 2018, D. lemmermannii dominated in bloom spots and its biomass varied from 25.76 to 84.40 mg/L. The total biomass of the accompanying cyanoprokaryotic species was significantly lower and did not exceed 1 mg/L. Among them, the most abundant was M. aeruginosa, whose biomass varied from 0.14 to 0.95 mg/L during the observation period (Table 1.). The chlorophyll “a” content in the bloom spots varied from 34.09 to 87.22 µg/L. Episodic local HABs are geographically confined to the northern part of the Yokostrovskaya Imandra (Y.I.) reach and the southern part of the Bolshaya Imandra (Bol. I) reach and have been regularly observed since 2006. Bloom spots can occur several times during the summer in the same parts of the water area (Fig. 1). HABs caused by Dolichospermum lemmermannii, the colonies form a film and dense accumulations at the water surface are shown in the Fig. 2. According to our observations, bloom spots often occur when the wind speed is below 2 m/s and the air temperature exceeded 15 °C during the day. Our observations are confirmed by published data on a sufficiently low temperature optimum for Dolichospermum spp., the maximum abundance for the order Nostocales, was observed in the temperature range 17.5–22.6 °C (Toporowska et al. 2016). It should be noted that the seasonal maxima of Cyanobacteria biomass in the plankton are practically not associated with local HABs. D. lemmermannii presents fairly often

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Table 1. Biomass of the most numerous Cyanobacterial species, concentration of detected microcystin variants and toxin quota. Biomass of Cyanobacterial species, mg/L

Concentration of the detected Toxin quota, µg/mg Microcystin variants, µg/L

Aug-2016 D. lemmermanii* (25.76–30.68) A. flos-aquae (0.08–0.61) M. aeruginosa* (0.19–0.95) Ps. catenata (0.05) A. subcylindrical (0.02)

[D-Asp3 ]MC-RR, traces of MC-RR, MC-LR, [D-Asp3 ]MC-LR

NA

Jul-2017

D. lemmermanii* (47.09) M. aeruginosa* (0.27) M. pulverea (0.02) D. spiroides (0.04) D. affine (0.01) Pl. agardhii* (0.01)

MC-LR (2.46), [D-Asp3 ]MC-LR (0.83)

0.069

Jul-2018

D. lemmermanii* (63.41–84.40) M. aeruginosa* (0.14–0.25) A. sp. (akinetes) (0.25) Oscillatoria sp. (0.25)

MC-RR (0.33), [D-Asp3 ]MC-RR (0.05)

0.005

Abbreviation: D. – Dolichospermum, M. – Microcystis, A. – Anabaena, Pl.-Planktothrix, Ps. – Pseudanabaena, *– potentially toxic species, NA- not analyzed.

in the water column during the summer, but does not form dense clusters. The biomass of cyanoprokaryotes in the bloom spots reaches 25.2–85.2 mg/L, while in open water areas their biomass is within 0.1–0.4 mg/L. “Bloom” periods are relatively short, and can be observed within 1–3 days, and in some cases completed within one day. It could be associated with a sharp change in meteorological conditions, for example, increased wind and precipitation. In the course of observations, it was found that the formation of a colonies film of D. lemmermannii and the actual beginning of HABs processes can be interrupted by increased wind and intense surf activity inside the bay. It has been showed that D. lemmermannii colonies are subject to rapid destruction. During mass development, colonies of D. lemmermannii are subject to rapid destruction (lysis); after the destruction of trichomes, heterocysts and/or akinets remain. Previously, it was noted that unfixed samples of dense clusters of D. lemmermannii completely disintegrate within a few hours. (Denisov and Kashulin 2016). The uneven anthropogenic load, for instance the apatite industry sewages, causes the hydrochemical heterogeneity of the Imandra Lake waters. This allows to perform the comparative analysis of the parameters contributing to the water quality in different parts of Imandra Lake. Thus, the most important hydrochemical parameters were differed significantly in the parts of the lake with regularly observed bloom spots and references zones (where bloom spots were not recorded) (Figs. 1 and 3). In this study, higher concentrations of nutrients (phosphorus and nitrogen) compared to the reference

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Fig. 2. Different Cyano-HABs stages in Imandra Lake caused by Dolichospermum lemmermannii.

zone created favorable initial conditions for “blooms”. Pal and colleagues (2020) noted that not only a sufficient total content of nutrient elements, but also the ratio of their forms is important for the development of HABs. In our study, the TP:TN ( 0,05). Meanwhile, to eliminate viruses efficiently, the quantitative increment of NK is important in a relevant immune response. The relative and absolute quantity of CD3− CD19+ B-lymphocytes did not differ from the values of the comparison group (p1,2 > 0,05). With regard to this, the levels of serumborne IgA, IgM, IgG did not have statistically significant distinctions from the values of the comparison group either. That is, there was the condition of unresponsiveness of the humoral component of the immune system to the viral co-infection (p1,2,3 > 0,05). The identified defects of functioning of the humoral adaptive immunity imply decline of both antiviral and antibacterial protection, which increases the risk of a secondary bacterial infection joining and a chronic pathology forming. Analyzing the quantity of NG in the study group patients having ARVI and CA-HVI has demonstrated the necessity of subdividing the children into two subgroups. In study subgroup 1a, the quantity of NG did not differ from the indicators of the conventionally healthy children (p > 0,05). In study subgroup 1b, in the patients, the deficiency of NG (p < 0,05) was noted, which was indicative of a disorder in the NG system in the form of a quantitative deficiency – moderate neutropenia. When analyzing the phagocytic function of NG, defects of functioning of the phagocyte system were found: reduction of the relative and absolute quantity of PAN in subgroup 1a and subgroup 1b (p1 < 0,05; p2 < 0,05), reduction of the absorbing capacity of NG (PN, PI). The phagocytosis completeness study has shown the ambiguous nature of changes: in the children of subgroup 1a, reduced DI (p < 0,01) was observed, while in the children of subgroup 1b, having the relative neutropenia, the 1,2 times increase of %D was registered. Both variants of defective NG functioning contribute to the occurrence of repeated ARVI, complicate their course, causing the addition of bacterial infections at the early stages of ARVI development. Evaluation of the IFN system status in the young children having ARVI and CA-HVI has shown that the level of serum-borne IFNα was 2,7 times lower – 3,15 (1,83; 5,91) pg/ml versus 8,64 (6,76; 12,14) pg/ml in the comparison group (p < 0,05). At the same time, the level of serum-borne IFNγ amounted to 1,97 (0,63; 6,22) pg/ml and did not

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differ from the indicators of the comparison group, 1,34 (0,71; 5,94) pg/ml (p > 0,05), in a statistically significant way (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. Indicators of the interferon system in immunocompromised young children with a viral coinfection (Note: *- statistically significant distinctions between indicators of the comparison group and the group being studied, p < 0,05).

Thus, the inadequacy of response of the immune system to the viral infection process prevailed in the young children with a viral co-infection (ARVI and CA-HVI) due to the irrelevant response of their innate and adaptive mechanisms of anti-infective protection (the T-cell component and humoral immunity, NK) in combination with various defects of functioning of NG and defects in the IFN system – the deficiency of IFNα. With regard to the above, the authors developed the new program of immune rehabilitation for immunocompromised young children who suffer from recurrent co-infections, with the latest achievements and developments in this sphere taken into account. The program of immune rehabilitation for immunocompromised young children suffering from recurrent co-infections: recurrent ARVI and chronic monoand mixed CA-HVI – Diet: balanced in proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and microelements; – Regimen of limiting antigen load on the organism: 1) Limiting the contacts with viral and bacterial antigens (bringing the children out of macrocollectives – kindergarten or school; simultaneous sanitation of the micro-environment – family); 2) Vaccination exemption for the period of the program immune rehabilitation; 3) Allergen sparing regimen (limiting the intake of food antigens with hypoallergenic products – hypoallergenic diet; enterosorption and pancreatic enzyme therapy); 4) Sanation of chronic infection lesions; 5) Local and systemic interferon therapy; 6) Immunocorrecting therapy. In particular, the integrated rehabilitation program included long-term continuous local and prolonged intermittent systemic therapy with recombinant interferon alpha 2b (rIFNα2b) as a complex with antioxidants (Viferon®). The local therapy was conducted

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with Viferon gel which applied on the tongue, tonsils, into each nasal passage 4–6 times per day for the entire course duration. The systemic therapy consisted of Viferon rectal suppositories at 150 000 IU 2 times per day every 12 h for 10 days (the daily dose of rIFN α2b being 300 000 IU). After that, there was a break of 10 days, and a repeated course of rIFN α2b at 150 000 IU 2 times per day every 12 h for 10 days. The total quantity was 5 courses, with the total duration of the therapy making 90 days. As a result of the treatment, the following positive clinical effects have been achieved: 3,8 times reduction of the frequency of ARVI – from 15(12,25; 16) down to 3,9(0,7; 5,2) episodes of ARVI per year (p < 0,05); 1,3 times reduction of their duration – from 7,5(7; 8) days to 5,6(4,8; 6,2) days (p < 0,05) (Fig. 5). Clinically, ARVI tended to have a milder course, with the upper airways involved into the pathological process: acute rhinitis, acute pharyngitis. Meanwhile, the duration of high temperature reaction and intoxication symptoms were reduced. The integrated treatment including local and systemic interferon therapy has led to a significant extension of the clinically safe period from 8,5 (8,17; 8,88) months to 11,2(10,8; 11,4) months per year (p < 0,05) (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3. Clinical efficiency of the program immunorehabilitation involving optimized local and systemic interferon therapy in immunocompromised young children with a viral co-infection (Note: *- statistically significant distinctions between indicators of the study group before and after the treatment, p < 0,05)

Moreover, after completion of the program of local and systemic interferon therapy, there was a 2,3–4,5 times reduction of the frequency of amplification of the DNA of herpes viruses (CMV, EBV, HHV VI) in the young children with a viral co-infection (Fig. 4). In particular, after the treatment, the DNA of herpes viruses was not detected in the peripheral blood, but they could only be found in the saliva or the nasopharyngeal scrape. Meanwhile, before the start of rehabilitation measures, amplification of the DNA of herpes was mainly (in 60% of the children) in several biological matrices (blood, saliva, nasopharyngeal scrape, urine). The findings give evidence about the decrease of herpes virus infection load after the local and systemic interferon therapy conducted. The prolonged local and systemic interferon therapy has led to the statistically significant increase of the level of IFNα up to 9,32(6,32; 13,49) pg/ml as compared to 3,15 (1,83; 5,91) pg/ml before the treatment (p < 0,05), with the level reaching the values of the comparison group (p > 0,05). Meanwhile, the level of IFNγ has not shown any

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Fig. 4. The frequency of detection of herpes virus DNA in immunocompromised young children with a viral co-infection before and after the program immunorehabilitation

statistically significant change – 1,58(0,79; 6,55) pg/ml after the treatment, versus the indicators before the treatment 1,97(0,63; 6,22) pg/ml and those of the comparison group 1,34 (0,71; 5,94) pg/ml (p > 0,05) (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5. Change of indicators of the IFN system in immunocompromised young children with a viral coinfection against the background of local and systemic interferon therapy (Me(Q1 ;Q3 )) (Note: *- statistically significant distinctions between indicators of the comparison group and the group being studied, p < 0,05; ˆ - statistically significant distinctions between indicators of the study group before and after the treatment, p < 0,05).

After the treatment in the young children with a viral co-infection, the relative and absolute quantity of CD3− CD19+ B-lymphocytes did not differ either from the value before the treatment (p1,2 > 0,05) or in relation to the comparison group (p1,2 > 0,05). Meanwhile, the level of serum-borne IgA went up 1,3 times higher as compared to the indicators before the treatment (p > 0,05), but it did not differ from the treatment in the conventionally healthy children (p > 0,05). The levels of serum-borne Ig M and Ig G did not change as compared to the indicators of the children before the treatment and the comparison group in a statistically significant way. Accordingly, the defective functioning of the humoral adaptive immunity observed before the treatment in the ARVI and CA-HVI children in the form of unresponsiveness of the humoral component of the

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immune system to the viral co-infection has been leveled out. In the blood serum, too, there are the levels of Ig M, Ig G, and particularly Ig A contributing to the relevant anti-infective protection against the background of decreased frequency of repeated uncomplicated and complicated ARVI and the activity of CA-HVI. Evaluation of parameters of the immune system of the immunocompromised young children with a viral co-infection after the completion of the treatment program involving local and systemic interferon therapy has shown changes leading to restoration of the impaired mechanisms of the innate and adaptive immunity. The analysis of the immunological data of children 5–8 years with recurrent ARVI and CA-HVI demonstrated different defects in phagocytic function of NG, manifested depression of absorbing, digesting and killing, destroy their microbicidal activity (NADPH-oxidase) and violations in the IFN system. Thus, the study of the phagocytic function NG marked quantitative deficiency actively phagocytic NG (%PAN 44,25 ± 1,26 vs. 57,85 ± 3,34 in controls, p < 0,001). Indicators absorbance NG were reduced: PN - 3,87 ± 0,13 vs. 4,82 ± 0,35 in the control (p < 0,05) and PI - 1,79 ± 0,12 vs. 2,58 ± 0,31 in the control (p < 0,05). Revealed worsening of the intensity and completeness of phagocytic act: 1,5-fold reduced ID-1,27 ± 0,06 vs. 1,86 ± 0,17 in the control (p < 0,01), IPDA had a tendency to decrease (74,82 ± 8,87 vs. 95,15 ± 9,6 in the control, p > 0,05). Decreased spontaneous and stimulated activity of NADPH-oxidase both FPC% (p < 0,05) and SCI (p < 0,05) were observed, but the reserve potential microbicide saved (CM SCI, p < 0,05; CM FPK, p < 0,05)/IFNα levels were reduced 1,8-fold (3,6 ± 0,66 pg/ml vs. 6,42 ± 1,05 pg/ml, p < 0,05) and 1,3 times IFNγ (IFNγ - 1,39 ± 0,42 pg/ml vs. 1,78 ± 0,53 pg/ml, p < 0,05) relative to control values. To assess the efficacy of interferon and immunotherapies on defective IFN system and disorders functioning NG, patients were randomized into 2 groups. Group 1 received: a) basic systemic therapy Viferon (recombinant IFNα2 in combination with antioxidants), starting with 1 million IU, with a gradual reduction of the dose every 20 days up to 150 thousand IU, and local therapy Viferon gel - lubricating the nasal passages and pharynx 5–7 times a day - for 2,5 months. b) antiviral therapy, to eliminate HVIs - Izoprinozin, the rate of 50 mg/kgMT - 3 courses for 10 days, with an interval of 14 days. Group 2 received the same course dose as group 1, Viferon (a) and Izoprinozin (b) and in addition for the correction of the system NG (c) - Licopid (glucoseminylmuramildipeptide) 2 mg/day two 10-day intermittent, alternating with courses Izoprinozin. Clinically, ARVI tended to have a milder course, with the upper airways involved into the pathological process: acute rhinitis, acute pharyngitis. Meanwhile, the duration of high temperature reaction and intoxication symptoms were reduced. The complicated ARVI course after the completed immunorehabilitation program occurred in 40% of the children no sooner, than in 3–4 months after the completion of interferon therapy, as individual cases of acute sinusitis, acute tracheitis, and acute bronchitis, which required prescribing the antibacterial therapy. To assess the efficacy of interferon- and immune-therapies in immunocompromised children 5–8 years on defective IFN-functioning NG, patients were randomized into 2 groups. Group 1 - children who received Viferon and Izoprinozin, phagocytic activity NG tended to recover, but indicators of all parameters remained below the reference values:

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% PAN (p < 0,001), PN (p < 0,05), PI (p < 0,001), ID (p < 0,001). In this case, the backup NADPH-oxidase activity increased 2-fold KM FPC 1,4 times the CM SCI compared to the original data, which was higher than the control (p < 0,05 and p < 0,05, respectively). In group 2 - children who received Viferon, Licopid and Izoprinozin, the number of active phagocytes NG to control values −% PAN with 44,25 ± 1,26% to 50,54 ± 2,38% vs. 57,85 ± 3,34% in the control (p > 0,05), recovered absorption function NG - PN increased from 3,87 ± 0,13 to 4,43 ± 0,29, reaching a level of control - 4,82 ± 0,35 (p > 0,05) and PI recovered to control values, from 1,79 ± 0,12 to 2,28 ± 0,27, - in the control of 2,58 ± 0,31 (p > 0,05), improved strength and completeness phagocytic act (ID - from 1,27 ± 0,06 to 1,35 ± 0,13 against to 1,86 ± 0,17 in the control; IPDA - had a tendency to recovery, but did not reach the control values. Additionally, marked activation reserve NADPH-oxidase activity by a factor of 2 km FPC and 1,6 times the CM SCI relative to that of pre-treatment, which is above the control (p < 0,01 and p < 0,001, respectively). From the side of IFN system the IFN-therapy in both groups had similar positive trend in the increasing of the level of IFNα from 3,6 ± 0,66 pg/ml to 12,88 ± 2,62 pg/ml (p < 0,001) and the level of IFNγ from 1,39 ± 0,42 pg/ml to 4,52 ± 0,98 pg/ml (p < 0,05), that were higher than the control values (at 2 times the level of IFNα (p < 0,05) and at 2,5 times the level of IFNγ (p < 0,05) (Fig. 6).

Fig. 6. Change of indicators of the IFN system in immunocompromised children 5–8 years with a viral coinfection against the background of local and systemic interferon therapy (Me(Q1 ;Q3 )) (Note: *- statistically significant distinctions between indicators of the comparison group and the group being studied, p < 0,05; ˆ - statistically significant distinctions between indicators of the study group before and after the treatment, p < 0,05).

It was demonstrated the clinical efficacy of the therapy in children of 5–8 years in both groups in the analysis of their condition as at the time of the study, and in catamnesis: there was a significant reduction in the incidence of ARVI from 7–24 to 2–3 times a year and their duration, longer clinically safe period of 7–10 days before treatment to 100–150 days after the treatment (Fig. 7). Reducing the number of children with herpesvirus replication (EBV, CMV, HCV VI). Detection of herpesviruses in only one biomaterial (saliva or scraping from the nasopharynx) (Fig. 8).

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Fig. 7. Clinical efficacy of combined interferon- and immunotherapy in immunocompromised children with recurrent acute respiratory infections associated with different recurrent and latent herpesviral infections

Fig. 8. The frequency of detection of herpes virus DNA in immunocompromised children 5–8 years with a viral coinfection before and after the program immune rehabilitation

It has to be noted that the program of immune rehabilitation for immunocompromised children having repeated ARVI requires continuous adjustment. With regard to the

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above, the authors developed the new program of immune rehabilitation for immunocompromised young children who suffer from recurrent co-infections, with the latest achievements and developments in this sphere taken into account.

4 Conclusion Our data shows that in structure of the incidence of children living in large cities, 77% is due to respiratory tract infections. At the same time, 25% of these children are immunocompromised, which is manifested by co-infections: recurrent respiratory infections and active herpesvirus infections. Violations of the immune system and the interferon system depend on the duration of the anamnesis of children with clinical manifestations of recurrent respiratory and active herpesvirus infections: a long history of anamnesis has a more negative effect on violations of the interferon system and the immune system and clinical manifestations of infections. In young, 1–4 year old children, the detected abnormalities in the interferon system and the immune system are less pronounced than in older children 5–8 years old, who have a longer history. The developed programs of differentiated interferon-and immunotherapy for immunocompromised young children and children 5–8 years old demonstrated high clinical and immunological effectiveness and good preventive orientation. This study showed that the early start of immune rehabilitation of immunocompromised children suffering from viral co-infections contributes to more effective and less costly treatment than immune rehabilitation performed in an older age period.

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Urbanization Effect on Children’s Autonomic Nervous System P. V. Berezhansky2(B) and N. S. Tataurschikova1 1 Department of Medical and Social Adaptology, Peoples’ Friendship, University of Russia, 6,

Miklukho-Maklaya, Moscow 117198, Russia 2 Morozovskaya Children’s City Clinical Hospital of the Moscow Department of Health,

Moscow, Russia

Abstract. Over the last decade, the active transformation of live environment, urbanization and social stress have intensified the current negative trends in children’s public health and led to the development of new ones. [1] The expanding environmental problems derived from urbanization have played a crucial role in the deterioration of children’s health which have resulted in an increase in acute and chronic diseases; development of immunodeficiency and allergic conditions, vascular and psycho-emotional disorders [2, 3]. The cardiovascular system is regulated at many levels and constitutes a functional system, the final outcome of its activity is to provide a desired level of the entire body operation [4, 5]. And the autonomic nervous system is responsible for setting links between the body, ambient and internal environment through the regulation of metabolism, functioning of organs and tissues based on changes in this environment; it also provides the integration of all organs into a single whole acting as one of the main body’s adaptive systems [6]. Since the autonomic nervous system governs the body and homeostasis uniting separate pathogenetic links of disease progression and sets the basis for structural and functional unity [7]. In light of this, the failure of neuroregulatory mechanisms takes the lead among the causes of systemic changes in the microvasculature, which, in turn, reflects general pathogenetic processes in the body. [8] The regulatory mechanism is implemented through nerves and reflexes by different neurohumoral factors, their nature has been studied under experimental conditions and is beyond doubt to date [9]. The study of basic heart rate and microcirculation variability indicators for children living under different conditions will help to outline major trends in changes of the autonomic nervous system functional state and propose an individual rehabilitation plan for children tailored to the socio-economic and medical-ecological conditions of living in a megapolis or a rural area. Keywords: Urbanization · Autonomic nervous system · Microcirculation · Megapolis · Anthropogenic impact

1 Introduction According to the environmental approach, a long-term impact on the environment resulted in the creation of a new (anthropogenic, urban) ecosystem that haS a diverse © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 V. Vasenev et al. (Eds.): SSC 2020, SPRINGERGEOGR, pp. 185–193, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9_17

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impact on a growing body, the consequences of such impact are quite difficult to visualize and assess [10]. Recently, many authors have been stressing the deterioration of children’s health. Researchers report an increase in number and change in the ratio of risk factors for health deterioration. The impact of these factors depends on the body’s adaptive capacities [2]. The significant difference between the conditions of life for children in megapolises and a rural area has a direct impact on the children’s organism features [11]. A study of changes in the functional state of children according to the degree of regulatory systems tension in a megapolis or rural environment will allow to identify functional disorders and diseases in time [12]. The nervous system ensures that cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems are integrated into a single whole. It acts as a link connecting all living systems to the environment and ensures their adaptation to its constantly changing components by regulating life activities. The heart rate variability analysis is used to evaluate the body’s adaptation to changing environment conditions, it allows to describe the activity of different subsystems of the autonomic nervous system through their influence on the cardiac pacer functions [13]. A number of studies of heart rate autonomic regulation prove that fluctuations in statistical characteristics of heart rate variability indicate an excessive load earlier than other functional indicators, as nervous and humoral blood circulation regulation changes faster than energy, metabolic and hemodynamic disorders can be detected [14]. There are studies to study the influence of individual factors of urbanization on the state of the vegetative system in children [15, 16]. A comprehensive assessment of the state of the autonomic nervous system in children in a megalopolis is a new and promising method for the preventive diagnosis of various somatic and allergic diseases, as well as a wide range of neuropsychiatric disorders [6]. The organism’s adaptive activity indicator is the blood circulation system, both central and peripheral. Scholars note that vegetative reactions are non-specific features of regulatory processes, also in the microcirculatory bloodstream system. The microcirculation system is an important pathogenetic link in the development and progression of many diseases. That is why it is very promising to study methods for objective appraisal of its changes [17]. Computerized biomicroscopy of capillaries is one of the modern methods for a direct visualization of a microcirculatory bloodstream status. The knowledge on vegetative and microcirculatory homeostasis for children living in megapolises and rural areas is scarce and contradictory compared to the findings of the heart rate variability analysis. Meanwhile, the intensity of urbanization and anthropogenic load dictate the relevance of studying their impact on children’s health.

2 Materials and Methods 100 children with allergic rhinitis in the age of 7 to 11 have been examined in the outpatient clinic. All children have undergone the clinical blood analysis. The content of interferon gamma (IFN-γ) and immunoglobulin E (IgE) in the blood serum has been assessed. The condition of the microcirculatory bloodstream has been examined by computer-aided nail bed capillaroscopy in course of which some parameters such

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as length of capillaries arterial and venular parts, inequalities of arterial and venular capillary parts caliber; distance between capillaries, diameter of arterial and venular parts of capillaries; distance between arterial and venular parts of capillaries; perivascular zone length have been analyzed. The autonomic nervous system conditions were assessed following the results of heart rate variability (HRV) within 3 min by means of Cardiovisor-6C equipment complex (Medical Computer Systems LLC, Russia). In course of HRV study, the standard deviation of NN intervals mean value (SDNN), root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD), regulatory systems stress- index (SI, Baevsky’s index), centralization index (IC), root mean square deviation of NN intervals duration (PNN50), number of interval values corresponding to the modal values (Amo), two frequency ranges: HF (high frequency component), LF (low frequency component), and their ratios have been calculated. The study involved 2 groups of patients: the main group included 50 children from a megapolis away from massive green areas, and the comparison group comprised 50 children from rural areas. The results have been processed in SPSS 14.0 software (SPSS Lab, USA).

3 Results and Discussion In order to comprehensively assess children’s health, generally accepted criteria were used [18]. According to the life history, almost all children in the main group (83%) experienced an increase in the ARI cases in March-April; in the comparison group, number of ARI cases was approximately the same and had no seasonal nature. In the main group, the respiratory disease index amounted to 0.43 ± 0.15, in the comparison group to 0.3 ± 0.12; p < 0.05. The children living in megapolises had a later age of ARI onset −7.8 ± 1.3 months than those living in rural areas 5.9 ± 1.2 months) (p < 0.05). In the main group, 17.7% of patients (n = 11) demonstrated an increase in body temperature (above 38.5 °C) when suffered ARI, 46.8% (n = 29) of the study group (sometimes even 35.5% (n = 23)) showed no increase in body temperature. For the comparison group: 34.9% (n = 22), 50.8% (n = 32), and 14.3% (n = 9) of children respectively (p < 0.05). There was a high degree of domestic and social history burden in the main group of children (p < 0.05). An increase in eosinophils cells in the general blood count was typical for the main group, while the children under examination were not registered as having allergic diseases. The rest indicators of the general blood count were not changed significantly, but the IgE content for the children in the main group was significantly higher than the one in the comparison group - 132 ± 27.8 and 88.69 ± 10.6 respectively (p < 0.05). The IgE content is in close inverse dependence on IFN-γ concentration in blood serum r = −0.72; p < 0.05. (Table 1). Minor increase of segmented neutrophils count is typical for local inflammatory process, combined with insignificant increase in eosinophils cells in blood, it gives evidence of possible body sensibilization with no explicit clinical implications. We looked at heart rate variations as at the result of the activity of different parts of the autonomic nervous system related to the functioning of neurohormonal regulation mechanisms to support homeostasis and different functional systems development under environmental influence.

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Main group Comparison group 5.3 ± 0.5 3.05 ± 0.3

6.0 ± 0.33 3.4 ± 0.19

Segmented neutrophils, % 56.2 ± 2.5

55.7 ± 2.1

4.5 ± 0.5

5.1 ± 0.5

Monocytes, %

7.1 ± 3.2

4 ± 1.6

Lymphocytes, %

26.6 ± 3.9

30.4 ± 3.4

Absolute lymphocytes

1.19 ± 0.03

1.24 ± 0.54

Eosinophils, %

IgE, IU/ml

132 ± 27.8 88.69 ± 10.6

IFN-γ, pg/ml

136 ± 21.3

176 ± 24.7

IgE- immunoglobulin E, IFN-γ - interferon gamma.

The HRV analysis revealed that children from urban areas suffer from a regulatory systems deficiency or exhaustion. The analysis of the heart rate at rest shows that the values of SDNN, a parameter that reflects the overall variability of heart rate, were higher in the main group than in the comparison group. The same trend was peculiar to the main group in terms of RMSSD parameters that represent high-frequency heart rhythm components, which exceeded the corresponding index by 1.4 times in the comparison group. The children from the main group showed a decrease in AMo (25.4 ± 7.3) and an increase in the variation range mean value to 0.35 ± 0.032 s. This indicates a raise of the autonomic nervous system sympathetic effect on children’s regulatory processes. In the comparison group the variation range mean value amounted to 0.3 ± 0.069 s, and AMo to 35.2 ± 8.9. The stress index was within normal limits in all groups, but children living in cities and towns had a stress index two times higher than children living in rural areas, 234 ± 50.1 and 130.3 ± 42.8, respectively. The centralization index correlating to the central regulation mechanisms stress in course of adaptation was 4 times above the norm in the main group - 10.1 ± 2.2 mainly because of the activation of the ANS sympathetic division, while in the comparison group this index was within normal limits - 1.8 ± 0.9. All children from the main group demonstrated a slight decrease in the low-frequency (LF) spectrum and an increase in the high-frequency (HF) component p > 0.05 (Fig. 1). The same trend was registered when determining the LF/HF ratio: 3.9 ± 0.6 in the main group, 4.3 ± 0.4, p > 0.05 in the comparison group (Fig. 2). Positive correlations between IS and residence in the vicinity of industrial enterprises and highways (r = 0.68), between LF/HF and viral infections rate (r = 0.61), and negative correlation between IS and body temperature increase (r = −0.59) have been detected.

Urbanization Effect on Children’s Autonomic Nervous System

Fig. 1. Spectral analysis of heart rate of children from the main group

Fig. 2. Spectral analysis of heart rate of children from the comparison group

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Today, it is widely known that microvascular regulation disorder affects inflammatory processes in the body. Due to this, microcirculatory changes of vascular kind genesis indirectly reflect adaptive reactions and act as critical factors that cause pathophysiological disorders leading to frequent ARIs for children living in different conditions. In contrast to the comparison group, the main group of children showed changes in the microcirculatory bloodstream represented by a minor increase in the capillaries venular part diameter, 51.3 ± 6.2 and 46.3 ± 5.8, p > 0.05 respectively in comparison with the control group, while the main group had a reliably smaller arteriolar-to-venular ratio (AVR) indicating the ratio of parallel vessels diameters (0.29 ± 0.02 and 0.34 ± 0.02 respectively; p < 0,05). We believe that these changes are compensatory because of the high impact of the autonomic nervous system sympathetic division that reduces at the arterial part due to muscle spasm, increases biochemical active paraendothelial space and leads to perfusion disorders. Positive correlations between AVR reduction and viral infections rate (r = 0.71), AVR and centralization index (r = 0.74), SDNN and content of IFN-γ in blood serum (r = 0.6), negative correlation between stress index and body temperature increase at ARI (r = 0.58) have been revealed.

4 Discussion Children living in megalopolises far from massive green spaces tend to have a higher respiratory disease index and certain peculiarities of ARI clinical progression. This fact may serve as a reason for conducting a thorough examination of this group of children for early detection of vegetative dysfunction, before its clinical manifestation, creating a child’s “vegetative passport” and determining basic immunological indicators for such children. According to the findings, we see that children living in urban areas are prone to have changes in autonomic nervous system values and sympathetic division activation in comparison to children living in rural areas, most likely it derives from inadequate regulation in response to the complex impact of anthropogenic and urban factors. It is known that the age groups examined by us have certain morphofunctional features on the one hand, and on the other hand they are hypersensitive to anthropogenic stress, which is very high at this age, also, as per the heart rate variability data, they have low adaptation reserves. The obtained data show that children living in megapolises have an increased activity of the autonomic nervous system sympathetic division leading, in turn, to vegetative dysfunction and decreased adaptation, which reduces the body’s adaptive capabilities and triggers a vicious circle in future. These findings fall in line with the conclusions of Mylnikova IV, Tsibulskaya IS, and others [19, 20]. Also, children living in urban areas display reactive tension in vegetative regulatory mechanisms and have an increased degree of centralization in heart rate control. This may be due to the complex influence of environmental factors on the child’s body that results in nonproportional influence of different parts of the autonomic nervous system causing changes in both the microcirculatory bloodstream and the immune system indicators. In future, this should be studied for different age categories with the consideration of anthropogenic, socio-ecological, and urban stress impact on a child’s organism.

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Following the concept of vegetative-immunological adaptation to adverse factors, all groups of patients displayed IFN-γ within normal values, however children living in the urban environment had this indicator slightly decreased, at the same time the IgE content in blood serum was increased in this group. Perhaps, these changes are adaptive in respect to the urban pathology development under the functional stress mode and serve to prevent the compensatory mechanisms failure. Most of the children in the main group have changes in the microcirculation system based on the autonomic nervous system influence on microcirculatory vessels arterial section, it also allows to adapt the body’s reserve capacity to different surrounding, environmental and hygienic conditions, thereby normalizing the energy, nutrient metabolism, and increased immune response.

5 Conclusion Children living in megapolises far from massive green spaces suffer from various adverse factors, inadequate to their nature and leading to adaptation mechanisms failure and disease onset. The fact that children from rural areas have not been exposed to these changes makes us believe that the factors affecting children in city environment are mostly of urban and anthropogenic origin. The findings obtained give us grounds to say that children from megapolises have specific changes in the immune and autonomic nervous systems, and in the microcirculatory bloodstream. Urban children experience reactive changes in their vegetative status toward greater dominance of central regulation mechanisms and a predominance of sympathetic tone, while rural children do not demonstrate an explicit sympathetic effect. This matter shall be considered in planning the personalized follow-up, treatment, and rehabilitation for such children. Also, it is important to outline the urbanization factors with the greatest impact on a child’s autonomic nervous system and come up with programs for their mitigation. One of the important tasks that stands before a future research is to analyze gender indicators of children living under various conditions and examine different age groups of children.

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The Prevalence of Atopic Dermatitis Among Children and Adults in Kazakhstan V. V. Khan1,2(B) , N. S. Tataurschikova3 , and T. T. Nurpeissov1,2 1 Research Institute of Cardiology and Internal Diseases, 120, Aiteke bi,

Almaty 050000, Kazakhstan 2 Republic Allergy Center, 120/1, Aiteke bi, Almaty 050000, Kazakhstan 3 Department of Medical and Social Adaptology, Peoples’ Friendship, University of Russia, 6,

Miklukho-Maklaya, Moscow 117198, Russia

Abstract. The accelerated pace of industry, science and technology development coincide with global environmental problems and health risks. Recent research has proven that environmental factors play a significant role in the development and exacerbation of many diseases, including allergic pathologies. Skin diseases occupy a special place among allergic disorders, while atopic dermatitis occupy a leading place among children’s skin diseases. Kazakhstan’s allergists, dermatologists and healthcare system give special attention to patients with atopic dermatitis. This is linked not only to the increase in the disease prevalence, secondary infection complications, processes of chronicity due to an uncontrolled use of topical hormonal drugs, but also to its impact on economic and social sphere. Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a multifocal disease of various etiology. The treatment of this disease is mostly symptomatic or pathogenetic and is aimed at repairing skin barrier, preventing exposure to hazardous agents and reducing inflammatory processes. The numbers of patients with AD is higher in developed countries and is observed in 20% of minor patients. This is facilitated by global urbanization, excessive cleanliness during the early childhood stage, uncontrolled use of medication, including antibacterial drugs, reduction in breastfeeding duration. Our research on the basis of the Republican allergy center demonstrates the negative impact of global urbanization on the prevalence of atopic dermatitis Thus, the number of patients who applied from the urban (87%) is several times higher than the number of patients from the rural (17%). Interrelationships between the quality of life and AD occurrence is widely accepted. Keywords: Atopic dermatitis · Risk factors · Prevention

1 Introduction Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common chronic multifactorial inflammatory skin disease that develops in early childhood with a possible relapse in adulthood [1]. Currently, AD is the most common pediatric dermatology diagnosis. This is due to the fact that the number of patients suffering from this pathology increases steadily each year. Over the past three decades, the prevalence rate of AD in developed countries, such as the USA, © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 V. Vasenev et al. (Eds.): SSC 2020, SPRINGERGEOGR, pp. 194–201, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9_18

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Japan, Europe, Russia, has increased by 2–3 times. According to the latest data of WHO, 230 million people suffer from AD, which makes up to 50–75% of the world’s structure of allergopathology [2, 3]. In most cases, AD occurs in early childhood, it may occur within the first year of life in 60% of cases, and around 90% of patients suffer from the disease before the age of 5 [4]. It is generally accepted that AD counts as a childhood nosology, therefore, its prevalence among children is 15–25%, while its prevalence among adults reaches 2–3% [2]. According to a study of Almaty Republican Allergy Center (Republic of Kazakhstan), children constitute a large proportion of patients, while it is worth noting that the proportion of male patients prevails over female patients by 24% [5]. The clinical picture of the disease is characterized by polymorphism of rashes (erythema, papules, vesicles, erosion, excoriation), accompanied by intense itching and symmetrical damage to the skin: flexion surfaces of the extremities, dorsum of the hands, face and neck. There are three degrees of severity of the course of the disease: mild (limited skin lesion, weak erythema or lichenization, mild itching and rare exacerbation 1–2 times a year), medium (widespread with moderate exudation, hyperemia, lichenification, moderate itching, exacerbation 3–4 once a year, with short remissions), severe (diffuse skin lesions, severe exudation, hyperemia, lichenization, constant severe itching, almost continuous course) [1–3, 6]. It has been proven that AD is a multifactorial disease, and its etiology is being studied up to now. Genetic predisposition is the main cause of AD and 80% of patients suffering from AD have a hereditary history of diseases such as bronchial asthma, allergic rhinitis, allergic urticaria and AD [7]. It was established that if one of the parents has suffered from atopic disease, the risk of AD increases by 1.5 times, and if both parents have suffered from it, the risk increase by 3–5 times [8]. Thus, genetic studies have shown that AD develops during a child’s first year of life 82% more often if both parents suffer from allergies, 59% more often if one of the parents has suffered from AD and another parent suffers from allergic respiratory disease, 56% more often is only one parent is allergic, and 42% more if the child’s first degree relatives have had symptoms of AD [9]. It is worth noting that many researches attribute the increase of prevalence of AD and other allergopathologies to the negative influence of environmental factors, such as nutrition, physical activities, body exposure to toxins, viruses and bacteria, ionizing radiation, global urbanization. Recent studies have proven that the environment has a strong impact on the frequency of AD exacerbations. Patients living in cities are more likely to suffer from AD due to low doses of ultraviolet radiation, sugar and polyunsaturated fatty acid consumption (which is typical for countries with developed economies), constant uncontrolled use of drugs before the age of 5, excessive home sterility [10]. A study conducted in the United States, which has evaluated the degree of spread of AD across different states, has confirmed that climatic factors influence the prevalence of AD, stating that there is a lower prevalence in areas with high humidity, temperature, UV index and lower precipitation [11]. It has been noted that in the presence of atopy, direct contact with house dust and animal hair also enhances the course of AD [12]. Other triggers that can often be found in everyday life, such as household chemicals, soaps, shower gels, etc., increase the skin’s pH level, disrupt the lipid metabolism of the epidermis, since they contain various preservatives and flavorings [13].

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Food allergies also have a significant effect on the development of AD. In 30% of cases, children with a moderate or severe form of AD have a history of food allergy. The most common allergens include cow’s milk, chicken eggs, peanuts, hazelnuts, wheat, soybeans and seafood [14]. It AD and food allergy are combined, then impaired differentiation of keratinocytes may take place due to their hyperproliferation, thereby reducing filaggrin, creating problems with the metabolism of lipids in the epidermis, increasing transepidermal fluid loss and leading to skin microbiome [15]. Studying this pathology is relevant not only due to an annual increase in the number of patients, but also due to the fact that it is worth considering socio-economic problems associated with this pathology. Florid symptoms of AD, such as rashes accompanied by severe itching, scratching, secondary bacterial or viral infections, lead to sleep disturbance, nervousness, social disadaptation, and depression of patients. All this leads to a decrease in the quality of life, a decrease in working capacity, emerging difficulties with learning or working, additional costs associated with buying various drugs and hospitals visits [16]. In Kazakhstan, allergists, dermatologists and pediatricians deal with the problem of AD based on the National Diagnosis and Treatment Protocol, which is regularly reviewed and improved based on the latest achievements of evidence-based medicine [13]. AD therapy focuses on rebuilding the skin barrier, preventing triggers, and reducing inflammation. Treatment protocols include the use of antihistamines, topical corticosteroids (TCS) or calcineurin inhibitors (tacrolimus and pimecrolimus), daily use of emollients to restore the lipid balance of the epidermis [15–17]. Given the high rates of development of Kazakhstan, as well as the desire of the population to migrate from rural to urban, analyses of the impact of urbanization and environmental factors on the design of atopic dermatitis are relevant and significant.

2 Materials and Methods According to published statistics on internal migration, the outflow of rural population to urban areas was 12%. Most of the migrants are people of reproductive age. The trend of population movement from rural to urban is associated with a high diversification of production and a more developed social infrastructure. The analysis of the prevalence of AD among urban and rural populations was carried out in the design of a retrospective cohort study. The study was performed based on the Almaty Republican allergy center (RAC) (Republic of Kazakhstan). This allergology center was chosen as a research base, considering the fact that this medical institution provides assistance to the population from all regions of the country. At the initial stage, outpatient records were selected for patients who applied for Allergy care in the RAC, who were verified with the diagnosis “atopic dermatitis, exacerbation”, regardless of the severity of the disease. The research period is from October 2019 to June 2020. During the selected period, 5060 patients were treated, the diagnosis of “Atopic dermatitis” was differentiated in 710 patients who were later included in the research. The second stage of the research includes the compilations and analysis of selected outpatient records by gender, age, and place of residence.

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In the analysis of the data was evaluated on the following criteria: • Gender (male/female); • Age (under 1 year, 1–3 years, 3–7 years, 7–12 years, 12–18 years, over 18 years) • Residential address (city/village) The results were processed using the MS Excel, with subsequent analysis of gender, age, and demographic characteristics. This determines the relationship between the prevalence of AD and the impact of urbanization and environmental factors on the development of the disease.

3 Results At the initial stage of the study, hospital records of patients, both adults and children, with a verified diagnosis of atopic dermatitis of varying severity were chosen, thus the study included 710 cases, which makes up 14% of the total number of patients with various allergopathologies. The average age of patients was 9.5 years, 343 (48.3%) participants were males and 367 (51.7%) were females. Relationships between AD, age and gender of the patients were analyzed and the following outcomes were obtained. In general, the proportion of male minor patients with AD prevails over female minor patients. But when it comes to adults, the proportion of female patients (21.80%) prevails over men (6.41%). Distribution of patients according to age groups: infancy - 217 (30.56%) patients, nursery - 222 (31.27%), pre-school 107 (15.07%), primary school - 42 (5.92%), adolescence - 20 (2.82%), adulthood - 102 (14.37%). The data obtained show that the prevalence of AD among preschool children is much higher than among children of school age (Table 1, Fig. 1). Table 1. Degree of AD incidence depending on gender and age 18 y.o.

7–12 y.o.

12–18 y.o.

51 (14,87)

17 (4,96)

5 (1,46)

22 (6,41)

56 (15,26)

26 (7,08)

16 (4,36)

80 (21,80)

The prevalence of AD varies significantly between urban and rural populations. The conducted statistical analysis demonstrates that the desire for urbanization affects the degree of prevalence of Ad. The correlation of patients with AD living in urban and rural was 620 (87%) patients to 90 (13%), respectively (p = 0.02), which signify a statistically significant difference (Fig. 2). This demonstrates the importance of urbanization in the development of atopic dermatitis. When evaluating the results obtained during the distribution of patients into the urban/rural and age categories, the data obtained were almost equal in percentage terms depending on the age category (Table 2).

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Fig. 1. Age Distribution

Fig. 2. Prevalence of AD by type of settlement

Table 2. The frequency of occurrence of AD depending on the place of residence and age 18 y.o.

Urban, n (%)

186 (30,00)

191 (30,81)

94 (15,16)

36 (5,81)

17 (2,74)

96 (15,48)

Rural, n (%)

29 (32,22)

31 (34,44)

13 (14,44)

7 (7,78)

4 (4,44)

6 (6,67)

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4 Discussion A major role in the development of atopy is played by global urbanization, industrial development, and the annual increase in motor transport, which in turn lead to an increase in emissions of heavy metals, ozone, formaldehydes, and other harmful substances into the atmosphere. The high content of calcium and magnesium salts in water, which affect water hardness, have a negative effect on the skin barrier, reducing the acidity of the skin, which leads to an increase in the pH in the stratum corneum. Our research revealed a high prevalence of AD among the urban population, rather than among the rural population. However, the theme of the demographic prevalence of AD as in Kazakhstan and in the world is poorly understood and requires further research. Many research studies focus on the gender and age characteristics of the course of AD, as it is known that the disease is common in childhood and regresses in adulthood. A meta-analysis of 46 studies conducted by Kim JP and al. it demonstrates that in 80% of children diagnosed with atopic dermatitis, the disease did not escalate by the age of 8, and only in 5% of cases the disease was stopped in the adult period [18]. As for the gender-specific prevalence of AD, the data we have obtained show that the proportion of males among children also prevails over women. A study conducted in the period from 2016 to 2018, which also revealed an annual increase in children’s patients with signs of atopic dermatitis and observed a predominance of male patients over female by 24.01% [19]. As a result of the above, it is worth noting that the topic of epidemiology and etiology of atopic dermatitis is currently under study and requires additional research, since modern society lives in an era of global urbanization, the development of technologies that lead to changes in the world around us.

5 Conclusion Based on the data obtained, it can be concluded that the increasing annual internal migration in Kazakhstan, the desire of the population to live in urban conditions, leads to an increase in the growth of allergic diseases, in particular skin diseases. As a result of the study, data were obtained on the annual increase in the number of patients diagnosed with atopic dermatitis, which is common in childhood. This is due to environmental degradation, the use of many various household chemicals, an uncontrolled use of drugs, consumption of large quantities of fast food from early childhood. In order to prevent the development of atopic dermatitis and frequent exacerbations, it is recommended to take good care of a child’s skin from perinatal and early childhood by applying appropriate skin care containing emollients, to breastfeed for a longer period, pregnant and lactating women are recommended to keep hypoallergenic diet, especially if they are within risk groups. During pregnancy, the mother’s diet should include foods fortified with vitamin D and zinc. Living in a rural area, prolonged outdoor exposure, large families, peer and pet contact, and moderate use of household chemicals and cleaning products when cleaning the house also reduce the risk of AD in infants. The problem of AD is relevant and requires further research in order to improve the quality of patients’ lives.

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Some Features of the Key Phenotypes of Allergic Rhinitis Among Children in a Metropolis N. S. Tataurschikova1(B) and P. V. Berezhansky1,2 1 Department of Medical and Social Adaptology, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, 6,

Miklukho-Maklaya, Moscow 117198, Russia [email protected] 2 GBUZ MO “Odintsovo Regional Hospital”, 5a, St. M. Biryuzova, Odintsovo 143055, Russia

Abstract. In Russia, over the past decade, as a result of social stress and the transformation of the human environment, there has been an increase in existing negative trends and the emergence of new negative trends in the formation of public health, in particular, an increase in the number of patients with allergic diseases. Allergic rhinitis (AR) occupies a special place among allergic diseases. Allergic rhinitis is a serious medical, social and economic problem. AR is characterized as a disease caused by IgE -Dependent mucosal inflammation with the predominant generation of a Th2 response in a sensitized organism. The microcirculation system is an important pathogenetic link in the development of allergic diseases, including allergic rhinitis, the autonomic nervous system affects both the microcirculation system and the body’s response to various foreign agents, including allergens, to maintain homeostasis. Prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of allergic rhinitis among children is not only a purely medical but also a social problem. They account for a considerable part of both direct (the cost of drugs, hospital and outpatient care), and indirect (early mortality, disability, payment temporary disability) expenses of the company. They have a significant impact on the quality of patients’ life. The study of the main indicators of microcirculation and the autonomic nervous system among children with allergic rhinitis in various combinations with concomitant pathology will highlight new AR phenotypes and choose an individual treatment and rehabilitation plan for children, taking into account the socio-economic and medical-environmental features of living in a metropolis. Keywords: Allergic rhinitis · Microcirculation · Nervous system

1 Introduction Allergic rhinitis is one of the most common diseases among children [1–3]. It is known that the formation of chronic pathology begins in the early stages of a child’s life. An unfavorable environmental situation is accompanied by a progressive deterioration in the health status of children and adolescents. Allergic diseases due to the high prevalence, nature of the course and impact on the quality of life of a sick child © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 V. Vasenev et al. (Eds.): SSC 2020, SPRINGERGEOGR, pp. 202–208, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9_19

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and his family are becoming one of the leading problems of our time. In ecologically disadvantaged areas, prevalence rates of allergic diseases are 1.5 times higher than their prevalence rate in ecologically safe areas [4, 5]. Depending on the leading pathognomonic trait, it is customary to differ individual phenotypes and endotypes of AR. The phenotype covers the clinically significant properties of AR but does not reveal the detailed mechanisms of its development, based on which it is possible to create a personalized algorithm for prevention, treatment, and prognosis. Clear markers in the form of endotypes within the phenotype are required, which determine individualspecific functional and pathogenetic differences. Studying the characteristics of the course, diagnosis and treatment of AR among children in various phenotypic variations and in different age groups allow not only to optimize approaches to treatment but also to prevent AR. [6, 7]. AR is a multifactorial disease in the development of which many factors play a role. Microcirculatory mechanisms have an important pathogenetic value in the development of allergic inflammation [8–10]. The complexity of the pathogenesis of microcirculatory disorders requires the use of sensitive methods for diagnosing capillary blood flow disorder and associated changes in the microvessels of the arterial and venous parts of the microvasculature [11]. Inflammatory mediators cause “microvascular leaks” with plasma exudation in the respiratory tract [12, 13]. High leakage of plasma proteins causes a thickening of the filled and swollen walls of the airways; as a result, their lumen is narrowed. In addition, the plasma passes through the epithelium damaged by intravascular factors and is adsorbed into the lumen of the respiratory tract. Plasma exudations lead to a violation of the integrity of the epithelium, forming a vicious circle, and its presence in the lumen reduces the clearance of mucus [14]. Together, these effects facilitate to airway obstruction. It has been established that dysregulation at the level of microvessels affects the characteristics of the inflammatory process and hyperresponsiveness of the respiratory tract. Microcirculatory changes in vascular origin are critical factors in pathophysiological disorders among patients with AR [9]. At the top of regulating of the functioning of the body is the higher nervous system, combining individual pathogenetic links in the development of diseases and causing structural and functional unity [16, 17]. Many note that socio-economic indicators are dominant in maintaining homeostasis and minimal neurogenic inflammation, especially among children, because of the anatomical and physiological immaturity of other protective systems. Inflammatory mediators affect the release of neurotransmitters and activate afferent nerves leading to constrictive reflexes [18]. This spread of anti-inflammatory effects in the respiratory tract is called neurogenic inflammation [19]. Therefore, the study of the pathogenetic interaction of the microvascular bed with an imbalance of the autonomic nervous system is a promising direction in the formation of tactics for the management, monitoring and early diagnosis of children with AR, in various combinations with concomitant pathology. [20, 21]. It is the concomitant pathology in AR that determines the course of the inflammatory process and forms individual phenotypes. An imbalance in the microcirculation system and dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system is also associated with the presence of comorbid pathology in AR, which can

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be used as diagnostic criteria for various forms of AR. In this regard, it is necessary to understand the causes and determine the phenotypes of allergic rhinitis among children and adolescents in megacities.

2 Methods and Materials In the clinic, 41 children with allergic rhinitis and 25 practically healthy children aged 5–9 years were examined. All children underwent an assessment of the state of the microvasculature using computer capillaroscopy of the nail bed with several indicators (length of the arterial and venular parts of the capillaries; the uneven caliber of the arterial and venular parts of the capillaries; the distance between the capillaries; diameter of the arterial and venular parts of the capillaries; the distance between the arterial and venular parts of the capillaries; the extent of the perivascular zone). The state of the autonomic nervous system was evaluated by the results of conducting heart rate variability for 3 min using the Kardiovisor-6C hardware complex (Medical Computer Systems LLC, Russia). The study included patients of 3 groups: the main group included 25 practically healthy children and 2 comparison groups, the 1st group included immunocompromised patients (21 children with AR in combination with herpes infection and/or pathogenic microflora in nasopharyngeal swabs exceeding 106), 2nd group - with AR without signs of immunocompromising (20 children). The method consisted of studying the microvasculature and assessing heart rate variability (HRV) among 41 children without exacerbation with year-round AR and all children from the main group. The results were processed using the SPSS 14.0 software (SPSSLab., USA).

3 Results At the initial examination, a comparative assessment of the frequency of respiratory morbidity among children was carried out. The analysis was carried out over the 5 previous years of the survey. It was found that children from group 1 suffered from acute respiratory infections more often, compared with group 2 and the main group. Respiratory incidence rate (the number of diseases a child had in 1 year) in group 1 0.725 ± 0.2, in group 2 0. 41 ± 0.14, in the main group 0.28 ± 0.13. All children in groups 1 and 2 showed an increase in the incidence of respiratory infections in March - May. And we suggest that the initial manifestations of allergic rhinitis were hidden under the guise of diagnoses of “acute respiratory infection.” When questioning parents, it was found that in groups 1 and 2, a temperature increase with a viral infection was observed only in half of the cases, and rarely the temperature rose above 38.5 °C, since in the main group ARVI manifestations were accompanied by an increase in temperature in 80% of cases. The formation of an increased prevalence of AR among children of groups 1 and 2 was facilitated by the residence of 75.6% near industrial enterprises and highways, and in adverse living conditions - 73.1% (living space per person less than 6 m2 ), 61% living with pets, 68.3% had earlier started visiting kindergartens. Reliable correlations between the number of viral infections and living near industrial enterprises and highways (r = 0.71), between an increase in body temperature and early

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onset of visits to preschool institutions (r = 0.54) were determined. This shows the influence of socio-economic factors on the characteristics of the course of viral infections. When conducting capillaroscopy among children with AR, morphological changes in the microvasculature were revealed in the form of an increase in the number of microvessels per unit of the observed area, changes in the shape and presence of vascular microplexes formed from several adjacent capillaries, in contrast to children from the main group where the vessels were clearly oriented and ordered (p < 0.05), (Fig. 1). The revealed changes were more pronounced in children from group 2 - microaneurysms and extravasates were often determined.

Fig. 1. Micrograph of a capillary of a child of the main group

An analysis of the results showed that among children of the 1st group and 2nd group, there was a noticeable expansion of the venular part of the capillaries, respectively 49.3 ± 2.7 µm and 48.9 ± 2.2 µm, compared with children from the main group - 41.6 ± 2.5 µm, p < 0.05; a decrease in the length of the arterial part of the capillary in the 1st group - 180.5 ± 10.2 µm, the second group - 184.5 ± 9.4 µm, the main group 197.91 ± 5.49 µm; p < 0.05; an increase in the length of the perivascular zone in group 1-84.3 ± 3.5 µm, group 2-84.9 ± 4 µm and in the main group - 99.6 ± 7.3 µm, p < 0.05 (Fig. 2). The tendency to homogeneous expansion and dilatation of the arterial section of the capillary caused a decrease in the distance between the arterial and venular parts of the capillaries in group 1-13.4 ± 1.5 µm, group 2 - 12.9 ± 1.4 µm, compared with children from the main group - 15.9 ± 5.0 µm; p > 0.05. Among the children of group 2, a generalized tendency to homogeneous expansion was observed throughout the capillary; among children of group 1, the expansion was local (Fig. 3). Manifestations of stasis in the capillary bed were observed among 55% of children in group 1, in 42.1% in group 2, in 8% in the comparison group, p < 0.05. In the same ratio, manifestation of edema of the perivascular space was observed in the examined groups of children. Presumably, these changes are compensatory and may be associated with a violation of the regulatory influence of the autonomic nervous system. Positive correlations were revealed between the increase in the length of the perivascular zone and the frequency of viral infections (r = 0.67), between the decrease in the distance between the arterial and venular parts of the capillaries and the early start of visits to a kindergarten (r = 0.73). All children with AR showed a slight increase in the spectrum of the high-frequency component reflecting parasympathetic activity, while a decrease in the spectrum of the low-frequency component of variability which reflects

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Fig. 2. Micrograph of a capillary of a child of the 1st comparison group

Fig. 3. Micrograph of a capillary of a child of the 2nd comparison group

the level of activity of the vasomotor center (p > 0.05) and the tension of regulatory systems, was noted. When assessing the results of heart rate variability among children with AR, significant changes were revealed compared with healthy children, in particular, the indicator reflecting long-term components and circadian rhythms (SDNN) was highest in group 1-43.5 ± 2.5 and group 2-37.4 ± 3.1, compared with children from the main group -31.2 ± 2.7, p < 0.05), the RMSSD indicator reflecting the activity of the parasympathetic link was more elevated among children from group 2 (45, 3 ± 3.8), compared with children from group 1 (38.2 ± 2.5) and the main group (28.8 ± 4.5). All children with AR showed a slight decrease in the spectrum of low-frequency (LF) and increased high-frequency (HF) components p > 0.05, but the ratio of LF/HF had a clear tendency to decrease in both groups of children with AR (in group 1-3, 2 ± 0.71, group 2-2.9 ± 0.93, in the main group - 4.03 ± 0.69, p < 0.05). The determination of the IS indicator (stress index), which determines dominance of central regulation mechanisms over autonomous ones, revealed a sharp decrease in this indicator in group 1 190.5 ± 20.7 than in group 2 and the main group, respectively 240.5 ± 15.4 and 303.9 ± 20.8, p < 0.05. Positive correlation between IS and living near industrial enterprises and highways (r = 0.68), between LF/HF and the frequency of viral infections (r = 0.61) and a negative ratio between IS-increase in body temperature (r = −0.59). This shows the importance of determining the dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system among children with AR, depending on the impact of socio-environmental factors.

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4 Discussion Thus, we see that children with AR have a higher respiratory morbidity index and clinical features of the course of respiratory infections, in particular, most infections occur without fever, which may be the basis for an in-depth examination of children with similar clinical manifestations for early detection of allergic rhinitis. All children with AR have pronounced changes in the microvasculature which vary depending on the presence of concomitant pathology. The leading environmental-hygienic and medical-social risk factors for the development and spread of AR among children are the location of housing near urban highways and near industrial enterprises, unsatisfactory living conditions, pets, the early visits to preschool institutions. Because of the constant influence of socio-environmental factors on the child’s body, somatopsychic dysontogenesis develops which creates the basis for the development of diseases, in particular AR, which is based on neurogenic inflammation. Among children with allergic rhinitis, a reactive tension of autonomic regulatory mechanisms is observed and an increase in centralization in the management of heart rhythm is noted. The relationships between allergic rhinitis, autonomic dysfunctions, microcirculation, and socio-environmental factors require further study.

5 Conclusions In the new information and production conditions, the child’s body is affected by very unusual and harsh environmental factors that are inadequate to its nature and lead to the breakdown of adaptive mechanisms and the development of the disease. Carrying out the regulation of life, the autonomic nervous system is a connecting link between the body and the environment. Being affected by social and environmental factors, the autonomic nervous system changes, reacting with an inadequate response to simple stimuli. Based on the data got, we can speak about the specificity of changes in the microvasculature among patients with different phenotypes of allergic rhinitis and autonomic nervous system dysfunction, depending on the influence on the child’s body of socioeconomic and medical-environmental factors in the metropolis. Among patients with AR without concomitant pathology, there are reactive changes in the autonomic status towards an increase in the dominance of central regulation mechanisms and the predominance of parasympathetic tone, while in immunocompromised patients, there is no pronounced parasympathetic effect, which should be taken into account when drawing up a personalized treatment and rehabilitation plan. Evaluation of the microcirculation system by direct capillaroscopy is a non-invasive and effective diagnostic method, and economically attractive, which is sufficient reason to include it in the recommendations for the diagnosis of AR phenotypes. More pronounced changes in the microvasculature’s state are noted among children living in socially and environmentally unfavorable conditions in a metropolis.

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References 1. Akdis, C.A., Hellings, P.W., Agache, I.: Global atlas of allergic rhinitis and chronic rhinosinusitis, p. 422 (2015) 2. Roberts, G., Xatzipsalti, M., Borrego, L.M., Custovic, A., Halken, S., Hellings, P.W., Papadopoulos, N.G., Rotiroti, G., Scadding, G., Timmermans, F., Valovirta, E.: Paediatric rhinitis: position paper of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Allergy 68, 1102–1116 (2013) 3. Tataurshchikova, N.: Rational pharmacotherapy in cases of mucosal immunity pathologies among patients, suffering from allergic rhinitis. Bull. Otorhinolaryngol. 5, 93–97 (2013) 4. Baranov, A.A.: Studying the quality of life in medicine and paediatrics. Ques. Mod. Pediatr. 4(2), 712 (2015) 5. Scherbo, A.P.: On the problem of environmental and hygienic markers in the aspect of evidence-based medicine. Hyg. Sanitation 6, 5–8 (2004) 6. Tataurschikova, N.S.: Features of allergic inflammation in the assessment of phenotypes of allergic rhinitis. Farmateka 1, 12–15 (2018) 7. Lee, E., Hong, S.J.: Phenotypes of allergic diseases in children and their application in clinical situations. Korean J. Pediatr. 23, 73–95 (2019) 8. Wiernsperger, N., Rapin, J.R.: Microvascular diseases: is a new era coming? Cardiovascematol. Agents Med. Chem. 6, 167–183 (2012) 9. KorzhevaII, U., Iakovlev, V.N., Mumladze, R.B., RozikovIu, S.H., Duvanski˘ı, V.: A Blood microcirculation disorder in patients with microcirculation study. Allergy Rhinol. (Providence) 9 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1177/2152656718764233 10. Berezhansky, P.V., Berezhanskaya, U.S.: Modern features of the pathogenesis of bronchial asthma and the contribution of microcirculation in the development of chronic allergic pathology. Modern strategies and technologies for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of patients of different ages suffering from chronic non-infectious whitening, pp. 113–126 (2018) 11. Kozlov, V.I.: Blood microcirculation system: clinical and morphological aspects of the study of microcirculation. Reg. Blood Circ. Microcirc. 17, 84–101 (2006) 12. Ferrara, N.: The biology of VEG Fanditsreceptors. Nat. Med. 9, 669–676 (2003) 13. Grashoff, W.F.: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: role of bronchiolar mast cells and macrophages. Am. J. Pathol. 151, 1785–1790 (1997) 14. Grumelli, S.: An immune basis for lung parenchymal destruction in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and emphysema. PLoS Med. 1, 8 (2004) 15. Undem, B.J., Taylor-Clark, T.: Mechanisms underlying the neuronal-based symptoms of allergy. J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. 6, 1521–1534 (2014)

Playground Arrangement for Children with Special Health Needs T. E. Zhukova1(B) , O. P. Krasilnikova1 , M. I. Podchernina1 , P. V. Zhukov2 , and D. V. Neyman3 1 Department of Landscape Design and Sustainable Ecosystems, Peoples Friendship University

of Russia (RUDN University), Miklukho-Maklaya street 6, Moscow, Russia [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] 2 Department of Fundamentals of Architectural Design, Moscow Architectural Institute, Rozhdestvenka Street, Moscow, Russia [email protected] 3 Moscow State Linguistic University, 38 Ostozhenka Street, Moscow, Russia [email protected]

Abstract. The article describes the tasks set by the creators and organizers of playgrounds which were designed for children with disabilities including children with autism spectrum disorders. The study was carried out with the assistance of correctional pedagogy and rehabilitation specialists. The literature on this subject was studied, as well as regulatory sources, the photo fixation of objects was made, and the survey of different age respondents was conducted. As a result of the analysis, several recommendations were prepared that are of key importance for creating an inclusive space under conditions of leisure activities organization for children with disabilities: 1) involving children in general games; 2) encouraging peer interaction; and 3) collaborative activities stimulation aimed at the development of social and communicative qualities among children. Architects and designers can use the gained experience for inclusive program development. The model of space organization presented in the article is given for children with different abilities, where the possibility of interaction between healthy children and children with disabilities is taken into account. Keywords: Children with special health needs · Playground · Play set · Playground equipment · Design · Design system · Children with disabilities · Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

1 Introduction For the moment, there are more than 500 M people in the world who are disabled due to physical, mental and sensory disorders. These people are limited in having a full-fledged lifestyle due to barriers of different nature, which may impede successful socialization. An important goal for society in the past 5–10 years was to find and reduce these difficulties that complicate the life of people with disabilities. According to the world © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 V. Vasenev et al. (Eds.): SSC 2020, SPRINGERGEOGR, pp. 209–217, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9_20

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statistics, the number of children with ASD grows every year [11]. In addition, in 2019, every 110th child (out of 10,000 children tested) showed signs of autism [12]. Based on the above statistics, it becomes clear why the development of a comfortable playroom for children with disabilities is so relevant today [1]. It raises awareness of taking into account all human needs in the design process, from ergonomic to spiritual and psychological. Indeed, it is spiritual and psychological needs that are most important for these special people, since the range of interests of a disabled person is as wide as that of a healthy one. It can be assumed that their range can be even wider, which is explained by an attempt to compensate for their defect, to make their coexistence more diverse [13].Currently, more attention is being paid to adapting the environment to the needs of children with special health needs. State program “Accessible Environment”- providing available forms of leisure is a key part of solving a problem of disabled children’s sport & physical activities [1]. That is also a common problem for landscape architects. Until now, the issue of playground arrangement has been partially solved in relation to people with musculoskeletal systems, hearing and vision disorders. This article covers problems and solutions in a field of playground arrangement for the children with disabilities including autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The issues of compatibility of existing playgrounds with the consumer expectations are widely accepted [2]. The possibilities of space creating convenient for all categories of children and the courses conducive to the development of mutual assistance and sympathy for each other shall be the priorities [3]. Green landscapes in the wider urban environment are recognized as providing therapeutic and health- supporting benefits [8]. Natural and artificial green spaces can provide the beneficial effects on health and general psychological background [4]. The parks, gardens, and public open spaces can be used for passive and active recreation. They differ in size, shape - form and function they perform. Strategic approach should be set to assess community needs and to plan an enrichment of the green system network [6]. The outcomes of the herapeutic gardening project in a community mental health center confirm that engagement in gardening results in significant improvement in mood and markedly higher levels of involvement and spontaneity. Positive changes in diet and social interaction are also reported [7]. The selection of ornamental plants is important for provisioning this function. Interesting examples of the year-round conifers use in the various design areas are available [5]. In 2020 the problem of designing integrated inclusive zones for disabled children (including ones with ASD) is becoming more crucial. Architects tend to make their playgrounds more functional, sustainable and usable by children with special health needs. They are trying to meet all the best practices and even to make the playground able to improve the child’s health. Options available for playground architect depend directly on a project’s budget, a location, norms they have to meet and many other factors [9]. This article covers key characteristics, principles and requirements in developing playgrounds for disabled children. When designing a playground, the legal constrains and recommendation considering the demands of disabled people [10] shall be considered by the following: i) an integrated approach to children playground; ii) inclusion of social and emotional elements; iii) inclusion of a variety of sensory experiences that should solve problems of a physical and psychological nature as well as to provide resources for research and discovery.

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The given system of principles forms qualities of a stronger personality, helps to develop an ability to make own decisions and decisions together with friends and relatives and enables to take part in a game. Meanwhile, the main focus is not on helping a child with disabilities to somehow get used to the perception of playing conditions, but, more precisely, on creating a play set to meet the needs and skills of the child directly [18, 19]. Furthermore, playground equipment helps children feel that they are equal in terms of physical activity and they are free to take part in the games. The play set built in accordance with all the norms makes it possible to provide a wide range of balancing activities with different heights, widths and motion that allow children to experiment and develop balancing skills. Besides, it is worth noting that when touching objects children tend to feel the change in textures and temperatures. It is about fostering the development of real life skills through interactive play. Unusual playgrounds with a lot of various sets, for example, slides and climbing sets are more attractive to children. For socialization practice one can use shelters or secret places under the play sets. It tends to be an interesting space to hide with friends. Paradoxically, playgrounds with half open spaces boost social interaction, attracting children [20]. The paper aimed to review and summarize the key characteristics, principles and requirements in permitting the design of playgrounds for children with disabilities.

2 Materials and Methods The research included two case studies: 1) a social survey in Western Administrative District of Moscow; 2) evaluation of the solutions proposed by “RNC” Moscow – the creator of the play construction project. Social survey was carried out from May 5 2020 to August 10 2020 and included 22 adults and 12 children (5–18 years old). The survey aimed to figure out if parents and their children are happy with playgrounds in their neighbourhood, check parents’ awareness about inclusion and ask for their opinion. The following open questions were asked: I Questions for children i)

Is there a playground in your yard? Describe it. What do you like about it? What don’t you like? ii) Let us recall the fairytale “A Magic Seven-Petal Flower”. How would you treat a child who cannot run, jump and play like others do? Would you play with him or her? Would you help him or her? iii) What do you think can be done on this playground so that it would be fully usable and convenient for these children to play there? iv) Let us dream a bit, which playground would like to see in your yard? What kinds of playground sets, web swings, swings? Try to draw it II Questions for parents i)

What advantages and disadvantages of the playgrounds in your neighbourhood can you name? ii) What advantages and disadvantages of the parks in your neighbourhood can you name?

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iii) How do you feel if children with special health needs (autistic disorders, cerebral palsy, etc.) will play on the same playground with your child? iv) What do you think the children’s playground should be like in the courtyard of the residential building? v) What do you think the children’s playground should be like in the nearby park? The evaluation of solutions proposed by “RNC” Moscow was done following the standards and principles for the playgrounds for disabled children [14–16]. The following standards were considered: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

arranging playground use zones for children of all ages; providing children with shelters to give them some personal space; inspiring children to be creative by providing different playground scenarios; giving preference to natural colours and surface and not using bright, high contrast colours; paying attention to the surface quality stimulating children’s feeling of danger; using hedges instead of fences; using varied relief to give an opportunity to overcome difficulties; organizing place for parents; enabling children and teenagers to take part in planning and projecting [17]. The following principles were considered:

1. the principle of consistency implies that the construction of a playground should be erected legally on permit first and the specialized equipment should be effectively used by children of all abilities; 2. the principle of good ergonomics presupposes a convenient and easy design so that children could use the playground equipment without any physical effort; 3. the principle of compatibility is about the use of intuitive and simple interactive components of a play set; 4. the principle of visual information matters when it comes to children with autism on the playground, using visual aids is crucial to help children feel safe; 5. the principle of team play suggests that the design system specialized equipment should adjust children to the team work and teach them to show empathy to other children’s mistakes; 6. the principle of adaptation takes into account certain measures to make the construction easier to use without any physical effort The evaluation results were used to make recommendations for playgrounds’ equipment.

3 Results and Discussion The social survey results show that 58,4% of children think that the playground in their yard is old and in need of renovation. Half of the children (50%) do not mind interacting

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with children with special needs. 25% of interviewed children and 4,5% of adults do not have any understanding about autistic children and cannot answer the question. The outcomes demonstrated that the majority (54,5%) is not satisfied with the state of playgrounds in the yards of their residential buildings, 50% of people think parks are too crowded and 36,3% of people think that they are old and dirty. The majority of respondents (72,8%) to the question “How do you feel if children with special health needs (autistic disorders, cerebral palsy, etc.) will play on the same playground with your child?” respond that they do not mind, but around a quarter of respondents (22,7%) consider it unsafe (“these children need a special place with special conditions so no one could disturb or harm each other”). Thus, we can conclude that in a case of reorganizing children’s playgrounds in yards and parks architects are supposed to start developing spaces for children with special needs. In order to raise awareness of the problem it is recommended to use educational brochures and organize educational talks and meetings. The children drawings reflecting their view and feeling of the perfect playground give a vivid summary of the survey results (Fig. 1). The evaluation of the RNC’s recent product line revealed five new technologies, which are promising for children to have visual, auditory, tactile, vestibular and proprioceptive experience. The following technologies were selected as the best examples: 1. OmniSpinner provides a great range of balancing challenges and a “just-right” experience for those seeking sensory stimulation, as well as a variety of social interaction opportunities in safety with children of all abilities; 2. outdoor electronic playground equipment Neos combines the interactivity of video games with the movement of aerobic exercise; 3. playground equipment MaxPlay-Fit with different configurations: its design a lot of playful pathways and “dynamic refuges” to give kids with disabilities more ways to play and socialize (Fig. 2). Based on the evaluation of the technological solutions, the following conclusions and recommendations can be made: 1. 2. 3.

4. 5. 6. 7.

there must be one entrance and one exit in order to make the environment of the playground safe; there should be free space near the playground equipment, which will enable the child with autism to get used to the playground; besides, some children with ASD prefer a quiet place away from the noise where they can play with sand or water, musical instruments and some other creative games depending on a play set; still, spaces for dynamic and active games should be provided; for children’s relaxation special shelters are to be built; special designs with radius or round constructions would be helpful to provide a safe environment for children with special needs; moreover, play sets are separated by ropes that are called lines of sight and can be used on the playground;

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Fig. 1. Children’s proposal for organization of the playground (drawings by Masha Sokolova and Artem Siluanov)

8.

in case a grown-up child with ASD could watch the whole playground, special sets are installed; 9. the colours of all the playground sets have to be muted for children with ASD; 10. positive emotional state of an autistic child is created by means of touch screens in the design of play sets, which contribute to the increase of various information. 11. it is important to take into account that playgrounds must create a safe play environment for all; thorny plants or plants that can produce small berries that can be poisonous or dangerous for suffocation should be excluded [26].

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Fig. 2. Technological solutions for playgrounds for disabled children

4 Conclusion The research proved that there should be an integrated approach in order to deal with designing outdoor spaces for children with special needs. We can make a difference for children with disorders by including a variety of sensory and emotional experience and developing their social skills. Thus, all the mental and physical problems should be taken into consideration and there should be suitable conditions provided for different age groups to carry out further research. In the article we pointed out the main principles that contribute to playground design decisions in general. They are consistency, good ergonomics, visualization, adaptation, compatibility and managing team play. The following requirements are to be met in order to design an inclusive playground for children with ASD which differ from those for disabled people: 1. 2. 3. 4.

providing only one entrance and one exit on the playground design; grouping the noisy activities together while quiet ones in another area; using lines of sight; using playground set in muted colours.

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The following recommendations shall be considered: 1. to arrange educational meetings for parents of healthy children and provide them with educational brochures so that they could prepare themselves and their children for proper interaction and socialization with children with disabilities; 2. to engage professionals, teachers and psychologists in problem solving.

References 1. State program of the Russian Federation « Accessible environment » for 2011—2020], p. 8 (2016). [E-resource]. http://ba.se.garant.ru/71265834/M. Accessed on 12 Sept 2018 2. Inginitskaya, D.A., Antonov, I.G., Belyaeva, L.A., Zhukova, T.E.: City Education: everything About Playgrounds” Proceedings of the Smart and Sustainable Cities Conference 2018. The article raises questions of the compliance of existing playgrounds with consumer expectations. Disadvantages are highlighted and directions for further design developments in this area are proposed, pp. 205–220 (2018) 3. Smart, E., Edwards, B., Kingsnorth, S., Sheffe, S., Curran, C.J., Pinto, M., Crossman, S., King, G.: Creating an inclusive lei-sure space: strategies used to engage children with and without disabilities in the arts-mediated program Spiral Garden. Disability and rehabilitation ISSN: 0963-8288 (Print), pp. 1464–5165. http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/idre20, http://dx. doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2016.1250122 4. Collins, J., Avey, S., Lekkas, P.: Lost landscapes of healing: the de-cline of therapeutic mental health landscapes. Landscape research ISSN: 0142-6397 (Print), pp. 1469–9710. http://www. tandfonline.com/loi/clar20, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2016.1197192 5. Lai, Y., Zhao, F., Du, Q., Xie, X., Chen,Q., Qin, Z.: Study on Application of Native Plants in Park Greening in Guilin. E3S Web of Conferences, ICAEER 2019, vol. 118, pp. 04006 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1051/e3conf/201911804006 6. Sandeva, V., Despot, K., Simovski, B., Nikolov, B., Gjenchevski, D.: The main function of plant design of parks and gardens. Online ISSN 1857-9507. www.sf.ukim.edu.mk/sumarski_ pregled.htm 7. Smidl, S., Mitchell, D.M., Creighton, C.L.: Outcomes of a Therapeutic Gardening Program in a Mental Health Recovery Center ISSN: 0164-212X (Print), pp. 1541–3101. http://www. tandfonline.com/loi/womh20 8. Marcus, C.C.: Therapeutic Landscapes. Environmental Psychology and Human Well-Being 9. Kasper, N.V.: Architectural and spatial structure of organizations for early support for children./Kasper N.V.// Actual topics of science and technology./Digest of scientific works by the results of the international scientific and practical conference. Samara. № 2, pp. 95–99 (2015) 10. http://www.kremlin.ru/acts/bank/8523 11. Kasper, N.V.: The sensory garden as an architectural and landscape environment for the rehabilitation of young children// Scientific, pedagogical and cultural heritage of the Russian boundary school: a collection of scientific papers based on the results of the All-Russian scientific and practical conference of scientists and specialists, teachers and staff of universities, graduate students and students with international participants. Mm GUZ (2016) 12. https://vawilon.ru/statistika-autizma-v-mire/ 13. https://vdnh.ru/places/igrovaya-ploshchadka-adaptirovannaya-dlya-detey-s-ograniche nnymi-vozmozhnostyami/ 14. https://ckif63.pf/gosty/042_2017

Playground Arrangement for Children with Special Health Needs 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27.

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https://ckif63.pf/gosty/52169-2012 https://ckif63.pf/gosty/52300-2013 https://gre4ark.livejournal.com/513826.html Azhgikhin, S.G., Marchenko, M.N.: The types of making decisions during the process of project activity// 21 century: fundamental science and technology, pp. 86–88 (2014) Inclusive children’s playground was opened in VDNKH in Moscow: TASS News Agency [E-resource]. Assessed 12 Dec 2017 Kidwell, P.: Psychology of the City” Moscow “Mann, Ivanov, Ferber”, pp. 182–183 (2018) Jean, A.A.: Sensory Integration and the Child: Understanding Hidden Sensory Challenges (translated into Russian by Yuliya Dare). M.: Publ. Terevinf, p. 272 (2017) Safe children’s playgrounds in Russia – a dream or a reality? http://sec4all.net/modules/mya rticles/article.php?storyid=1223. Accessed 08 Jan 2018 https://www.masterslandscapedesign.com/blog/landscape-plants-that-are-perfect-for-playgr ounds-in-mt-juliet-tn/ https://www.pinterest.ru/pin/438115870002308271/?nic_v2=1a5Di4D1V https://fitness-gaming.com/news/events-and-fun/neos-360-electronic-playground-deliversaction-and-fun.html https://www.playlsi.com/en/commercial-playground-equipment/playground-components/ omnispin-spinner/ https://labsiz.ru/image/catalog/moskow/elektrolaboratorija-v-zao.jpg

Environmental, Social and Economic Potentials of Urban Protected Areas: Case Study of Moscow, Russia Vitaly A. Kryukov(B) Faculty of Geography, Lomonosow Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

Abstract. Protected areas (PAs) are becoming more and more vulnerable to urbanization processes, expansion of built-up areas and severe shortage of space. Moscow is one of the most fast-growing European cities, therefore, this problem has a great relevance there. Two case study areas, Severny and Altufjevsky reserves, covering about 94 and 82 hectares, are located in the north of Moscow. PA Regulations, published in 2020 and approved by Government of Moscow, are the main data sources, particularly for land-use planning, protection regimes and special structures. Besides, the results of landscape structure investigations, openaccess data by Information System Ensuring Spatial Planning (ISOGD), Moscow Government open-access data hub were used. According to Regulations, natural and semi-natural zones constitute only 37% i 16% of the total area. Spatial differences between present environment state and zoning established by regional laws were analyzed by GIS-overlay and rating scales. Moreover, PA socio-economic potential was investigated, using rating scales of 7 groups of functions. Overlay difference between environmental and socio-economic potentials (EP1 -SEP parameter) has become the tool to detect spaces providing ecosystem protection functions, but exposed to strong human impact. Although some areas are used mostly for social and economic purposes, semi-natural zones are under quite strict protection regimes. Area-weighted EP1 -SEP parameter of PA are estimated to 2.9 and 2.4 respectively (from a possible range from −20 to 20) and hence zoning is correlated with ecosystem functions in general, except large-scale inconsistencies. This algorithm can be used to resolve a dilemma between protection and exploitation. Keywords: Urban ecology · Protected areas · Spatial planning · GIS · Urban reserves · Integral assessment · Spatial analysis

1 Introduction Despite the fact that counter-urbanization processes are becoming more widespread [1], urban impact on natural and semi-natural areas remains the crucial source of biodiversity reduction, green areas reduction and fragmentation, decreasing of green infrastructure (GI) ability to provide ecosystem services [2–4]. Moreover, it is not necessary, that PA ability to provide social and cultural services will be increased at the same time. The © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 V. Vasenev et al. (Eds.): SSC 2020, SPRINGERGEOGR, pp. 218–229, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9_21

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presence of PAs in city is quite important for environmental education and awareness of locals. “This green area is not only park, it gives us better microclimate and reduces air and noise pollution” – the most of citizens should have such ideas, if they really want to live in comfortable city, corresponding to sustainable development concept. All urban protected areas (PA) are under strict human impact around the world, especially in urban areas. Expansion of built-up areas and severe shortage of space have become the crucial factors of urban environment protection. Provision of ecosystem services, scientific potential, placement of historical and cultural landmarks, recreational and sport activities, placement of transport objects and engineering communications are considered as sources of public health and urban liveability [5–7]. So, the problem, which areas we should conserve, and which we should exploit, is crucial. The problem of PAs using is particularly crucial to Moscow, when PAs share is about 18% of the total area Moscow (within its borders until accession of mostly rural so called “New Moscow” in 2012). PAs number and area increased considerably over the past 10 years (14 natural monuments, 14 reserves, 1 ecological park, 1 natural-historical park), especially in 2020. It is one of the reason of PAs functional zoning importance. PAs in the other cities are under wide range of protection regimes, but adoption of plant communities to different frequency of visits is one of the most popular tool of PAs planning around the world [8]. It is to possible to ban some strong impact (like jet ski, bicycling, artificial lighting, entertainment activities), according to different management regimes, or protection regimes, but it’s almost impossible to prohibit access to urban PA. The most forward-looking strategy is restricted access, according to environmental value of landscape parts and habitats of rare plant and animals species. Most of protected areas include quite different zones: reserves, restricted use, moderate use, special use, buffer zones (special protection outside PAs) [9]. The concept of this investigation is in multifunctionality and specificity of urban PA. In contrast to traditional notion of protected areas, urban PA are important providers of cultural and even economic services along with environmental [10]. Social and economic functions of large spaces in some PA are more important than environmental because the most of landscapes are transformed, its ability to provide ecosystem services is quite low.

2 Materials and Methods 2.1 Case Study Area Moscow is one of the most fast-growing cities, and its expansion coincides with a considerable shortage of space. High development pace, ongoing construction of buildings with different functional purposes, presence of wide range of stakeholders – all these urban features emerge the conflicts of interests in cities [11, 12]. All natural and semi-natural areas, not only protected, are often becomes the conflicts centers. Almost every green core, adjoining to city borders, is getting more and more fragmented, and its patches are under increasing human impact [10]. Therefore, problem of protected areas conservation has a great relevance there. The objects of this research are two case study PAs, so-called Severny and Altufjevsky reserves, which cover 93,6 and 81,8 ha respectively. Case study PAs are located in

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the north of Moscow (Severny – in Severny district, Altufjevsky – in Lianozovo and Bibirevo districts) and surrounded by Moscow outskirts, Dolgoprudny residential areas, The Moscow Automobile Ring Road (MKAD), green areas in Moscow Oblast, commercial and warehouse objects (Fig. 1). Severny has a more prominent location than Altufjevsky due to neighbourhood with green areas along the eastern border, while Altufjevsky is adjacent only to Altfjevsky park which is under extensive recreational load. Furthermore, all the north part of Altufjevsky borderline is adjacent to MKAD, although Severny has only one small fragment, adjoining to MKAD, in the south. The recreational load on Severny reserve is considerably lower than the load on Altufjevsky because of overbuilding in Altufjevsky surroundings. Severny locates in flat watershed area at about 180–185 meters above sea level and includes 3 fragments. In contrast, Altufjevsky locates in the Samotyoka river valley (Chermyanka river basin) at about 145–165 meters above sea level and includes 5 fragments. Altufjevsky has two flowing ponds with a total area of 4 ha in the East of its territory, while Severny has one standing pond with area of less than 0,2 ha in the south fragment. It is interesting that Severny reserve is unique in Moscow: except small nature monuments, it is the only Moscow PA with no natural water objects at all. 2.2 Environmental Potential Environmental potential (EP1 ) is evaluated using the main data source—Protected Areas Regulations approved by Moscow government in 2020 [13]. Land-use planning, functional zones, protection regimes, construction spaces and values of buildings limits were analyzed. According to regulations, seven functional zones are laid down (Fig. 2). First three of them (WS, PL, E) are under the most strict protection regimes. Taking into account the definitions of these zones, natural and semi-natural landscapes with quite low level of anthropogenic transformation occupy most of the WS, PL, E areas. These zones in Severny account for 37% of the total area and only for 16% of the Altufjevsky total area (Fig. 3). On the other hand, recreation centers and administrative zones have the least strict protection regimes, leading to the lowest values of EP1 . These zones in Severny account for only 4% of the total area, Altufjevsky has no RC and A zones at all. Recreation zones are the most widespread in both reserves constituting 60% of Severny total area and 80% of Altufjevsky total area. These zones are quite different because of various forms of protection regimes. As an illustration, regime №1 prohibits the application of mineral fertilizers for trees and bushes, lawns maintenance, creation of flower gardens and flower beds, construction of paved walkways, roads, administrative buildings, underground engineering communications, while regime №2 enables all of these management activities. Such differences between regimes 1 and 2 are more significant than differences between WS and E protection regimes. In this respect, regimes features are taken into account – R zones with regimes №1 and №2 are considered as two different zones to evaluate EP1 and SEP more accurately. Aside from other zones, CL are assessed according to planning concepts of cultural heritage objects. Moscow has an important feature—cultural heritage legislation is more important than environmental legislation, so, land-use of this zones is fully dependent on the local acts. In this case, cultural heritage objects are represented by Altufjevo manor houses.

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Fig. 1. PAs location and its surroundings

Besides this, planned construction areas are also represented by Regulations. Such spaces in case areas are occupied by technical engineering communications, for example, electricity lines or underground sewage, water supply facilities, heat network and other;

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administrative objects; transport network; cultural heritage buildings. EP1 gained lower values in such spaces because of wide range of possibilities to environmental harm. Moreover, open-access data are used: ISOGD (information system ensuring spatial planning) [14], Moscow Government open-access data hub [15], Open Street Maps [16], Public Cadastral Maps [17]. PA borders, cultural heritage objects, urban plans were obtained from ISOGD, cadastral borders and information about land-use character were gained from cadastral map, vector pedestrian network, park infrastructure objects, social objects – from reliable for urban areas [18] OSM data and Moscow open-access data hub. So, each intersection of functional zones and construction spaces (minimum mapping unit) are assessed using unified measure scale from 0 to 20. Then, according to own investigations and scientific reviews [19] about ecosystems structure, vegetation state, land cover digression, ecosystems ability to self-regulation, recreational use, environmental potential EP2 is analyzed. In contrast to EP1 , minimum mapping unit of EP2 is an elementary landscape structure, according to its relief positions, hydrogeological positions, spatial density of plant life-forms of vegetation: swamps on flood plains, marshes on flood plains, dry flood plains, slopes of different steepness (mostly forested and mostly non-forested), flat and subhorizontal plains (mostly forested and mostly non-forested), watershed wetlands. Digression of all landscape elements is assessed, according to Chizhova [20] method for identification of landscapes digression level. EP2 is assessed using five-level scale [20] transformed into the scale from 0 to 20 to make it compatible with EP1 . 2.3 Social and Economic Potential Further, socio-economic potential (SEP) is assessed. The minimum mapping unit of SEP is the same as unit EP1 . Each of them provides several social and/or economic functions, but at different level (Table 1). Weight of each function is evaluated through peer review using pair-wise comparison of functions by AHP method [21] widely used in environmental impact and liveability assessments [22–25]. The integral SEP indicator is a sum of each function potential, according to functions weight (1). SEP = SCwsc + EDwed + R1 wr1 + R2 wr2 + SPwsp + TRwtr + EGwe.g.

(1)

where SC, ED, R1 , R2 , SP, TR, EG – values of function potential from 0 to 20, according to functional zoning and construction spaces; wsc , wed , wr1 , wr2 , wsp , wtr , weg – weights of functions in SEP. 2.4 Integral Indicators Weighted GIS-overlay through free QGIS platform is used to indicate areas with inadequate protection regimes and to define quality of environmental policy in PAs. To achieve it, indicator EP1 -EP2 (difference between values in two multipolygonal layers) is measured. This indicator could vary from −20 to 20. Its deviations from zero show inconsistencies between zoning by law and by actual ecosystems value.

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Fig. 2. Algorithm of environmental, social and economic potentials assessment

Fig. 3. Balance of functional zones: Severny in the left figure, Altufjevsky in the right picture. Natural and semi-natural zones are separated. Zones: WS – wildlife sanctuary; PL – protected landscape; E – educational; R – recreational; RC – recreational centers; CL – cultural landscapes; A – administrative.

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Table 1. Values of SC, ED, R1 , R2 , SP, TR, EG, according to functional zoning, protection regimes and intersections with construction spaces Socio-economic functions SC*

ED*

R1*

R2*

SP*

TR*

EG*

Weights of socio-economic functions 0,15

0,19

0,27

0,15

0,12

0,05

0,07

20

20

0

0

0

0

0

17

15

5

0

0

0

0

E

15

20

8

0

0

0

3

R (№1)

7

12

12

6

9

0

5

R (№2)

5

9

15

14

11

5

5

R (№ 2, intersecting 4 with construction spaces)

7

15

16

11

10

10

RC

0–5

0–20 13

17

14

12

10

RC, intersecting with construction spaces

0–2

0–20 8

20

15

12

10

CL, intersecting with construction spaces

5–20 5–20 8–20 5–20 0–14 0–14 0–15

A, intersecting with construction spaces

0–3

Functional zones and WS protection regimes PL

0–3

10

11

7

12

12

*SC – science ED – education R1 – recreation with low impact on environment (walking, cycling) R2 – recreation with high impact on environment (other activities) SP – sport TR – transport EG – engineering communications

Another indicator is a difference between two potentials, obtained from functional zones and construction spaces (EP1 -SEP). This indicator and its spatial distribution in schemes (Fig. 4) are gained through the same methodic. EP1 -SEP could be used to detect areas, providing ecosystem functions under strong human impacts. These indicators may be used to assess at local level each zone in terms “protect it more or exploit it more” at local level. To solve this dilemma at city level we should use area-weighted potential difference (2, 3). n (EP1 - EP2 )i S (2) EP1w - EP2w = i = 1n i=1S

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m EP1w - SEPw =

(EP1 - SEP)i S i = 1 m i=1S

(3)

where n – overall number of intersections between EP1 and EP2 minimum mapping units; m – number of intersections between functional zones and construction spaces (i.e. EP1 and SEP minimum mapping units); S – area. Negative values of EP1w -EP2w indicate problems of urban planning related to insufficiently strict protection regimes. There is a high possibility of environment components digression. Such zoning is proposed to call insufficient because of it anthropocentic character. On the other hand, positive EP1w -EP2w values indicate urban planning achievements related to environment protection. If regimes are more strict, than it’s required to conserve natural landscapes, such zoning is proposed to call preventive. These efforts create some reserve and afford natural landscapes to exist in quite sustainable state.

3 Results and Discussion About 15% of total area (16% of Severny and 14% of Altufjevsky) have EP1 -EP2 less more than 5, i.e. protection regimes are more strict there than it is required (Fig. 4). It is proposed to call such zoning preventive. Smaller area has protection regimes less strict than it’s required. Difference between EP1 and EP2 is less than 5 in this situation. Zoning of these areas is proposed to call insufficient. Up to 37% of Severny total area and 16% of Altufjevsky total area have EP1 -SEP parameter higher than 5. These zones have transformed environment under quite strict protection regimes. 3% of Severny total area and 8% of Altufjevsky total area have EP1 -SEP parameter lower than 5. These semi-natural zones are under inadequate strict protection regimes now. EP1w -EP2w values are slightly above zero: 1.4 in Altufjevsky and 0.8 in Severny. Thus, environmental policy aids environment protection in general, but there is no big opportunities for ecorehabilitation of some PA parts: border areas in the north and northwest of Severny, adjoining to residential areas with low-rise buildings; wetlands of Samotyoka river valley in the north-east of Altufjevsky. On the other hand, positive values of EP1 -SEP parameter are more common than negative. Finally, area-weighted potentials difference (EP1w -SEPw ) is little more than zero: 2.9 in Severny and 2.4 in Altufjevsky. Hence zoning is correlated with ecosystem functions in general, except large-scale inconsistencies. Despite this, EP1 -SEP excess is quite small (less than 15% of the highest possible value), i.e. social and economic PA potentials are also important for visitors of reserves, stakeholders, government structures. These areas have been under human impact for a long time, resulting in important role in society needs. Creation of such PAs should be considered as positive development of Moscow environmental police and prevention of green areas losses. Moreover, there is no important difference of EP1 -EP2 , EP1 -SEP, EP1w -EP2w , EP1w SEPw values between Severny and Altufjevsky reserves, despite differences in functional zoning, land management, recreational loads. It is probably a result of environmental policy aimed at conservation and protection while keeping the present level of human impact.

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Fig. 4. Indicators of Altufjevsky and Severny reserves potential

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So, all these indicators reveal quite satisfactory implications of Moscow environment policy at city level. At the same time, problem of zoning insufficiency for ecorehabilitation exists. Areas providing ecosystem functions, are mostly protected, but there are some inconsistiences. Such assessments would be useful to spatial planning according to sustainable development concept and balance of environmental potential, social needs and economic benefits. The assessment method could be regarded as a tool designed to environmental auditing of city planning, and, possibly, to PAs evaluation of conformity with its special status. It is possible, that zoning of some urban PAs is not focused on nature protection or rehabilitation, but mainly on recreational or other activities. Foundation of such PAs is just a political decision to increase of government rating. Severny and Altufjevsky reserves are not in this list, but potentials assessment of other Moscow PAs will be furthered. Despite large differences in PAs zoning and protection management around the world, it is possible to evaluate weights of socio-ecomonic functions and environmental value, according to specific state/city and its PAs zoning. Of course, own investigations about landscapes structure, land cover digression, ecosystems ability to self-regulation, land use are necessary. So, this assessment method might be considered as semi-automatic, because a part of assessment process takes place in GIS.

4 Conclusion In the study, an overlay difference (EP1 -SEP parameter) was used as a tool to detect spaces providing ecosystem protection functions, but exposed to strong human impact. Such weighted overlay operations to assess PA balance between environmental, social and economic dimensions in Russia are used for the first time. It is important, that Altufjevsky and Severny reserves gained conservation status only in 2020. There was not much time to strike a balance between environmental potentials and needs of society, especially recreational. Therefore, such assessments are particularly important for all new PA formed in 2020, which number is more than 20, including natural monuments. Two definitions of PA functional zoning according to environmental potential are proposed: insufficient (PA protection regimes are less strict, than it is required to conserve natural and semi-natural areas) and preventive zoning (PA protection regimes are more strict, than it is required to conserve natural and semi-natural areas, which will have a positive impact on revitalization of disturbed PA parts). The implemented method is not free from some uncertainties. There are no weights of three sustainable development dimensions: environmental, social (or cultural) and economic [26]. This part of analysis seems to be more complicated to evaluate using peer reviews, than weights of SEP functions, but the implementation of this method will be furthered. To conclude, it is possible to use this algorithm to resolve a dilemma between protection and exploitation in urban PA. Moreover, it seems prospective to include such evaluations in some types of environmental impact assessments. Results of such calculations could be useful for government institutions, landholders and PA visitors, thanks to simplicity and intuitive interface of integral schemes.

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Acknowledgment. This research was performed according to the Development program of the Interdisciplinary Scientific and Educational School of M.V.Lomonosov Moscow State University «Future Planet and Global Environmental Change» and State program of Department of Environmental Management «Sustainable development of territorial nature management systems».

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18. Senaratne, H., Mobasheri, A., Ali, A.L., Capineri, C., Haklay, M.: A review of volunteered geographic information quality assessment methods. Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci. 31(1), 139–167 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1080/13658816.2016.1189556 19. https://sites.google.com/site/geomanmap/kart/ekologiceskij-atlas-moskvy (Moscow environmental atlas) 20. Chizhova, V.P.: Opredelenie dopustimoj rekreacionnoj nagruzki (na primere del’ty Volgi) (Assessment of permissible recreational load (case study of Volga delta). Vestnic of Moscow State University, Series 5: Geography, no. 3, pp. 31–36 (2007) (In Russian) 21. Saaty, T.L.: Decision making with the analytic hierarchy process. Int. J. Serv. Sci. 1(1), 83–98 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1504/IJSSCI.2008.017590 22. Bai, L., Wang, H., Huang, N., Du, Q., Huang, Y.: An environmental management maturity model of construction programs using the AHP-entropy approach. Int. J. Environ. Res. Pub. Health 15(7), 1317 (2018). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15071317 23. Kryukov, V.A., Golubeva, E.I.: Assessment of the contribution of environmental and social factors to liveability in Moscow). Vestnic of Moscow State University, Series 5: Geography, no. 4, pp. 32–41 (2020). (In Russian) 24. Ramos-Quintana, F., Tovar-Sánchez, E., Sald arriaga-Nore´na, H., Sotelo-Nava, H., SánchezHernández, J.P., Castrejyn-Godínez, M.-L.: A CBR–AHP hybrid method to support the decision-making process in the selection of environmental management actions. Sustainability 11(20), 1–30 (2019). https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201909.0195.v1 25. Rezaei, A., Tahsili, S.: Urban vulnerability assessment using AHP. Adv. Civ. Eng. 2018, 1–20 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/2018601 26. Kochurov, B.I., Ivashkina, I.V., Ermakova, Y.I., Fomina, N.V., Lobkovskaya, L.G.: Ekologogradostroitel”nyi balans i perspektivy razvitiya megapolisa Moskva kak tsentra konvergentsii (Ecological and urban planning balance and prospects for development of the megalopolis of Moscow as the center of convergence). Ecol. Urban Areas 3, 65–72 (2019). (In Russian). https://doi.org/10.24411/1816-1863-2019-13065

Assessing the Proposed Volume of Recreational Ecosystem Services: A Case Study of Moscow’s Urban Protected Areas Ksenia Aleksandriiskaia(B) and Oxana Klimanova Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia [email protected]

Abstract. The importance of urban protected areas is increasing all over the world because of urbanization. Protected areas in cities provide many ecosystem services; one of the most important is daily recreation. The study is devoted to the recreational ecosystem services of urban protected areas in Moscow. The article proposes an approach to assess the proposed volume of the recreational ecosystem services on the basis of the recreational development and recreational potential of the protected area. The study takes into account various types of recreation and the corresponding infrastructure facilities. Keywords: Recreational ecosystem services · Cultural ecosystem services · Urban protected areas · Moscow’s urban protected areas

1 Introduction Urban protected areas (UPA) provide a wide range of ecosystem services: reducing urban heat island, cleaning air and water, and preserving biodiversity. In cities, the cultural services of natural areas associated with outdoor recreation are particularly important. A supply and demand model is often used to study recreational ecosystem services (RES) [5, 9]. The supply side includes the natural area and its characteristics (a scenic beauty, various landscapes, and a variety of recreational activities). The demand side includes people interested in outdoor recreation; thus, population surveys are often conducted to explore this [3, 6, 10]. Social networks are also used for research. For example, there are studies that identify the most popular places among visitors by geotagging people to their photos [10]. Also, the number of visits to an area that is used for recreation can be an indicator of recreational value [4]. To determine the demand for RES, it is necessary to know the number of visitors to green spaces, their spatial and temporal distribution [7]. The picturesque properties of natural objects, the variety of landscapes, and their popularity among the population are also often the subject of research [8]. At the same time, it is important to understand whether the natural area can withstand the recreational load while maintaining its stability. To determine the proposed volume (or supply) of RES recreational capacity standards are used [1]; for this purpose, the size of permissible recreational loads on various types of ecosystems is determined [2]. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 V. Vasenev et al. (Eds.): SSC 2020, SPRINGERGEOGR, pp. 230–237, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9_22

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This method is valid for natural native areas; however, when assessing the proposed volume in UPAs, it is important to take into account infrastructure facilities (including paths, playgrounds, and sports facilities). Infrastructure facilities significantly reduce human impact on ecosystems, increasing their natural capacity. Therefore, it is important to clearly distinguish between the recreational opportunities provided by ecosystems (including their recreational capacity) and those provided by the man-made recreational infrastructure. This article discusses a method for determining the proposed volume of possible recreation based on the capacity of its infrastructure. To determine the proposed volume of recreational services, we propose to identify the recreational potential of the territory and its recreational development. The methodology was tested on two protected areas in Moscow. The choice of the object of the study is due to the relevance of the issues of recreation in UPAs of megacities. Protected areas should combine nature conservation and recreational services, but this problem is especially acute in densely populated cities, where recreation can come to the fore. We take into account daily recreation since all protected areas of Moscow are located within the city limits and have good access to the population. In this study, UPA refers to plots of land, water surface, and the air above them, on which natural ecosystems and objects of cultural and natural significance have a special protection regime [13]. This definition of the UPA is consistent with the “Special protected natural areas” used in Moscow’s city’s official documents.

2 Materials and Methods Urban protected areas are an important part of Moscow’s nature and reflect the diversity of the city’s landscapes. There are 122 UPAs in Moscow, which occupy about 7% of the city’s area [13]. Protected areas provide citizens with opportunities for daily and weekend recreation. Recently, the recreational importance of Moscow protected areas has increased. This is evident by the parks’ improvement, the creation of new infrastructure for eco-education, the creation of Internet resources about protected areas, as well as changes in legislation. Furthermore, recently, the nature of outdoor recreation has changed; for example, new forms of active recreation have appeared, such as mountain biking and Nordic walking [7]. In Moscow, active types of recreation are primarily sports and educational activities: cycling, skiing, running, Nordic walking, beach volleyball, eco-quests and excursions to reserves [14]. The method for determining the proposed scope of the recreational services was applied for two Moscow UPAs: Landscape Reserve “Teply Stan” and Natural Reserve “Setun River Valley”. Natural Reserve “Setun River Valley” (695,05 ha) is stretched along the river channel and is held by residential and industrial development on both sides. Reserve contains birch (Bétula péndula), oak (Quércus róbur), linden (Tília cordáta), and pine (Pínus sylvéstris) forests, as well as bank meadows and bushes and low-level bogs. Landscape Reserve “Teply Stan” (328,73 ha) is located in the South-West of Moscow; it is surrounded by residential areas and roads. The eastern part of the reserve is characterized by a very indented relief. The mixed forests are dominated by birches (Bétula péndula); small areas are occupied by lindens (Tília cordáta) and pines (Pínus sylvéstris). There are also meadows in Landscape Reserve “Teply Stan”.

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As already mentioned, the volume of recreational services in urban natural areas depends, among other things, on the infrastructure created by man. The study took into account the following types of recreation: educational, sports, walking, recreation with children, outdoor recreation, recreation by the water (Table 1). We made the assumption that walks in the protected areas are carried out along the existing road and path network as well as at recreational facilities. Spatial analysis was carried out during the study using the ArcMap. Data on the road network and bike paths were taken from the Velomoskva website and OpenStreetMap. To identify recreational facilities, Yandex. Maps, the Mosprirod website, and the Moscow Government’s open data portal were used. Field data were also used. Territorial units were protected areas and a grid with cell size 50 × 50 m. Table 1. Materials and Methods. Recreation structure Types of recreation

Recreational facilities

Data sources

Environmental education

Eco-centers, Eco-trails

Mospriroda website [14]

Recreation with children

Playgrounds

Yandex.Maps [17], Mospriroda website [14]

Sport activities

Sports facilities (workout, football, volleyball and basketball fields, etc.)

Yandex.Maps [17], Mospriroda website [14]

Walking recreation

Road and path network, bike paths

Open Street Map, Velomoskva website [16]

Outdoor activities (picnics)

Picnic area

Mospriroda website [14], Open data Moscow City Government [15]

Recreational water activities

Beaches, boat rentals

Yandex.Maps [17], Mospriroda website [14]

In this study, the recreational service of UPAs was assessed through the recreational potential of the infrastructure, as well as recreational development. The recreational potential is understood as the structure of possible recreation, the capacity of the road and path network, as well as facilities for different types of recreation. Recreational development was assessed through the share of territories under road and path network and recreation facilities. To assess the recreational potential, the following indicators were proposed: 1) Variety of types of recreation—the variety of sports infrastructure, playgrounds, bike paths, museums, environmental education centers, and eco trails and so on; 2) The share of each type of recreational facilities in the total area of recreational facilities; 3) Recreational capacity of recreational facilities (people/ha)—one-time capacity of all recreational infrastructure facilities. To assess the capacity of recreational facilities, various standards were used [11–13]. The capacity of the tracks is determined

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through their length; the capacity of playgrounds and workout areas depends on the area. For example, there should be 20 meters per person on a health trail [12]. Thus, the total capacity of the recreational infrastructure of protected areas is equal to the sum of the capacity of different types of infrastructure. Since nature protection is an important service for UPAs, we studied the recreational development of territories. This indicator reflects the extent to which recreational use has influenced the transformation of natural complexes. In fact, it shows the extent to which the area is used for recreation and how evenly facilities are distributed over it. Mapping is a reliable tool for identifying the most developed areas of protected areas. An integrated approach was used to determine the level of the recreational capacity of protected areas. The following were selected as indicators of recreational development: 1) 2) 3) 4)

The density of recreational facilities in protected areas; The length of the road and path network; The share of the area of protected areas occupied by road and path network; The density of road and path network for protected areas as a whole and for cells is 50 × 50 m.

3 Results 3.1 Recreational Development Recreational development can be judged by the road and path network. An extensive network of paths can increase the attractiveness of the UPAs for tourists. The formation of an extensive paths network is an effective mechanism for landscape planning. A well-developed road network will disperse people across protected areas and reduce the recreational load on their ecosystems. In Landscape Reserve “Teply Stan”, the road and path network is more developed than in Natural Reserve “Setun River Valley”. The density of roads in “Teply Stan” is 0.2 km/ha, and they occupy 6.4% of the protected area. And in “Setun River Valley”, the density is 0.1 km/ha, roads occupy 5.4% of the protected areas. In Moscow, new bike paths have been created in recent years; some of them are passing through protected areas. In “Setun River Valley”, a cycle path goes around the pond and is used for cycling. And in “Teply Stan”, a bike path connects residential areas and is used not only for cycling but also for transit travel to the neighboring area. Moscow UPAs vary significantly in terms of saturation with recreational facilities. The density of infrastructure additionally characterizes the recreational development of protected areas. So, the “Setun River Valley” has 25.8 m2 of recreation facilities per hectare, while “Teply Stan” has 125 m2 per hectare. So, in Landscape Reserve “Teply Stan” more area is involved in recreation; therefore, it can provide an opportunity for recreation for a larger number of people. The indicator of the recreational development of the territory is closely related to the disturbance of ecosystems. It is possible to identify the most recreationally developed areas and untouched natural areas by looking at the density of the tracks (by cells 50 × 50 m) (Fig. 1). Almost the entire area of the “Teply Stan” is evenly covered with roads, and in “Setun River Valley” there are large areas

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where the density of paths is minimal. So, in “Teply Stan” the level of recreational development is quite high. The density maps of the tracks clearly show the most and least popular places for recreation. It is also clearly seen on the maps that in “Teply Stan” there is practically no native ecosystem left where animals can hide. On the contrary, in “Setun River Valley” there are enough such untouched areas of nature. On the one hand, this indicates the great attractiveness of protected areas. But on the other hand, it points out that managers need to be careful to prevent the destruction of ecosystems. Table 2. Capacity of recreational infrastructure facilities in protected areas Water activities

Sport activities

Recreation with children

Walking recreation

Picnic areas

Sum

People

Density

People/ha

Landscape reserve “Teply Stan”

98

1195,5

212,0

3 257

60

4 822,5

15,4

Natural reserve “Setun River Valley”

–

301,65

350,0

3 080

40

3 771,6

5,4

3.2 Recreational Potential of the Infrastructure The studied protected areas are attractive to visitors; they provide a wide range of recreational opportunities. At the same time, they differ in the saturation of recreational facilities and possible types of activities. The infrastructure of the Landscape Reserve “Teply Stan” can accommodate 4 822 people at a time, which corresponds to a density of 15,4 people per ha (Table 2). The Natural Reserve “Setun River Valley” infrastructure can accommodate 3 771 people at a time or 5,4 people per ha. This can be explained by the difference in the length of paths, as well as the variety and number of other recreational infrastructure. For example, there is an eco-trail on the Landscape Reserve “Teply Stan”, where a special board with information about flora and fauna is installed. There are also areas where visitors can see renewable energy sources (solar panels) and boat rentals; moreover, this protected area has located one of the few beaches where swimming is allowed in Moscow. In the “Setun River Valley”, information boards with descriptions of plants and animals are also installed. Particular attention is drawn to a very picturesque area of the Matveevsky forest. Equipped picnic areas are located in both protected areas; however, in “Setun River Valley” there are only 2 picnic areas, and 4 areas in “Teply Stan”. Sports facilities are most common in protected areas, as are playgrounds, but sports grounds area in “Teply Stan” is several times more than in

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“Setun River Valley”. Thus, the recreational potential of the territory can be expressed through the capacity of recreational facilities.

Fig. 1. The density of road and path network for cells is 50 × 50 m

4 Discussion The studied UPAs are somewhat opposite. While Landscape Reserve “Teply Stan” provides a large amount of recreational function, in Natural Reserve “Setun River Valley” this amount is less. Simultaneously, “Setun River Valley” has better-preserved nature and more shelters for animals, and “Teply Stan” is almost entirely transformed by man. Now, Moscow’s protected areas are very popular with the population, as the study showed, almost the entire area of the “Teply Stan” is involved in providing recreational services. We can assume that with the growth of the population of Moscow and the increasing tourist popularity of the city, the load on protected areas will only increase. It is important to emphasize that the investigated territories have the status of specially protected natural areas; therefore, recreation on them should not contradict nature conservation service. A dilemma then arises whether it is necessary to increase the potential volume of the recreational service in UPAs (like “Setun River Valley”). It is impossible to endlessly create new infrastructure facilities that increase the recreational capacity of the territory, since this can lead to a decrease in the environmental service, primarily to a decrease in biodiversity and destruction of habitats. The solution to the problem can be the zoning

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of the area, namely the allocation and protection of untouched native ecosystems. At the same time, areas of the park already developed by man can be improved in order to increase the recreational attractiveness of the territory.

5 Conclusion So, we have proposed a methodology for assessing the proposed volume of RES, including an assessment of the recreational potential and recreational development. The studied UPAs have great recreational potential. In the “Teply Stan”, the recreational service is very developed, and the park attracts different categories of visitors: there are opportunities for recreation with children, sports, walks, recreation by the water, environmental education. The infrastructure of the “Setun River Valley” is also well developed and suitable for different social groups of citizens, although its density is several times less than in “Teply Stan”. To assess the indicators of recreational potential and development, we used several indicators that allow us to comprehensively describe the UPA. However, integral indicators can be distinguished. For the recreational potential of the territory, this indicator can be the estimated one-time capacity: the estimated number of people who can simultaneously be in the parks and use their infrastructure. The parks under study differ in this indicator several times. Further research can be performed to compare the potential capacity of infrastructure with the capacity of ecosystems. It can also be correlated with the demand for RES (for example, with the number of residents living within walking distance of protected areas). The indicator of the recreational development of the territory allows to see the spatial distribution of infrastructure facilities and allows to determine the degree of disturbance of the area. For recreational development, the integral indicator can be the share of territories with different density of routes. For sustainable management of natural parks, you can use this indicator, which will show the most developed and popular places and vice versa, areas that have no infrastructure. The UPAs under study differ greatly in terms of recreational development. If the recreational infrastructure is evenly distributed over the territory of the “Teply Stan”, then in “Setun River Valley” it is possible to single out the territories not covered by the infrastructure. An indicator of recreational development may indicate the need to limit the further development of recreation in order to preserve ecosystems. It can also be used for further studies of the environmental functions of the territory.

References 1. Bukvareva, E.N., Sviridova, T.V., (eds.) Ecosystem services of Russia: prototype national report, vol. 2. Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Accounting Principles in Russia. English version of the report published originally in Russian in 2020, BCC Press. Moscow (2020) 2. Chizhova, V.P.:. Recreational Load in Recreation Areas. Timber industry (1977) 3. Fischer, L.K., Honold, J., Botzat, A., Brinkmeyer, D., Cveji´c, R., Delshammar, T., Lafortezza, R.: Recreational ecosystem services in European cities: sociocultural and geographical contexts matter for park use. Ecosyst. Serv. 31, 455–467 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser. 2018.01.015

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4. Naturvårdsverket. Guide to valuing ecosystem services. Report 6854, November 2018 (2018) 5. Kulczyk, S., Wo´zniak, E., Derek, M.: Landscape, facilities and visitors: an integrated model of recreational ecosystem services. Ecosyst. Serv. 31, 491–501 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.ecoser.2018.02.016 6. Lankia, T., Kopperoinen, L., Pouta, E., Neuvonen, M.: Valuing recreational ecosystem service flow in Finland. J. Outdoor Recreat. Tour. 10, 14–28 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jort. 2015.04.006 7. Lupp, G., Förster, B., Kantelberg, V., Markmann, T., Naumann, J., Honert, C., Pauleit, S.: Assessing the recreation value of urban woodland using the ecosystem service approach in two forests in the Munich metropolitan region. Sustainability 8(11), 1156 (2016). http://doi. org/10.3390/su8111156 8. Paracchini, M.L., Zulian, G., Kopperoinen, L., Maes, J., Schägner, J.P., Termansen, M., Bidoglio, G.: Mapping cultural ecosystem services: a framework to assess the potential for outdoor recreation across the EU. Ecol. Ind. 45, 371–385 (2014). http://doi.org/10.1016/j.eco lind.2014.04.018 9. Peña, L., Casado-Arzuaga, I., Onaindia, M.: Mapping recreation supply and demand using an ecological and a social evaluation approach. Ecosyst. Serv. 13, 108–118 (2015). https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2014.12.008 10. Yoshimura, N., Hiura, T.: Demand and supply of cultural ecosystem services: Use of geotagged photos to map the aesthetic value of landscapes in Hokkaido. Ecosyst. Serv. 24, 68–78 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2017.02.009 11. Decree of the Government of the Moscow Region of December 23, 2013 N 1098/55 On the approval of « Instructions. Regional park standard of the Moscow region » (2013) 12. Order of the Ministry of Sports of Russia of 05/25/2016 N 586 (ed. Of 11/21/2016) On the approval of Methodological recommendations for the development of networks of physical culture and sports organizations and the provision of the population with the services of such organizations» 13. Department of Nature Management and Environmental Protection of the city of Moscow. http://www.dpioos.ru/eco/ru/oopt 14. Mospriroda. https://mospriroda.ru/ 15. Open data Moscow City Government. https://data.mos.ru/ 16. Velomoskva. https://mos.bike/ 17. Yandex.Maps. https://yandex.ru/maps

National Park «Elk Island» in the Moscow Region’s Green Infrastructure Alla Pakina(B) and Alla Lelkova Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

Abstract. Urban green infrastructure is a key element of a comfortable living environment and a driver for sustainable development of urban areas. Protected areas as a core of ecological framework in Moscow play a huge role in maintaining an ecological balance of urban space through a number of life-supporting ecological functions. In this context the national park “Elk island” is not only the natural recreational area, located within the Russia’s largest city, but also the unique example of nature-based solution for urban sustainability. Environment of Moscow city and its suburbs is polluted by emissions from transport and local industries, and the green spaces operate as a natural absorber. Despite this green areas are the subject of conflicts between road network, living space and protected areas. On the basis of own field researches in 2018–2019 ecological functions of the national park were assessed, as well as their social significance. The results allows to conclude that the national park «Elk island»’s preservation and development can be considered as an effective nature-based solution in order to improve environmental situation and to raise quality of life in the city. Keywords: Green infrastructure · Urbanized territory · National park “Elk Island” · Ecological services

1 Introduction The role of green infrastructure as an approach to respond to current environmental and social challenges within urban areas is constantly growing worldwide [1, 3, 11]. According to [17, 18] green infrastructure (GI) can be defined as a strategically planned network of high quality natural and semi-natural areas, which is designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services and protect biodiversity. In this context specially protected natural areas, such as national parks, are a key element of ecological networks, providing a wide range of benefits to people and wildlife through conservation of natural ecosystem functions. Modern Moscow is a huge metropolis whose population in 2020 is estimated at 12.6 mln. people [12]. Together with the Moscow region (7.5 mln. people), the total population is more than 20 million people – about 14% of the population of Russia. The functioning of such a region is associated with a huge burden on the environment and requires a great responsibility for both maintaining a high quality of life and biodiversity conservation. Today, there are more than 120 protected areas of different status (of both the federal and regional levels) [8] in Moscow and the total area © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 V. Vasenev et al. (Eds.): SSC 2020, SPRINGERGEOGR, pp. 238–251, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9_23

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of this network is more than 17.5 thousand hectares or 7.2% of the area of Moscow city [13]. The share of all green areas in Moscow exceeds 54%, which is significantly higher of the same indicator in many large cities of the world. Protected areas are featured by maximum biodiversity and are most effective for maintaining ecological balance under high anthropogenic pressure typical for large cities. The Moscow region’s ecological network consists of 4 federal protected areas (1 strict state reserve, 2 national parks and 1 natural monument) and 246 objects of regional significance: 161 state nature reserves, 82 natural monuments, two coastal recreational zones and one specially protected water object). Their total area occupies about 6% of the Moscow region [14]. The national park “Elk island” as a component of the regional system of protected areas is a unique site, remaining almost the last “island” of nature at the border between Moscow city and suburbia: it is located both within the administrative boundaries of two Federal subjects – Moscow city (about 30%) and the Moscow region (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. National park “Elk Island” area in urbanised surroundings

Our research concerned the “regional” part of the national park located at the territory of the Moscow region and surrounded by towns: Mytishchi, Korolev, Shchelkovo and Balashikha. 1.1 Territory of the National Park “Elk Island” “Elk island” national park was established in 1983, among the first national parks of Russia. Today it is the largest undisturbed woodland in the vicinity of Moscow with the area of 116 km2 , located at the slightly undulating plain within the southern slope of the Klinsko-Dmitrovskaya ridge. Most of its territory (more than 80%) is presented by landscapes typical for the southern subzone of mixed forests: birch trees predominate (44%), and pine is also

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widespread (22%). Swamp complexes as well as lands with excessive moisture are common for the area. The territory is crossed by a dense network of rivers (the main of which is the Yauza river), numerous lakes and ponds. Yauza originates within the vast Mytishchi swamp, where peat processing was carried out for a long time. Lowland swamps are common for the Yauza valley and its tributaries, and upper swamps – for the watersheds. Landscapes of the park are quite picturesque: variety of forest landscapes, numerous water bodies and valleys of small rivers make the park an attractive object for visitors. Opportunity to watch wild animals such as elk and deer, as well as waterfowl, together with aesthetic appeal and good transport accessibility stimulate mass recreation: about 3.2 million people visit “Elk island” every year. In order to meet the needs of visitors the park provides a wide range of educational programs and leisure activities (see Fig. 2). There are 8 environmental centers, including an arboretum and an “Elk bio-station”; 10 excursion routes along ecological trails, two historical museums of Russian life, environmental quests and other programs for children and adults. Students from different institutions and universities use the scientific base of the park for their field practices. Along with the direct benefits of recreation, visitors also get an indirect health benefit from visiting the park.

Fig. 2. Recreation in the “Elk island” national park (Source: http://elkisland.ru/)

The land use structure of the national park “Elk island” is aimed to differentiate the regime of use and protection. For this purpose, the territory was divided into 5 functional zones (Fig. 3): – strictly protected area, where any kind of activities (excepting scientific researches) are strictly forbidden; the area is 1.8 km2 ; – specially protected area, where access is limited; the area is 42.9 km2 ; – a zone of historical and cultural monuments protection is open to the visitors, with limitation of activities leading to changes in historical or natural landscapes; the area is 0.9 km2 ; – recreational zone intended for tourism, recreation and environmental education; the area is 65.6 km2 ; – economic zone – includes objects that are important for ensuring the operation of the park and surrounding residential areas; the area of 12.9 km2

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Fig. 3. Functional zones of the territory of the “Elk island”

Due to the relatively undisturbed natural ecosystems within the “Elk island” national park its landscapes provide a wide range of ecosystem services. Provisioning ecological services within the area of “Elk island” are represented by very limited opportunities for licensed wood harvesting, fishing, collecting wild plants and non-wood forest products. However, all of them are included in recreational activity. Limitation of all the mentioned types of activities is a precondition to preserve a biodiversity through conservation a genetic information contained in natural complexes. Regulating services are represented by the regulation of local climate (including the deposition of carbon dioxide), air and water quality, conservation of habitats and conditions for pollination, reproduction of wild animal species, and biological control. Supporting services (such as photosynthesis and soil formation) are less noticeable and contribute to regulation processes. Cultural services play a crucial role for recreation and environmental education in the national park (see Table 1). Table 1. Ecosystem services of the National Park «Elk Island» Provisioning

Regulating

Supporting

Cultural

Fibers (wood, non-wood forest products) food resources genetic material

Water regulation air quality regulation (carbon deposition) pollination biological control conservation of wildlife habitats

Photosynthesis soil formation regulation of material and energy flows

Recreation scientific and educational value aesthetic value spiritual value wellness effect of recreation

1.2 Human Impact on the Park Territory “Elk island” park, being located in highly urbanized area, is influenced by surrounding transport routes, settlements and industrial facilities (Fig. 4).

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Fig. 4. Industrial and residential facilities at the south-western border of the “Elk island” national park

According to [14] an industry is not the main factor of influence, despite of about 100 industrial enterprises in the immediate vicinity of the park borders. At the same time, regional transportation system is currently becoming the main antropogenic factor affecting the environment. Growing population density, industrial activity and services sector in Moscow region lead to growth of both cargo and passenger cars traffic. Today up to 90% of air pollution in large cities is provided by road transport [7]. This trend is also relevant for the territories adjacent to the “Elk island”. One more important factor of influence on the park territory is recreation. The territory has a significant recreational potential, and is traditionally used by local people for recreational purposes. The majority of visitors are residents of nearby localities: residents of cities Mytischy, Shchelkovo, Balashikha, Korolev and its districts, as well as North-Eastern and Eastern administrative districts of Moscow.

2 Methods and Materials Ecological services of the national park “Elk island” and its role in the green infrastructure of the Moscow region were analyzed using a number of methodological approaches: field research in the summer and winter periods of 2019–2020, study of the park’s inventory materials and open statistical data; satellite images analysis and verification on the terrain. Taking into account that ecosystem services of the “Elk island’s” landscapes are of high value to the population of Moscow and the Moscow region, their quantita-

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tive assessment was based on 2 blocks of approaches: 1) assessing the anthropogenic pressure on the natural landscapes of the park; 2) evaluating the actual socio-ecological value of the ecosystem services. Assessing the Impact of Road Transport To assess the impact of road transport, a detailed study of the intensity of motor transport traffic at the roads directly adjacent to the park was conducted. Field research and data processing were accomplished according to the methodology [7] and included two stages. During the first (field) stage, the authors conducted survey of the structure and intensity of traffic flows on the part of Shchelkovskoe highway adjacent to the SouthEastern border of the park. The choice of the site was determined by high level of traffic at this highway, as well as by potential risk of building an additional line of this highway. According to the existing plans, that lane may affect the territory of the “Elk island”. To assess the density and intensity of traffic, the following groups of vehicles were accounted for: a) passenger cars; b) trucks of less than 3 tons and minibuses (UAZ, Gazelle, etc.); c) trucks with a load capacity of more than 3 tons; d) carburetor buses; e) diesel trucks (KrAZ, KAMAZ). Calculations were conducted in the morning and evening “peak” hours: from 8:30 to 11:00 and from 17:30 to 20:00; at each of 5 point the calculation was carried out within 20 min. Calculations were also made at each regulated crossroad within the section. Then the data collected was processed and analyzed. Based on the methodology [7], the volume of 8 pollutants emissions was determined: carbon monoxide (CO); nitrogen oxides NOx (in terms of nitrogen dioxide); hydrocarbons (CH); soot; sulfur dioxide (SO2 ); lead compounds; formaldehyde; benz(a)pyrene. The emissions of the every pollutant (g/s) from the moving traffic flow on the motorway were determined using the formula (1): ML =

L k M Π · Gk · rvki i=1 k1 3600

(1)

where: Mk1 (g/km) – mileage emission of ith harmful substance by kth group vehicles for urban conditions (table value); k - number of car groups; Gk (1/hour) - actual highest traffic intensity, i.e. the number of vehicles in each of k groups passing through a fixed section of the selected motorway site per unit of time in both directions across all traffic lanes; r Vki – correction coefficient taking into account the average speed of traffic flow on the selected highway (table value); 1/3600 is the conversion factor from “hour” to “second » ; L (km) - length of the motorway (or its section) Summing up the results of calculation, the volume and structure of pollutants emissions in each of the points, and then in the whole area, were identified. Recreational Load Assessment To quantify a recreation impact on the landscapes of the national park the methodology [16] was used. In a case of relatively similar conditions an impact of recreation depends

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on its prevailing type (tourism, excursions, everyday recreation, etc.). For “Elk island’ national park an everyday recreation can be adopted as prevailing one. The degree of recreation impact is determined by the concentration and time of stay of visitors per unit area. A measure of the combined recreational impact is a recreational load – an integrated indicator characterized by the number of recreants per unit area, duration of their stay and type of recreation, which is calculated using the formula (2): (2) where: Pr – average annual one-time recreational load (person/ha); P1…Pn – average for the accounting period one-time recreational load in different seasons of the year on non-working and working days with comfortable and uncomfortable weather (people/ha); f1…fD – average long-term number of non-working and working days with a comfortable and uncomfortable weather in different seasons (days). To assess the flow of ecosystem services provided by the park ecosystems, a total economic value concept, which is aimed to monetize the benefits received by society from protected areas, was used. The concept allows to account direct and indirect use of ecosystems goods and services, as well as its value of existence. Ecosystem services value was calculated using the following estimation methods: a) direct use value (market price method); b) indirect use value (alternative cost, benefit transfer, and volume conversion methods); and c) value of existence (subjective assessment of willingness to pay). The results of social survey in which 230 people took part conducted on the internet resource were used.

3 Results and Discussions Modern protected areas are highly vulnerable to urbanization impact. As mentioned above, the territory of the “Elk island” national park is densely surrounded by residential districts. A steady growing population induces to expand a residential area and a density of the transport network. City’s encroachment on natural landscapes continues the sad trends of urbanization worldwide [10, 15]. As it is marked in [5], “cities use their surroundings as a reserve area for their own growth. Sooner or later, it will become a victim of urban expansion”. Situation with the national park “Elk island” fully corresponds to this description: it is surrounded by highways with heavy traffic, industrial facilities and settlements (see Fig. 5). The regional part of the park is affected by negative impact from industries of the cities of Mytishchi, Korolev, Shchelkovo and Balashikha. However, taking into account the wind regime, the strongest impact on the territory is affected by industrial zones Kaloshino, Severyanin and Sviblovo, located at the south-western border of the park. Due to predominance of South, West and South-West winds throughout the year, the negative effect of industrial facilities is much less than of air pollution from road transport.

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Fig. 5. Location of the main industrial zones nearby National park “Elk island”

3.1 Transportation Impact Assessment Strong impact of transport roads on the “Elk island” area is determined by their mutual disposition: automobile roads with high traffic border the park on all sides and even the central part of the park is crossed by a Moscow Ring Road. According to studies of the impact of vehicles on atmospheric air [7], the most typical emissions for vehicles are: carbon monoxide (CO); nitrogen oxides NOx; hydrocarbons (CH); soot; sulfur dioxide (SO2 ); lead compounds; formaldehyde; benz(a)pyrene. The calculations of emissions affected the park were based on data from field studies on the intensity of traffic flows (see Table 2). Table 2. Traffic intensity (average per day) at some automobile roads, automobile per hour Passenger cars

Trucks with a load capacity of less than 3 tons and minibuses

Trucks with a Carburetor load capacity buses of more than 3 tons

Diesel trucks

Moscow Ring Road

4158

756

134

270

460

Shchelkovskoe highway (on the Southern border of the park)

1390

180

14

70

10

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It is known that 67% of emissions from motor vehicles are carbon monoxide, 16% are hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxide – 17%. Emissions of soot, sulfur oxide, formaldehyde, lead compounds, and benz(a)pyrene account for less than 1% [7]. The total emission from vehicles at the maximum traffic intensity on the studied section of Shchelkovskoe highway is 4.5 tons/day or 1.6 thousand tons per year (peak value). Meanwhile, the number of cars per 1000 people increases [9], thus, the volume of emissions, as well as the load on natural complexes will also increase in the future. Due to constant traffic jams on the Shchelkovskoe highway an idea to build an additional road lane was proposed as a solution. Construction of such lane may require to change a category of lands – from protected areas to industrial lands – and to exclude them from the park area. In such a case the park will lose about 140 hectares (54 of which are covered with forest vegetation) for the construction of a 19 km long additional road lane. Social goals that the proposal is aimed to reach obviously conflict to ecological benefits from the park: a potential damage to ecosystem service flows may exceed the benefits of road expansion project. Assessment of the socio-ecological functions loss confirms this assumption. 3.2 Assessment of Recreational Load The territory of the national Park has a significant recreational potential and is traditionally used for mass recreation. In order to assess the impact of recreation on the territory of the national park, visitors were counted near the entrances to the national park in its “regional” part in Korolev and Shchelkovo cities separately on weekdays and weekends. Today, there are 13 entrances to the “Elk island” national park, and 6 of them are located in its regional part. The average number of visitors per entrance on weekdays is 57, and on weekends – 81 people per hour. Further, the average data on the number of visitors was multiplied by the total number of entrances. According to [16], the data obtained were adjusted for weather conditions: on uncomfortable days the number of visitors decreases by 68–82%. As a result, the actual average annual recreational load for the park area is 0.1 people/ha. According to Annex 4.1 [16], the norm of permissible recreational load for the forests of the natural zone to which the “Elk island” belongs is 0.3 people/ha. Taking into account the limitations for recreational areas the final value of the permissible load is 0.4 people/ha, so current recreational load on the territory of the “Elk island” does not exceed the established norms. 3.3 Ecosystem Services Assessment It was mentioned above that the assessment of ecosystem services was carried out on the basis of the concept of total economic value. The cost of ecosystem services was calculated using the following methods: the cost of direct use of ecosystem goods and services was calculated using the direct market valuation method (market price method); the cost of indirect use of ecosystem services was calculated using the methods of alternative cost, benefit transfer, substitution method and volume conversion method; the cost of existence was determined using the method of subjective assessment of willingness to pay.

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Direct Costs Estimation The wood reserves estimation was based on data on the forested area, which is 8464 ha, and a share of predominant wood species, such as birch, linden, pine, and spruce. In accordance with the regulation rules of the park continuous and selective felling ripe and overripe in area are prohibited. Assessment of benefits from timber harvesting was made on the basis of market prices and volumes of timber in a frame of annual sanitary felling. Examples of calculation for some wood species are given in table (see Table 3). Table 3. Wood harvesting costs in the «Elk island» National Park Annual allowable volume of wood cutting, m3

Market value of wood, RUB/m3

Production costs, RUB /m3 *

Net profit from wood harvesting, RUB

Birch

373,8

2040

1734

114383

Linden

24,2

2800

2380

10164

Aspen

52

1260

1071

9828

Spruce

324,4

2700

2295

131382

* wood harvesting costs are accepted at the rate of 85% of the sales price

The net profit from wood harvesting on the territory of “Elk island” is approximately 650 thousand RR per year. Similarly, the potential cost of wild plants was estimated. Due to the lack of statistical data on the wild plants reserves at the territory, we used data from a sociological survey, according to which the average volume of harvesting is: berries – 0.3 kg/person, mushrooms – 2 kg per person per year. As to the number of visitors using this opportunity – about 10% of the total number of respondents collect wild plants in the park. After interpolation these data on the total population of neighboring cities (Shchelkovo, Mytishchi, Balashikha and Korolev) and taking the cost of harvesting wild plants as 35% of the sales price [19], the total potential cost of providing food resources was estimated at 27.7 mln. RR per year. According to the data of “Elk island” national park, the number of visitors participated on educational programs in 2018 was 42,778 people. Taking into account the popularity of different programs and the costs of programs, the total costs of recreation benefits amounted to 2.3 million rubles per year. Thus, the total cost of direct use of the national park – both realizable and potential – can be estimated at 30.7 million rubles per year. Indirect Cost of Ecosystem Services Estimation In the context of modern challenges environmental functions such as carbon dioxide deposition, water regulation, conservation of animal habitats, health effect of recreation, etc. are of great value [2, 10]. Landscapes of the “Elk island” park, most of which are covered by forests, act in this context as a natural reservoir that absorbs atmospheric carbon. Using available data on wood species of the “Elk island” forests (see Fig. 6) and the indicators provided in the IPCC national greenhouse gas inventory reports [4], carbon stocks in the forests phytomass were estimated.

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Fig. 6. Wood species dominating at the territory of the “Elk island” national park

According to our estimations, 1 hectare of forest accumulates about 90 tons of carbon or 329 tons of carbon dioxide. Accordingly, the park’s forests deposit 21.4 thousand tons of carbon or 78.3 thousand tons of CO2 per year. Taking the cost of 1 ton of CO2 at $ 5.9 per year [19], the total cost of carbon deposition services is 34.9 million rubles or US $ 462 thousand. An equally important function of natural ecosystems is the regulation of the hydrological regime. In this paper, we used approach based on estimation of the water-regulating function as a contribution to the average annual increase in underground runoff. This function reduces a risk of flooding, increases rivers fullness during low-water season, improve drainage, etc. Assessment of a water-regulating role of the park was conducted on the base of the methodology [6]. The increase in underground runoff (S) was calculated by formula (3): S = {X · α · C1−X · (1−β) · α · C2} · K1

(3)

where X is the total amount of precipitation; α – coefficient of runoff; β – coefficient of precipitation growth; C1 and C2 – coefficients of the underground component of runoff, respectively, for forests and treeless territory; K1 – wetland coefficient of the territory. Using the coefficients given in the methodic recommendations [6], data on precipitation and river runoff amount [14] for the Moscow region, the value of underground

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runoff increase was calculated separately for coniferous and deciduous trees by age groups. The economic effect of this function was estimated by formula (4): (4) where S – difference between actual runoff in a forested area and theoretical runoff in a treeless area; ti – duration of the i-th age group; di – discount rate; r – cost (water rent) of 1 m3 of water The total cost of the water-regulating function of the “Elk island” forests is 1.97 billion rubles or US$ 26.7 million. Thus, the estimation of indirect costs of the park was carried out taking into account two ecological functions, for which the necessary data were available: water flow regulation and carbon deposition. However, this estimation showed a significant predominance of the indirect value of natural goods within the national park: about 99% of the park’s total value consists of regulating and supporting ecosystem services, and less than 1% resource or provisioning services. In order to estimate risks linked with possibility to exclude 140 ha for a new road, the losses of ecosystem services were calculated. Carbon dioxide deposition in this case will reduce by 473.6 tons per year, which is equivalent to almost half of the annual emissions from vehicles on the Shchelkovskoe highway. The volume of water-regulating services of the park will reduce by 0.7% (about 13.5 million RR per year). Existence Value Assessment Significance of the “Elk island” for the residents of the region was determined by a method of willingness to pay for the preservation of the park’s territory. The survey was conducted using the Google Forms resource and covered 230 people. The respondents were asked to answer the question: “Imagine that the state stops funding the protection of the “Elk island” and there is a serious risk of losing this territory. Are you ready to transfer some money to a hypothetical Fund to save it (Yes/no)? If Yes, how much (amount, RUB) and with what frequency (one-time/once a month/once a year)?”. To estimate the cost of existence, the average amount of hypothetical payments was found. These values were calculated as the weighted average value of willingness to pay, separately for each locality, and then summarized. The total value of existence of the “Elk island” national park is 11.8 billion RR, or US$ 157.3 million per year. In general, the level of willingness to pay is very high and ranges from 51 to 56% of all respondents.

4 Conclusion The results of the research allows to conclude that protected areas located in urbanized region play significant role in a green infrastructure. Ecosystems of the “Elk island” national park provide the population of the region with clean air by absorbing most of the emissions from transportation, regulating the hydrological regime of the territory,

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contributing to the conservation of biodiversity, etc. The park’s contribution to improving the environmental situation and maintaining the health of the local population is expressed in significant amounts, which is an argument for its preservation and development. Social significance of the park is confirmed by the results of a sociological survey: local population highly values the existence of the “Elk island” and is ready to pay for its preservation. The results of the study can be considered as a basis for improving the economic mechanisms of environmental management and development of the Moscow region’s green infrastructure, with an emphasis on the priority of preserving the “Elk island”.

References 1. Dushkova, D.O., Kirillov, S.N.: The green infrastructure of the city: the experience of Germany. Bull. Volgograd State Univ. Ser. 3. Econ. Ecol. 2(35), 136–147 (2016). https://doi.org/ 10.15688/jvolsu3.2017.2.15 2. Erokhova, V.V., Vasenev, V.I.: Prospects for the use of ecosystem services for assessment of scenarios of urban areas. Bull. Peoples Friendship Univ. Russ. Ser. Agron. Farm. 13(2), 113–120 (2018). https://doi.org/10.22363/2312-797x-2018-13-2-113-120 3. Haase, D., Larondelle, N., McPhearson, T., Schwarz, N., Hamstead, Z., Kremer, P., et al.: A quantitative review of urban ecosystem services assessment, concepts, models, and implementation. Ambio 43(4), 413–433 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-014-0504-0 4. IPCC. Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (2006). https://www.ipcc.ch/rep ort/2006-ipcc-guidelines-for-national-greenhouse-gas-inventories/. Accessed 30 July 2020 5. Lappo, G.M.: Cities of Russia. Geographer’s view M. New chronograph, 504 p. (2012) 6. Lebedev, Y.V., Neklyudov, I.A.: Assessment of the water-regulating role of forests. Methodical recommendations. Ekaterinburg, 36 p. (2012) 7. Method of calculating vehicles emissions under summary computational modeling for urban settlements. Air pollution emissions. GOST R 56162-2014. Electronic Fund of legal and normative-technical documentation. http://docs.cntd.ru/document/1200113823. Accessed 28 Aug 2020 8. On specially protected natural territories in the city of Moscow. Law of the city of Moscow of 26.09.2001 No48 (amended on 20 February 2019). Electronic Fund of legal and normativetechnical documentation. http://docs.cntd.ru/document/3630351. Accessed 28 Aug 2020 9. Pakina, A., Batkalova, A.: The green space as a driver of sustainability in post-socialist urban areas: the case of Almaty city (Kazakhstan). In: Belgeo, vol. 4 (2018). https://doi.org/10. 4000/belgeo.28865 10. Pakina A.A., Tulskaya N.I., Karnaushenko A.A.: Ecological and economic mapping of the Republic of Tatarstan. Geodesy Cartogr. 1, 146–155 (2019). https://doi.org/10.22389/00167126-2019-943-1 11. Pauleit, S., Hansen, R., Rall, E.L., Zölch, T., Andersson, E., Luz, A.C., Szaraz, L., Tosics, I., Vierikko, K.: Urban landscapes and green infrastructure. Environ. Hum. Health Manage. Plan. (2017). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318055183_ Urban_Landscapes_and_Green_Infrastructure. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/978019938 9414.013.23. Accessed 23 July 2020 12. Regions of Russia. Main characteristics of the subjects of the Russian Federation. State college/Moscow, Rosstat, 766 p. (2019) 13. Kulbachevsky, A.O.: Report On the state of the environment in the city of Moscow in 2017, 358 p. DPOOS, Moscow (2018)

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14. Report “On the state of the environment in the Moscow region in 2017” (2018). https://mep. mosreg.ru/download/document/5089114. Accessed 25 Aug 2020 15. Schäffler, A., Swilling, M.: Valuing green infrastructure in an urban environment under pressure–The Johannesburg case. Ecol. Econ. 86, 246–257 (2013) 16. Temporary methodology for determining recreational loads on natural complexes in the organization of tourism, excursions, mass everyday recreation and time norms of these loads. http://docs.cntd.ru/document/9033131. Accessed 07 Aug 2020 17. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, TEEB. [lektponny pecypc]. http:// www.teebweb.org. Accessed 03 Aug 2020 18. Urban Landscapes and Green Infrastructure. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318 055183_Urban_Landscapes_and_Green_Infrastructure. Accessed 28 Aug 2020 19. Zavadskaya, A., Nikolaeva, E., Sazhina V., Shpilenok T., Shuvalova, O.: Values and ecosystem services of kronotsky reserve and south kamchatka sanctuary. In: Bobylev, S., (ed.) Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy: Publishing House “Kamchatpress”, 244 p. (2017)

Ecosystem Services in Russian Urban Legislation Olga Maximova(B) Moscow, Russia

Abstract. The article analyzes four fundamental Russian urban planning documents: “SP 42.13330.2016. City building. Planning and development of urban and rural settlements”, “Urban planning code of the Russian Federation”, “Spatial development Strategy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2025”, “Methodology for the formation of the urban environment quality index” and one methodological document “Standard for integrated development of territories”, created within the framework of the National project “Housing and urban environment”, with a view to mentioning ecosystem services. Despite the fact that the concept of “ecosystem services” is absent in the studied documents, 35 types of ecosystem services are described. They were analyzed according to TEEB classification.

1 Introduction In the modern world, the degradation of nature causes significant damage to the wellbeing of people and the economy. Due to the latent nature of benefits from ecosystem services, their diffusion between consumers/beneficiaries, they are largely perceived as free public goods, as a result of which their importance is underestimated, which leads to their degradation [1]. The purpose of this article is to analyze the level of understanding of ecosystem services in the field of modern Russian urban planning. Research in this area was previously conducted by Russian-German researchers in the framework of the project “Implementation of environmental principles in the territorial planning of Russia (Ecorus)” [2] and L.D. Sulkarnayeva “Defining approaches to assessing urban ecosystem services in Russian cities” [3]. In this paper, we analyzed four fundamental urban planning documents and one methodological document created within the framework of the National project “Housing and urban environment” to identify the mention of urban ecosystem services (ES) in them and then compare them with existing international classifications of ES.

2 Research Materials and Methods In this paper, the following Russian urban planning documents are considered: • SP 42.13330.2016. Set of rules. City building. Planning and development of urban and rural settlements. Updated version of SNiP 2.07.01-89 [4] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 V. Vasenev et al. (Eds.): SSC 2020, SPRINGERGEOGR, pp. 252–260, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9_24

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• Urban planning code of the Russian Federation (as amended on December 27, 2019) [5]. • Methodology for forming the urban environment quality index. Approved by decree of the government of the Russian Federation No. 510-R of March 23, 2019 [6]. • Spatial development strategy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2025. Approved by decree of the government of the Russian Federation No. 207-R of February 13, 2019 [7]. • Standard for integrated territorial development (in 10 volumes). M: Strelka, 2019 [8]. In our work, we will use the TEEB classification of ecosystem services, which implies the division of ES into four groups: resource, regulating, cultural, and supporting [9]. This classification was chosen by us because, unlike CICES, it distinguishes supporting ES into a separate group, which is important for our research, since this aspect is most underestimated in Russian urban planning. The CICES classification [10] will be used for those types of ecosystem services that are not included in the TEEB classification. When compiling the ES tables (Tables 1, 2, and 3), we identified separately ecosystem services and ecosystem service providers identified in the documents for more accurate transmission of the logic of Russian urban planners. By ecosystem services, we will understand the benefits that people receive from the ecosystem [11]. The names of ecosystem services will be given in the same form as they are named in the above documents, so that the perspective of urban planners on ecosystem services is more clearly visible.

3 Results The concept of ecosystem services is not included in these documents. Despite this, the description of ecosystem services is quite common in them. Analysis of references to ecosystem services shows that most attention is paid to cultural and regulatory ES. In total, we found 34 different ecosystem services. Of these, 14 types of regulating, 15 types of cultural and 5 types of supporting ecosystem services (Tables 1, 2 and 3). According to the specified urban planning documents, resource ecosystem services are not in demand in Russian cities – we have not found a single mention of resource ES. Perhaps the resource group should include territorial resources, similar to how the CICES classification refers to the abiotic resource category of solar and wind energy [10]. The most widely represented ES of plants – they are named as suppliers of 25 types (that is, most of them) of ES, such as capturing dust from the air, absorbing carbon dioxide, emission oxygen, creating shade, cooling the air, thermal insulation, reducing noise, reducing wind speed, drainage, water evaporation, protection from mudslides, protection from erosion processes and gully formation, visual attractiveness, permanent visual contact with green spaces for residents of residential buildings, identity of green spaces, improving navigation, union territories, creating borders between urban and intra-district territories, privacy of residential premises, outdoor recreation for residents, providing planting material for groups of urban settlements, replenishment of groundwater reserves, soil protection. In the studied Russian urban planning documents, 4 ES of water bodies are mentioned (all cultural ones): recreation, visual appeal, swimming, ice skating.

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O. Maximova Table 1. Regulating urban ecosystem services

Categories of regulatory services Ecosystem service

Provider

Local climate and air quality

Capture of dust particles, absorption

Herbaceous, woody and shrubby vegetation

Creating shade

Herbaceous, woody and shrubby vegetation

Air cooling

Rational landscaping

Reducing the heat island effect Evaporation of moisture from the crown Green roofs Thermal insulation

Green roofs

Reducing wind speed

Herbaceous, woody and shrubby vegetation

Oxygen emission

Herbaceous, woody and shrubby vegetation

Environmental protection Sanitary protection zones functions (reducing the impact of industrial pollution on the air (chemical, biological, physical) Carbon sequestration and storage

Carbon dioxide absorption

Herbaceous, woody and shrubby vegetation

Moderation of extreme events

Protection from mudslides

Tree and shrub vegetation

Reducing the load on storm sewers and the risk of flooding (drainage, drainage of rainwater, infiltration, evaporation of water)

Rain garden

Erosion prevention and maintenance of soil fertility

Protection from erosion processes and gully formation

Afforestation of slopes

Pollination

—————

—————

Bio-drainage ditches Herbaceous, woody and shrubby vegetation

Biological control (regulation of the number of pests and diseases) Waste-water treatment (continued)

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Table 1. (continued) Categories of regulatory services Ecosystem service

Provider

Services not included in the classification of TEEB

Herbaceous, woody and shrubby vegetation

Acoustic comfort, noise reduction

Noise-proof terrain Territorial resources

Placement of cities

Ecosystem services of the following categories are most widely represented: local climate and air quality (9 ES), recreation and health (6 ES), aesthetic appreciation and inspiration for culture, art and design (5 ES). In contrast, the categories of biological control, pollination, waste-water treatment, tourism, spiritual experience, and sense of place are not described as urban ecosystem services. A number of ecosystem services mentioned in Russian urban planning documents, but not included in the TEEB classification, have been identified. These include noise reduction, territorial resources, improved navigation, union territories, creating borders between territories, privacy of residential premises, and replenishing groundwater reserves. Of these, noise reduction, privacy, and groundwater replenishment are included in the CICES classification [10].

4 Discussion There is no direct indication of how much ecosystem services the city requires in any of the documents under consideration. Only the area of green areas is recorded: 17–25% of the area of the block [4]; in the structure of green areas of general use, large parks and forest parks with a width of 0.5 km or more must be at least 10% [4]. Instructions on the extent to which ES will be provided are available only in the methodological document from the Strelka Bureau and only for green spaces. It describes how much they absorb dust and carbon dioxide, emit oxygen, and how they lower the temperature of the air and surface (see Fig. 1). In addition, it is said that “the use of tree species with a large volume and density of the crown (oak, holly maple, ash) … can enhance the positive effect on air quality and microclimate” [8]. The document does not specify how much it allows to strengthen and how it is calculated, and it also does not provide links to other documents. Since the value of ES of green spaces this document presents in very general form, without specifying the species of plants, season, shape, green areas, difficult to compare these data with those of other researchers [12]. The importance of specifying these parameters was shown, for example, in the study of Cao et al. [13] the results show that the cooling effect depends on the size of the park and the season (the level of solar radiation), and the size of the park is non-linearly correlated with the intensity of cooling. The intensity of air cooling is mainly determined by the area occupied by trees and shrubs inside the park, but also by the shape of the park. At the same time, grass, according to a study by Cao et al., has a negative effect on air cooling.

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O. Maximova Table 2. Cultural urban ecosystem services

Categories of regulatory services

Ecosystem service

Aesthetic appreciation and Aesthetic, visual appeal inspiration for culture, art and design

Provider Winter garden (for tundra and forest-tundra natural areas) Decorative reservoir Greening

Recreation and mental and physical health

Scientific and educational significance

Protected natural areas

Cultural and aesthetic significance

Protected natural areas

Recreational value

Protected natural areas

Identity of green spaces, uniqueness of the park, diversity of green spaces

Herbaceous, woody and shrubby vegetation

Outdoor recreation areas

Recreation areas: urban forests, squares, parks, urban gardens, ponds, lakes, reservoirs, beaches, shorelines of public water bodies

Outdoor games and sports

Place for games and sports

Bathing

Water objects

Ski track, ice rink, ice slides

Water objects

Permanent visual contact with Linear landscaping green spaces for residents of residential buildings Tourism

Health value

Protected natural areas

——————

——————

Navigation improvement

Group tree planting, flower beds

The union territories, making the integrity

Green areas, located between district territories

Creating borders between urban and intra district territories

Dense shrubby landscaping

Spiritual experience, sense of place Services not included in the TEEB classification

Privacy of residential premises Green buffer zone

The “Standard for integrated territorial development” states that “regulation of the area of green areas is aimed at creating comfortable conditions for recreation and leisure

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Table 3. Supporting urban ecosystem services Categories of regulatory services

Ecosystem service

Provider

Habitats for species

Environmental, Protected natural areas environmental-forming value Soil protection

Soil protection planting

Protection of water bodies

Water protection zone, coastal protection strip

Maintenance of genetic diversity

Providing planting material for groups of urban settlements

Plant nurseries and flower and greenhouse farms

Services not included in the TEEB classification

Replenishment of ground water reserves

Rain gardens

of residents in the open air” [8]. The description shows that despite the listing of ecosystem services such as oxygen emitting and dust absorption, this effect is not considered as general for the entire city territory, but only as an effect for visitors to green areas (it is not indicated, for example, that it applies to citizens who live in houses near the park). In the considered urban planning documents, it is not always clear what is the cause and what is the effect. For example, in the “Methodology for the formation of the urban environment quality index” [6], biodiversity is called an indicator of a good ecological situation, but what is the benefit of biodiversity and why it should be achieved is not stated. The same misunderstanding can be noted in the description of the ES of biodrainage ditches and rain gardens [8]. Bio-drainage ditches and rain gardens are not considered in the documents as systems that provide a waste-water treatment service, but only as reducing the load on storm sewers and the risk of flooding, drainage, drainage of rainwater, infiltration, evaporation of water. Attention is drawn to such typical for architects and less noticeable for ecologists ecosystem services related to the organization of space, such as increasing the privacy of residential premises through plants, delineating or union the territory with tree planting, improving navigation through flowerbeds or planting trees in groups. Although these ES are not included in the TEEB and CICES classifications (with the exception of increasing residential privacy), they are also services provided by urban nature. And, remarkably, for urban planners, this type of ES is more understandable. Since they refer to plants primarily as objects located in space (and not as living being that form an ecosystem). Speaking about the division of ecosystem services into biotic and abiotic [14], it should be noted that of the 35 described ES, only 7 are abiotic – water infiltration by soil, noise-proof terrain, decorative reservoirs, beaches, place for games and sports, places for swimming and skiing. Also noteworthy is the fact that only one ecosystem service provided with soil is mentioned, namely water infiltration. Biotic ecosystem services are all associated with plants, and no other species are mentioned as ecosystem service providers. This may indicate that the city is not perceived by designers as a place

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Fig. 1. Dependence of the volume of ecosystem services provided on the intensity of greening on the territory of residential or mixed-use development (Source: “Standard of integrated development of territories”, vol. 1, p. 145)

of residence for anyone other than people and pets. At least, the life of wild animals, birds, and insects in the city is not a significant factor (neither positive nor negative). An attempt to systematize ecosystem services of Russian cities was also made by L.D. Sulkarnayeva [3]. The logic of its analysis went in the opposite direction from the one proposed by us: the exclusion of ES prohibited in Russian cities by the Urban planning, Forest and Land codes and Federal law No. 7 of 2002. Thus, a fairly extensive list of ES was obtained, including such services as livestock feed production, dacha recreation, etc., which are not urban ES really. The table of ES obtained in this way is so different from the one proposed by us that it is not advisable to compare them.

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5 Conclusion The concept of ecosystem services is absent in the documents we studied. However, the description of ecosystem services is quite common in them – a total of 34 types of ES have been identified. Most of the ecosystem services found correspond to the TEEB classification, although there are a few ES that are not included in this classification. These are mainly ecosystem services related to the organization and use of space: improving navigation, the union territory, creating borders between territories, privacy of residential premises, etc. (some of them are presented in the CICES classification). Most attention is paid to ES produced by plants, various protection of the territory and regulation of storm drains. Logically, these are the most visible and understandable types of ecosystem services and their providers. Most of the ES mentioned in the studied urban planning documents belong to the “regulatory” and “cultural” groups. In the Russian city, the resource group of ecosystem services is not in demand and little attention is paid to the supporting group. It is mainly represented by protected areas and plant nurseries. In other words, the city is not perceived as a territory where nature should reproduce itself anywhere other than on the territory of protected areas. There is no direct indication of how much ecosystem services the city requires in any of the documents. Only for green spaces are there indications of the amount of ES that can be produced. Thus, we can say that the biophysical contribution of urban ecosystem services in the studied documents is described only in a qualitative form, without specifying the needs of the city. In Russia, the practice of payments for ecosystem services has not yet been introduced, but there are some prerequisites for its introduction – at the level of urban planning documents, there is a basic understanding of the benefits of some urban ecosystem services, although so far without a specific economic assessment of them. There is no economic assessment (or argumentation) of ecosystem services in any of the documents. This means that when choosing from different urban planning opportunities, planners will not have additional arguments in favor of the natural component. In this regard, it is an urgent task for Russian experts on ecosystem services to convey to urban planners the meaning of each of the urban ecosystem services, their economic contribution and mechanism of action.

References 1. Bobylev, S.N., Goryacheva, A.A.: Identification and assessment of ecosystem services: international context. Bull. Int. Org. 14(1), 225–236 (2019). (in Russian). https://doi.org/10.17323/ 1996-7845-2019-01-13 2. Neumann, A., Magel, I., Albrecht, Yu.: Implementation of Environmental Principles in the Territorial Planning of Russia (Ecorus), p. 82. Dresden, Saint-Petersburg (2014). (in Russian) 3. Sulkarnaeva, L.D.: Defining approaches to assessing urban ecosystem services in Russian cities. Int. Res. J. Part 2 63(9), 80–84 (2017). (in Russian). https://doi.org/10.23670/IRJ. 2017.63.068 4. SP 42.13330.2016. Set of rules. City building. Planning and development of urban and rural settlements. Updated version of SNiP 2.07.01-89. (in Russian)

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5. Urban planning code of the Russian Federation (as amended on December 27, 2019). (in Russian) 6. Methodology for forming the urban environment quality index. Approved by decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 510-R of March 23, 2019. (in Russian) 7. Spatial development strategy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2025. Approved by order of the Government of the Russian Federation dated February 13, 2019 No. 207-R. (in Russian) 8. Standard for integrated development of territories. In 10 volumes. M: Strelka (2019). (in Russian) 9. TEEB Manual for Cities: Ecosystem Services in Urban Management (2011) 10. Haines-Young, R., Potschin, M.B.: Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES) V5.1 and Guidance on the Application of the Revised Structure (2017) 11. The UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: House of Commons, Environmental Audit, Committee, London (2007) 12. Dzierzanowski, K., Popek, R., Gawro´nska, H., et al.: Deposition of particulate matter of different size fractions on leaf surfaces and in waxes of urban forest species. Int. J. Phytorem. 13(10), 1037–1046 (2011) 13. Cao, X., Onishi, A., Chen, J., Imura, H.: Quantifying the Coolisland intensity of urban parks using ASTER and IKONOS data. Landsc. Urban Plan. 96(4), 224–231 (2010) 14. Haines-Young, R., Potschin-Young, M.: Revision of the common international classification for ecosystem services (CICES V5.1): a policy brief. One Ecosyst. 3, e27108 (2018). https:// doi.org/10.3897/oneeco.3.e27108

Environmental Safety of Urbanized Territories as a Developing Institution for Ensuring the Vital Interests of Mankind Marina Anatolievna Vakula1(B)

and Irina Anatolievna Umnova-Koniukhova2

1 Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University), 6, Miklukho-Maklaya Street,

Moscow 117198, Russian Federation 2 Russian State University of Justice (RSUJ), 69, Novocheremushinskaya Street, Moscow

117416, Russian Federation

Abstract. The article deals with the current theoretical and scientific - practical problems of legal regulation of protecting nature and the mechanism for ensuring environmental safety as an integral part of environmental protection, in particular, concerning urbanized areas. Topical issues of environmental safety as a new direction of legal regulation are raised in the context of sustainable development and public health. The assessment of the achievement of sustainable urban development and ensuring the environmental safety of urbanized areas has been carried out at the international law level and with the help of national legislation. The work analyzes international methods of assessing the quality of the environment and the damage caused. The article also provides a brief overview of the mechanisms of environmental legislation in Russia. The authors consider that it is necessary to develop ecological safety indicators to ensure interest in the implementation of environmental protection measures. An increase or decrease in the monetized assessment of environmental losses within a selected period should ultimately serve as an indicator of the effectiveness of the environmental policy and be the basis for determining the degree of environmental safety in a particular area. As a result, the importance of legal regulation of the environmental safety’s concept in its relationship with the concept of “favorable environment” and the term “environmental protection” is emphasized. Keywords: Environmental safety · Sustainable urban development · The state of protecting the environment and humans from harmful effects · Favorable and safe environment · Indicators of the state of environmental safety · Urbanized areas

1 Introduction At the present stage of human development, cities play a vital role in society’s development. According to UN forecasts (2018 Revision of World Urbanization Prospects [1]), by 2050, about 68% of the world’s population will live in urbanized areas. Today, this figure is 55%, and there are about 4.2 billion urban residents in the world (in 1950, © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 V. Vasenev et al. (Eds.): SSC 2020, SPRINGERGEOGR, pp. 261–271, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9_25

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there were only 751 million). During road building and housing construction, a significant percentage of urban soils are sealed with asphalt and covered with buildings and structures, while its ability to heal itself, maintain natural biocoenosis, and realize natural ecological functions decreases. Besides, a significant negative impact on the atmosphere air is exerted by vehicles and industry, which cannot but affect these urbanized territories’ health. The President of the Russian Federation emphasized the fact of the scale of economic losses from the impact of environmental pollution on the health of the Russian population at a meeting of the State Council: “In several areas, the load on nature has reached critical values. As a result, the annual economic damage reaches 6% of GDP and, taking into account the consequences for human health – may rise to 15%” [2]. That is why achieving sustainable urban development and ensuring urbanized territories’ environmental safety is one of modern society’s priority tasks. The authors analyze the issues of environmental safety as a new direction of legal regulation through the prism of foreign and Russian experience of environmental standardization in terms of sustainable urban development, taking into account the applicability to existing approaches in Russia of the other States experience to the achieving the effective state regulation of environmental safety.

2 The Methodology for Ensuring Environmental Safety Concerning Urbanized Areas The most dangerous types of pollution cause the most significant concern in international legal protection. In particular, at present, one can state a high level of international legal regulation of nuclear safety. For these purposes, the states have signed the 1986 Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency, the 1986 Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident, the 1986 Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency, the 1994 Convention on Nuclear Safety (ratified by the RF in 1996), the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management in 1997 (ratified by the RF in 2005). The 2001 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) (entered into force in 2004) contains obligations to ban the production and use of twelve POPs chemicals and requirements to restrict DDT use for malaria control. It sets targets for developing programs to curb the unintentional formation of dioxins and furans, which can be traced in Federal Law of June 27, 2011 No 164-FZ “On Ratification of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.” The term “Environmental Safety” can be found in the constitutions of several modern states. (For example, according to Art. 16 of the Constitution of Ukraine, ensuring environmental safety and maintaining ecological balance on Ukraine’s territory, overcoming the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, and preserving the gene pool of the Ukrainian people are the responsibility of the state. Under Art. 74 of the Constitution of the Polish Republic of 1997, the public authorities pursue a policy that ensures environmental safety for modern and future generations). In the territorial dimension, the most urgent is ensuring environmental safety in cities, characterized by a more aggressive anthropogenic impact on the environment. Concerning cities’ ecological safety, the concepts of green cities, green construction,

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and green settlements are in great demand. Greening the economy and the construction industry, in particular, expressed in the use of environmentally friendly materials and the widespread introduction of energy-efficient production processes has become the norm for economically developed countries. As part of the standardization of green building approaches, the primary documents are BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method [3]), developed in the UK in 1990, and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design [4]), created in the USA in 1998. Under the above documents, an energy efficiency class is assigned to a building or structure based on the corresponding indicators, which increase not only the technical characteristics of the building but also have a significant impact on the price characteristics of the object in the real estate market. The development of energy-efficient technologies and the formation of legal guidelines to consolidate the requirements for achieving high energy efficiency is one way to reduce harmful emissions into the environment and improve environmental safety. In 1988, the Soviet authorities, in their Resolution of the Central Committee, declared that “the struggle for environmental safety on Earth should be regarded as one of the most responsible and noble tasks of the Soviet people” [5]. Environmental safety was first enshrined in environmental legislation in 1991 [6]. Besides, some normative legal acts and normative and technical documents of the Soviet period contained environmental safety references. However, none of these documents revealed the essence of the very concept - environmental safety. The Russian Federation’s 1993 Constitution classifies environmental safety as a joint jurisdiction of the Russian Federation and the Russian Federation’s constituent entities. With the adoption of the Federal Law of 10.01.2002 No. 7-FZ “On environmental protection,” the concept of the environmental safety is legislatively enshrined in its first article as a state of protection of the natural environment and vital human interests from the possible negative impact of economic and other activities, emergencies of natural and technogenic character, their consequences. Given the high density of development in Russian cities, unique legal acts regulating various economic activities and providing requirements for ensuring environmental safety are of particular importance. In particular, these legal acts include: federal laws on inland waterway transport, railway transport, technical regulation; as well as legislation in the field of radiation safety; the field of handling chemical and biological substances; in the production of genetically modified organisms; in emergencies; in the field of waste management, and others [7]. On the other hand, Federal Law of 28.12.2010 No 390-FZ “On Safety” mentions environmental safety and provides other safety types, but does not go further. Environmental safety is proclaimed as the goal of state activity in the Fundamentals of State Policy in the Field of Environmental Development of the Russian Federation for the Period up to 2030 [8], in the National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation [9] and the Strategy for Environmental Security of the Russian Federation for the Period until 2025 [10]. Quite recently, the Government of the Russian Federation has begun to introduce a new model of urban development focused on a comfortable urban environment [11], and in 2017, the government approved the rules for the provision and distribution of subsidies from the federal budget to regions for the implementation of

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this program. Improving the urban environment’s quality has become one of the critical components of the May 2018 Decree of Russia’s President [12]. However, in none of the listed legal regulation areas, environmental safety is mentioned as a legal system. Moreover, the definition of environmental safety in Russian legislation does not contain criteria for assessing the state of protection, which would make it possible to ascertain the qualitative state of environmental safety and, if necessary, take sufficient measures to ensure it. Often the norms and requirements in environmental protection, established in environmental legislation, are simultaneously positioned as measures to ensure environmental safety. This fact emphasizes the unity of approaches to achieving a favorable environment and environmental safety - a stable state of protection from significant adverse impacts of a natural and human-made nature, both for the functioning of natural ecological systems and humans’ vital interests. With a systematic approach to the definition of these concepts, it seems evident that the concept of the environmental safety is related to the concept of “favorable environment” since it includes the ideal state of protection, which can be achieved by the legislatively enshrined tools, implicit in the term “environmental protection.”

3 Standardization of the Environmental Components’ Quality as a Tool for Ensuring Environmental Safety The statement of the fact of the presence or absence of the state of protection of the natural environment, as well as the differentiation of the level of such protection, presuppose a regular assessment of the state of the natural environment for compliance or non-compliance with the normatively fixed quality criteria for its condition. In other words, ensuring environmental safety is inextricably linked with the definition of measurable quantities of the qualitative state of natural components. As a legal instrument corresponding to this task, the Russian legislation provides for the institution of environmental regulation, carried out for state regulation of the impact of economic and other activities, and prevention of negative impact on the environment (Art. 19 of Law No. 7-FZ). A similar standardization of the quality of environmental components operates in foreign countries. In the United States, to protect the environment and ensure its good quality, relevant laws are issued. Mandatory standards are adopted that establish the quality level of individual components (objects) of the environment (atmospheric, air, earth water) (see Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) [13]. The directives in force in the European Union can be divided into two groups: the first is the directives, regulating activities to ensure and maintain the sound quality of the environment as a whole, as an ecosystem [14]. The second is the directives adopted on protecting individual objects (components) of the environment and preventing deterioration of its quality due to certain types of activity or operation (consumption) of certain types of products [15]. Normative standards are usually enshrined in directives of the second group. (The list given in the references is only a small part of a fairly extensive array of normative legal acts of technical regulation, based on mandatory standardization).

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Russian environmental legislation stipulates that environmental quality standards are standards that, if observed, ensure a favorable environment. Thus, the quality standards are primary, and when establishing the standards for the impact of production facilities, one should be guided by the following – the compliance with the impact standards by all users of natural resources should ensure the regulatory state of environmental quality, i.e., the same state of environmental safety, namely, the state of protection of the natural environment and vital human interests from possible negative impact. Also, special attention should be paid to such an essential aspect in the sphere of vital interests of a person as the recipient of pollution, that is, health. In recent years in Russia, a tendency towards strengthening the priority of preserving human health while solving environmental pollution problems has been more and more clearly traced. This trend is also reflected in Russian environmental legislation: environmental quality standards are mentioned along with hygienic ones, such as in land and water legislation, in the legal regulation of atmospheric air protection. Under the Federal Law of 30.03.1999 No. 52-FZ “On the sanitary and epidemiological well-being of the population” (hereinafter - Law No. 52-FZ), the hygienic standard is “the maximum or minimum permissible quantitative and (or) qualitative concentration (MPC) of the indicator, which characterizes one or another factor of the environment from the standpoint of its safety and (or) harmlessness to humans.” Law No. 52-FZ plays a significant role in the environmental regulation system (often even replacing it). The human habitat is determined in it through “the totality of objects, phenomena, and factors of the environment (natural and artificial), which determines the conditions of human life” (Art. 1). Under the sanitary and epidemiological well-being of the population, Law No. 52-FZ means such a state of health of the population and the human environment, characterized by the absence of harmful effects of environmental factors on humans the provision of favorable conditions for human life. (Ibid, definitions of favorable conditions for human life and safe conditions for humans). Thus, concerning water bodies, Law No. 52-FZ “On the Sanitary and Epidemiological Well-being of the Population” established that water bodies used for drinking and household water supply, bathing, sports, recreation, and for medical purposes, including water objects located within the boundaries of urban and rural settlements, should not be sources of biological, chemical and physical factors of harmful effects on humans. (see Part 1 of Art. 18 of Law No. 52-FZ.) The criteria for the safety and (or) harmlessness of water bodies to humans, including the maximum permissible concentration of the chemical, biological substances, microorganisms in water, and the background radiation level, are established by sanitary rules. (see Part 2 of Art. 18 of Law No. 52-FZ.) In February 2019, the Russian Federation’s Government approved the Regulation on the development, establishment, and revision of environmental quality standards [16], and under the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 13.02.2019, it established the priority of hygienic standards for the waters of surface water bodies or their parts for drinking and cultural water supply. Concerning water bodies of fishery importance, used simultaneously for drinking and cultural water supply, and/or for other purposes, the quality standard is prescribed to be selected at the lowest of the hygienic or fishery standards.

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Following the Federal Law of 04.05.1999 No. 96-FZ “On the Protection of Atmospheric Air” (hereinafter - Law No. 96-FZ), the quality of atmospheric air is a combination of physical, chemical, and biological properties of atmospheric air, reflecting the degree of its compliance with hygienic standards for the quality of atmospheric air and environmental standards for ambient air quality. The Russian Federation’s Land Code calls land protection goals the “compliance with the requirements… of environmental, sanitary and hygienic… and other rules and regulations.” (e.g., Art. 40, 42 of the Land Code of the Russian Federation.) The duties of members of horticultural, vegetable gardening, and non-profit dacha associations of citizens [17], owners and agricultural land users are similarly formulated [18]. To date, the Russian Federation has developed hygienic standards established in the form of MPCs for several chemicals in the soil, which are soil quality standards and apply to the “soils of settlements, agricultural land, zones of sanitary protection of water supply sources, the territory of resort areas and individual institutions.” The decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 13.02.2019, regarding the regulation of soil quality fixed the current situation - to assess the quality of soils (lands) of agricultural land categories and lands of settlements, land plots of sanitary protection zones for drinking and domestic water supply sources, resort zones, as well as for soils (lands) for all categories of land for chemicals of non-natural origin, priority will be given to the existing hygienic standards. For the rest of the land categories, the need to develop “ecological” soil quality standards has been declared.

4 Monetization of the Consequences of Adverse Changes in Environmental Components Taking into account the need to assess the state of protection of the natural environment and the vital interests of a person, it seems possible to use the monetization of the consequences of adverse changes in environmental components as one of the criteria: for example, the introduction of approaches based on the systematic identification and tracking of the effects of environmental pollution, from changes in the quality of natural components to impact on such social values as public health. European Union [19], should be noted. The methods used in these countries are based on the Impact-Pathway (I-PA) approach [20], which can be conventionally defined as a sequence of the following actions: “Modeling the dispersion of air pollutant emissions to understand changes in the concentration of pollutants in the environment - assessing how these changes in concentrations affect health, the economy, and the environment assessing these impacts using a single monetary value”. A study in the USA [21]estimated the gross damage to 74.3 billion US dollars (or 0.7% of GDP). Much of the damage is attributable to human health impacts, with premature mortality costing $ 53 billion (71% of the total), and disease - another $ 17 billion (23%). The table below shows each pollutant’s relative contribution to total damage (US $ billion per year).

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Pollutant

Mortality

Agriculture

Timber

Visibility

Materials

Leisure

Total

PM2,5

14.4

2.6

0

0

0.4

0

0

17.4

PM10

0

7.8

0

0

1.3

0

0

9.1

Nox

4.4

0.8

0.7

0.05

0.2

0

0.03

NH3

8.3

1.5

0

0

0.2

0

0

10.0

SO2

16.1

2.9

0

0

0.4

0.1

0

19.5

VOC

9.6

1.8

0.5

0.03

0.2

0

0

12.1

Total

52.8

17.4

1.2

0.08

2.7

0.1

0.03

74.3

6.2

The DEFRA method (Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs) for calculating the damage from atmospheric air pollution used in Great Britain [22] is resource-intensive and time-consuming. It requires analysis of emissions, dispersion area, directions, and volumes of impact on the population over a long period. This methodology is recommended for use in cases where air quality impacts are expected to be significant (over £ 50 million) and where air quality changes are key policy and project issues. The effect of pollution on the economy in the form of a decrease in the population’s working capacity is estimated based on the methodology developed by Ricardo AEA (2014) [23]. The value of life-years lost due to air pollution is monetized using costs estimated in a study by Chilton et al. (2004) [24]. The cost of life for the year lost due to air pollution is £ 42,780 (2017 data) and has been recalculated against current prices and is used to monetize all causes of death in calculating the cost of damage. The standard method for monetizing the loss of quality of life due to health conditions is estimated at £ 60,000 at 2014 prices adjusted for the quality of life (QALY) as determined by the Green Paper [25]. The Irish EnvEcon methodology [26] is based on principles close to the British DEFRA methodology - a similar list of pollutants is taken into account. Its peculiarity is the linkage of the marginal damage from the corresponding pollutants to the population density. If the case of impossibility to conduct large-scale, long-term studies and, consequently, insufficient evidence for implementing the first stage, one can consider Canada’s experience [27]. The costs of pollution are classified using an economic rather than a biophysical basis, following the consequences of costs for the population, enterprises, and government. The most studied and understood by the Canadian government is the aggregate of the costs associated with pollution’s direct impact on human well-being. These include suffering from premature death and increased morbidity (clinical manifestations) caused by pollution and costs associated with other health-related losses, such as loss of recreational opportunities due to water and air pollution. The second category is the costs associated with pollution’s impact on the production and consumption of marketable goods and services. These costs arise in the form of low income (or higher costs) for individuals, businesses, and the government due, for example, to lower yields, which negatively affect agricultural income or an increase in people’s costs of paying for medical services. Ultimately, the impact on production and consumption negatively affects national revenue. The final price category is the monetary value of the impacts of pollution on the value of produced (buildings, bridges, houses, and other constructed assets) and natural (water bodies, agricultural land, forests, atmosphere, and other ecosystems) assets, which also negatively affects the wealth of the nation.

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According to the State report “On the state of sanitary and epidemiological well-being of the population in the Russian Federation in 2018” [28], cases of environmentallyrelated diseases associated with unsatisfactory environmental quality inevitably lead to employment losses of the economically active population in the process of gross domestic product production. Generally, the loss of working capacity in the Russian Federation due to the impact of sanitary and hygienic factors in 2018, according to Rospotrebnadzor, amounted to about 38.6 million working days and caused the underproduced GDP at the level of 124 billion rubles), which is 5.1% higher than in 2017, but 22.1% lower than 2013. The tables below reflect changes in budget expenditures for the period from 2008 to 2018, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia [29]. Dynamics of expenses for the section “Environmental protection” and other specialized sections and subsections of the consolidated budget of the Russian Federation, 2008–2018, million rubles. Sections and subsections of budget expenditure

2008

2010

2015

2016

2017

2018

2018 in % to 2008

Environmental protection: total

31228

28326

71712

83975

116282

148252

Increase by 4, 7 times

Dynamics of expenditures on environmental protection in the Russian Federation by spending priorities (in actual prices), 2010–2018, billion rubles. Spending priorities

2010

Environmental costs

372,4 582,1 590,9 652,7 715,8

Expenditures on environmental protection in % to GDP 0,8

2015 0,7

2016 0,7

2017 0,7

2018 0,7

The above statistical data, taking into account expert estimates on annual economic losses due to environmental degradation (16.6 trillion rubles), indicate the following: it is objectively necessary not only to consolidate the concept of environmental safety, but also to develop a methodology for assessing its level based on a comprehensive account of monetized environmental harm, changes in the quality of life of the population and other environmental and economic indicators.

5 Conclusion Environmental safety is an intensively developing institution of environmental law, to which an ambiguous attitude has been formed in the domestic legal science. Indeed, it is difficult to draw a line between environmental protection and the ensuring ecological safety as an integral part of environmental protection. However, there are differences, and they require clarification in the national ecological legislation’s conceptual apparatus. Environmental protection is the activity of all obligated entities (the state, organizations, each citizen of the country), implying their dynamic interaction in implementing active efforts to protect, restore and preserve the components of the environment. Environmental safety seems to be a static concept, suggesting such a favorable state of the environment, in which the vital interests of a person are not violated, and the danger

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of harmful effects on the environment and human health, as well as the likelihood of environmental accidents and disasters are minimized. However, the mere perception of the importance of a favorable environment as a comfortable and safe environment in which the human community performs its life in a state of sustainable functioning of natural ecosystems is not enough to achieve sustainable development. To ensure a favorable environment as comfortable and safe, effective mechanisms are required to protect the natural environment and vital human interests from negative anthropogenic impact and control. The economic damage is significant and it consists of the costs of compensatory measures associated with adverse changes in the components of the environment and budgetary costs due to negative impacts on the health of the population. We believe it expedient to safety consolidate legal standards of environmental quality in relation to the degree of environmental safety. Simultaneously, the monetization of environmental losses of the state should be applied in mutual connection with other public administration instruments. The dynamics of reducing environmental losses, both in physical and monetary terms, should serve as a basis for assessing the effectiveness of the environmental policy of state and municipal bodies and economic entities within the assessed territory (municipality, administrative-territorial unit, and country). At the same time, the openness of data on costs associated with negative environmental changes and their economic interpretation will allow an objective assessment of the degree of environmental safety in a particular territory. The specific features of environmental legal relations are violation of intra-system environmental relations due to pollution, the possibility of cross-border distribution of the resulting adverse consequences, the latent nature of the consequences of the offense, etc. These factors make it necessary to develop indicators of the state of environmental safety, that should be differentiated for land categories, taking into account climatic and geographical features, population density, with their subsequent inclusion in the lists of indicators of the effectiveness of the activities of state authorities and local self-government. This paper has been supported by the RUDN University Strategic Academic Leadership Program.

References 1. 2018 Revision of World Urbanization Prospects. United Nation’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs. https://www.un.org/development/desa/publications/2018-revision-of-worldurbanization-prospects.html. Accessed 16 Sept 2020 2. https://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/53602 3. Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM). https:// www.breeam.com/. Accessed 16 Sept 2020 4. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). https://www.leed.net/. Accessed 16 Sept 2020 5. Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the USSR Council of Ministers of 01/07/1988 No. 32 “On the radical restructuring of nature protection in the country.” “Code of laws of the USSR,” vol. 4, p. 10-1 (1990). (The document became obsolete on the territory of the Russian Federation in connection with the publication of the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 03.02.2020 No. 80.)

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6. Law of the RSFSR of 19.12.1991 No. 2060-1 “On environmental protection.” “Bulletin of SND and the Supreme Soviet,” 05.03.1992, No 10, Art. 457 7. Federal Laws of the Russian Federation of 07.03.2001 No. 24-FZ Code of Inland Water Transport of the Russian Federation; No. 17-FZ “On railway transport in the Russian Federation”; dated 10.01.2003, No. 18-FZ “Charter of the railway transport of the Russian Federation” dated 27.12.2002, No, 184-FZ “On technical regulation” dated July 21, 1997, No. 116-FZ “On industrial safety of hazardous production facilities” dated July 21, 1997, No. 117-FZ “On the safety of hydraulic structures” dated January 9, 1996, No. 3-FZ “On the radiation safety of the population” dated November 21, 1995, No. 170-FZ “On the Use of Atomic Energy” dated July 19, 1997, No. 109-FZ “On the safe handling of pesticides and agrochemicals” dated July 5, 1996, No. 86-FZ “On state regulation in the field of genetic engineering” dated December 21, 1994, No. 68-FZ “On the protection of the population and territories from natural and man-made emergencies”, dated June 24, 1998, No. 89-FZ “On production and consumption waste” dated July 11, 2011, No. 190-FZ “On radioactive waste management and on amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation” 8. Fundamentals of state policy in the Russian Federation’s environmental development for the period up to 2030 (approved by the President of the Russian Federation on April 30, 2012) 9. Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of December 31, 2015 No. 683 “On the National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation.” “Collected Legislation of the Russian Federation,” 01/04/2016, No. 1 (Part II), Art. 212 10. Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 19.04.2017 N. 176 “On the Strategy of Environmental Safety of the Russian Federation for the Period up to 2025” Collected Legislation of the Russian Federation, 24.04.2017, N 17, Art. 2546 11. Passport of the Federal project «Formation of a comfortable urban environment» (approved by the minutes of the meeting of the project committee for the national project “Housing and the urban environment” dated 21.12.2018 No. 3) 12. Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 07.05.2018 No. 204 “On national goals and strategic objectives of the Russian Federation’s development for the period up to 2024”. “Collected Legislation of the Russian Federation,” 14.05.2018, No. 20, Art. 2817 13. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). https://www.govinfo.gov/help/cfr/. Accessed 16 Sept 2020 14. European directives: on environmental impact assessment (dated April 16, 2014 No. 2014/52); on the conduct of comprehensive control inspections of the environment to prevent its pollution (dated January 15, 2008 No. 2008/1 / EC); on public access to information on the environment (dated January 28, 2003 No. 2003/4 / EC); about hazardous waste, and other things. European directives. on the assessment of the quality of atmospheric air (dated September 27, 1996, No. 96/2); on the prevention of air pollution as a result of the emission of pollutants in the exhaust gases of motor vehicles (Directive of March 20, 1970 No. 70/220 and adopted in additional Directive of October 13, 1998 No. 98/69); on standardization of nitrogen dioxide content in ambient air quality standards (dated March 7, 1985, No. 85/203); on the quality and purity of atmospheric air in Europe (dated May 21, 2008 No. 2008/50 / EC); on the control and prevention of atmospheric air pollution by industrial enterprises (dated November 24, 2010 No. 2010/75 / EC); about the quality of gasoline and diesel fuel (dated October 13, 1998 No. 98/70 / EC); on control over the emission of volatile organic compounds during storage of gasoline and its receipt from terminals at the service station (dated December 20, 1994, No. 94/63); on the emission of pollutants from car air conditioners (dated May 17, 2006 No. 2006/40 / EC), and others

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15. European directives on the assessment of the quality of atmospheric air (dated September 27, 1996, No. 96/2); on the prevention of air pollution as a result of the emission of pollutants in the exhaust gases of motor vehicles (Directive of March 20, 1970 No. 70/220 and adopted in additional Directive of October 13, 1998 No. 98/69);on standardization of nitrogen dioxide content in ambient air quality standards (dated March 7, 1985, No. 85/203); on the quality and purity of atmospheric air in Europe (dated May 21, 2008 No. 2008/50 / EC); on the control and prevention of atmospheric air pollution by industrial enterprises (dated November 24, 2010 No. 2010/75 / EC); about the quality of gasoline and diesel fuel (dated October 13, 1998 No. 98/70 / EC); on control over the emission of volatile organic compounds during storage of gasoline and its receipt from terminals at the service station (dated December 20, 1994, No. 94/63); on the emission of pollutants from car air conditioners (dated May 17, 2006 No. 2006/40 / EC), and others 16. Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 13.02.2019 No. 149 “On the development, establishment and revision of environmental quality standards for chemical and physical indicators of the state of the environment, as well as on the approval of regulatory documents in the field of environmental protection, establishing technological indicators of the best available technologies.” “Collected Legislation of the Russian Federation,” 25.02.2019, No. 8, Art. 778 17. Federal Law of the Russian Federation of 15.04.1998 No. 66-FZ “On horticultural, vegetable gardening and non-profit dacha associations of citizens.” “Collected Legislation of the Russian Federation,” 20.04.1998, No. 16, Art. 1801 18. Federal Law of the Russian Federation No. 101-FZ of July 16, 1998 “On State Regulation of Ensuring the Fertility of Agricultural Lands.” “Collected Legislation of the Russian Federation,” 20.07.1998, No. 29, Art. 3399. Federal Law of the Russian Federation of 15.04.1998 No. 66-FZ “On horticultural, vegetable gardening and non-profit dacha associations of citizens.” “Collected Legislation of the Russian Federation,” 20.04.1998, No. 16, Art. 1801 19. EEA (2014), Costs of air pollution from European industrial facilities 2008–2012- an updated assessment, EEA Technical report # 20/2014, The European Environmental Agency 2014 20. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/air-quality-impact-pathway-guidance 21. Muller, N., Mendelsohn, R.: Measuring the damages of air pollution in the United States. J. Environ. Econ. Manag. 54(2007), 1–14 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2006.12.002 22. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/air-quality-economic-analysis 23. Ricardo-AEA: Valuing the impacts of Air Quality on Productivity (2014). https://uk-air.defra. gov.uk/library/reports?report_id=832 24. Chilton, et al.: Valuation of health benefits associated with reductions in air pollution. Final report (2004). https://www.kent.ac.uk/scarr/events/beijing09/BartczalBaker1.pdf 25. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-green-book-appraisal-and-evaluation-incentral-governent 26. EnvEcon: Air Pollutant Marginal Damage Values. Guidebook for Ireland 2015, Dublin: EnvEcon Decision Support Series, 2015/1 (2015) 27. Cost of Pollution in Canada: Measuring the impacts on families, businesses, and governments. International Institute for Sustainable Development. 2017. https://www.iisd.org/story/costsof-pollution-in-canada/. Accessed 16 Sept 2020 28. State report “On the state of sanitary and epidemiological welfare of the population in the Russian Federation in 2018”/Federal service for supervision of consumer rights protection and human welfare. 2019. https://www.rospotrebnadzor.ru/documents/details.php?ELE MENT_ID=12053 29. https://gosdoklad-ecology.ru/2018/gosudarstvennoe-upravlenie/finansovye-aspekty-prirod opolzovaniya/. Accessed 07 Sept 2020

Environmental Assessment of Thermal Energy Facilities Impact on Ecosystem Services for the Production of Oxygen in Urban Settlements Grigorii E. Artamonov1(B) , Ivan Ivanovich Vasenev2 , Vladimir A. Gutnikov3 , and Viktoria V. Erofeeva4,5 1 Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance, Moscow, Russian Federation 2 Russian State Agrarian University, Moscow, Russian Federation 3 CIRD of the Ministry of Construction and Housing and Communal Services of the Russian

Federation, Moscow, Russian Federation 4 Moscow Technical University of Communications and Informatics, Moscow,

Russian Federation 5 RUDN University, Moscow, Russian Federation

Abstract. The article provides a comparative environmental assessment of thermal energy facilities impact on ecosystem services for the production of oxygen in the area of their direct influence in urban settlements. A significant share of thermal power plants in atmospheric pollution indicators was noted. Types of terrestrial ecosystems with the greatest potential for oxygen production have been identified. Based on the calculations made by the Index O (oxygen production index), the differentiation of the impact of TPPs on the environmental service of oxygen production by local terrestrial ecosystems is detailed by 3 load groups: high, medium and optimal. At the same time, it is necessary to consider not only the local capacity of terrestrial ecosystems, but also the regional potential, as well as the geographical location of energy facilities in the Russian Federation and their capacity. The presence of a large number of forests in the Asian part of the country allows for increased buffering of the ecosystem service of oxygen production in the zone of direct influence of the majority of thermal energy facilities located there. Keywords: Environmental assessment · Oxygen · Thermal power plants · Energy · Ecosystem services · Ecosystem

1 Introduction Since the end of the XIX century, there has been a growth of cities and an increase in the population. This process entails qualitative changes in the natural environment and increasing the anthropogenic load on urban ecosystems. As the population increases in urban settlements, electricity production and consumption increase simultaneously. The correlation between urbanization and electricity production in Russia is r = 0,91 [1]. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 V. Vasenev et al. (Eds.): SSC 2020, SPRINGERGEOGR, pp. 272–282, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9_26

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In Russia in 1950, less than half of the population lived in cities (45%), and in 2010 urbanization was already 73,7%. the UN predicts further growth of urbanization in Russia in 2030 – 77,6%; (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Growth rates of urban settlements by size class from 2018–2030 (according to Department of Economic and Social Affairs United Nation forecast)

Humanity forms an urban type of ecosystem that has unique properties and is an interdisciplinary object of research. From an ecological point of view, it is interesting to study the problems of urban settlements sustainable development in the context of interaction between the city-energy-nature. Terrestrial ecosystems of Russia have a significant natural resource potential for oxygen production, what is actually an ecosystem service, which is used in the combustion of fuel in the production of heat and electricity at thermal power plants (TPPs). The ability of terrestrial ecosystems to produce oxygen depends on the physicalgeographical and climatic characteristics of the territory, as well as on their condition and level of degradation [2]. Therefore, the conservation and restoration of terrestrial ecosystems with a high oxygen production potential seems to be an important task in developing the concept of ecosystem services valuation. One of the main threats to terrestrial ecosystems is anthropogenic disturbance of natural ecosystems associated with the extraction of fuel and energy minerals and production activities of thermal power facilities [3]. All components of the natural environment – land, subsurface, soil, surface and underground water, atmospheric air, vegetation, and animal life are subject to negative impact from the fuel and energy complex activities. The size of the Russian Federation determines the key importance of taking into account the spatial scale of ecosystem services and zoning of the country’s territory [4]. TPP facilities play crucial importance in the socio-economic development of urban settlements in Russia. Pollutant emissions resulting from their production activities have a negative impact on terrestrial ecosystems. According to the observations of the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental monitoring [5] and Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia [6] in the largest cities of the country there is an excess of permissible concentration for the harmful substances in the atmosphere. Despite the fact

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that emissions of pollutants from stationary sources have a general tendency to decrease (Fig. 2), the share of thermal power plants in regional indicators of atmospheric pollution SO2 , NOX and CO2 remains significant.

Fig. 2. Emissions of common air polluting substances emanating from stationary sources, thousand tons from 1991–2018 (according to Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia)

In 2015, in Paris during the climate conference, the Paris Agreement was adopted as part of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which regulates measures to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since 2020. The key provisions of the agreement signed by Russia on April 22, 2016 are to regulate the growth of the global average temperature within 2°C over pre-industrial levels and to balance greenhouse gas emissions from human industrial activities, to a level that ecosystems can naturally process [7]. Dynamics of installed capacity of thermal power plants and electricity production in Russia shows that since 2014 there has been a steady decline in electricity production while the installed capacity continues to increase (Fig. 3). At the end of 2018, Russian thermal power plants generated 716 billion kWh of electricity, which is 64% of the total electricity production in Russia. According to the Federal State Statistics Service, the total installed capacity of TPPs in 2019 is 190 GW or 70% of the total installed capacity of Russian power plants. Therefore, when new capacities are put into operation, it is possible to gradually modernize energy facilities with outdated technologies and unreasonably high of environmental impact. When determining the priority of equipment modernization or the elimination of thermal power plants, it is proposed to take into account the ratio of the anthropogenic load exerted by them on local ecosystems and the ability of the terrestrial ecosystems to neutralize the negative impact [8].

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Fig. 3. The dynamics of the specific gravity of capacity and electricity production in Russia at TPPs for the period 1990–2018 (according to the environmental protection report of the Russian Federation in 2018)

The purpose of the study is to conduct an environmental assessment of thermal energy facilities activities Impact on ecosystem services for the production of oxygen in urban settlements. The scientific direction of this research is due to the growing need for systematic analysis covering the ecosystem diversity of the country’s territory for strategic and territorial planning, rational use of natural resources and environmental protection. As well as the need to implement the fundamentals of the state policy in the field of environmental development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030 and implement the provisions of the energy security Doctrine of the Russian Federation.

2 Materials and Methods The studies were conducted on the analysis of reports of energy generating companies of the Russian Federation data of 165 TPPs with a total installed electric capacity is about 87 GW and an annual electricity production is about 380 billion kWh, which makes up more than half of all electricity generated at TPPs. Thermal power plants form the basis of Russia’s generating capacity and are of strategic importance in the socio-economic development of the Russian Federation’s regions. These features are the basis for the Russian Federation energy development. Energy facilities are located in urban settlements with ecosystems characterized by different ecological potential, which differentiates the operating conditions of energy facilities and the stability of local ecosystems to anthropogenic impact. The ecosystem diversity of Russia is due to its location in four climatic zones: Arctic, subarctic, temperate and subtropical, and in various natural zones: from Arctic deserts to steppes and semi-deserts.

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The typification of terrestrial ecosystems based on a landscape-ecological approach is an important task of territorial planning in the field of energy, aimed at organizing an efficient and environmentally friendly energy supply infrastructure and the rational use of ecosystem services. To calculate the index of thermal energy facilities impact on ecosystem services for the oxygen production in urban settlements (index O), the indicators of ecosystem services for oxygen production were evaluated. We used the classification and diagram of terrestrial ecosystems from the Ecological Atlas of Russia edited by N.S. Kasimov and V.S. Tikunov (2017), classification and structure of soil cover from the «National Atlas of Soils of the Russian Federation» edited by G.V. Dobrovolsky and S.A. Shoba (2011) [9]. Natural and climatic conditions form the oxygen-producing abilities of terrestrial ecosystems. To assess them, we used the phytomass stock index in kg/m2 (Bo) and V.A. Gutnikov calculations for the period recommended by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) for the climate norm (1961–1990) [10, 11]. Based on official data from Rosstat, the cluster analysis method was applied for the following indicators in the context of TPP: electric capacity, MW; annual electricity production, million kWh; phytomass stock index, kg/m2 (Bo); nitrogen oxide emissions, tons; sulfur dioxide emissions, tons; carbon oxide emissions, tons; index O. Oxygen «produced» by terrestrial ecosystems is calculated according to formula (1) proposed by the authors, based on the conversion factor: Onat = (Bo ∗ 1, 45) ∗ S

(1)

where: O nat - oxygen «produced» ; Bo - phytomass stock, kg/m2 S - is the area of the used TPPs of local terrestrial ecosystems, ha; 1,45 - coefficient for converting phytomass reserves to oxygen. To calculate the required oxygen consumption during fuel combustion at TPPs, the data on the emissions of the following pollutants were used: SO2 , NO2 , CO2 , which are converted by the formula (2) proposed by the authors into oxygen in accordance with the percentage ratios of molar masses: Oreq = ((SO2 ∗ 0, 5) + (NO2 ∗ 0, 6956) + (CO2 ∗ 0, 7272))

(2)

where: O req - the required oxygen for the electricity production, tons per year; SO2 ; NO2 ; CO2 - emissions of pollutants, tons per year; 0,5; 06956; 0,7272 - mass fraction of oxygen; The index of thermal energy facilities impact on ecosystem services for the oxygen production in urban settlements (index O) is calculated according to the formula (3) proposed by the authors: index Oxygen =

O req O nat

(3)

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3 Results It is important to assess the level of anthropogenic impact of TPPs on their influence zone, represented by different types of ecosystems, as well as the amount of oxygen required for fuel combustion [12]. 98 types of ecosystems and 50 soil types were identified in which the studied thermal power facilities are located. According to the National Atlas of soils of the Russian Federation the most productive are ecosystems located in the southern part of the country (Fig. 4). At the same time, the largest number of TPP facilities and the highest level of anthropogenic load are concentrated in the European part of the territory [13].

Fig. 4. Soil map of the Russian Federation, 1:2.5 M scale (1988).

The parameters of the «produced» oxygen O (nat), the «required» oxygen O (req) and the index of thermal energy facilities impact on ecosystem services for the oxygen production in urban settlements (index O) are calculated. The results of calculating the index Oxygen for 30 TPPs showed a very wide range of its change in the considered series of soils from 84,543 for Haplic Cambisols Dystric to 0,715 for Endosalic Geysols Calcaric (Table 1), depending on the type of TPP and the area of ecosystems used. The ranking of the studied TPP objects allows us to distinguish 3 groups among them: with a high, medium and optimal load on local ecosystems. The high load of thermal power plants on local terrestrial ecosystems allows us to judge the index O values above 25. The average load is typical for values from 1 to 24, the optimal load is less than 1. To classify power plants according to the degree of difference in their impact on ecosystem services for the oxygen production in the zone of TPP impact, a hierarchical cluster analysis was performed (Fig. 5).

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Table 1. Environmental assessment of TPPs on the impact on the ecosystem service of oxygen production №

Station

Area, ha

Soil type (WRB, 2006)

O (nat)

O (req)

Index oxygen

High Load 1

Yakutskaya GRES

2

Murmansk TPP

15,71

31-2

69,7

5894,5

84,5

5,59

12-1

211,8

7137,6

33,6

4-2

217,8

4528,1

20,7

Medium Load 3

Vorkutinskaya TPP-1

7,52

4

Omsk TPP-5

69,91

18-1

1348,0

26839,7

19,9

5

Irkutsk TPP-1

14,17

30-1

460,5

7563,1

16,4

6

Vorkutinskaya TPP-2

23,69

4-2

685,9

10843,8

15,8

7

Ulan-Ude TPP-1

26,16

30-1

234,2

3519,1

15,0

8

Chita TPP-1

39,47

18-5

541,4

7994,8

14,7

9

Novo-Irkutsk TPP

60,22

20-1

1957,0

27181,7

13,8

10

Omsk TPP-4

50,10

18-1

966,2

10817,4

11,2

11

Irkutsk TPP-9

62,77

30-1

2040,2

22749,7

11,1

12

Irkutsk TPP-6

17,74

24-3

576,7

5879,8

10,1

13

West Siberian TPP

42,64

20-3

1182,2

11287,8

9,5

14

Severodvinsk TPP-1

23,28

7-5

1346,9

11737,6

8,7

15

Yakut TPP

7,78

31-2

34,5

292,8

8,4

16

Astrakhan TPP

9,00

10-3

29,0

235,3

8,1

17

Minusinskaya TTP

18

Komsomolskaya TTP-2

19 20 21 22

Optimum Load 116,54

4-2

1583,3

1534,5

0,9

40,58

18-1

2541,9

2429,1

0,9

Chita TPP-2

13,30

30-1

182,5

171,1

0,9

Nizhnekamsk TPP-1

129,00

4-2

8075,3

7534,7

0,9

Apatitskaya TPP

65,93

30-1

4350,0

3956,5

0,9

Saransk TPP-2

32,71

18-5

1463,5

1280,8

0,8

23

Khabarovsk TPP-1

45,18

20-1

5320,4

4607,3

0,8

24

Cherepovets GRES

226,75

18-1

21646,4

18024,9

0,8

25

Permskaya TPP-6

13,00

30-1

957,1

778,0

0,8

26

Ivanovo TPP-2

18,22

24-3

1360,9

1036,3

0,7

27

Krasnodar TPP

29,48

20-3

3037,2

2249,5

0,7

28

Izhevsk TPP-2

162,39

7-5

7058,0

5217,9

0,7

29

TPP-8 (Moscow)

12,35

31-2

1172,6

839,4

0,7

30

Izhevsk TPP-1

9,71

10-3

421,9

301,9

0,7

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Fig. 5. Cluster analysis of the energy facilities by the degree of difference in their impact on ecosystem services for the oxygen production in the zone of TPP impact

The classification analysis showed that thermal power plants were grouped according to the physical, geographical and climatic characteristics of the territory, which in turn determine the stability of ecosystems to anthropogenic impact, as well as form the ability to self-clean. Power plants with the highest impact on ecosystem services for the oxygen production are located in the lower part of the dendrogram. The following power plants are grouped into the most characteristic clusters: – Irkutsk TPP-1 and Irkutsk TPP-6 (fuel: coal, territorial proximity, year of commissioning); – Irkutsk TPP-9 and Novo-Irkutsk TPP (fuel: coal, territorial proximity); – Khabarovsk TPP-1 and Chita TPP-1 (fuel: coal, territorial proximity); – Perm TPP-6 and Saransk TPP-2 (fuel: natural gas, territorial proximity); – Izhevsk TPP-1 and Ivanovo TPP-2 (similar indicators of impact on ecosystem services for the oxygen production; – Vorkutinskaya TPP-2 and Severodvinsk TPP-1(fuel: coal, year of commissioning).

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Separately, the Yakutskaya GRES stands out, which has the highest index Oxygen indicators among all. The classification is based on the territorial principle of the thermal power plants location, taking into account the properties of ecosystems. Moreover, the impact of TPP on ecosystem services for the oxygen production in the influence zone of TPP may be higher than the threshold of terrestrial ecosystems self-restoration, which will lead to their degradation. However, due to the nearby compensating forest territories, the load can be partially or completely neutralized [14, 15]. The highest values of the index O are found in the Yakutskaya GRES (85,5) and Murmansk TPP (33,6). Yakutskaya GRES is located in the taiga mid-Siberian ecosystems that are characterized by spruce forests, as well as areas of grass-sedge meadows and low-lying swamps. The dominant soil type is Haplic Cambisols Dystric (31-2 WRB, 2006). In the area of the Yakutskaya GRES, the required oxygen consumption is 85 times higher than the ability of local terrestrial ecosystems to produce oxygen. At the same time, the general extremeness of the climate and the afforestation of neighboring territories suggests that it is possible to completely compensate for the anthropogenic load due to forest ecosystems in the region where TPPs are located. Murmansk TPP is located in forest-tundra ecosystems, which are characterized by low-growing shrubby vegetation with a predominance of moss and sedge. In addition, limited daylight hours and a small number of light days per year generally negatively affect the oxygen-producing properties of such ecosystems. The average stock of phytomass is 3 kg/m2 . The predominant soil type is Umbric Albeluvisols Abruptic (12-1 WRB, 2006), which is due to an anthropogenic factor (plowing). In terms of morphology and physical and chemical properties, sod-podzolic soils are similar to residual carbonate soils. These types of ecosystems have a low potential for oxygen production [16]. In General, coal-fired thermal power plants of average capacity (up to 1000 MW) located in large cities of the Siberian and far Eastern Federal districts have the highest values of the index. One of the lowest values of the index O was noted for Izhevsk TPP-1 (0,715). It is located in broad-Leaved forest types of ecosystems, which are characterized by grassgrass meadows, pine and broad-leaved forests with an admixture of small-leaved species, areas of grass swamps and agricultural land. The average stock of phytomass is 29 kg/m2 . The facilities with the lowest index O are represented mainly by gas power plants that are in operation recently and are mainly located in the North-West and Central Federal Districts.

4 Conclusion A comparative environmental assessment of the thermal energy facilities activities made it possible to differentiate them by the level of impact on the ecosystem service for the production of oxygen in different types of terrestrial ecosystems, which can be taken into account when developing and adjusting regional energy strategies and social development programs of the urban settlements in Russian Federation.

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The index of anthropogenic impact of thermal power plants on the ecosystem service for oxygen production (index O), proposed and tested in this work, made it possible to differentiate in detail the degree of impact of thermal power plants on local ecosystems with the identification of 3 load groups: high, medium, and optimal. Substantial forest cover of the country allows to increase the buffer capacity of terrestrial ecosystems in the zone of TPP influence, therefore, it is necessary to take into account not only the local, but also the regional potential capacity of terrestrial ecosystems, as well as the geographical location of energy facilities in the urban settlements. Environmental monitoring systems in urban settlements should take into account such factors as: the geochemical cycle of pollutants in the urban environment, the accumulation of pollutants in urban landscapes and anthropogenic impact of thermal power plants on the ecosystem service of oxygen production. Terrestrial ecosystems used by energy facilities are underestimated in terms of their ability to self-restoration. Conservation of ecosystem and biological diversity plays an important role in determining Russia’s urban settlements sustainable development policy [16]. To ensure a high level of environmental health and well-being of the population in urban settlements, further research is needed to assess the impact of TPP facilities on ecosystem services provided by terrestrial ecosystems.

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Ecological Assessment of Rapeseed Cultivation to Improve Chemically Degraded Urban Albic Luvisol Irina V. Andreeva1(B) , Miljan Samardži´c2 , and Ivan Ivanovich Vasenev1 1 Department of Ecology, Russian State Agrarian University, Moscow, Russian Federation

[email protected] 2 Institute for Lowland Forestry and Environment, Novi Sad, Serbia

Abstract. Urban ecosystems, compared to natural, are often characterised with the presence of plots with high content of different heavy metals. In this regard, the complex continuous monitoring of the dynamics of on-going changes in urban ecosystems against the background of natural processes is of enormous importance. The principal indicators of the urban soil environmental sustainability include its respiration ones and balance of microbial carbon that could be sensitive to the increased content of heavy metals too. Experiments were conducted to determine the phytoremediation potential of spring rapeseed plants cultivated on the Albic Luvisol artificially contaminated with zinc and nickel in the dose range of 400–800 and 30–60 mg kg−1 of soil respectively. The aim of the study was a comprehensive environmental assessment of biological productivity and zinc and nickel uptake by the spring rapeseed plants with determination of eco-physiological indicators of its microbial community state and metal accumulation indices. The experimental data showed, that the rapeseed plants were able to overcome heavy metal-induced toxicity and accumulate zinc and nickel in the aboveground part of the plants with enrichment factor (EF) 0,9–4,8 and 2,0–3,4 respectively. The microbial activity of Albic Luvisol at the beginning of vegetation had strong positive correlation with the rapeseed plants cultivation on the presence of toxic elements in the soil. Keywords: Urban soils · Soil quality · Heavy metals · Zinc · Nickel · Basal respiration · Microbial carbon · Microbial metabolic coefficient · Russia

1 Introduction The anthropogenic impact on the processes of soil degradation at the present is comparable to the geological ones, especially in areas with a high population density and intensive land management. Soil pollution, as a consequence of the industrial and transport activity is presenting a growing threat in urban areas. Areas with technological emissions and waste around industrial complexes in Russia are covering 18 million hectares, according to aerospace surveys [12]. The largest contribution to pollution is made by enterprises of metallurgy, chemical and petrochemical industry. The area contaminated with heavy © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 V. Vasenev et al. (Eds.): SSC 2020, SPRINGERGEOGR, pp. 283–291, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9_27

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metals and fluorine reaches 3,6 million hectares, including 0,25 million hectares with a high degree of pollution. The most significant pollution is observed around a number of industrial cities in the center of the European part of Russia, the Kola Peninsula, the Southern Urals, Western and Southern Siberia, Far East which exceeds natural background levels of heavy metals (HM) by 4-10 times or more. Soil pollution inhibits many soil-forming processes, sharply reduces the productivity of plant community, leads to the accumulation of toxicants in plants and through feed and food chain directly or indirectly in animals and humans. Also, the buffer capacity of soil is weakened in these conditions. It is evident that the problem of landscape and restoration of productivity of disturbed lands, their health, economic and aesthetic value is very acute. The choice of a method for the rehabilitation of soils contaminated with heavy metals depends on soil type and features, the nature and level of contamination etc. In case of moderately contaminated soils, restoration of which does not require large-scale technical recultivation, phytoremediation is considered as the most subtle method for saving soil original structure and properties due to environmentally friendly restoration of ecosystem functions. The success of this method is determined by the proper selection of plants grown in combination with different agricultural practices. Plants that are supposed to be used for heavy metals extraction from the polluted soils should be capable to accumulate large aboveground biomass and concentrate HM in it without toxicity symptoms with a biological absorption coefficient of more than 1.0. The previous research shown potentially significant remediation potential of rapeseed in case of soils artificially contaminated with heavy metals, taking into account the soilimproving and phytosanitary properties of this crop [9, 14]. It makes sense to take into account the eco-physiological indicators of soil environmental functions too, including the soil microbial carbon balance. Well-known [2, 13, 15] sensitivity to various human-made impacts by such soil microbial community indicators as basal respiration (BR) and substrate-induced respiration (SIR), carbon of microbial biomass (Cmic ) and microbial metabolic coefficient (qCO2 ) allows to apply them as eco-physiological indicators of contaminated soil microbial community functioning to identify the potential efficiency of disturbed soils’ rehabilitation. The purpose of this study was a comprehensive environmental assessment of biological productivity and zinc and nickel uptake by the spring rapeseed plants under conditions of metal-spiked Albic Luvisol with determination of eco-physiological indicators of its microbial community state and metal accumulation indices.

2 Materials and Methods The experiment has been done with an arable layer of Albic Luvisol (according to WRB classification) from the territory of the Field Experimental Station of the Russian State Agrarian University – Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy. The investigated arable layer of Albic Luvisol has properties typical for regularly limed Luvisols with the following agrochemical characteristics: pHKCl – 7,1, humus content (by Tyurin method) – 2,4%, hydrolytic acidity – 4,1 meq kg−1 , Ntotal – 0,12%, P2 O5mobil. – 368 mg kg−1 , K2 O – 241 mg kg−1 , Zn and Ni (total content) – 41,4 and 13,3 mg kg−1 , respectively. Background fertilizers were applied in the form of Nitrophoska® with the ratio of NPK

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16:16:16 at the rate of 4,6 g per vessel. The scheme of the experiment included the following variants: 1) Control without HM with the rapeseed cultivation; 2) Control without HM and rapeseed cultivation; 3) Zn 400 plus Ni 30 mg kg−1 (Case 1) with the rapeseed cultivation; 4) Zn 400 plus Ni 30 mg kg−1 (Case 1) without rapeseed cultivation; 5) Zn 800 plus Ni 60 mg kg−1 (Case 2) with the rapeseed cultivation; 6) Zn 800 plus Ni 60 mg kg−1 (Case 2) without rapeseed cultivation. Contaminated soil was incubated during 30 days before the sowing of the plants. Soil contamination was simulated by complex application of zinc and nickel in form of ZnSO4 • 7H2 O and NiSO4 • 7H2 O solutions. The original integrated pollution index Zc (according to the RF environmental legislation) was 9,4 (acceptable category of soil contamination) in case 1 and 19,8 (moderately dangerous category of soil contamination) in case 2. Zc was calculated as follows: Zc = Kc − (n − 1), where Kc – concentration coefficients (Kc = C/Cb , where C – metal concentration in polluted soil; Cb – regional background metal concentration in the soil), n - number of elements [10]. The experiment was conducted in a fourfold repetition with vessels filled with 6 kg of contaminated soil and planted rapeseed variety “Petranova” (seven plants per vessel). The number of vessels was increased taking into account those ones that were supposed to be removed during the flowering stage. After reaching the flowering stage or the fully ripe stage, the plants were cut off, the seeds, pods, stems, and leaves were separated, the roots were washed from the soil. The plant biomass was dried at 60 °C until a constant air-dry mass was reached and weighed. The content of heavy metals in plant samples was determined on an Agilent 240FS Series AA atomic adsorption spectrophotometer after their destruction using a microwave sample preparation system. Soil respiration was measured in the first and second half of the rapeseed growing season (13th and 66th days after sowing date). Soil has been sampled from each vessel, dried for 1 to 2 days at room temperature, and sieved (mesh diameter 1 mm). The subsamples were weighed to 2 g, placed in 15 ml vials and moistened with distilled water up to 60% of the total moisture capacity. Substrate-induced respiration (SIR) of the soil was assessed by the rate of initial maximum respiration of microorganisms in soil samples with 0,2 ml of 7,5% solution of glucose after their incubation during 3 h in the hermetically closed vials at 22 °C. After incubation, air sample was taken from the vial and analysed by gas chromatograph to obtain SIR, expressed in µl CO2 g−1 h−1 . Basal respiration was measured similarly by the rate of CO2 emission from the 2 g soil sample, placed in 15 ml vials and moistened up to 60% of the total moisture capacity) after 24 h of its incubation with 0,2 ml distilled water at the temperature of 22 °C. Measurements of SIR and BR were performed in fivefold repetition, and received results were calculated on dry soil and expressed as an average ± standard deviation. Carbon of microbial biomass was calculated by formula:     Cmic µg CO2 g−1 of the soil = SIR µl CO2 g −1 of the soil h−1 × 40, 04 + 0, 37 Microbial metabolic coefficient qCO2 was calculated as ratio between basal respiration rate and carbon of microbial biomass: BR/Cmic = qCO2 (µg CO2 − C mg−1 Cmic h−1 ).

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Statistical data processing was performed using basic statistics of the Microsoft Excel.

3 Results and Discussion The plant species used for phytoremediation of soils contaminated with heavy metals must have a certain level of tolerance to an excess of HM in their environment. In addition, the maximum possible accumulation of biomass is another important criterion for the phytoremediator effectiveness. To better understand the tolerance level of the studied variety of spring rapeseed, the HM doses were selected in ranges able to result in a significant decrease in the rapeseed biomass. However, despite the expressed manifestations of toxicity in variants with high doses of metals at the early ontogenesis stages, rapeseed plants were able to overcome stress by the end of the growing season without statistically significant decrease in the aboveground vegetative mass (Table 1). This indicates a relatively high level of rapeseed tolerance to analyzed zinc and nickel contamination which was significantly higher than their maximum allowable concentrations in the RF. A similar conclusion has been already done after experiment with a 100% survival rate of rapeseed seedlings on soil with high level of zinc contamination [5]. Table 1. Spring rapeseed air-dry biomass accumulation, g per vessel Variants Seeds

Pods

Inflorescences Stems

Leaves

Roots

Total biomass

Flowering stage* Control –

–

8,3 ± 1,2

13,2 ± 0,9 11,0 ± 1,4 3,7 ± 0,3 36,2

Zn400 – + Ni30

–

4,1 ± 1,3

15,5 ± 1,5 12,1 ± 1,2 3,3 ± 0,5 35,0

Zn800 – + Ni60

–

1,3 ± 0,4

11,7 ± 1,6 11,8 ± 1,0 2,5 ± 0,4 27,3

Fully ripe stage* Control 12,0 ± 0,9 12,2 ± 1,4 –

17,5 ± 1,8

Zn400 10,6 ± 1,3 12,1 ± 1,9 – + Ni30

18,8 ± 2,6 10,4 ± 1,5 3,5 ± 0,4 55,4

Zn800 8,6 ± 0,8 + Ni60

17,2 ± 1,0

12,0 ± 1,1 –

9,1 ± 0,9 3,3 ± 0,3 54,1

9,1 ± 0,6 3,9 ± 0,5 50,8

* According to the extended BBCH-scale

Signs of visible damage to rapeseed plants disappeared after the 56 days of their development, and then their biomass increased faster in the variants with soil contamination than in the control variant (Table 1). The biomass of the generative organs of rapeseed, both in the flowering stage and in the fully ripe stage, turned out to be the most sensitive indicator to the presence of the given heavy metals in the growing environment in comparison with the vegetative

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organs. Thus, in the flowering stage, the accumulation of inflorescence biomass in the Zn400 + Ni30 and Zn800 + Ni60 variants was, respectively, 2,0 and 6,4 times lower than in the control variant (Table 1), but by the time of fully ripeness, the differences in the accumulation of the of generative organs’ biomass between the control variant and the variants with the exogenous zinc and nickel were significantly lowered. For example, the mass of seeds in the variant with double dose of zinc and nickel was decreased by only 1,4 times compared to the control, and the differences between the accumulation of the mass of seeds in the variant with single dose and control showed no statistical significance. The analysis of the elements of the yield structure showed that the decrease in the biomass of seeds per plant in the variant with double dose of zinc and nickel occurred mainly due to a decrease in the number of seeds per plant, while the mass of 1000 seeds remained at the level of the control variant (data not shown). The stability of the mass of 1000 seeds parameter, which was noted earlier on other varieties of spring rapeseed, is probably due to the fact that this is an indicator of the quality of the genetic material, which plants under the influence of a stress factor tend to preserve, compensating for it by the deterioration of other economically valuable traits, for example, a decrease in the number of seeds per plant. Previously, the spring rapeseed’s variety specficity in relation to the accumulation of biomass in conditions of soil contamination with heavy metals was identified, which must be taken into account when using this crop in technologies for improving chemically degraded industrial urban soils [4]. Double dose of zinc and nickel in the soil resulted in increase their content in seeds, stems and leaves by 5,0–5,9 and 2,7–5,0 times, respectively, as compared to the control variant (Table 2). Their total uptake was statistically obviously increased in comparison with single dose but the differences are only +19% for Zn and +14% for Ni that show the limited potential of rapeseed phytoremediation in case of the higher level of HM contamination. The largest proportion of bio-accumulated zinc was concentrated in seeds and stems: 31% and 36% of the total uptake, respectively. The nickel uptake by aboveground rapeseed organs was relatively uniform. In the control variant, the highest zinc uptake was obtained by seeds (3,3 mg vessel−1 ). This fact confirms the available data that the generative organs of plants and metabolic centers actively accumulate zinc due to the exceptional role that this element plays in the reproductive function and metabolic reactions in plants. Seeds continued to accumulate zinc even at a high level of contamination; its uptake in variant with high doses of metals increased 3,6 times compared with the control variant and reached a level of 11,97 mg vessel−1 . In general, the zinc accumulation by the plants was 4,3–5,3 times higher than nickel accumulation, depending on the variant. Most likely, this is due to the fact that the need for nickel is confirmed only in a limited number of plant species (for example, legumes), since the nickel-containing enzyme urease plays an important role in their nitrogen metabolism. For assessment the plant potential as phytoremediator of soils contaminated by heavy metals, one takes into account HM mobility in the “soil – plant” and “roots – shoots” systems. Plants are better phytoremediators if the contaminant removed from the contaminated land plot in phytoextraction technologies is accumulated in the aboveground part of the plant. In our experiment, the enrichment factor (EF) of zinc and nickel which calculated

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Table 2. Zinc and nickel content (mg kg−1 air-dry biomass, numerator) and uptake (mg per vessel, denominator) in rapeseed plant organs Variants Seeds

Pods

Stems

Leaves

Roots

Total uptake

Zinc Control

275,0 ± 36,6 3,30

209,1 ± 32,5 162,0 ± 29,4 141,2 ± 27,6 2,55 2,84 1,28

184,5 ± 31,8 10,58 0,61

Zn400 + Ni30

891,7 ± 86,8 9,45

274,7 ± 40,3 629,4 ± 72,2 663,6 ± 77,3 3,32 11,83 6,90

403,7 ± 54,7 32,91 1,41

Zn800 1392,0 ± 113,4 290,0 ± 34,5 813,0 ± 98,9 832,0 ± 105,6 554,9 ± 74,7 39,16 + Ni60 11,97 3,48 13,98 7,57 2,16 Nickel Control

51,3 ± 6,7 0,62

Zn400 + Ni30 Zn800 + Ni60

52,7 ± 17,7 0,64

32,2 ± 7,9 0,56

48,4 ± 13,9 0,44

65,8 ± 19,4 0,22

2,48

105,4 ± 17,9 1,12

123,2 ± 24,0 109,6 ± 18,7 135,9 ± 18,4 1,49 2,06 1,41

127,1 ± 16,4 0,44

6,52

138,1 ± 26,5 1,19

165,4 ± 22,1 130,1 ± 12,5 163,2 ± 27,4 1,98 2,24 1,49

139,8 ± 26,6 0,55

7,45

as the ratio plant shoot concentration to contaminated soil concentration essentially decreased after increasing their content in the soil: 4,8 → 1,4 → 0,9 for zinc, and 3,4 → 2,7 → 2,0 for nickel, respectively, in set from control to double dose. The translocation factor (TF) which is defined as the ratio of the metal concentration in the shoots tissues to that in the roots tissues for zinc varied in the range of 1,1–1,5, and for nickel – 0,7–1,1, depending on the variant, so both elements were actively absorbed by the rapeseed roots, more or less actively transported to the aboveground part and distributed there, including generative organs. For the purpose of expression the exogenous metal transfer it is suggested to use the apparent bioaccumulation coefficient (CAB), which is the ratio of the difference between accumulation in seeds produced on the contaminated and non-contaminated soil, to the brought quantity of heavy metals [7]. The CAB values calculated in this way for zinc amounted to 1,8 – 6,6 and for nickel – 3,0–6,3, depending on the variant, which indicates their high mobility in spring rapeseed plants. These data are consistent with the findings presented in [7], the authors of which studied chromium, mercury, lead, cadmium, copper, zinc and nickel translocation from HM-rich urban sludge into the seeds. Zinc and nickel are classified as the most easily transported elements into the rapeseed seeds ahead of cadmium and copper, which are also considered relatively mobile of the all of the studied metals. Thus, taking into account the rapeseed plant tolerance to high Zn and Ni content in the soil and the ability to accumulate these metals in the shoots one can considered rapeseed as enough effective phytoremediator for zinc and nickel. Another important factor in remediation technologies is the soil microbial community state, analyzed through soil basal respiration (BR) and substrate induced respiration

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(SIR) plus their assessment with carbon of microbial biomass (Cmic ) and microbial metabolic coefficient (qCO2 ) calculation (Table 3). Table 3. Impact of spring rapeseed and Albic Luvisol contamination by Zn and Ni on soil basal respiration (BR), substrate induced respiration (SIR), carbon of microbial biomass (Cmic ), and microbial metabolic coefficient (qCO2 ). Variants

BR*

SIR*

Cmic *

qCO2 *

The first selection (the start of the vegetation, ten days after germination) Without rapeseed plants

With rapeseed plants

Control

0,71 ± 0,15

3,20 ± 0,88

129 ± 25

5,91 ± 1,95

Zn400 + Ni30

0,77 ± 0,14

3,22 ± 0,32

129 ± 13

6,18 ± 1,55

Zn800 + Ni60

0,41 ± 0,06

2,30 ± 0,53

92 ± 11

5,55 ± 1,09

Control

0,38 ± 0,09

5,64 ± 1,36

211 ± 80

1,91 ± 0,71

Zn400 + Ni30

0,30 ± 0,06

7,93 ± 0,65

317 ± 26

0,93 ± 0,24

Zn800 + Ni60

0,31 ± 0,05

5,96 ± 0,60

239 ± 25

1,30 ± 0,19

The second selection (middle of the vegetation) Without rapeseed plants

With rapeseed plants

Control

1,19 ± 0,06

17,78 ± 2,91

712 ± 117

2,12 ± 0,25

Zn400 + Ni30

0,87 ± 0,07

14,40 ± 1,75

577 ± 70

1,54 ± 0,32

Zn800 + Ni60

0,77 ± 0,09

18,21 ± 3,28

730 ± 59

1,10 ± 0,10

Control

1,34 ± 0,12

20,19 ± 3,93

809 ± 157

1,31 ± 0,18

Zn400 + Ni30

1,20 ± 0,06

15,48 ± 3,60

620 ± 63

1,89 ± 0,47

Zn800 + Ni60

0,96 ± 0,06

15,83 ± 3,11

634 ± 124

2,62 ± 0,60

* - µl CO2 g−1 of the soil h−1 (BR and SIR), µg CO2 g−1 of the soil (Cmic ), µg CO2 - C mg−1 C mic h−1 (qCO2 )

Soil basal respiration and substrate induced respiration are closely related to the total biological activity of soil and is often used as integral index of their environmental quality and health in case of different level of human impacts [2, 3, 6, 8, 15]. At the same time the soil basal respiration depends of the nutrients and soluble organic C availability for microorganisms that usually becomes limiting factor for their development as one can see at the start of rapeseed plants development in our experiment (Table 3) when soil microorganisms meet sharp competition with first roots of the rapeseed and incubated soil samples have limited content of the available nutrients. At the middle of the vegetation the rapeseed roots already produce enough supply of the organic excretion to stimulate microorganisms activity with soil nutrients transformation into forms available for roots and microbes, and soil basal respiration becomes higher in the experiment with rapeseed plants. There were obvious seasonal dynamics of the soil basal respiration and substrate induced respiration in frame of the experiment with 2–5-time increasing in case of substrate induced respiration (Table 3). At the beginning of the vegetation season there are statistically significant differences in the BR and SIR between variants with and without rapeseed plants. Lower values of the BR in variants with rapeseed plants could

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be consequences of their sharp competition with microorganisms for available nutrients. In case of variants with additional glucose support the soil substrate induced respiration is already in 2–3 times higher with rapeseed plants. Generally, at the initial stage of the experiment, the presence of rapeseed plants in the vessels obviously promoted the Albic Luvisol microbiota development and smoothed out the negative impact of the introduced toxicants on it. In the second half of the growing season the SIR values increased significantly in all variants of the experiment: by 2–8 times compared to the beginning of the vegetation season. Carbon of microbial biomass is usually considered as a significant ecological and physiological indicator that reflects the current state of soil organic carbon [1, 11, 13]. data obtained during the beginning of the vegetation season showed that the Cmic in the variants with rapeseed was in 1,6–2,6 times higher than in the variants without plants, the differences between variants were not so obvious in the second half of the growing period. It is necessary to point out significant increasing Cmic in all variants in the second half of the growing season compared to the data of the beginning of it due to mineralization rate seasonal increasing. The specific respiration rate of microbial biomass qCO2 , which is also called the microbial stress index, reflects the eco-physiological status of the soil microbial community and is an important indicator of the efficiency of substrate use [15]. When the soil system is stable, this indicator is usually reduced, while anthropogenic impacts lead to qCO2 values to increase. The obtained data generally confirmed these regularities especially obvious in case of the variants with rapeseed plants in the second half of the growing period. The calculated values of the microbial respiration coefficient (QR), the ratio of the absolute value of BR to SIR indicate the increased stability of the soil microbial community in the variants without plants at the beginning of the vegetation season (0,18 – 0,24) with its following improvement in the second half of the season (dominated QR < 0,1).

4 Conclusion The experimental data on Albic Luvisol artificially contaminated with zinc and nickel (the dose range of 400–800 and 30–60 mg kg−1 of soil respectively) demonstrated high tolerance of spring rapeseed plants to a moderately dangerous category of multicomponent soil contamination, the ability of plants to accumulation of zinc and nickel with enrichment factor (EF) 0,9–4,8 and 2,0–3,4 respectively, high mobility of zinc and nickel in spring rapeseed plants and ability to accumulate Zn and Ni preferentially in the aboveground part of plants including seeds. Comparison of the soil respiration activity data between variants with rapeseed and non-plant ones after the first 13 days of the experiment (lower BR values and high SIR, increased carbon content of microbial biomass and low qCO2 values) indicates the rapeseed possible contribution to increased soil microbial community stability and tolerance to the studied toxic elements. Thus, the cultivation of spring rapeseed in contaminated urban industry soils can be an effective technique for its restoration and remediation.

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Cultural Ecosystem Services of Urban Green Spaces. How and What People Value in Urban Nature? Diana Dushkova1,3(B) , Maria Ignatieva2 , Anastasia Konstantinova3 , and Fengping Yang4 1 Department Urban and Environmental Sociology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental

Research - UFZ, Leipzig, Germany 2 School of Design, Department of Architecture, Landscape Architecture + Urban Design,

University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia [email protected] 3 Agrarian and Technological Institute, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia – RUDN University, Moscow, Russia [email protected], [email protected] 4 Department of Landscape Architecture, College of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Southwest University, Chongqing, China [email protected]

Abstract. This paper discusses the concept of cultural ecosystem services (CES) as a part of a broader framework of ecosystem services provided by urban green spaces. It is based on literature review and evaluation of results from two research projects of urban green spaces conducted in Russia (three public parks in Moscow) and China (six public parks in Xi’an). Both case studies conducted face-to-face interviews of park visitors and stakeholders (in Xi’an) and utilized questionnaires as well as observational studies of people’s activities within parks and their infrastructure. This paper aims to explore how urban dwellers perceive and value urban green spaces (parks) and what particular CES/benefits can be drawn as being most important. CES of urban green spaces (especially urban parks) are discussed from the following viewpoints: a) visitors’ perception and behaviour, b) indicators and methods adapted to CES research and c) identifying and understanding the ecosystem service capacity of an urban green space for attracting visitors of different cultural backgrounds. The results highlight the importance of CES which are provided by urban green spaces for quality of life and human health in cities, and the role of CES in raising environmental awareness and social cohesion and interaction. This paper also provides suggestions for a research framework and conceptual models that can be applied in future studies of CES and provides useful tools for indicators selection and assessment. Keywords: Cultural ecosystem services · Urban green spaces · Human health and well-being · Nature-based recreation · Landscape perception

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 V. Vasenev et al. (Eds.): SSC 2020, SPRINGERGEOGR, pp. 292–318, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9_28

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1 Introduction In an increasingly urbanized world, there is a need for critical evaluation of urban green spaces and development of a new generation of alternative sustainable solutions. This calls for a rethinking of the multifunctionality of urban green spaces and their compositional and structural diversity [1, 2]. While suggesting new ideas for replacing the conventional and mono-functional types of urban green spaces, we have to understand their values and needs for users in different social and physical conditions. It has already been recognized that high-quality planning, design, management, and multifunctional capacities of urban green infrastructure (UGI) are essential to support the existence of a diverse urban population [3–6]. However, to maintain and enhance the quality of UGI, a more in-depth knowledge of green spaces and their characteristics is paramount. Besides essential ecosystem services (such as air and water purification, wind and noise reduction, or microclimate-regulation), urban green spaces provide a wide range of cultural ecosystem services (CES) which are crucial for the well-being of urban dwellers. The presence of green spaces positively affects the health of a city’s inhabitants and provides benefits for physical (e.g. through the opportunity for physical activity) and mental health (e.g. ability to relax and stress reduction [7–11]). CES can be described as a product of the dynamic, complex, physical, or spiritual relationships between humans and our ecosystem, over time across all types of landscapes [12]. CES are defined as “the non-material benefits people obtain from an ecosystem through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experiences” [13]. Their contribution is not limited to physical and mental health but allows for the creation of a sense of place as well as fostering of social cohesion. Thus, CES are essential for the quality of life and regional identity. CES are directly experienced and appreciated by people in everyday life, and, unlike other services, cannot be replaced if degraded. With so many definitions, CES are the hardest to value, measure, and quantify [14]. Nevertheless, in contrast to other ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, flood mitigation, air cooling, or water purification, which require advanced scientific knowledge to be recorded, CES are directly experienced and intuitively understood by people who come into contact with nature [15]. According to Fish et al. [16], the idea of CES was designed to recognize the fact that ecosystems are a worthy resource of cultural value and significance, and enable people to understand the contributions ecosystems make to human mental, physical health, and cultural identity. CES can also help to find out how and what people perceive as an ecosystem (nature) value. In that sense, CES of urban green spaces is a result of the relationship between the structure of urban ecosystems (e.g. structural diversity of urban green space, the approach suggested by Voigt et al. [2]) and their functions, benefits, and values to society. CES helps to clearly link ecosystem services to a particular environment that people perceive and with which they interact [17]. Even research on CES is becoming a popular theme [18, 19], it is still underrepresented in literature especially for non-European and non-Anglo-American cities. The main goal of this paper is to analyse CES provided by urban green spaces using a range of literature sources (literature review). The paper also suggests a research framework that can be used in future studies of CES and provides useful tools for

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indicators selection and assessment. The other aim is to explore how urban dwellers identify the value of urban green spaces (parks) and what particular CES/benefits were perceived by respondents as most important. This paper is based on an analysis of research projects conducted in Russia (Moscow) and China (Xi’an). CES of urban green spaces (urban parks) are discussed from the following views: a) proposing a conceptual model for CES research and assessment process; b) using a particular set of indicators adapted to research goals and target groups that characterize and assess the cultural and social benefits of urban green spaces, c) assessing CES demand and flow as reflected in visitor perception and behaviour and d) identifying and understanding ecosystem service capacities of urban green spaces for attracting visitors.

2 Methodical Approach and Practical Application When studying CES in the local context, it is important to determine what categories of CES should be actually incorporated, exploring cultural means and connected values (Fig. 1). In order to highlight the non-material outputs from ecosystems that affect the psychological and physical state of people, CES aims to distinguish those values from others [20]. A variety of socio-ecological interactions have been placed under the CES category. This emphasizes the importance of CES for the well-being of humans, their use in personal environment behaviour and policy-making arenas, and their usefulness for examining wider socio-ecological relations [19, 21]. The importance of CES stems from its central role in the well-being of humans, contributing to positive effects on happiness and health [9, 22–24]. Thus, CES have become an important aspect in environmental decisionmaking on multiple scales, from international to local, creating a growing interest in CES and related research. CES can also motivate local land management decisions [12]. In contrast to biophysical landscape services, CES, or socio-cultural services can be specific to stakeholder, location, and time, which aggravates the validation of qualitative measurement, for example, landscape aesthetics and cultural heritage [20]. The conceptual framework (model) for the CES assessment suggested by us is based on the assessment of particular projects, and the analysis of recent related publications. These consists of five steps: preliminary ideas, conceptualization, data collection, CES calculation, and communication of CES indicators (Fig. 2). Firstly, we should identify and prioritize problems related to research objectives (CES outcomes, what and how CES should be measured) and realize important local parameters such as demographics, local context and backgrounds etc. as well as identify local policy related to CES (Step 1). Secondly, it is important to determine data sources for identifying the indicators and select methodical approach for CES assessment (conceptual model and set of indicators) (Step 2). Next step relates to data gathering based on surveys which collect information from a target groups of people about their opinions, perceptions, values, behaviours and knowledge on CES. The collection methods include questionnaires, face-to-face interviews, focus groups, and electronic (e-mail or website) surveys. Additional methods can include participatory observation, site protocols and other supporting data (Step 3). The obtained data will be calculated with help of a set of indicators revealed within Step 2. Indicators should be reviewed to determine their suitability, including standardising the data to common units and scales, and ensuring the methods used to collect the

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Fig. 1. Cultural ecosystem services and main attributes/values connected to them (authors’ conceptualization)

data are comparable (Step 4). Finally, identified and applied CES indicators can be seen as a communication tool to help different stakeholders and groups of people to understand complex issues of CES. Indicators therefore need to be presented and clearly interpreted for targeted audience. These indicators should be written in clear language and be graphically appealing. Then such indicators are ready to be used by different stakeholders (Step 5).

Fig. 2. The conceptual model for CES assessment process (Source: authors)

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It should be also noted that CES are always context-specific and must be adapted to a location and purpose. The individual perceptions of CES are often very qualitative and vary by nature. To avoid misinterpretation of the CES, transparent communication is important. The lack of standardized definitions and measurements of CES underlines the need for further research, especially when dealing with the incorporation of CES in decision-making processes. 2.1 Indicators for Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) Accounting of CES is a difficult process especially in a case of governmental documents (standardization of definitions and measurements). To identify the wide range of indicators related to CES research, a comprehensive literature review was conducted based on Google Scholar and Science Direct databases. The keywords “CES”, “CES evaluation methods”, “CES of urban green spaces” and “CES indicators” were used for searching publications. The most recent publications (2010–2020) were prioritized and included in the review process. There were 117 items related to these keywords, among them 82 publications were included in the final list of references. There were two main criteria for exclusion: non-urban areas and if the article did not address one of the main searching aspects (keywords). A review of publications related to accounting CES indicators revealed a wide-ranging variety of methods. It can be explained by diverse aims of the studies and surveys. Table 1 gives an overview of indicators applied to the assessment of CES. The most commonly used indicators refer to the categories of recreation and tourism as well as aesthetics and nature experience (to the scientific significance). Other indicators were related to the following categories: education and training; natural heritage/cultural significance; use for entertainment purposes; symbolic significance of nature; spiritual and religious significance of natural elements; the intrinsic value of nature (existence value) [1–61]. The value of nature as a legacy for future generations is rarely used. Following the idea of Hegetschweiler et al. [19], we categorized CES related to their supply (CES offered by ecosystems characterized by size, type, facilities, biodiversity, etc.) and demand (flow) for CES offered (comprised of individuals with varying ages, needs, values, etc.). Categories of demand factors can be grouped into (D1) visitor’s background and (D2) visitor’s perception/evaluation/assessment of features. Categories of supply factors can be divided into (S1) physical (objective, quantifiable) characteristics or elements such as man-made infrastructure and biotic features, (S2) the accessibility and/or availability of the site, (S3) the management character and (S4) factors such as aesthetics or satisfaction that mostly depend on individual perception. Analysing the studies presented in Table 1 and related publications (literature review), we can conclude that there are three main groups identified according to the supply-demand relation: • publications mainly analysing demand factors: preferences for green spaces, urban forests and parks or surveys of recreational use and activities, but paying little attention to green space physical aspects or only dealing with them in spatially non-explicit ways, e.g. using photos of landscape types (marked in Table 1 as D1, D2);

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Table 1. Indicators used to assess CES (based on the literature review) [1–81] Categories of CES

Units in which indicator(s) proposed

Indicators used

Sources

Aesthetic values

• Aesthetic values presence (only mentioned)

• Mentioned (not measured) aesthetic values presence (S4)

• Pleasure of a beautiful view

• Typicality, novelty, unity, and variety as indicators intended to measure it (S1, S4)

• Aesthetic amenities (measured)*

• The number of aesthetic amenities of each type and scenic sites (S1, S4)

Berghöfer and Schneider (2015), Bieling et al. (2014), Brancalion et al. (2014), Daniel et al. (2012), Grunewald et al. (2017), López-Santiago et al. (2014), Vejre et al. (2010)

• Park visitation

• Frequency of visits (D2)

• Duration of visit (D2)

• Aesthetic quality assessment

• Subjective aesthetic quality assessment (from users’ perspective) (D2, S4)

• Property value (D2) • Visual appearance (Scenery) (S4)

Brandt et al. (2014), Chen et al. (2009), Cooper et al. (2016), Mao et al. (2020), Ode Sang et al. (2016), Ridding et al. (2018), Stewart et al. (2016), Zwierzchowska et al. (2018)

• Landscape aesthetics

• Shanon’s diversity Index (SHDI) * (S1)

• Patch density (PD)* (S1)

Chen et al. (2009), Frank et al. (2013)

• Shape index (SHAPE) * (S1)

• Spatial proxy* (S1)

• Natural beauty (incl. unique sites)

• Proxy of value of some ecosystem services* (S1)

• Proxy of threats of some ecosystem services* (S1)

Klain and Chan (2012)

• Recreation related to identity, heritage, aesthetics

• Number of benches* (S1)

• Subsistence gardens* (number/quality) (S1)

• Hicking trails and signs* (number/quality) (S1)

• Hunting facilities* (number/quality) (S1)

• Recreational facilities* (number/quality) (S1)

• Memorials, commemorations, historical sites* (number/quality) (S1)

Bieleing and Plieninger (2013), Charoenkit and Piyathamrongchai (2019), Liquete et al. (2015), Plieninger et al. (2013), Vasiljevic and Gavrilovic (2019), Zhang and Gobster (1998)

• Mean percent tree cover on the parcel* (S1)

• Area of spontaneous vegetation* (S1)

• Mean percent tree cover in neighborhood* (S1)

• Area of shrub* (S1)

• Impervious land cover measured * (S1)

• Area of open water* (S1)

• Area of maintained grass/lawn* (S1)

• Area of woody wetland* (S1)

• Area of forest*(S1)

• Area of agricultural use* (S1)

• Public accessibility (S2)

• Recreation infrastructure (S1)

• Physical accessibility (S2)

• Perceived safety (S3, S4, D2)

• Degree of naturalness (hemeroby index) (S1)

• Proximity measured by road network and urban areas (S2)

Recreation

• Outdoor recreation in urban green space and nature-based recreation

• Aspects related to accessibility/availability

• Recreation related indicators from ESTIMAP-model

• Distance from the coast (S2) • Bathing water quality (S1)

Liquete et al. (2015), Palliwoda et al. (2020), Sander and Haight (2012), Voigt et al. (2014)

Grunewald et al. (2017), Haase et al. (2014), Hansen and Pauleit (2014), Hegetschweiler et al. (2017), Kulczyk et al. (2018) Cortinovis et al. (2018)

• Population density at 100 m resolution (D1)

(continued)

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D. Dushkova et al. Table 1. (continued)

Categories of CES

Therapeutic aspects (recovery) and well-being

Units in which indicator(s) proposed

Indicators used

• Water related recreation (incl. fishing)

• Surface water availability* (S2)

• Publicly accessible areas* (S2)

• Water quality* (S1, S4)

• Water recreation activities’ spots* (S1)

• Forested riparian areas* (S1)

• Fishing spots* (S1)

• Boating access sites* (S2)

• Game fish species richness* (S1)

• Recreational potential (such as cycling, bird-watching, angling, hiking) explained by landscape metrics variables

• Mean annual temperature* (S1)

• Tree cover* (S1)

• Annual thermal amplitude* (S1)

• Bare soil cover* (S1)

• Crop area* (S1)

• NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) * (S1)

• Objective health and well-being indicators

• Association between park visitation and physical activity measured (accelerometer, GPS) (S1)

• Measuring (quantitative) restorative components (S1)

• Morbidity rate (for particular disease) (S1)

• Mortality rate (for particular disease)

• Opportunity to relax, reducing stress and aggression (D2)

• Mentioned restorative components (D2)

• Proximity to urban parks and mental health (S1)

• Health in general (self-reported) (D2)

• Respondents’ wiliness to pay for green space maintenance* (EUR) (D2)

• Travel time-cost estimate* (EUR/km) (D2)

• Gross profit from nature-based tourism [$/area/year]

• Factor income from nature-based tourism [$/year/person] (D2)

• Subjective health and well-being indicators

Perception and value of CES

• Economic assessment of benefits related to recreation, aesthetic, beauty, cultural heritage, inspiration, spirituality

Sources Villamagna et al. (2014)

Haase et al. (2014), Maes et al. (2012), Palliwoda et al. (2020), Paracchini et al. (2014), Voigt et al. (2014), Weyland and Laterra (2014)

Bieling et al. (2014), Braubach et al. (2017), Bryce et al. (2016), Dushkova and Konstantinova (2020), Kothencz et al. (2017), Dushkova and Ignatieva (2020), Ekkel and Vries (2017), Irvine et al. (2013), Lee and Maheswaran (2011), Sturm and Cohen (2014), Nordh (2012), Stewart et al. (2016) Berghöfer and Schneider (2015), Bertram and Rehdanz (2015), Bertram and Larondelle (2016), Liekens et al. (2013), Van Berkel and Verbung (2014), Vejre et al. (2010)

• Number of visitors to a site over time (no. of visitors/area/year) (D2) • Perceived importance of each category of CES 7 point rating scale (1clearly not important to 7- very important) & 4 point rating scale (agree to totally disagree)

• Education (D2)

• Aesthetics (D2)

• Nature awareness (D2)

• Cultural heritage (D2)

• Sense of place (D2)

• Religious/Spiritual values (D2)

• Recreation (D2)

• Inspiration(D2)

• Cultural diversity (D2)

• Social relation (D2)

Dushkova and Konstantinova (2020), La Rosa et al. (2016), Özgüner (2011), Rall et al. (2017), Riechers et al. (2018), Stålhammar and Pedersen (2017), Zhang and Gobster (1998)

(continued)

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Table 1. (continued) Categories of CES

Green space use/utilization

Cultural identity, heritage and social values/attitudes

Units in which indicator(s) proposed

Indicators used

• Perception and satisfaction (also related to multifunctionality of green space)

• Level of satisfaction with the green space**(S4)

• Perception of nature (Nature)*** (D2)

• Perceived quality of life contribution of the green** (D2)

• Perceived capacity for recreation*** (D2)

• Perceived noise abatement (Quietness)*** (D2)

• Number of benefits provided for users (D2)

• Green space visitation

• Average distance travelled to urban green (in categories from up to 1 km to more than 10 km) *(S2)

• Average visiting frequency of urban green spaces and perceived accessibility to green space assessed with an ordinal scale* (S2)

Rall et al. (2017), Riechers et al. (2018)

• Characteristics related to types of activity: walking, social meeting, spending time in the open air/contact with nature, nature observation, cycling, team games, visiting playgrounds, sport activities, etc. • Cultural identity and heritage values

• The amount of green spaces (per capita) (S1)

• Availability of green spaces (S2)

• Types of activity undertaken for types of green areas (S1)

• Factors limiting the use of urban greenery* (S1, S4, D2)

• Factors encouraging to visit green spaces more frequently* (S4, D2)

• Motives for using green areas away from inhabitants’ place of residence (D2)

Dushkova et al. (2020), Dushkova and Konstantinova (2020), Ignatieva et al. (2015), Özgüner (2011), Ponizy et al. (2017), Voigt et al. (2014), Vasiljevic and Gavrilovic (2019), Yang et al. (2019)

• Presence and variety of natural features that embody or reinforce cultural values (music, pictures, symbols) (S1, D2)

• Briefing note (mentioned/measured) (S1, D2)

Berghöfer and Schneider (2015), Fish et al. (2016), López-Santiago et al. (2014), Ode Sang et al. (2016), Plieninger et al. (2013) Tengberg et al. (2012)

• Spiritual-religious values

• Number of spiritual-religious objects* (S1)

• Spiritual-religious objects (only mentioned, not measured) (D2)

Bieling et al. (2014), Bieleing and Plieninger (2013), Brown et al. (2014), Cooper et al. (2016)

• Sense of place

• Positive and negative level of place attachment (D2)

• Degrees of regional awareness (D2)

• Knowledge on identity related issues/artifacts (D2)

• Knowledge on physical landscape (D2)

Acott and Urquhart (2014), Brown et al. (2014), Buchel and Frantzeskaki (2015), Dushkova and Konstantinova (2020), Fish et al. (2016), Plieninger et al. (2013), Ryfield et al. (2019)

• Proximity to school or other educational centers (S2)

• History of use for educational purposes (D2)

Moore and Hunt (2012), Mocior and Kruse (2016), Sherrouse et al. (2014)

• Presence of educational infrastructure (S1)

• Learning opportunities (D2)

• Educational values

Sources Goldstein et al. (2011), Grahn and Stigsdotter (2010), Hansen and Pauleit (2014), Ignatieva et al. (2015), Kothencz et al. (2017), Lovell and Taylor (2013), Szeremeta and Zannin (2009), Vasiljevic and Gavrilovic (2019), Yang et al. (2019)

(continued)

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D. Dushkova et al. Table 1. (continued)

Categories of CES

Units in which indicator(s) proposed

Indicators used

• Social interaction, inclusion and integration

• Associations between the respondents’ visits to local parks and the number of friends/acquaintances they had

• Social activities in parks promoting human contact (S1, D2)

• State of parks and facilities (objective) (S1)

• State of parks and facilities (perceived) (D2)

• Active participation in greenery maintenance (Number*/Frequency*) (S3)

• Taking part in organized events (Number*/Frequency*) (S3)

• Stewardship of green space

Sources Andersson et al. (2014), Dushkova and Konstantinova (2020), Ignatieva et al. (2015), Ka´zmierczak (2013), La Rosa et al. (2016), Plieninger et al. (2013), Zhang and Gobster (1998) Andersson et al. (2014), Palacios-Agundez et al. (2017), Ponizy et al. (2017), Vasiljevic and Gavrilovic (2019), Yang et al. (2019)

*Spatial indicators, ** dependent variable; *** independent variable.

• publications related to supply factors: physical or ecological characteristics of urban forests, urban public parks, etc. but paying no or little attention to social aspects (S1-S3); • publications which confirm links between demand factors such as user preferences, etc. and supply factors, such as the physical characteristics of specific locations (S4). 2.2 Target Category CES Indicators: How to Select the Right Indicators An assessment of ecosystems and their services is successful when applied indicators are scientifically credible, practically relevant, and politically legitimate [62]. A principal challenge is to find those indicators, which meet the specific research needs. There are several approaches to the indicators’ selection [62–65]: • scientifically adequate and robust (the indicators reflect current scientific understanding about the issue, agreed upon by the scientific community or experts, backed up by scientific literature, meet criteria of a conceptual framework and are evidence-based); • transparent and understandable and convey useful and relevant information (i.e. they should be analytically clean and secured according to the current theoretical, scientifictechnical knowledge and international standards, but also simple, repeatedly measurable and reproducible, practical, easy to interpret, scalable and transferable, and should indicate trends over time, their logic and methodology can be properly explained); • practically feasible (they do not imply huge additional efforts if the monitoring budget does not allow for it, and they should be relevant to environmental and natureprotection policies as well as be generated to make the significance of the ecosystem services for humans visible); • oriented to the purpose and the audience (for planning and decision-making, or to raise public awareness about environmental conditions, or as benchmarks for performance and results-oriented management; or for reporting progress on objectives e.g. for sustainable development and conservation).

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To achieve practical success, the selected indicators should be “SMART”: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. Accordingly, measuring CES should be context-specific, fluid, and mutable, because meanings, values and people’s behaviors change over time and space in response to economic, technological, political, cultural, and current societal challenges.

3 Urban Green Spaces as Providers of CES: Results of Related Projects 3.1 Case Study Description The next part of this chapter provides and discusses some results of the projects related to research on CES of urban green spaces as well as demonstrates what indicators can be applied for the CES assessment. The original data was obtained from several case studies reflecting the authors’ experience of working within the interdisciplinary research projects on urban green spaces in Russia and China (Fig. 3). These projects provided the opportunity to obtain, analyze large amounts of qualitative and quantitative data related to CES of urban green spaces, and to learn from different socio-cultural contexts about the variety of perceptions and values. Moscow and Xi’an represent diverse growing megacities with a population of about 12.0 million inhabitants. These cities shared a similar approach to the organization of green spaces in the second part of the 20th century based on the socialist beliefs and philosophy of creating publicly accessible urban spaces. The planning structure, design, and management approach to cities and green spaces in socialistic countries were very different from the Anglo-American model. New residential neighbourhoods and associated public parks provided the urban-spatial framework for harmonious “brotherly” existence of equal opportunity which was the core of socialist ideology [66]. Multifunctional USSR concept of parks of Recreation and Culture became an integral feature of green spaces in China in the 1950s [67]. Russian and Chinese cities have a similar pattern of designing post-Soviet models of urban green spaces and similar social behavior standards such as the use of certain elements of public parks. The next subsections provide an overview of different approaches to ES. General use of urban parks is complemented by discussion of one of the most common elements of urban parks, the lawn. Such an approach provides valuable dimension of CES local context. CES provided by urban green spaces (e.g. nature experiences, recreation, social cohesion, etc.) and how they are embedded in a social-cultural context, were analysed based on the results of case study projects conducted in Moscow and Xi’an. Table 2 provides the main indicators used in each case study. Those CES indicators were selected based on principles explained in Sects. 2.1–2.2: a) relevant to the issue (research goal), b) understandable and methodologically properly explained; c) reflecting a current scientific understanding of local scientific contexts; d) practically realizable (they did not need huge efforts in the data collection and analysis); e) understandable for policy-makers (trends or rate of change in CES of urban green spaces). The methods used for the assessment of the indicators (Table 2) included: 1) short walking interviews with park’s

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Fig. 3. Study area and case study cities

visitors on social and cultural values and types of park use (both cases); 2) questionnaires (case of Xi’an); 3) semi-structured interviews with stakeholders (case of Xi’an); 3) participatory observation (both cases); 4) biotope mapping (both cases). Moscow is the biggest Russian city, the capital of the Russian Federation, the center of political, economic and cultural life with a population of 12,5 million (2018 census). Moscow is a green city, it has a well-developed green infrastructure consisted of remnants of native vegetation (recreational forest and forest parks), historical gardens and parks as the monuments of landscape architecture, public districts and local community parks and green spaces within local neighbourhoods (residential block of houses) (see in detail in [68]). Several studies on citizens’ use and perception of urban green spaces (public parks) were conducted in the summer period 2018-2019 in three central parks of Moscow: Neskuchny Garden/Sad, Park of Culture and Recreation named after Maxim Gorky (Gorky Park) and Park Zaryadye. Neskuchny Sad is the oldest park in Moscow. It covers 40.8 hectares and is a result of the integration of three formal 18th -century private estates. Park is also famous for the Green Theater, one of the largest open amphitheatrer in Europe, which can seat 15,000 people. Gorky Park (119 hectares) is one of the most famous and visited green public spaces in Moscow. It was opened in 1928 and is an iconic example of the Soviet landscape architecture, and can be called as the “father” of parks of recreation and culture, a unique multi zonal public green space aiming to give equal opportunities to all urban citizens for recreation, physical activity, leisure, and social interaction. Gorky Park was a model for a whole generation of parks of recreation and culture all over the Soviet Union. Gorky Park was reconstructed in 2011 and has now modern structures and facilities; it hosts numerous festivals that are attractive for moskovites and tourists. Park Zaryadye covers 8,38 hectares and is located just next to Moscow’s heart – the Kremlin. This is also one of the newest public parks in the center of the city. It was

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Table 2. Indicators used for CES research in the case studies Indicators applied

Russian case study (Moscow)

Chinese case study (Xi’an)

Aesthetic values presence (only mentioned, not measured)

+

+

Park visitation: frequency of visits, duration of visits

+

-

Subjective aesthetic quality assessment from users’ + perspective

+

Aesthetic value indicators

Recreation Recreational facilities (presence, knowledge)

+

-

Memorials, commemorations, historical sites (presence, knowledge)

+

-

Recreation infrastructure perceived (presence of particular objects, level of satisfaction, relation to sense of place)

+

+

Therapeutic aspects (recovery) and well-being (self-reported) Opportunity to relax, reducing stress and aggression (mentioned, level of satisfaction)

+

+

Mentioned restorative components

+

+

Importance of each category of CES (perceived, according to pointing scales)

+

-

Level of satisfaction with the green space

+

+

Perceived quality of life contribution of the green

+

-

Perception of nature and particular elements of urban green infrastructure

+

+

Perceived capacity for recreation

+

+

Types of activity undertaken

+

+

Factors limiting the use of urban greenery

+

+

Factors encouraging to visit green spaces more frequently

+

+

Motives for using green areas away from inhabitants’ place of residence

+

-

+

+

Perception of CES

Types of activity undertaken for types of green areas

Maintenance and stewardship of green spaces Preferences (values) and sustainable alternatives (mentioned)

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opened in 2017. Zaryadye Park reflects the tendencies and requests of modern green space and is the result of globalization and the internalization of landscape architecture. Park’s concept went through the international design competition with the participation of numerous landscape firms from around the globe. Time magazine puts Zaryadye Park on the 2018 list of World’s Greatest Places. The design idea is based on intervening in the high-tech approach with celebrating through planting design the idea of most representative biomes (vegetation types) in Russia. Numerous parks’ facilities (museum, information center, restaurants, floating bridge, ice cave, concert hall and amphitheater) hidden under the landscape while the park itself is divided into four climatic zones: Forest, Steppe, Tundra and Floodplains. The socio-ecological survey on citizens’ use and perception of these three public parks was conducted in June-July 2019 using the method of short face-to-face interviews consisting of nine open questions. Socio-demographic characteristics of respondents such as gender, age, place of residence were also indicated. In total, there were 206 respondents – park visitors in this survey. Additionally, the participatory observation was used in order to reveal the preferences in recreation activities as well as the frequency of park visits. Collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics methods on the reasons for visiting the parks, the advantages and disadvantages of each park. Content analysis was applied to reveal the values attached to the parks. 3.2 CES Provided by Urban Parks: Results from Surveys in Moscow, Russia This chapter presents and discusses only results on the values and perception of urban parks in general. The estimation of CES which integrate socio-demographic characteristics will be presented in detail in Dushkova and Konstantinova [69]. The study revealed different understandings of the CES provided by these parks. Parks were primarily seen as recreational assets, though the importance was given to various types of recreation. The main reasons for visiting parks are presented in Fig. 4. The common answers among the respondents for visiting parks in Moscow were related first of all to aesthetic value – “a nice park”. This answer was the most popular in Gorky Park. Another important reason to visit green spaces was an interest to explore newly established and widely-advertised via mass-media Zaryadye Park. All parks were valued for the relaxation opportunity. Also, the location and accessibility of the park were important. For example, in the case of Zaryadye Park, “just on the way” was mentioned. This park is situated in the heart of the city, close to the most visited attractions such as the Red Square and Kremlin. In the case of Neskuchny Sad, the proximity to the place to residence/home played an essential role for park visitors. According to the answers of respondents, the location of the park (when it’s easy to reach the park from home) allows people to feel a connection with their local communities (park as a place for socialization and a social institute). This answer is close and partly overlaps with another reason to visit – “park as a meeting point” where respondents usually meet their friends and relatives. The attractiveness of a green space from aesthetical point of view was a leading reason for visiting Gorky Park. Here respondents emphasized their joy of the park’s special atmosphere. Participants expressed the idea that the park produces a specific atmosphere where people feel comfortable. For Gorky Park, the second most common

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Fig. 4. The most popular reasons for visiting three central parks in Moscow (in%)

reason for visiting parks was relaxation; respondents pointed out that the park provides great opportunities to have a rest after a workday. People note that “park also allows to be alone with your thoughts”. It is a sort of escape from a crowded public life. In contrast to Gorky Park and Neskuchny Sad, the visitors of Zaryadye Park claimed the importance of advertisements in mass media as a leading motivation/reason for visiting the Park. For example, friends/colleagues/relatives have recommended seeing this park. Or respondents have heard a lot about the park and saw advertisements that motivated them to explore this place. Other popular answers among park visitors were “Park is nearby a kindergarten or a school”, “To play with kids” and “Playgrounds”. This is because most housing estates in the parks’ neighborhood were built in the socialist era where the development of new green spaces for all categories of citizens was important. These green spaces (a combination of backyards and courtyards) were designed to satisfy the requirements of the socialist urban planning system and were well equipped with roads, pedestrian walkways, waste collection sites, and also vast green spaces with children playgrounds and sport grounds. After the fall of socialism, a large part of such estates has survived, and several Moscow-wide programs were implied to renovate inner courtyards [68]. Playgrounds were listed by the respondents as being among the advantages of Neskuchny Sad and Gorky Park. In general, positive comments on parks confirmed their importance in providing the residents of Moscow with the CES of recreation and aesthetics. One of the most popular answers was “size and structure”, which indicates visitor’s desire to escape from the bustle of the city and relax despite crowd and downtown location. The popularity of parks was also supported by the presence of “places for sitting” (Gorky Park, Neskuchny Sad), a variety and novelty of “green spaces” (Zaryadye, Gorky Park, Neskuchny Sad), “not crowded/quiet” (Neskuchny Sad) and a “special atmosphere” that was highly appreciated by visitors of Gorky Park. The obvious advantages of Zaryadye Park are its structure, location and conditions of green spaces, which justify the positioning of the park as an island of greenery within the center of Moscow and its novel conceptual landscape design based on the principle of “natural urbanism”.

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In other “advantages” category, respondents provided the following answers: “the historical significance of the park” (Neskuchny Sad), “cultural enrichment (exhibitions, music, dances)” (Gorkiy Park, Zaryadie Park) and the “special view” (all three parks). Such answers identified CES such as landscape, cultural heritage, education and aesthetics. The regulating ecosystem services were supported by the answer “can feed squirrels and birds” (maintaining biodiversity, for example in Neskuchny Sad), “fresh air” (air purification, Neskuchny Sad, Gorky Park). One of the main disadvantages revealed by respondents from three parks was noise and the presence of a large number of visitors (Fig. 5). These factors limit the ability of parks to provide CES related to recreation and relaxation. Neskuchny Sad is also characterized by the absence of important infrastructure (trash cans and toilets), which, along with the design of additional playgrounds, can be proposed as a necessary solution to the park management.

(a)

(b)

Fig. 5. Advantages (a) and disadvantages (b) of the three central parks in Moscow (in%)

In Zaryadye Park, respondents noted the unsatisfactory condition of lawns and green spaces, which can be explained both by high anthropogenic pressure and insufficient care of vegetation. There is a need for an additional assessment of the state of the park’s green infrastructure and ecosystem services both for human health and environmental policies, using modern devices, the Internet of Things (IoT) and other technological solutions which was partly realized by our research team [70]. The rest of the “shortcomings” identified in the other “disadvantages” category reflect infrastructural difficulties associated with the lack of parking lots (Zaryadye Park, Neskuchny Sad), poor lighting (Neskuchny Sad), the presence of fences and barriers (Zaryadye Park), unpleasant odors - gasoline from service equipment, the smell from the river, the smell of cigarettes (all three parks). This comparative study shows how context and human perception are likely to change the relative importance of different CES. It demonstrates that citizens generally value nature highly in terms of its contribution to mental and physical health and well-being. Throughout the park survey, participants were also asked to identify the key cultural benefits they associate with urban parks. In the further analysis of visitors’ cultural representations, it was possible to identify the sense of place as the attachment of people’s particular emotions, ideas, or experiences with defined locations that had distinctive identities. The importance afforded to sense of place as a particular ecosystem benefit can be identified from the responses to the survey presented in Fig. 6. In particular, it

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illustrates the responses to the questions: “Why this Park matter to you and what particular elements are especially attractive for you?” Meanwhile, the respondents were allowed not simply choose the possible answers but to identify by themselves the benefits (CES and sense of place as one of them) provided by the park (Fig. 6). The open question provided the freedom to respondents in choosing their own terminology to explain how they value the park as a green space and as an important environment of their everyday life. The results show the differences in the values attached to each park. For example, “wonderful place” with “country spirit” and “the concept” of “nature oasis” were typical answers for newly established Zaryadye Park while “mysterious forest” and “river with beautiful views” providing opportunities for “romantic rendezvous”, “quietness” and “meeting squirrels” as well as “ancient spirit” were the values attached to Neskuschny Sad - one of the oldest parks in Moscow. In contrast, Gorky Park (established during Soviet time as a public park for culture and recreation) was mostly associated with the active recreation such as “bicycle”, “yoga”, “scooter”, as well as with enjoyable time (viewing well-maintained fountain and promenades along the Moskva River embankment). Interestingly, the answers of respondents regarding negative associations with parks can be identified as disservices, reflecting exactly what visitors do not expect to meet in a particular park (Fig. 7).

Gorky park

Neskuchny Garden

Zaryadye

Fig. 6. Values attached to the urban parks: the most popular positive (green) and negative (brown) answers of respondents based on the content analysis of the park visitors’ perception

This survey also examined the frequency of visits and time spent in the studied urban parks using participatory observation during a weekday (Wednesday) and weekend (Saturday). The results indicate differences in the average time spent in the park and number of visitors. The most popular was Gorky Park with an average visiting time of 1,5 h while for Zaryadye Park and Neskuchny Sad, it was 1,1 h and 1,0 h accordingly. The peak of park visits for Zaryadye Park was at 16.00–17.00 and for Gorky Park and

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a

b

c

Fig. 7. Public parks in the Centre of Moscow: a – Gorky park, b – Neskuchny Sad, c-Zaryadye Park (photos: D. Dushkova)

Neskuchny Sad was at 18.00 for weekdays (Tuesdays) while on weekends (Saturdays) the highest number of visitors attended between 17.00–18.00. It was identified that the location and accessibility of the park play an essential role for visitors. Parks provide the opportunity to socialize and feel a connection to the place of residence (contribute to the place attachment). This comparative study shows that the use of CES is influenced by the side of demand (i.e. one’s socio-cultural and personal characteristics and needs) and supply, and thus by the characteristics of the urban green infrastructural itself (what was also pointed in research of [24]). As in other related research [31, 49, 50], city dwellers highly appreciate the nature and the CES of urban parks that influence their physical and mental states and, consequently, quality of life and well-being. Here we confirmed the idea of Kulczyk et al. [36] that the assessment of most CES (and in particular recreation) requires incorporation of the supply and demand aspects, since in this situation (as opposed to many provisioning and regulating services), the areas where service is produced and used overlap. The study results regarding the CES related to categories of “sense of place through nature” and “designing nature/urban green” are in line with the findings of other research [7, 12, 71] confirming the values of urban green spaces (parks) for sense of place and regional identity. Moreover, urban green spaces contribute to the place attachment through experiences and interactions with natural surroundings (as pointed by Ryfield et al. [60]) and through nature awareness and the understanding of the need for urban sustainability [15]. 3.3 Social and Cultural Aspects of Using Lawns as an Essential Element of Urban Green Spaces and Green Infrastructure, Including Management and Existing Practices (a Case Study of Xi’an, China) Xi’an is the megacity located in the central part of China with a population of 12.0 million people (2018 census). It is one of China’s most important ancient capitals and has a rich architectural, archaeological and cultural heritage. Big public multifunctional parks are the most important type of green spaces in Xi’an. There are also many heritage parks for preserving historical relics, which also serve as important recreational spaces. Among green spaces within the parks, lawns are the most common element. The dominance of lawns in Chinese cities is driven by the trend of westernization and globalization [72].

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Six public parks (Xingqinggong Park, Huancheng Park, Qujiangchi Heritage Park, Geming Park, Taohuatan Park, Daminggong Heritage Park) were selected as study sites (one in each of the six districts) for collecting data. They represent typical municipal parks of the city with easy and free access as well as their use by all groups of urban people. The parks were established at different times (from 1927 to 2013) and all have many lawns (more information on the parks can be found in Yang et al. [72]). The public perceptions and preferences of lawns in a typical Chinese megacity (Xi’an) were obtained by interviewing the local lawn stakeholders, conducting questionnaires with park visitors and observational studies of park visitors’ activities. During May–July 2018, a total number of 202 questionnaires of park visitors were collected, 28 lawn maintenance workers and 18 stakeholders were interviewed to obtain the management details of lawns and their perceptions. The semi-structured interview schedule consisted of 15 questions plus prompts. By using those methodological approaches, the study aims to address the following research questions: what are stakeholders and park visitors’ perceived values of lawns? What are the motives for current lawn use and management practices in Xi’an? What are the perceived key factors that can turn current conventional lawns to more sustainable alternatives in Xi’an? What are Stakeholders and Park Visitors’ Perceived Values of Lawns? The study results show that the ecological benefits of lawns are mostly appreciated by both stakeholders and park visitors while the recreational values of lawns are least appreciated (Table 3). This may be due to awareness of environmental problems in China that are directly connected to people’s lives through social media and television. The values “beautiful and friendly places” are also highly appreciated by park visitors. It could be related to culture because the Chinese traditional way of interacting with green spaces is enjoying the beauty of the garden landscapes and meditating. The preference for neat lawns is consistent with the studies in Swedish and American cities. This could be explained by the acceptance of the western park-like picturesque landscapes. Westernization has resulted in preference towards tended and neat rather than wild landscapes, despite distinct cultural differences. This could explain why intensive maintenance is applied to the lawns in Xi’an. Besides the functions of lawns such as emergency shelter for disasters, heritage protection was emphasized by the local politician and urban planners because of the national policy and local conditions. What are the Motives for Current Lawn Use and Management Practices in Xi’an? Park lawns in Xi’an are subject to high maintenance compared with some European cities (Swedish cities and Paris). This could be due to the local climate (hot summer and semi-arid climate), which could explain the reasons for frequent irrigation and use of pesticides according to the park managers. Furthermore, there is a lack of unified standards for lawn maintenance in favor of biodiversity at the city-level according to the interviews with the local politician and park managers. This probably allows for an extremely high maintenance level that leans in a direction of “perfection”. Western influence as a reason for the prevalence of lawns in Chinese cities was pointed out by several park managers, a local politician as well as some park visitors. Local government officials returning from international tours are impressed by western landscape styles (Baroque, picturesque and Victorian gardenesque) and want to mimic

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Table 3. Park visitors’ opinions on the values of lawns, preferred activities on lawns and types of groundcovers [72] Indepent variables (Questionnaire items)

Components

What type of lawns do you like best? (Question 6)

Lawns

2.78 ± 1.17a

Traditional groundcover (Ophiopogon japanicus)

1.72 ± 0.96b

Perennial meadows

2.51 ± 0.97c

Flowering groundcover (Oxalis corymbosa)

2.84 ± 1.10a

How would you rate the following statements regarding the grass area in this park? (Question 8)

Mean scores

Well maintained

3.67 ± 1.17a

Safe place for children and adults

4.10 ± 0.95b

Beautiful and friendly places

3.94 ± 1.10a

Suitable for leisure activities, rest and recreation

3.68 ± 1.47a

Important place for socializing with neighbours and friends

3.74 ± 1.44a

A necessary place for purifying the air and providing a pleasant

4.45 ± 0.93c

If you have access to the lawns, how Exercise/sports would you like to use lawns for? Sit/rest (Question 10) Social activities with neighbors/friends/family

1.97 ± 1.57a 3.98 ± 1.61b 2.286 ± 1.717ad

To experience nature

1.88 ± 1.48a

To look at (Aesthetic value)

4.86 ± 0.53c

A necessary place for purifying the air and providing a pleasant environment

4.80 ± 0.71c

Note: Scores were means ± standard deviation: the same letters indicate no significant difference; different letters indicate significant differences, according to the Turkey’s HSD test multiple comparison procedure (p < 0.05).*p < 0.05. ***p < 0.001.

them in the public spaces of China. The observational studies to lawn activities also revealed that the lawn is used as a background for bridal photos, which has become a fast-growing industry. Usually, the woman wears a white, Victorian-inspired bridal gown instead of Chinese traditional wedding outfit. Notably, people have limited access to lawns in Xi’an as well as many other Chinese cities. Park managers explained that the associated damage to lawns was caused by a tremendous number of park visitors. (Fig. 8).

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b

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c

Fig. 8. Use of public green space in the parks of Xi’an: a, b – celebrating events (wedding, dancing), c – limited access to the lawn (sign indicating “do not enter the lawn area”) (Photos: F.Yang)

Another interesting paradox is the difference in activities within the small amount of publicly accessible lawns compared with western countries. According to the observation, park visitors in Xi’an prefer to do some passive activities such as sit and rest and do social activities with their friends and family (Fig. 9). Similar results are found in the studies of Zhang and Gobster [73] and Özgüner [74]. This research once again confirms that cultural differences have a significant influence on people’s use of urban green spaces [74]. Moreover, it was found that elderly people were less active in using the lawn than the young, probably due to different perceptions of green spaces. The older the respondent, the more likely they perceive green spaces as nature-like, rich in species, lush, beautiful and varied [75]. The monotonous, species-poor lawn is probably not attractive to elderly people.

Fig. 9. Different activities which the lawns are used based on the observation (number of observations: 518) [72].

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What are the Perceived Key Factors that Determine the Opportunities of Ordering Current Conventional Lawns to Sustainable Alternatives in Xi’an? Cultural reasons could limit lawn use in China. These results reveal that although lawns became prevalent worldwide because of the influence of western culture. It is clear that China is the latest adopter of lawns (the end of the 20th century). In the past centuries, traditional garden philosophy influenced people’s perceptions of and interaction with green spaces. Some stakeholders and park visitors generally showed positive attitudes towards urban biodiversity. This new attitude could help to introduce and to accept the alternative biodiverse herbaceous vegetation in the future. However, attitudes towards the presence of wildlife in lawns are complex as was found in recent French research where respondents showed a strong preference for plant diverse species-rich gardens but disliked the insect diversity [76]. Meanwhile, the difference of perception of biodiversity of urban green spaces among park visitors and stakeholders were also highlighted by this study. For example, the use of exotic species is also regarded as a way to increase the biodiversity of urban green spaces, which could lead to species homogenization worldwide and invasion of some exotic species into local environment. Therefore, it cannot be simply concluded that the public are able to accept biodiverse green spaces. Educational programs might be helpful to raise public awareness of sustainable lawn alternatives as well as sustainable urban green spaces. Although the stakeholders’ perception of lawns varied, some of them suggested to establish biodiverse lawn alternatives at the edge of a town or district with ecological visions so that the citizens could accept them gradually. According to site observation, existing lawn alternatives in Xi’an, e.g., parterres and flower beds, are also common elements that reflect the influence of western landscape styles. They could also cause the homogenization of urban flora by using exotic plant species [77]. Furthermore, lawn alternatives proposed in the USA or European countries are probably not applicable in Chinese cities because of distinct culture and climatic conditions. Therefore, further studies are needed to explore sustainable lawn alternatives that both suit the local environment, fit into the local culture, and provide a sense of place.

4 Conclusions There is rich evidence indicating the numerous benefits provided by urban green spaces for citizens as stated by the literature review and results of two research projects presented in this paper. The most frequently named benefits (CES claimed by respondents) refer to the aesthetic values, physical and mental health, social interactions, and sense of place. Case studies provided a practical implementation of the suggested research framework for the research on CES as well as demonstrated what CES indicators can be successfully selected for each particular case. In this article, the perception of urban green spaces and the values attached to them were drawn from recent studies of social perception of public parks of Moscow and lawns as an essential component of public parks in Xi’an City. Even though the aims of these two case studies varied, it allowed us to select the right indicators for the CES assessment. In these two research projects, the methodology of performing social studies (questionnaires and observational studies) was similar which allows for the justification and use of results for the analysis of CES and the indicators.

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The case studies provided a practical implementation of the suggested research framework using the set of indicators proposed for each case study and adapted to local context and data availability. It was possible to determine primary motivations and constraints of park visits and identify which particular elements and issues were important for urban dwellers. In both cases, people actively used public parks, they valued the park’s green spaces as an escape from urban busy life and an important space for social interaction, passive and active recreation. Urban public parks in both cases are the primary source of people’s everyday contact with nature. Moscow and Xi’an public parks are also highly valued as historical heritage. The suggested conceptual approach (research framework) and list of indicators for CES assessment aims to show the diversity of possible approaches to capture CES (such approach goes beyond perception, behaviors, or demands). The conceptual model demonstrates the path to operationalize the CES assessment. The research shows that various methods can be successfully used to measure CES provided by urban green spaces. This study also confirms that CES are complex phenomena with the diversity of user perspectives and preferences, values and needs which need further exploration. Research results confirmed the importance of using a social approach in the assessment and valuation of urban ecosystem services as a valuable complement to their biophysical quantification and monetary valuation. This study can contribute to the planning and design of sustainable green spaces on a city as well as park scale, providing both the diverse values of urban nature and the needs of different social groups. Acknowledgments. The Russian part of this research was funded by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) project “Mathematical-cartographic assessment of the medico-ecological situation in cities of European Russia for their integrated ecological characteristics” (grant number 18-05-00236/18). Social survey and data analysis were supported by Russian Science Foundation project “Smart technologies to monitor, model and evaluate ecosystem services provided by urban green infrastructure and soils to support decision making in sustainable city development under global changes” (grant number 19-77-30012). Analysis and aggregation of the methodology to assess cultural ecosystem services were supported by German Academic Exchange Service – DAAD (Program of East Partnership) project between Humboldt University Berlin and Lomonosov Moscow State University “Urban ecosystem services and their assessment: exchange of experiences between Germany and Russia” (2019–2021). The Chinese part of the research was supported by Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (SWU 019038). The authors sincerely thank Mr. Pavel Ivanov and Mr. Kirill Kadygrob for supporting the process of interviewing and participatory observation.

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Ecosystem Services Approach for Landscaping Project: The Case of Metropolia Residential Complex V. Matasov1,2(B) , Alexey Yaroslavtsev1,3 , S. Bukin1 , P. Konstantinov1,2 , Viacheslav Vasenev1 , V. Grigoreva1 , O. Romzaykina1 , Yu. Dvornikov1 , A. Sayanov1,2,4 , and Olga Maximova4 1 RUDN University, Miklukho-Maklaya Street, 6, 117198 Moscow, Russia

[email protected]

2 Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie Gory – 1, 119991 Moscow, Russia 3 Russian Timiryazev State Agrarian University, Timiryazevskaya Street,

49, 127550 Moscow, Russia 4 Association Landscape Engineers Guild, Menzhinskogo Street, 21, 129327 Moscow, Russia

Abstract. Redevelopment of former industrial areas provides a great opportunity to consider the ecosystem services assessment in urban planning to improve sustainability of major cities worldwide as urban green infrastructure provides wide range of regulatory and supporting services. However, most of the landscaping projects in Russia does not use this approach due to both the lack of legislations and low level of interactions between science and practitioners. To meet this challenge an eco-hackathon (competition between projects) was organized to demonstrate the possibilities of using the ecosystem services concept to evaluate the effectiveness of project solutions. An existing landscaping project was chosen as a good example to assess several basic benefits that people will achieve from soils and green infrastructure after redevelopment of the industrial area in Moscow. We used the report on engineering and environmental surveys, a plan of landscaping and other support data from project architects (landscape bureau UTRO) to calculate carbon sequestration by biomass and soils, water transpiration and infiltration, air purification and climate regulation. Estimations and modeling were performed with ENVI-MET, HYDRUS software and i-TreeEco model. Our results showed after project implementation, the created ecosystems will absorb one kilogram of PM10 per year, transpire 200–300 thousand liters of water, accumulate 720–1000 kg of carbon, and perform up to one billion kWh work on reducing thermal stress on 10%. Based on our results we provided some recommendations to improve the project quality in terms of better ecosystem services provisioning and sustainable functioning. Keywords: Sustainable urban development · Urban green infrastructure · Urban soils · Microclimate scenario modelling

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 V. Vasenev et al. (Eds.): SSC 2020, SPRINGERGEOGR, pp. 319–330, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9_29

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1 Introduction Urban green infrastructure plays an important role in the sustainable functioning of urban ecosystems and provides wide range of regulatory and supporting ecosystem services. Ecosystem services (ES) refers to the benefits that nature brings to humans, such as carbon sequestration, microclimate formation, airborne dust deposition, water balance control, wildlife habitat formation, wind and noise reduction, etc. (Bolund and Hunhammar 1999; Andersson-Sköld et al. 2018; Cortinovis and Geneletti 2019). In order to assess ES, relevant indicators have been developed, tested and refined in EU countries (Albert et al. 2016; La Rosa et al. 2016; Czúcz et al. 2018). Urban greening strategies are being developed in major cities worldwide to support the transition towards sustainable urban planning (Anne et al. 2018; Burkhard et al. 2018; Spyra et al. 2019). Industrial sites like brownfields present a great opportunity for conversion to urban green areas that can provide ecosystem services and contribute to enhancing the sustainability of cities (Juliane et al. 2015; De Valck et al. 2019). In Russia, there are several major programs dedicated to creating a comfortable urban environment and significant projects on the redevelopment of large industrial areas in Moscow (Passport of the Federal project, approved on December 21, 2018). However, the approach of ecosystem services assessment is not used in landscaping practice. This is due to both the lack of legislation and regulations and the banal ignorance of this concept among planners and urban designers. On the other hand, very often such projects are implemented in accordance with the ideas about ecosystem functions and within the framework of existing norms but using the different terms (Bukvareva et al. 2015; Bukvareva et al. 2019). In early 2020, the Landscape Engineers Guild (LAEN) and Smart Urban Nature Laboratory (SUN-lab) organized an online “Theory for Practice” workshop, where scientists presented their results on monitoring and evaluation of green infrastructure, soils, climate and water in the city (please see here https://laenguild.org/blog). More than one hundred specialists in the field of urban planning and landscape architect attended the workshop. Further an eco-hackathon was organized, the results of which were shown and discussed at the Smart Sustainable Cities conference (SSC-conf) in the framework of a round table. The goal of the hackathon was to demonstrate the possibilities of using the ecosystem services concept to evaluate the effectiveness of project solutions. The project of redevelopment of the former industrial cluster was chosen among the projects sent to the hackathon. In this paper we present the results of ES assessment.

2 Materials and Methods 2.1 Study Area “Metropolia” area is an illustrative object of the new urban environment, situated at the intersection of the wide highways of Moscow (TTC and Volgogradsky Prospekt) and surrounded from all sides by the industrial environment - former territory of a car factory (Fig. 1A and https://metropolia-kvartal.ru). According to the Köppen climate classification, the climate in this area is a humid continental climate. Moscow-city especially its central part is under the high influence of urban heat island (UHI): for the city center

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UHI intensity is about 2.0 °C, and 2.5 °C for summer, with extremes up to 10 °C under favorable weather (Kislov 2017; Lokoshchenko 2017) with a high level of anthropogenic pressure from traffic load.

Fig. 1. Study area: A) industrial surroundings B) planting project C) “without GI” scenario D) “with GI” scenario 3D models.

We used the report on engineering and environmental surveys, a plan of landscaping and additional information from the customer. According to these materials about 200 trees (Betula pendula – 134, Populus nigra – 32, Acer platanoides – 29) and several hundreds of shrubs will be planted here (Fig. 1B). The open areas will be comprised from soil constructions including two layers: imported soil with 20 cm depth (under lawns) and deeper (under trees and shrubs) and the initial urban sediments remaining after topsoil translocation before the building constructing. The total area of open surfaces is 3597 m2 and includes lawns (220 m2 ), shrubs (472 m2 ), flower beds (60 m2 ) and trees (2847 m2 ). For all soil constructions of open surfaces, the project provides free drainage through a membrane. Sealed areas account for 22988 m2 (86.5% of the total area of the site), of which buildings and infrastructures occupy 9753 m2 and pedestrian zone - 13229 m2 . The functionality of soils under the buildings and infrastructures can be considered completely lost, whereas subsoil under pedestrian zone and walking paths partly remain capacity to provide environmental functions and ecosystem services.

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“When creating the project, we sought a reasonable balance between the purpose of the object, the needs of people and the surrounding world. Thanks to this approach, residents of Metropolitan Residential Complex will want to go out to the yard more often: to play with children, to communicate with neighbors, to have a rest. The theme of greenery is life in nature. We have designed a yard facing inward and as green as possible, closed from the environment that will be transformed in the coming years” the authors of the improvement concept, the landscape bureau UTRO, comment on their design solutions. 2.2 Assessment of ES Provided by Green Infrastructure The assessment of carbon sequestration in plant biomass was based on the IPCC approach (IPCC et al. 2003) using biomass growth factors from (Schepaschenko et al. 2018). To assess water transpiration, we used our own database of monitoring observations with the assumption that the daily transpiration is equal to the daily sum of the flow rate (Matasov et al. 2020). The air cooling via energy absorbed by trees for the transpiration was calculated based on the equation: L = λT, where λ is the energy spent on transpiration (latent heat for water evaporation = 2264.705 kJ/kg), T is transpiration. Adsorption of the PM10 from the air per crown was calculated in accordance with the i-TreeEco dry deposition model (Hirabayashi et al. 2012). The concentration of particulate matter (PM10 ) was taken from the open data archive sensor.community (https://sensor.commun ity/en/) measured at the nearest station ~3 km away from the construction area (sensor ID 19836). The LAI and WAI values were taken also from our own monitoring database for the different tree species in the city (Matasov et al. 2020). Periods with and without foliage were considered in the calculation and were 160 and 200 days, respectively. To assess climate regulation by green infrastructure two approached were used: i) meteorological modeling on a microscale using the ENVI-MET model complex - holistic microclimate model (Acero and Herranz-Pascual 2015; Huttner 2012) with Biomet module (Lee et al. 2016) - the method of assessing the impact of weather factors on the human body, which has not been practically applied in Russia so far. According to world practice, the most reliable indicator for assessing the thermal comfort of a person is physiologically equivalent temperature (PET) (Höppe 1999; Matzarakis and Amelung 2008). To assess changes in the degree of thermal comfort in the implementation of the territory landscaping project, we conducted a model experiment. We modeled microclimate and thermal comfort under the “green” scenario of the project and with complete absence of trees (Fig. 1C, 1D). For the experiment we took the values of real day - July 13, 2010, in Moscow - the day with hot weather (daytime up to +24 … +29, relative humidity 32–45%) and insignificant cloudiness according to data of Meteorological Observatory of Moscow State University. That is, dangerous conditions of getting heat stroke by citizens. Such weather conditions are observed in Moscow in summer every year. 2.3 Assessment of ES Provided by Soils Calculation of carbon sequestration in soil structures was based on determining the ratio of stocks to fluxes incoming as a result of photosynthesis of terrestrial biomass and outgoing as a result of CO2 emission by root biomass and soil microorganisms. The data

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obtained experimentally for different types of soil constructions and components (sand, clay, turf, peat, compost etc.) used for soil constructing in the Moscow megapolis (Smagin et al. 2018) as well as standard values for different types of vegetation (Government Resolution #514) were used for evaluation due to the lack of legacy data. The average C concentration 1% and bulk density 1.2 g cm−3 were used to estimate soil C stocks. The estimation of C stocks in the imported soils was carried out for the three contrast types of materials: organo-mineral mixtures with the share of peat 30% and average organic matter content 10% (Option 2) and soil mixtures corresponding to the maximal allowed values according to PP-514 - organic matter content 20% for lawns, trees and shrubs and 25% - for flower beds (Option 3). Estimated values of mineralization were based on experimental data of basal respiration (microbial production of CO2 ) at different temperatures and moisture obtained for the main types of soil constructions used in Moscow within the framework of RSF Project #17-77-20046 “Modeling and developing technologies to support sustainable functioning of soil constructions in megapolises”. Microbial emission was calculated for the growing season period (120 days) for all three soil types of imported soil, taking into account the capacity for different types of vegetation under hot and wet conditions (air temperature > 22 °C, soil humidity > 0.7 PV). The calculations of the filtration and accumulation of surface waters were made based on engineering and environmental surveys, model data (hydrophysical parameters of artificial soil) and experimental data (hydrophysical parameters of imported organo-mineral soil mixtures). Modeling of water transfer and accumulation in soil was carried out in HYDRUS-1D environment. The main computational parameters were filtration coefficient (Kf) and the main parameters of the water saturation curve. Constant flow (irrigation or precipitation) at the surface and constant flow at the baseline were considered as boundary conditions. Calculations were made for 100 cm thickness and structures corresponding to different types of surface/vegetation. In addition to infiltration for lawns and flower beds, outgoing flow with transpiration based on average values of 2–4 mm d−1 was also considered.

3 Results 3.1 Green Infrastructure ES In the first years after planting each tree will absorb from the air 4–12 g of PM10 , which in total gives about a kilogram per year for the whole area (Table 1). The same trees in their adult state will provide about 3 times increase in air purification. Carbon sequestration annually will be at the level of 1.5–5 kg per tree, thus all the trees will accumulate about 3.5 tons of carbon during the whole period from planting to adulthood. As for water removal through transpiration, one tree can evaporate from 3.8 to 9.6 thousand liters of water in the first years and from 5.7 to 15.3 thousand later. The greatest effect is achieved from air cooling through transpiration. Energy absorbed with water transpiration by each tree during the growing season can be estimated from 2.4 to 6 MWh at the first stage and from 3.6 to 9.6 MWh later.

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V. Matasov et al. Table 1. GI characteristics and ES assessment for one-year functioning

Species

Period 1 (planting)

Period 2 (adulthood)

Betula pendula

Populus nigra

Acer platanoides

Betula pendula

Populus nigra

Acer platanoides

Number items

134

32

29

134

32

29

Height, m

6

10

6

18

22

20

DBH, cm

11,15

15,92

12,74

22,29

27,07

28,66

Basal area, m2

0,0098

0,0066

0,0042

0,013

0,0192

0,0215

Canopy area, m2

7

15

10

15

30

25

BCEF

0,8

0,85

1,1

0,8

0,85

1,1

R/S ratio

0,2

0,3

0,3

0,2

0,3

0,3

Sap Flux (l/h daily mean)

1

2,5

1,3

1,5

4

2

LAI (leaf area index) m m−2

3

4

3,5

4

6

4

WAI (wood area index) m m−2

0,35

0,4

0,4

0,45

0,5

0,45

PAI (plant area index) m m−2

3,35

4,4

3,9

4,45

6,5

4,45

Carbon biomass, kg

9,3

12,2

6,1

37,4

77,6

102,3

Carbon increment, kg

1,4

3,3

4,8

1,4

3,3

4,8

Particle adsorption, g

4,23

11,66

6,97

11,81

33,5

19,69

Transpiration, l

3840

9600

4992

5760

15360

7680

Transpiration, 548,6 mm per canopy area

640

499,2

384

512

307,2

Energy, kWh

6039,2

3140,4

3623,5

9662,7

4831,4

2415,7

Our results of microclimatic modeling showed that the temperature differences between the two scenarios do not exceed of tenths of a degree even in the green areas. However, the feeling of thermal stress and discomfort in a summer in the city may vary even on different sides of the street - under the sun and in the shadows. The PET spatial variability in the evening, when citizens are more likely at the streets is almost 20° (Fig. 2 and Table 2). This is what people feel when rounding the buildings on the modeled territory (2–3 min walk). And in the “green scenario” the shadow of trees’ crowns practically

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doesn’t allow creating zones of extreme thermal stress (red and lilac areas in Fig. 2). A similar situation is observed in an hour (at 20–00). Dangerous thermal stress is almost absent anymore, and the area with more comfortable conditions has expanded.

Fig. 2. Average thermal stress (PET) and wind speed models for two scenarios (with and without GI).

Thus, the conducted experiment showed that the proposed project of landscaping of the territory allows to create in the daytime and evening a decrease of the felled

326

V. Matasov et al. Table 2. Modeled area average air temperature and thermal stress (PET). Time Air temperature, °C

Thermal stress (PET) °C

With GI Without GI With GI Without GI 15:00 30

30,1

42,3

44,4

19:00 28

28,1

32,7

34,2

20:00 27,2

27,4

29,2

29,6

temperature of the territory by 10% (2° PET from 20-degree of spatial amplitude (26.0– 46.5 PET). In extremely hot periods, this may be critical for the health of population categories vulnerable to heat (retired people and those with chronic diseases) (Matzarakis and Amelung 2008). 3.2 Soils ES Soil C stocks range from 7.2 kg C/m2 for sealed areas to more than 70 kg C/m2 for tree plantations (Table 3). While this is comparable to the values for natural soils, it is not the evidence of carbon sequestration. More likely, these soil constructions have a high risks of increased greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere due to high mineralization of organic matter. The maximum life span is predicted for soil structures based on organo-mineral mixtures with a peat fraction of < 30% (Option 1), while the life span of structures corresponding to the maximum allowed values of PP-514 (Option 3) does not exceed 3–5 years. Thus, lawns and flower beds are highly likely to be a source of carbon due to intensive mineralization of organic matter, especially during hot periods and when watering or precipitation is present. The estimated filtration coefficient for the top level of soil construction was 300 cm day−1 This is enough to infiltrate rainfall with the q20 intensity above 80 l s−1 , which is reported for the Moscow region (Kurganov 1984; SP 32.13330.2012). At the same time, the overall high level of sealing significantly increases the lateral water transport and flooding risks, which may occur due to intensive precipitation and low infiltration. Total moisture reserves in soil structures vary from 300 to 500 mm, with moisture reserves available for plants ranging from 50 to 80% of the total depending on the ratio of capacity of artificial and imported organo-mineral soil mixtures. Maximum specific reserves of total moisture are shown for structures under shrubs, and available moisture - for structures under trees. With average transpiration of 4 L per day for lawns and 24 L per day for trees moisture reserves in the root layer will suffice for 15–35 days.

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Table 3. Carbon stock and expected life span for different soil construction types. Soil construction Area type type Pedestrian area Flower beds Shrubs Lawns Trees Specific stock (kg C/m2)

Option 1

7,2

14,4

16

14,4

19,2

Option 2

7,2

21,6

26

21,6

40,8

Option 3

7,2

39,6

44

33,6

76,8

Option 1

95,3

0,9

7,4

3,2

54,6

Option 2

95,3

1,3

13

4,7

116

Option 3

95,3

2,4

21

7,4

219

Life span under Option 1 normal Option 2 conditions, years Option 3

n\a

102

74

102

45,3

n\a

45,8

37

45,8

28,9

n\a

21

16

17,8

13,6

Life span under Option 1 hot and wet Option 2 conditions, years Option 3

n\a

3,1

17

11,2

64,4

n\a

1,1

7,3

4,2

34,2

n\a

0,4

2,5

1,3

12,9

Total stock, t C

4 Discussion and Conclusion As all the results were obtained in very short period of due to the hackathon format, thus we used only open data and there was no possibility to install any kind of sensors in studied area. It is possible to improve the quality of findings with field measurements and other calibration techniques. But our general aim was just to show the way how to apply this ecosystem services methodology in urban design and planning. The contribution of projected ecosystems (soils and plants) to the regulation of global carbon balance is insignificant, and they are a source of emissions rather than accumulators, especially soil. In order to reduce carbon emissions from soils into the atmosphere and increase the lifetime of soil structures, it is recommended to use soil with a peat content of no more than 30% (Sorghum content of no more than 4%). An alternative option is to mix 2:1 of the imported soil with the local technogenic soil removed from the depth of 20 cm and deeper. Such a composition of the soil structure will also allow to ensure proper functioning of trees and to form reserves of moisture in the soil sufficient to maintain green areas for 15 to 30 days without regular irrigation. In order to reduce noise load and protect from polluted air penetration from the highway side, it is recommended to plant dense mixed greenery (with bushes) along the perimeter of the territory, rather than stand-alone poplars as suggested in the project. Immediately after planting each tree on the territory will adsorb from the air about ten grams of PM10 per year. When the trees reach adulthood, these rates will increase threefold. It is also important to assess the disservices (Russo et al. 2017; von Döhren and Haase 2019), for example birch may cause certain discomfort among residents as they are a source of allergens and possess fragile wood (they may be fallen by the wind). However, the birch has a great cultural value (aesthetic component, sense of place),

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which should be considered when comparing the benefits with possible problems (Tian et al. 2020). The greatest contribution to ES provisioning is made by regulating the microclimate and air purification by trees. The proposed project of planting greenery in the area allows to create in the daytime and in the evening an decrease of the felled temperature of the area by 2 10% for. The location of tree crowns shade practically does not allow creating zones of extreme thermal stress. In extremely hot periods, this may be critical for the health of population categories vulnerable to heat (old persons, persons with chronic diseases, etc.). Each tree in the project area contributes to air cooling by 2,5–10 thousand kW/h by transpiration in the warm season. Such air conditioning services may be valued at a total of 3–5 million rubles per year based on local prices. To better regulate the microclimate, it is worth considering the option of increasing the number of trees in the areas adjacent to the south-western sides of buildings - this is the zone of lowest thermal comfort. We are sure that ES concept could be used for better explanation of ecosystem functions not only to landscape architects, but for developers and customers and even for marketing purposes. We hope such eco-hackathons could be a good practice for the SSCconference and we can achieve a real competition between labs and companies on the ways to assess the ES. Which at least will lead to the wide use of such investigations and broad implementation of ES concept in Russian urban design and landscape planning. Acknowledgments. We thank landscape bureau UTRO for their interest on our eco-hackathon and providing all possible materials for investigations. Funding. Assessment and modeling of ecosystem services was supported by Russian Scientific Foundation Project #19-77-300-12. Online workshop “Theory for Practice” was supported by “RUDN University program 5–100”. Conflicts of Interest.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Author Index

A Alagoz, Bulent, 88 Aleksandriiskaia, Ksenia, 230 Andreeva, Irina V., 283 Artamonov, Grigorii E., 272 B Berezhansky, P. V., 185, 202 Bezuglova, Olga, 111 Brykova, R. A., 123 Bukin, S., 319 Buraeva, Elena, 111 C Cheng, Zhongqi, 77, 88 Chernova, Ekaterina N., 161 Chudilova, G. A., 171 D Demina, Sofiya, 9 Denisov, Dmitrii B., 161 Drogobuzhskaya, Svetlana, 100 Dushkova, Diana, 292 Dvornikov, Yu., 319 E Erofeeva, Viktoria V., 272 G Gavrichkova, O., 123

Gavrichkova, Olga V., 150 Goertz, Sophie, 65 Gorbov, Sergey, 100, 111 Grigoreva, V., 319 Gutnikov, Vladimir A., 272 I Ignatieva, Maria, 292 Illarionova, O., 51 Istomina, Irina, 9 K Kalashnikov, Alexey, 21 Kaplina, Natalia, 31 Ketzler, Gunnar, 65 Khalturina, E. O., 171 Khan, V. V., 194 Khvostova, Alexandra, 100 Klimanova, Oxana, 51, 230 Kolbovsky, Yu., 51 Konstantinov, P., 319 Konstantinova, Anastasia, 292 Korneykova, Maria V., 150 Kovaleva, S. V., 171 Kozyrev, Denis, 111 Krasilnikova, O. P., 209 Kremenetskaya, Irina, 100 Kryukov, Vitaly A., 218 L Lelkova, Alla, 238 Leuchner, Michael, 40, 65 Liberati, D., 123

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 V. Vasenev et al. (Eds.): SSC 2020, SPRINGERGEOGR, pp. 331–332, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75285-9

332 M Makhinya, Ksenia, 9 Malinovskaya, V. V., 171 Matasov, V., 319 Maximova, Olga, 252, 319 Melese, Solomon Melaku, 132 Meshalkina, Joulia L., 40 Mikhaylova, Irina, 100 Moscatelli, M. C., 123 Moscatello, S., 123 N Nesterova, I. V., 171 Neyman, D. V., 209 Nurpeissov, T. T., 194 P Pakina, Alla, 238 Paltseva, Anna A., 88 Pavlova, Marina, 9 Podchernina, M. I., 209 Q Qi, Saidan, 77

Author Index Samardži´c, Miljan, 283 Sayanov, A., 319 Shaw, Richard, 88 Shirokaya, Anna, 100 Skripnikov, Pavel, 100 Slukovskaya, Marina, 100 Soshina, Anastasia S., 150 Sudakova, Maria, 21 Sviatkovskaya, Ekaterina A., 1 T Tagiverdiev, Suleiman, 111 Tataurschikova, N. S., 185, 194, 202 Terekhin, Alexey, 9 Terentieva, Eugenia, 21 U Umnova-Koniukhova, Irina Anatolievna, 261 V Vakula, Marina Anatolievna, 261 Valentini, Riccardo, 40 Vasenev, Ivan Ivanovich, 40, 132, 272, 283 Vasenev, Viacheslav, 40, 123, 319

R Reitz, Oliver, 40 Romzaykina, O., 319 Russkikh, Iana V., 161

Y Yang, Fengping, 292 Yaroslavtsev, Alexey, 40, 319

S Salnik, Nadezhda, 111 Saltan, Natalya, 100 Saltan, Natalya V., 1

Z Zarov, Evgeny, 100 Zhukov, P. V., 209 Zhukova, T. E., 209