The results of our study of the invasive species Hordeum jubatum L. in various ecologico-geographical conditions of the Southern Urals are presented. 32 coenopopulations of the species in the Bashkir Cis-Ural and Trans-Ural regions, the Orenburg and Chelyabinsk regions were investigated. The populations studied were revealed to belong to several types of vegetation communities, namely: the Polygono avicularis-Hordeetum jubati association, the derivate community Hordeum jubatum [Scorzonero-Juncetea gerardii], the derivate community Hordeum jubatum [Cynosurion], and the derivate community Hordeum jubatum [Artemisietea vulgaris / Stellarietea mediae]. Our studying of key morphometric parameters has shown that the undisturbed coenopopulation Zamorskoye-1 (the Orenburg region) was in the lead, where the growth conditions were favorable for the species. The most variable morphometric peremeters among the populations are as follows: the number of generative shoots, the leaf length, and the quantity of seeds. In seventeen prospering coenopopulations the prevalence of highest-class individuals was noted, they were located in the undisturbed or weakly disturbed habitats, one coenopopulation was attributed to equilibrium ones, and the others were depressive. By the results of our cluster analysis, three coenopopulations located in different geographical zones and having the maximum or minimum values in the majority of their morphometric parameters are most different from the total data set. Further monitoring of the centers of invasion and distribution of Hordeum jubatum across the territory of the Southern Urals is necessary.

A comparative analysis of G. mellonella larvae’s ability to biodamage polyethylene of various types was carried out. 15 polyethylene (PE) samples of three types differing in their characteristics were explored, namely: type 1 (PE-1) was a package for food products (Petrothene LR 7340), type 2 (PE-2) was AIRplus air package for non-food goods (Hostalen GF 4750), and type 3 (PE-3) was a household package for purchases (NPE 953). The eating rate of these polyethylene types was up to 1.078 mg larva^-1 day^-1 (by weight) and up to 61.8 mm² larva^-1 day^-1 (by area). The largest number of perforations formed was observed in the PE-1 sample, namely, 0.857 units larva^-1 day^-1. Although PE-1 was preferred in this experiment, greater wax moth larvae ate all PE types. Most of the larvae in the control and experimental groups were active without stimulation, but single larvae showed activity after stimulation. No processes of melanization of the outer covers of G. mellonella larvae were observed in all groups. The results of survival rates, mobility, weight gain and melanization processes indicate no negative effects on larvae health when eating polyethylene. The use of samples with various characteristics made it possible to more widely assess the ability of greater wax moth larvae to biodamage polyethylene wastes.

As a result of our long-term field studies in the areas of abandoned meadows and grasslands in the Arkhangelsk, Novgorod, Ivanovo and Moscow regions, peculiarities of the bird population trends in the process of demutational succession were found out: from scattered weed associations to domination of scrub and woods. Changes in the specific composition and abundance of birds (passerines, waders, and corncrake Crex crex) at various stages of plant succession and their probable causes are discussed. It has been established that the most expressed negative trends were demonstrated by ground-nesting bird species for which short-grass habitats are optimal, supported owing to cattle grazing and haymaking: the northern lapwing (Vanellus vanellus), the black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa), the redshank (Tringa totanus), the skylark (Alauda arvensis), and the yellow wagtail (Motacilla flava). Variously directed population trends of two Motacillidae species are shown, namely: an increase in the numbers and range expansion of the citrine wagtail (Motacilla citreola) preferring abandoned swampy meadows, and a decrease in the numbers of the meadow pipit (Anthus pratensis) preferring low vegetation in used grasslands. Factors delaying and interrupting demutational succession and hampering any decline in the numbers of some passerines and waders were revealed. The causes of the probable continuation of reduction of the hay meadows and pastures area in the forest zone, aggravating negative trends of the meadow bird numbers are discussed.

The catastrophic decline in the number of the speckled ground squirrel (a previously numerous, now-threatened species) requires the adoption of urgent measurements to protect and restore its local populations. The paper presents the results of our observations of the development of pups in the postnatal period, which is necessary for the development of an integrated approach combining the creation of semi-natural reserve populations of the species in natural mega-enclosures with raising litters in ex situ conditions. Pregnant speckled ground squirrel females (n = 8) mated in nature (in situ) were captured at the Kosyrovsky cemetery (Lipetsk City) in April 2017. The females were observed from their trapping until delivery, pups (n = 32) were observed from their birth to 64-77 days. The survival rate of pups was 59%. The obtained data on the dynamics of body mass and the timing of the appearance of some morphological features allow using the devised scale to estimate the age from birth to one month of age with an accuracy of two-three days. After the age of one month when pups start feeding by their own, their keeping in cages favors fat accumulation, and at the age of 7-8 weeks the weight of the animals from cages and nature becomes similar with the further better advance of the first ones. Further improvements in the methods of keeping pregnant females and their litters ex situ are necessary for more successful growing squirrel pups during the first weeks of their life.

The recession of agriculture in Russia approximately from mid 2000s changed to an increase, accompanied by the reversion to intensive technologies, market transition to cultivation of quick payback crops (potatoes, rapeseed, sunflower) and raising pigs and poultry instead of the cattle; transition from grazing of cattle to indoor keeping system. The rates of this increase are not equal in different economic sectors and regions of European Russia. It is more pronounced in the Black Soil zone and in the south of European Russia as well as in some of regions in the south of Non-Black Soil zone. These changes have been particularly evident during the last decade and resulted in changes of the crop structure and development in some regions new for them directions of agriculture. They are determined both by socio-economic factors and current climate changes. In general, the nowaday trend of agriculture development is that pastures and most hayfields are becoming irrelevant, whereas the demand for arable fields is increasing. Modern agriculture intensification is different from the intensification of the mid-20th century, as large areas are still abandoned and therefore getting more overgrown. As a result the considerable polarization of bird habitats formed in European Russia exhibited splitting into extensive abandoned lands, of low suitability for nesting by typical grassland species, and into increasingly intensively cultivated fields.

V. V. Dokuchaev’s ideas are the foundation of modern ideas about rational natureusage methods in our steppes in order to ensure productive longevity of agroecosystems and agrolandscapes, to obtain high and sustainable yields. Agrolandscape-ecological zoning, analysis and assessment of the areas under study by the natural-economic areas of the southern European part of the Russian Federation (the Central Black-Earth Region, the Northern Caucasus, and the Volga region) were carried out with the aim to develop scientific bases for ensuring productive longevity of agrolandscapes in Russia. Scientific bases for providing the productive longevity of agrolandscapes and a system for assessing the status and management of agroecosystems and agrolandscapes in Russia have been developed. A balanced ratio of productive and protective ecosystems in the infrastructure of the agrolandscape (arable land, meadows, forests, and water bodies), grain, tilled crops and perennial grasses in the structure of sown areas and crop rotations is a prerequisite for creating an effective and sustainable agriculture. Systems of measures for managing agroecosystems and agrolandscapes include improving the structure of land areas, optimizing the structure of crop areas and improving crop rotation, improving farming systems, developing, implementing and optimizing norms for anthropogenic loads upon agrolandscapes in the whole and for individual elements of their spatial structure (arable land, pastures, hayfields, and forests), rational allocation of agricultural crops in the land use area, etc. Perennial grasses are the main source of carbon and nitrogen for replenishing humus reserves, as well as the main factor for protecting the soil from erosion. In the rational structure of the acreage, there must be a necessary and sufficient amount of perennial grasses and legumes (at least 20-25%) and a minimum one of clean fallows and row crops.

An attempt was made to assess the status of the natural environment in the area of the Eastern Ural radioactive trace (EURT) by bioindication methods. With examples of Potentilla fruticosa plants grown at three sites in the radionuclide 90Sr and 137Cs contamination gradient, in the course of our long-term (2005-2013) survey, it was established that as the irradiation level raised, the leaf size and the leafstalk length decreased, the index of the fluctuating asymmetry of the terminal lobe leaf of increased regardless of the period of vegetation and the year of observation. The morphological characteristics (the length, width and area of the leaf blade and those of the leaf terminal lobe, and the leafstalk length) were measured using digital image analysis, MapInfo software. Statistically significant differences in the morphological characteristics of the leaf were noted only in the most contaminated samples in comparison to the reference one. As the radiation load raised, the inter-annual variability of the leafstalk length increased from low to high level regardless of the vegetation period. When estimating the fluctuating asymmetry of the final leaf fraction, statistically significant differences were found for the plants from the samples exposed to radiation in comparison to the control one. Using the fluctuating asymmetry index, the environment quality was characterized as critical for the EURT impact areas while this index was normal for the background.

Origanum vulgare is a gynodietic species, in whose populations hermaphroditic individuals with bisexual flowers and female individuals with pistillate flowers grow together. This is a holarctic forest-steppe species, a herbaceous perennial. The variability of the ratio of female to hermaphrodite individuals in 26 coenopopulations of O. vulgare from several habitats was investigated (in 8 populations by our own research in the Southern Siberia, and in 18 populations according to literature data from Eastern Europe). In all habitats the projective cover of the species was indicated by standard geobotanical methods. The plants studied have a long-root life form, therefore, a partial shoot or a partial shrub was used as a counting unit (an individual). The sexual structure of coenopopulations was studied by counting generative individuals on transects with an area of 10 to 20 m2. In each population the total number of individuals to be counted was at least 90. A significant positive correlation between the projective cover of O. vulgare in the phytocenosis and the proportion of female individuals in coenopopu-lations was found (the correlation coefficient r = 0.86, p = 0.001). ANOVA analysis has revealed no statistically significant difference in the proportion of females in 6 versions of various phytocenoses: Femp = 3.36 (Fcrit5,5 = 5.1, p = 0.05). Considering features of the biomorphology and reproductive biology of various sexual individuals of O. vulgare, one can suggest that the increase of the projective cover of the species in the phytocenosis and the increase in the female individual proportion in the sexual spectrum depend on the successful growing of the seed regeneration in the phytocenosis.

The list of mammals of the Lake Glubokoe Nature Reserve (Ruza district, Moscow region, Russia) was supplemented with the flying squirrel (Pteromys volans). The contemporary border of the native range of the flying squirrel goes through the northeast of the Moscow region. No individuals of this species had been met in the western districts of the region till the end of the 20th century. However, a flying squirrel population has recently appeared in the vicinities of the Zvenigorod biological station of Moscow State University. This population originates from several animals transported to the biological station for scientific purposes. As genetic studies show, individuals from this population belong to the endemic Far-East phylogenetic lineage. The said lineage includes individuals recently met in other places in the western part of the Moscow region. The sequence of cytochrome B gene of mitochondrial DNA from a tissue sample of a flying squirrel individual found on the territory of the Lake Glubokoe Nature Reserve in July, 2013, is identical to that known for animals from the Zvenigorod biological station, MSU, as well as from other places of the western part of the Moscow region. The new record is the westernmost one among all other previous records, which confirms the enlarging of the Zvenigorod invasive subrange of this species. Despite the Pteromys volans population in the vicinities of Lake Glubokoe appeared as a consequence of introduction, it is protected by the Red Data Book of the Moscow region.