Dangerous waters.

An equally important indicator is population density. This value represents the number of inhabitants per 1 square. km. The calculation of the population density of each country in the world is carried out excluding uninhabited territories, as well as minus vast expanses of water. In addition to the general population density, individual indicators can be used for both rural and urban residents.

Considering the above facts, it should be borne in mind that the population on the globe is unevenly distributed. The average density of each country differs quite significantly. In addition, within the states themselves there are many uninhabited territories, or densely populated cities, in which per square meter. km there may be several hundred people.

The most densely populated areas are the Southern and East Asia, as well as the countries of Western Europe, while in the Arctic, in deserts, tropics and highlands there are not many at all. absolutely independent of their population density. When examining the uneven distribution of the population, it is advisable to highlight the following statistics: 7% of the globe’s territory occupies 70% of the total number of people on the planet.

At the same time, the eastern part of the globe occupies 80% of the planet's population.

It is advisable to highlight the countries with the lowest population density:

• Australia;
• Namibia;
• Libya;
• Mongolia;

Greenland is one of the countries with the lowest population density

And also countries with low density:

• Belgium;
• Great Britain;
• Korea;
• Lebanon;
• Netherlands;
• El Salvador and a number of other countries.

There are countries with medium population density, among them are:

• Iraq;
• Malaysia;
• Tunisia;
• Mexico;
• Morocco;
• Ireland.

In addition, there are areas on the globe that are classified as uninhabitable areas.

As a rule, they represent areas with extreme conditions. Such lands account for approximately 15% of all land.

As for Russia, it belongs to the category of low-populated states, despite the fact that its territory is quite large. The average population density in Russia is 1 person per 1 sq. km.

It is worth noting that the world is constantly undergoing changes, during which there is a decrease in either the birth rate or the death rate. This state of affairs indicates that population density and size will soon remain at approximately the same level.

The largest and smallest countries by area and population

The largest country in the world by population is China.

The number of people currently in the state is 1.349 billion people.

Next in terms of population is India with a population of 1.22 billion people, then the United States of America: the country is home to 316.6 million people. The next largest country in terms of population belongs to Indonesia: today there are 251.1 million citizens living in the country.

Next comes Brazil with a population of 201 million people, then Pakistan, the number of citizens of which is 193.2 million, Nigeria - 174.5 million, Bangladesh - 163.6 million citizens. Then Russia, with a population of 146 million people and, finally, Japan, whose population is 127.2 million.

• Saint Kitts and Nevis with a population of 49 thousand 898 people;
• Liechtenstein, with a population of 35 thousand 870 people;
• San Marino, the number of citizens of the country is 35 thousand 75 people;
• Palau, a state in the Association of the United States of America, whose population is 20 thousand 842 people;
• with a population of 19 thousand 569 people;
• The Order of Malta, which consists of 19 thousand 569 people;
• Tuvalu with a population of 10 thousand 544 people;
• Nauru – the population of the country is 9 thousand 322 people;
• Niue is an island with a population of 1 thousand 398 people.

The Vatican is considered to be the smallest state in terms of population.

At the moment, only 836 people live in the country.

Table of population of all countries of the world

The table of the population of the countries of the world looks like this.

What is the difference between natural and economic resources? Which countries have almost all types of natural resources? How can you measure the national wealth of a country?

The role of natural resources in the life of society. The rise of humanity to the heights of socio-economic progress is closely connected with its use of various gifts of nature - natural (or natural) resources.

Human needs for different types of natural resources are not the same. Thus, without oxygen - an invaluable gift of nature - a person cannot live even for a few minutes, while without uranium and plutonium - sources of nuclear fuel - he has managed for thousands of years. The costs of developing natural resources are also different: sometimes they are minimal, but much more often the development of natural resources requires large investments, especially when it comes to the use of expensive equipment and technology, inaccessibility of deposits, etc.

Many natural resources, explored and extracted, become raw materials for a wide variety of branches of material production. In turn, raw materials involved in social production and repeatedly transformed in it are transformed into economic resources. Thus, the elements of nature, as a result of labor influence on them, appear before us in the form of tools, buildings, and material goods.

Modern industry in the world consumes huge amounts of raw materials. Its cost (including the cost of fuel and electricity) in the total costs of industrial production is about 75%. This circumstance poses very acute problems for many countries in providing basic types of raw materials.

Many natural resources (primarily oil, gas, coal) are gradually becoming scarce. This, of course, is a sad fact. But, firstly, not only have they not yet been exhausted, but they are far from fully identified. Secondly, extracted natural resources are still used inefficiently. Thirdly, discoveries in the resource sector that will be made in the coming decades are difficult to predict. After all, just “the day before yesterday” we knew nothing about electricity, “yesterday” we knew nothing about the huge reserves of energy hidden in atomic nucleus. There are many things we still don’t know today, although we are undoubtedly “surrounded” by forces about which we still do not have a clear idea. It is only necessary that the mental and productive activity of human society serve the benefit of all people on Earth, that it ennobles nature, helps it more fully reveal its capabilities, and does not leave behind a lifeless desert.

Along with the term “natural resources”, the broader concept of “natural conditions” is often used. The line separating one concept from another is sometimes very arbitrary. For example, wind can be considered as a component of nature, but at the same time it is also an important resource, primarily for energy production.

Natural conditions reflect all the diversity of the natural environment on our planet and are closely related to the history of mankind and its location. They have always influenced people's lives, and people have influenced the natural environment. Thus, a person cannot exist without using the resources of nature and in this sense is dependent on it. But at the same time, man is able to actively influence nature. This is the essence of the relationship between man and nature. Allocation of resources and availability of them various countries. From previous geography courses, you know that natural resources are mineral, land, water, plant, etc. This is one of the types of their classification based on belonging to one or another range of natural phenomena. Natural resources are also divided into renewable and non-renewable, based on their intended purpose for a particular sector of the economy, by quality (i.e., the content of useful components in them), by the nature of formation (mineral, organic), etc. Distribution of natural resources by The planet is characterized by unevenness. This is explained by differences in climatic and tectonic processes on Earth and different conditions formation of minerals in past geological epochs, etc. The reserves of individual types of natural resources are far from equal. As a result, not only between countries, but also large regions of the modern world, there are noticeable differences in the level and nature of their provision with natural resources. Thus, the Middle East is distinguished by large oil and gas resources, the Andean countries - copper and polymetallic ores, the states of Tropical Africa, which have large tracts of tropical forests, - valuable timber, etc. There are several states in the world that have almost all known types of natural resources . These are Russia, the USA and China. India, Brazil, Australia and some other countries, although inferior to them in terms of the “range” of natural resources, are highly wealthy compared to other countries. Many countries have large reserves of global importance of one or more resources. Thus, Gabon stands out for its reserves of manganese, Kuwait for oil, and Morocco for phosphorites. Of great importance for every country is completeness available natural resources. For example, to organize the production of ferrous metallurgy in a single country, it is very important to have resources not only of iron ore, but also of manganese, chromites, and coking coal. And if they are also located relatively close to each other, then this is a great success for the country.

There is not a single country in the world that does not possess certain natural resources. If there are few of them, and some of them do not exist at all, the state is not doomed to poverty. After all, the national wealth of any country can be measured not only by the totality of its material assets and reserves of natural resources, but also by people, their experience and hard work, the degree of use of their energy, knowledge and skill.

For example, Japan, which has achieved outstanding economic success, has very limited mineral resources, both in range and in quantity. It has only large reserves of sulfur and pyrites, while there is a sharp shortage of oil, natural gas, iron ore, rare metal ores, phosphorites, potassium salts, etc. In contrast to Japan, we can give examples of many states that have the richest mineral resources raw materials, but have not achieved great success in socio-economic development.

The uneven distribution of natural resources around the planet, on the one hand, contributes to the development of the process of international division of labor and international economic relations, on the other hand, it gives rise to certain economic difficulties in countries deprived of certain natural resources.

Great importance in the process of environmental management has a scientifically based economic assessment of natural resources. Its components are exploration, identification, inventory, as well as quantitative and qualitative assessment of natural resources. Unlike highly developed countries of the world, where a comprehensive assessment of such resources has already been carried out, in underdeveloped countries there is no such assessment yet. Meanwhile, without careful accounting of natural resources, without a well-functioning system of control over their consumption in all spheres of our life, without their utmost saving, we cannot hope for the “eternal” prosperity of mankind.

So, at all stages of the development of human society, natural resources were an important prerequisite for its socio-economic progress. However, their transformation into various economic resources ultimately depends on the person, on his diligence and talent.

Questions and tasks. 1. Is it possible to say that the economic activity of mankind is to a large extent the process of development of natural resources by society? Justify your answer. 2. What factors determine the distribution of natural resources on the planet? 3. Give examples of states that have rich natural potential, but, in your opinion, have not achieved great success in socio-economic development. 4. Using atlas maps, indicate the countries that have all the natural resources necessary for the development of the iron and steel industry. 5. Based on the analysis of atlas maps and appendix tables, supplement the text of this paragraph with examples.

Mineral resources

Will mineral resources remain for future generations? What is recycling of resources?

Distribution of minerals. Since time immemorial, man has widely used a variety of mineral raw materials.

Despite the implementation of resource conservation policies by many countries, the demand for mineral raw materials in the world is growing rapidly (by about 5% per year). This trend is explained, firstly, by a noticeable increase in demand for mineral raw materials in the developing countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and secondly, by the rapid development of construction, where it is more difficult to implement a mode of saving materials than in industry.

The scale of use of mineral resources has increased enormously in last decades. Mining volume from 1950 g. increased by 3 times, and of the entire mass mined in the 20th century. 3/4 of minerals were mined after I960. Today, the growth in consumption of mineral raw materials noticeably exceeds the increase in its proven reserves. At the same time, the supply of it to most countries is decreasing.

Every year more than 100 billion tons of various mineral raw materials and fuels. These are ores of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, coal, oil, gas, building materials, mining and chemical raw materials - more than 200 different types in total.

As you already know, the current distribution of the world's minerals is the result of the Earth's long geological history. In various places of the lithosphere formed

large, geologically isolated territories with certain groups of deposits associated with them. At the same time, fuel resources 1 of organic origin are confined to the margins and troughs of ancient platforms, while ore resources are most often found within platform faults and mobile folded areas of the earth's crust. Large accumulations of ore deposits formed as a result of tectonic processes are usually called ore belts. These include the Alpine-Himalayan, Pacific and other ore belts. Ore minerals are of enormous importance in the modern world, since metals (primarily iron) remain unsurpassed structural materials. In addition to various branches of material production, they are widely used in everyday life, in medicine, etc. The presence of ore minerals is a good prerequisite for economic development for any country. Iron is especially closely connected with the past, present and future destinies of humanity. Large reserves of long-developed iron ore raw materials are concentrated in the USA, China, India, and Russia. Geological exploration work carried out in recent decades has led to the discovery of many deposits

in the countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America. These include iron ores of the Amazon basin in Brazil, deposits in Liberia, Guinea, Algeria, etc.

The most common non-ferrous metal is aluminum. Its content in the earth's crust by mass is slightly less than 10%. Large reserves of aluminum raw materials (bauxite, etc.) are available in France, Italy, India, Suriname, the USA, West African countries, and the Caribbean. Our country is also rich in aluminum raw materials.

The main resources of copper ores are concentrated in Zambia, Congo (Kinshasa), Chile, USA, Canada, lead-zinc ores - in the USA, Canada, Australia.

Not all industrial countries of the modern world have a sufficient amount of metal ores and are forced to import them (Fig. 4). Thus, Japan does not have industrial reserves of the vast majority of ore minerals, Germany experiences an acute shortage of iron ore, Italy – in copper, France – in polymetallic ores, etc.

At the same time, a careful study of the maps of ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy (see atlas) shows that the leading positions in reserves and production of a number of ore minerals are occupied either by developing countries or those that have recently left this “status”: Brazil and India - iron ore; Chile, Zambia, Congo (Kinshasa), Peru, Mexico - copper; Guinea, Jamaica, Suriname - bauxite; Gabon - manganese; Malaysia, Indonesia, Bolivia, Brazil, Thailand - tin, etc.

Among minerals, an important role in modern world Mineral chemical raw materials also play a role - sulfur, phosphates, potassium salts, building materials, refractory raw materials, graphite, etc. It is obvious that the degree of occurrence of these resources in the earth's crust varies. Thus, building materials are found almost everywhere, while deposits of sulfur, phosphorites, and graphite are relatively rare. This circumstance, on the one hand, makes it possible to create a construction industry in almost every state, on the other hand, it significantly affects the economic specialization of countries.

The problem of depletion of mineral resources and ways to solve it. The most accessible mineral deposits in our time are rapidly depleted. Thus, intensive development of iron ore deposits led to the depletion of many deposits not only of the Old World, but also of the New World. The reserves of this ore in Lorraine (France), the Urals, and the Great American Lakes have become depleted. The copper ore resources of Zambia and Zaire have also become depleted. And the Pacific state of Nauru, once famous for its colossal reserves of phosphorites, has practically lost them.

Meanwhile, out of the huge volume of rock mass annually extracted from the bowels of the planet, no more than 20% is used for the production of finished products. As a result of such irrational environmental management, hundreds of billions of tons of various rocks have accumulated in dumps over many years. These technological “cemeteries” also contain billions of tons of ash from power plants and slag - waste from metallurgical plants. Many overburden rocks and mineral processing wastes are suitable for the production of a range of metals, chemical products, building materials - bricks, cement, lime, etc.

The rational use of mineral resources (the vast majority of which are non-renewable) presupposes the integrated development of fossil raw materials, that is, such that every gram of a substance taken from nature must be put into use.

Many reputable scientists around the world predict the advent of an era of recycling (i.e., reuse) of resources, when waste will become the main raw materials in the economy, and natural reserves will play the role of backup sources of supply.

The countries of Western Europe, the USA and especially Japan demonstrate examples of deep recycling of industrial and household waste. At the same time, their production of huge amounts of steel, aluminum, copper and other non-ferrous metals from recycled materials helps to save not only metal (and therefore mineral resources), but also energy. The automatic lines created in these countries are capable, for example, of “grinding” a car in a matter of seconds, sorting ferrous and non-ferrous metals, synthetic materials, and glass.

A significantly wider use of integrated processing of mineral raw materials, resource-saving equipment, low-waste and non-waste technology is also necessary in our country. This will create conditions for a more complete involvement of local types of raw materials into circulation and for the deep utilization of secondary raw materials.

Non-waste technology is a technology that ensures the most rational and comprehensive use of raw materials and energy in the cycle “raw materials – production – consumption – secondary raw materials”. At the same time, the normal functioning of the natural environment should not be disrupted (Fig. 5).

Of course, waste-free technology is the ideal model towards which modern production is oriented. Achieving 100% wastelessness today is almost impossible. Therefore, the value of 90–98% is considered to correspond to waste-free production, and 75–90% – to low-waste production.

The creation of waste-free and low-waste production is a complex process that requires solving a number of interrelated technological, economic, organizational, psychological and other problems. However, this is the future.

So, mineral resources are the most important source of diverse

raw materials for the global economy. They are placed on the Earth in accordance with its geological evolution. As a result of irrational use, many types of mineral resources today are either almost exhausted or severely depleted. Humanity is on the threshold of an era of recycling of many mineral resources.

Questions and tasks. 1. Fill out the table “Classification of Mineral Resources”. 2. Highlight on the map the most significant ore belts of the Earth. 3. Study the main flows of mineral raw materials on the globe using atlas maps. Draw a conclusion (or conclusions) about their patterns. Indicate, by comparing atlas maps, which countries use their own ore and mining chemical raw materials to develop their manufacturing industries. 4. What, in your opinion, are the most typical features of mismanagement of mineral resources in the modern world? 5. Calculate how many years the world reserves of the indicated minerals will last at modern level their production, taking into account growth of 2% per year.

§ 5. Land resources

Is it worth plowing up all the soils of the planet? Is there a path to food abundance with a relative and absolute reduction in the land fund?

Structure of the world's land fund. Land resources are among those natural resources without which human life is unthinkable. There are as many of them on the planet as there is land, which, as is known, makes up 29% of the earth's surface. However, only 30% of the world's land is agricultural land, that is, land used by humanity to produce food. And the rest is mountains, territories bound by permafrost, deserts, glaciers, swamps, impenetrable jungles, taiga forests. For example, the vast polar spaces in Greenland, northern Russia, Canada and the USA (Alaska), the Sahara Desert, desert regions of Central Australia, the highlands of Central Asia, etc. are unsuitable for processing.

In addition, millions of hectares of land are occupied by urban and rural settlements, highways, power lines, various warehouses, bases and other facilities. As you remember, agricultural land consists of arable land, as well as land occupied by meadows and pastures. The share of arable land, meadows and pastures varies significantly across countries and continents depending on natural conditions, the degree of agricultural development of the territory and some other indicators (Table 1). The most valuable and fertile lands on the planet are about 1,5 billion hectares The largest tracts of agricultural landscapes are concentrated in the forest-steppe and steppe zones of the temperate zone and the humid zones of the warm and hot zones of the continents (Fig. 6). About half of all arable land in the world is concentrated in six countries - Russia, the USA, India, China, Canada and Brazil. At the same time, for each inhabitant of the planet there is an average of 0.28 hectares (including only 0.15 hectares in densely populated foreign Asia). In other words, in Asia 1 hectare feeds 7 people, Europe – 4, South America – 2, North America – 1.5 people. The true wealth of humanity is soil. Their formation lasted thousands of years, but the destruction of soils due to the careless attitude of humans towards them occurs in just a few years. Most often it is irreversible or difficult to correct. Reduction and expansion of the area of ​​cultivated land. One of the most alarming indicators of soil resource loss is the growth of deserts. The sands of the Sahara are advancing, the deserts of South-West Asia, North and South America are growing. At the same time, deserts are advancing on steppes, steppes - on savannas, savannas - on forests. The main reasons for the growth of deserts are the “overloading” of fields with agricultural crops and their improper cultivation, deforestation and overgrazing of livestock (Fig. 7).

Of course, the degradation of cultivated lands and their withdrawal from agricultural use occur not only as a result of desertification. They are also “threatened” by human settlements and industry (Fig. 8). Cities and villages, industrial plants, power lines and pipelines are quietly encroaching on arable land, which in turn is encroaching on forests and pasture lands. Every year in many countries around the world, the number of territories destroyed by quarries and filled with dumps formed during the mining process increases. Many arable lands are flooded by the created reservoirs. The lands withdrawn from agricultural use account for about 6% of the land, and by 2000, according to experts, their area reached 15%.

At the same time, there are still many areas on Earth that are not used in agricultural production. We are not talking about virgin and fallow lands “forgotten” by man, but mainly about areas with a terrain inconvenient for agriculture (ravines, ravines, mountain slopes) or unfavorable conditions (wetlands, etc.). The development of such territories requires great caution, as it involves intrusion into vulnerable natural systems.

One of the ways to slow down the process of reduction of cultivated land (especially in small countries) is to increase the number of floors of residential and industrial buildings and expand underground structures. As the experience of reconstruction of Vienna, Paris, Tokyo and some other cities shows, it is advisable to locate shopping centers, museums, lecture halls and exhibition halls, stations, refrigerators, transport routes. Scientific laboratories, power plants, and institutes can also be located on underground floors. The removal of urban buildings underground can already reduce the need for above-ground areas for construction by 10–12%.

We especially note the expansion of cultivable lands by humans at the expense of the sea. In the Netherlands, with the help of canal and dam systems, about 40% of their modern territory was reclaimed from the North Sea. Similar processes of “sliding” of settlements into the sea also take place in Belgium, France, Portugal, Japan, Canada, Singapore, etc.

Of course, the possibilities of expanding acreage due to the “advance” of land onto the sea are not that great. Nevertheless, for some states this is an important reserve for increasing the size of the land fund. The future will show to what extent the existing grandiose projects for increasing the area of ​​arable land at the expense of the sea will be viable.

A more reliable path to food abundance is to increase soil fertility and increase agricultural productivity in general. This requires both

mechanization of production processes, land reclamation and reasonable use of mineral fertilizers, as well as the widespread introduction of achievements in selection and breeding work. Much will also depend on successes in the field of chemical synthesis of food products (primarily protein substances), as well as the industrial cultivation of lower forms - microorganisms created through both selection and genetic engineering.

The struggle to preserve the planet's land resources is one of the most important tasks of humanity. It is necessary to stop the non-renewable loss of soil resources, carefully select forms of agricultural production, and improve farming standards. Especially important in the modern world, land reclamation is gaining importance, i.e. restoration of soil cover after the completion of mining and construction work.

Questions and tasks. 1. Explain the difference between the terms “land resources”, “soil resources”, “agricultural land”. 2. The share of arable area varies across countries. So, in Brazil it is about 4% of the country’s area, Australia and Canada - 5%, Argentina, China - 12%, USA - 18%, India - 51%, Hungary - 56%, Denmark - more than 70%. Explain the reasons for the differences. What cards are appropriate to use to justify the answer? 3. What environmental consequences arise from the irrational use of land resources? Where, in your opinion, lies the “cutting edge” of the struggle for the planet’s soils? 4. Group the countries named below according to the following criteria: a) countries in the structure of agricultural land leading place occupies arable land; b) countries in which the leading place in the structure of agricultural land is occupied by meadows and pastures. Explain your choice: Commonwealth of Australia, Algeria, Hungary, Netherlands, Denmark, Libya, Mongolia, Saudi Arabia.

Freshwater resources

How much water is there on Earth? Is there plenty of fresh water? Is it possible to overcome water hunger on our planet?

The ratio of salty and fresh water. Water is the basis of life. It plays a vital role in the geological history of the Earth and the emergence of life, in the formation of the climate on the planet. Without water, living organisms cannot exist. It is an essential component of almost all technological processes. It can be said that main function water is life-sustaining.

The vast majority of water on Earth is concentrated in the World Ocean. We should not forget that this is highly mineralized water, which is unsuitable not only for drinking, but also for technological needs. The population, industry and agriculture are in need of fresh water, the resources of which are not very large and constitute less than 3% of the total volume of the hydrosphere. However, if we exclude from this amount the ice of polar and mountain glaciers, which are practically still inaccessible for use, then the share of fresh water will become significantly smaller.

Reserves of easily accessible fresh water are distributed throughout the planet

not uneven. Thus, in Africa, only about 10% of the population is provided with regular water supply, while in Europe this figure exceeds 95%. This does not take into account the huge regional contrasts in water availability at the level of individual states, and the differences between dry and humid areas. These contrasts are explained primarily by the climatic uniqueness of different regions of the continents, the nature of their surface and other factors.

World water consumption. At the beginning of the 21st century. More than 4 million m3 of water is used annually for various economic needs. Let us pay attention to the sharp, almost uncontrollable increase in water consumption: only in the 20th century. Industrial water use increased approximately 20 times, agricultural use 6 times, municipal water use 7 times, and general use 10 times. An acute shortage of fresh water in certain regions has also arisen due to increasing pollution of the hydrosphere.

The largest water consumer in the world is agriculture (almost 2/3 of the total). The overwhelming majority of water here is used to irrigate irrigated lands, and only a small share is absorbed by plants; the rest of the water evaporates from the surface of irrigated lands, transpires by vegetation and drains into underground horizons.

Water consumption and its structure are different on individual continents. Largest

The water situation in large cities of the world, such as Paris, Tokyo, New York, Mexico City and some others, is becoming increasingly tense due to the growth of their population and the construction of new ones.

Ways to overcome fresh water shortage. IN There is a growing shortage of fresh water around the world. At the same time, water famine now threatens not only arid, but also fairly wealthy water resources countries and regions. This is due not only to the increased consumption of fresh water reserves, but also to the ever-increasing pollution of the hydrosphere. Unfortunately, in some countries (primarily developing ones), water pollution

volumes of water (almost 50%) are absorbed by the economy of Asian countries, but more than 4/5 of it is spent on agricultural needs. A similar picture (with much lower volumes of water consumption) is observed in South America and Africa. And only in Europe and North America are industrial and agricultural water consumption approximately equal.

industrial enterprises. In many large cities around the world, the city water supply operates periodically, for several hours a day (and in Singapore, for example, even water cards were introduced).

is still considered a cost economic growth. Cleaning Wastewater in the vast majority of countries in the world it is characterized by extreme imperfection. Especially a lot of inorganic compounds “slip” through treatment facilities: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, mineral salts, including salts of highly toxic heavy metals.

One of the ways to overcome the growing shortage of fresh water

In ancient times, a person consumed 12–18 liters of water per day, in the 19th century. – 40–60 l, currently in developed countries– 200–300 l, in large cities – 400–500 l or more. A resident of New York consumes 1045 liters of water per day, Paris - 500 liters, Moscow and St. Petersburg - 600 liters, including industrial and municipal expenses.

However, for physical survival, a person needs only 2 liters of water per day; saving it for industrial and domestic needs, as well as stopping the discharge of industrial, agricultural and municipal wastewater into inland waters and seas.

Another way is to replenish missing water resources through the use of other sources. Such sources can be desalinated sea water, redistributed river flows, icebergs towed to areas of fresh water shortage. A significant amount of water can be obtained by collecting rain and melt water in underground storage facilities.

Groundwater is still poorly used in the world. Meanwhile, in many areas of the planet they are located quite close to the surface, and are usually of good quality. Even in the Sahara Desert, huge reserves of groundwater have been discovered that can make life easier for local residents

Freshwater resources can be increased through the use of closed water recycling. At the same time, you can not only save a huge amount of water, but also utilize heat, which can be used to heat residential premises and industrial buildings

All the planet’s water resources are interconnected by a grandiose natural process - the water cycle, covering the atmosphere, hydrosphere and earth’s crust. Therefore, ill-considered human intervention in this complex process can lead to unpredictable results.

So, fresh water resources are extremely important for maintaining life on Earth. Their limitation, extremely uneven distribution over the earth's surface and growing pollution represent one of the most pressing problems of our time.

Questions and tasks. 1. There are many areas around the globe that experience excess moisture. These are the most humidified and richest areas in water resources. Use a physiographic map to indicate where they are located. What role do they play in the life of the planet? 2. The volume of fresh water in the world (with mineralization less than 1 g/l) is more than 28 million km 3, but humanity consumes only about 5 thousand km 3 per year. What are the reasons for his deep concern about fresh waters? 3. During the process of use, part of the withdrawn water is irretrievably lost through evaporation, seepage, technological binding, etc. In which sector of the world economy, in which countries and regions are such losses most significant? Why? 4. Which sector of the world economy is the leader in terms of the scale of recycled water supply and in which sector is it practically not carried out? Why? 5. Until recently, the production of 1 ton of products required the following amounts of fresh water, paper – 900–1000 tons, steel – 15–20 tons, nitric acid – 80–180 tons, cellulose – 400–500 tons, synthetic fiber – 500 tons , cotton fabric - 300–1100t, etc. What do you know about water consumption standards in other sectors of the economy? 6. Specify possible ways overcoming the global water crisis.

Forest resources

What is the unique role of the planet's forests? How are they placed? What is the threat to humanity from the ongoing destruction of the Earth's forests?

Inventory and placement. How are you

You already know that forest resources play a huge role in supporting life on Earth. They restore oxygen, preserve groundwater, and prevent soil destruction. Deforestation is accompanied by an immediate decrease in groundwater, which causes shallowing of rivers and drying out of soils. In addition, forest resources provide a variety of structural materials, and wood is still used as fuel in many areas of the world.

Less than 30% of the land is covered by forests. At the same time, the largest forest area remains in Asia, the smallest in Australia. However, since the sizes of the continents are not the same, it is important to take into account their forest cover, i.e. the ratio of forested area to total area. According to this indicator, South America ranks first in the world (Table 2). In the economic assessment of forest resources, such an indicator as timber reserves acquires paramount importance. Asia, South and North America are ahead of it. Of the individual states, the leading positions in the world in timber reserves are occupied by four countries: Russia, Canada, Brazil and the USA.

In the same time large group countries have not forests, but woodlands. There are countries that are practically treeless and characterized by extremely arid conditions (Bahrain, Qatar, Libya, etc.).

The map of the world's forest resources (Fig. 9) clearly shows two belts that are enormous in length and approximately equal in size to forest areas and timber reserves: the northern forest belt and the southern forest belt. A feature of the species composition of trees in the northern zone is the sharp predominance of coniferous species here (especially in Russia), while in the southern zone they are practically absent.

The ancient Latin saying “sailors in a storm fear the land” was born and is still alive to this day for a reason. According to official statistics, cases of ship loss as a result of grounding are the most common. The history of the sailing fleet shows that most of the ships perished not at sea, but in shallows, near the coast. In the event of a sudden storm, the ships, having sails as their only propulsion, the area of ​​which in stormy weather had to be reduced to a minimum (and sometimes even the masts completely exposed), were deprived of the opportunity to maneuver. They found themselves at the mercy of the raging elements. If at the same time the ship was near the shore, then this, as a rule, led to its death: the storm either threw the ship aground or pressed it to the rocky shore. It often happened that a wooden structure found itself on the coastal cliffs during a storm. sailing ship after a day or two it turned into a pile of rubble and splinters.

There are many areas on the globe that even today pose a great danger to navigation. The combination of a number of hydrometeorological factors makes it difficult for ships to navigate in these areas and requires special vigilance from boatmasters. Such places on the world map have long been named "ship graveyards" or "ship eaters". These include primarily the banks of the English Channel ( register ] ) in its western part, outer shoals in the area [You must register to view this link] , [You must register to view this link] ("Gate of Tears"), [You must register to view this link] with its "Stone of Danger", the straits of the Kuril Islands, Capes of Horn and Good Hope, the islands of Tasmania, Scilly, [You must register to view this link] and etc.

"The great ship devourer -
Sir GOODWIN"

The famous Goodwin Shoals are the largest ship graveyard on the globe.

Ancient sailing directions of the English Channel, chronicle of an insurance company [You must register to view this link] and descriptions of past [You must register to view this link] made it possible to recreate, to some extent, the gloomy “pedigree” of the Goodwin Sands.

Spoiler:

The British do not have a consensus on why this monstrous shoal suddenly formed in the busiest place on the world's shipping routes. Geologists believe that it arose as a result of erosion of the seabed. Hydrographers explain its appearance by the meeting of strong tidal ocean currents with the currents of the English Channel, the North Sea and the Thames. One of the famous English geomorphologists, Charles Lyall, claims that several centuries ago there was an island in the place of the shoals, which in 1099 sank below sea level. The English legend about the island of Lomea speaks about this. Once upon a time, near Dover, the fertile flowering island of Lomea rose in the sea - an estate Count of West Saxony Goodwin. For a serious crime against the church, the count suffered severe punishment - the sea flooded his castle along with the island.
According to another English legend, the island of Lomea after the death of Goodwin came into the possession of the church of the city of Hastings (which still stands near Dover). A strong current constantly washed away the island from the eastern side. There was an urgent need to build a protective dam. For this, the church collected a large amount of money from parishioners, but instead of a dam, a bell tower was built. The unprotected island was quickly washed away, and a huge shoal formed in its place.

According to some information, in the belly of the “Sand Chameleon” lie several battle triremes of Julius Caesar, who invaded the island in 43 AD and conquered the inhabitants of Foggy Albion.
English captains said that above the triremes of the Romans lie the remains of the sharp-chested boats of the “dwellers of the sea” - the Vikings of Scandinavia. Both of them, in turn, are forever pressed by the oak frames of the heavy galleons of the “Invincible Armada,” the defeat of which, begun by the “royal pirate” Francis Drake, was completed in 1588 heavy storm.
Above the Spanish talions in the sands, the pirate brigantines and corvettes that once struck terror into the hearts of the Hanseatic and Venetian merchants sleep peacefully. Somewhere next to them lie English frigates and barques from the 18th century, stuffed with ebony, ivory and precious stones taken from India and Africa. Above all this armada of sailing ships that has sunk into oblivion are the hulls of modern dry cargo ships and tankers. One involuntarily recalls the lines of the wonderful Leningrad poet Vadim Shefner from “The Ballad of the Sailors of Britain”:

Without sails in motley patches
They sleep there, far from the piers,
With carved maidens on the rostra
Centuries gone by ships.
And next to them, but safer,
They lie like a dark mountain
Transatlantic companies
All-welded steamers.

When the east winds blew, the Goodwin shoals provided reliable natural cover for anchored ships. But as soon as the wind blew from the west, the sailors were in danger of falling into quicksand. And, as a rule, if, when a western storm began, it was not possible to set the sails and select an anchor in time, the ship became a victim of the Goodwin Sands. On the night of November 26-27, 1703, a squadron of English ships under the command of Admiral Beaumont perished here. In those days, one of the most powerful hurricanes hit the British Isles. The area between Bristol and London was particularly affected, where the number of casualties reached 30 thousand.

Spoiler:

What happened on that terrible night on Goodwin Sands is known from a letter that the author of Robinson Crusoe received a few days after the disaster. Daniel Defoe from his friend, Shrewsbary commander Miles Norhil. Here is an excerpt from this letter: "I hope that this letter will find you in perfect health. We are leaving here in a deplorable condition, expecting every minute to go down. There is a terrible storm here, which in all likelihood will continue. Next to us was Rear Admiral Beaumont's ship "Mary" This ship perished with the admiral and 300 sailors. The Northumberland ship was lost along with all its people. From the Stirling Castle, only 69 people were saved, along with the Restoration. Those few who managed to escape ended up on our ship. The storm was terrible, the wind roared so loudly that it drowned out the shots from the cannons with which the unfortunate people tried to attract attention. Our ship was torn from its anchors and carried 60-80 yards from the shoals. If our spare anchor had given way, we would all have drowned. I thank the Almighty, for by His mercy we were saved. We counted about forty merchant ships in the shallows - crippled and half-sunk. We watched in horror as their sailors climbed the masts, calling for help. I saw all this with my own eyes. I won't forget."

Due to inaccurate maps, storms, fog or currents, sailing ships became trapped and perished. The losses were huge. I almost lost my ship here once [You must register to view this link] - future winner of Trafalgar. In 1788, as a 22-year-old lieutenant, he commanded the 28-gun frigate Albemarle. In the autumn of that year, after cruising off the coast of Denmark, his ship dropped anchor in the Downs roadstead. Nelson rode ashore in a gig to present a report to his superiors. Suddenly a storm came and all the ships in the roadstead began to be pulled from their anchors. Worried about the fate of the frigate, Nelson began to look for a boatman who would take him to the ship. But with such a strong storm, even experienced rowers did not agree to launch their whaleboats. No amount of persuasion helped. However, everything was decided by money. Nelson paid 15 gold guineas from his own money (at that time this was two yearly earnings of a boatman). When the young lieutenant was taken to his ship at great risk, he saw that the latter had already lost its bowsprit and foremast. To prevent the frigate from being torn off its anchor, Nelson ordered the mizzen mast to be cut down and this saved the ship.

English merchants more than once turned to Queen Elizabeth with a request to erect a lighthouse in the area of ​​​​the deadly sands. Projects to tame the “devourer” were proposed to the Admiralty for consideration. Thus, a certain Gowan Smith developed a plan for draining quicksand, turning it into a “green island with trees and pastures.” For all this, he asked the Lords of the Admiralty for a thousand pounds sterling, proving that if lighthouse fees were taken from passing ships, the costs would be recouped within a year. But Smith's project remained on paper.

It was only in 1795 that the British Admiralty erected a lighthouse on Cape South Foreland. More accurately, it would be said that it was not a lighthouse, but a wooden tower, on the site of which a fire was burned at night. There was little benefit from this structure: the fire only approximately indicated the location of the shoals, and those who were not familiar with their coordinates or had an inaccurate map were still in danger of ending up in the sands. The "sand chameleon" continued to fool the sailors.

In 1802, the large three-masted ship of the Dutch East India Company, Fregeida, found itself stranded in the fog. The sands sucked him in on the third day, along with passengers and sailors.
Three hundred sailors were missing from the British Admiralty in 1805, when the military transport Aurora got stuck in the Goodwin Sands. This loss caused an explosion of indignation in England. Outraged Londoners demanded that Parliament take action, and that same year the Admiralty placed a lightship on the shallows. It enclosed the Goodwin Sands from the north and was named "North Goodwin". On the other three sides, the shoals remained unfenced, and the number of shipwrecks almost did not decrease. The English Admiral Cochrane put forward the idea of ​​​​building a powerful lighthouse in the center of Goodwin, but the attempt to build a stone foundation of the lighthouse on such shaky soil ended in failure: Goodwin swallowed up two barges with granite blocks and iron piles... The English hydraulic engineers had no choice but to install another floating lighthouse - "West Goodwin".

But this did not reduce the number of ships perishing aground. The most severe losses at that time were the wrecks in 1814 of the English battleship Queen and the Belgian mail and passenger packet boat. The insatiable Goodwin sucked into his belly, along with these ships, all the people on them.

The taming of the Goodwin Sands proceeded surprisingly slowly. The third floating lighthouse, the South Goodwin, was installed only almost a quarter of a century after the second, in 1832, and the fourth, the East Goodwin, was installed only 42 years after the installation of the third lighthouse. During this time, England was repeatedly shocked by reports of tragedies that took place on the Goodwin Shoals. The most terrible of them was the disaster of the English steamer Violetta. The ship, with several hundred passengers on board, disappeared into the quicksand literally in front of the rescuers who came to help.

In London, on Fench Street, Lloyd's insurers have lost ships registered. These gloomy chronicles often contain dates when Goodwin swallowed up several ships at once. In the book of lost ships in 1909, the sail-screw steamer "Makratta" is listed. He ran into the sands and died while traveling from India to London. In the records for 1939 there is a second, larger ship under the same name. He got stuck in the Goodwin Sands 200 meters from his unfortunate namesake on the way from London to India.

Drama "Sorrento".

If for sailors the Goodwin shoals were a real curse, then the inhabitants of the south-east coast of England saw in them “God’s grace”. The inhabitants of these shores believed that God himself had sent them a blessing - the cargo of stranded ships.
Unlike the treacherous inhabitants of the Isles of Scilly, who kindled false fires on the rocks on stormy nights and lured merchants into the reef trap, the inhabitants of Deal were simply waiting for God to send them another ship.
After the Admiralty, by special order, stopped the robbery of ships that had fallen on the Goodwins, the residents of Deal were forced to take up a more noble trade - pulling ships from the shoals and saving their cargo. Knowing the local currents well and having studied all the vagaries and habits of the shoals, they became great masters of this rare craft.

Spoiler:

In the 1960s, the Admiralty assigned several steam tugs to the Ramsgate and Walmer life-saving stations. This reasonable measure displeased the Deal rescuers. Still would! Powerful tugs, equipped with steam winches and cranes, deprived them of a sure piece of bread. Irreconcilable hostility began between tugboat captains and rescuers, which often led to sad outcomes. This is what happened one day.
On December 17, 1872, the brand new English steamship Sorrento ran aground at the eastern end of the Goodwins. He sat down, as they say, not tightly, but slightly, with his nose. As soon as observers at the Ramsgate life-saving station noticed this, a tugboat was sent to help. Before the couples had time to separate in tow, a messenger rushed from Dil on horseback. He handed the captain a stern warning from the local rescue team to “go away as soon as possible.” But the tugboat commander ignored this threat and sent his ship to the scene of the incident.
When the tug approached the Sorrento, two rescue boats from Deal were already scurrying along its side. They brought anchors on boats, the ropes of which went to the drum of the Sorrento steam capstan.
The ship in trouble happily accepted the tow rope from the arriving rescuer. The tug's paddle wheels began to spin, foaming the water. It seemed that a few more minutes of working at full speed of the machine, and the Sorrento would get off the ground. But at this time one of Deal’s boats, having thrown the anchor being brought in, rushed towards the tug. A swing of the ax, and the cable, stretched like a gigantic string, fell into the water with a squeal. From the boat the captain was threatened with reprisals, and terrible threats were heard in the air. In short, the steam rescuer went home. An attempt to pull off the Sorrento using anchors and a capstan did not lead to anything. In the evening of the same day a storm came. The crew rushed to the shore in their boats, leaving the doomed ship to the mercy of fate, and the Sorrento perished with its people and valuable cargo.

Submarine trap.

On an early foggy morning in December 1946, the American naval transport Northeastern Victory, having completed a transatlantic crossing, was approaching the Thames Estuary. The ship was in the Gull Stream and had almost passed the northwestern tip of the Goodwin Sands when suddenly a grinding sound of metal was heard and the crew of the ship felt a strong shock. The ship stopped: it was running aground. Something happened that often happened to many ships in these dangerous waters - the Northeastern Victory lost its course and ended up on the Goodwin Sands.
Only 20 minutes passed, and the huge body of the loaded transport broke in two. The ship's crew had no choice but to move to the rescue whaleboats that arrived from Ramsgate.
The next day, as the wind blew away the fog, divers arrived. They had to examine the condition of the two halves of the hull and find the best way to save the valuable cargo. It turned out that the steamer ran into the sunken hull of a submarine. He crushed it under his bottom and stopped when half of his body was in front of the boat pressed to the ground, as if hanging in the water. Rocked by a large swell, the hull of the steamer could not stand it...
What kind of boat it was and how it got here, no one knew. Everything became clear when divers entered the wheelhouse and inspected the interior.
The story of this unlucky submarine soon became the property of English newspapermen. Here is their version, which was later confirmed by German military historians. It was "U-48" - a medium submarine of the Kaiser's German Navy. On November 21, 1917, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Edeling, she set out on a combat mission from the German naval base in Bremerhaven. This happened in the days when Germany began its "unrestricted submarine warfare."

Spoiler:

Edeling received the task of going “hunting” in the western part of the English Channel. On the second day after leaving the base, the commander of U-48, due to bad weather, decided to stand at periscope depth in the Downs roadstead, east of the Goodwin Shoals. But the unexpected happened: the gyrocompass failed, and the boat, maneuvering on a magnetic compass, lost its course and fell into the British anti-submarine nets. Getting out of them, Edeling landed the boat on the sands. German submariners pumped out 60 tons of fuel, almost all fresh water and released the entire supply of torpedoes. But it was all in vain - an attempt to lighten the ship and free itself from the captivity of quicksand was unsuccessful. At low tide, the hull of U-48 appeared above the water. The English warships could not help but notice this. A British destroyer that arrived at the Downs roadstead began shooting at the boat with its guns. Edeling ordered the crew to abandon ship and blew up the control room. Of the 43 crew members of the U-48, the British captured one officer and 21 sailors.
Soon the Goodwin Sands hid the hull of the boat. It was forgotten and, perhaps, would never have been remembered if not for the story of Northeastern Victory.

Goodwin's annual menu - 12 ships.

The second one has ended World War. The last salvos of guns, explosions of mines and torpedoes died down in the English Channel. The lights of Goodwin's lightships and its 10 buoys, equipped with powerful fog howlers and underwater bells, were lit again. It seemed that in peacetime the “Sand Chameleon” would also calm down. However, after the war, he played out in earnest. In 1946 alone, it “swallowed” a dozen new ocean-going steamers with a displacement of more than 10 thousand tons each.

Goodwin's first victim in 1946 was the American military transport Larray Victory. He was heading with a cargo of wheat from Baltimore to Bremen. In the English Channel, the ship was caught in thick fog and continued its course according to dead reckoning, i.e. guided by a compass, log and map. How the ship ended up near the shoals should only be known to the captain. The fact is that the "Laray Victory" ran aground almost in the very middle of the sands and after a few hours broke in half. The crew of the ship managed to escape.

More dramatic was the second disaster of that ill-fated year - it happened with the ship Gelena Modjeska, which was estimated at $3 million. On September 12, 1946, he jumped out onto the sands at the southern end of the sandbank. Over the course of four days, eight powerful rescue tugs pulled it off the shoal. But they could not snatch the ship with a displacement of 10 thousand tons. The Helena Modjeska broke in half on the fifth day, and her cargo could not be salvaged. On September 17 of the same year, English newspapers reported that the captain of the Helena Modjeski shot himself in a hotel room in Dyla.
There is no need to list the remaining ships that perished on the Goodwin Sands. Let us only note that out of a dozen, 10 were broken in half.

Spoiler:

Why did it happen that Goodwin “swallowed” 12 modern transports? The British Admiralty and the captains of the US merchant fleet were partly to blame for this (of the 12 ships that died, six were American).
Even during the war, the Admiralty obliged the captains of all English merchant ships and Allied ships heading from the Atlantic to the North Sea to enter the Downs roadstead. Here, against a personal signature, ship captains were given packages with secret instructions for passing the minefields of the North Sea. This procedure, known as the “Rules for obtaining route information for navigation in the waters of North-Eastern Europe,” was also in force in 1946. Thus, all ships passing [You must register to view this link] from the west, they were forced to approach the Goodwin Shoals almost closely, although their course was laid far from this sea cemetery. This rule was canceled after the minefields of the North Sea were destroyed.

Part of the blame for the shipwrecks that took place on the Goodwin Sands can confidently be attributed to the captains of the lost ships. They, leading their ships from the Atlantic, tried not to miss the high tide and immediately enter the London docks. They therefore plotted a course through the Gull Stream, which reduced the time of arrival at the Thames Estuary by 2 hours compared to the safer course around the eastern end of the Goodwins. However, they did not take a pilot and walked this dangerous path at night and during fog.

"Swallowed" lighthouse.

A dozen “swallowed” in one year on the steamship turned out to be an insufficient ration for the “Ship Eater”. Over the following years, he hid in his womb a good fifty more large and small ships. The most tragic of these disasters occurred on the night of November 27, 1954.
On that memorable morning, the main English newspapers came out with the following headlines: "The Great Devourer" does not let up" , "New Drama on Goodwin Sands" , Goodwin's "sand chameleon" begins to eat itself!" , "Goodwin's quicksand ate its lighthouse!" ,"Southern Goodwin" in the insatiable belly of "Sand Chameleon" ...

Here's how it happened. On the night of November 26–27, a severe storm raged in the English Channel. Dozens of ships were in distress, and their calls for help were heard on air every now and then. The Liberian tanker World Concorde, with a displacement of over 35 thousand tons, broke in half in the Irish Sea. Then someone's radio station reported that the light of the lightship "South Goodwin" had gone out. An attempt by Ramsgate rescue station radio operators to contact the lighthouse was unsuccessful. And only then the signalmen of Cape South Foreland, through a stormy veil of spray, noticed that the lightship had disappeared from its regular place.

At dawn, when the storm began to subside, the plane took off. While flying around the Goodwin Sands, his pilot saw the South Goodwin in the northern part of the sandbank, capsized on its starboard side, half submerged in water. Giant waves mixed with sand rolled freely over the dead lighthouse. On board, the pilot noticed a man desperately calling for help. After 15 minutes, a helicopter hovered over the torn lighthouse and threw down a wire ladder. The man was saved.

It seemed incredible to maritime specialists that the disaster occurred with a floating lighthouse - a structure specially designed to withstand hurricane-force winds and the strongest storms. After all, its two huge mushroom-shaped anchors could hold in place not just a 30-meter lighthouse, but a real battleship. The disaster happened so quickly that the South Goodwin crew did not even have time to radio a distress signal.

Anchor failure? Sudden loss of stability? Evil intent? These questions tormented specialists. But they never received an answer. The only eyewitness to the tragedy, Ronald Marton, could not help them. He was not a member of the crew of the South Goodwin. He was an ornithologist. He was sent to the lighthouse to observe the migration of birds...

Lev Nikolaevich Skryagin, "Man overboard"

Composition

Intrepid travelers of our day tend to think of the globe as small and cramped. They travel around it in no more than a few days, tirelessly plow unfamiliar seas in all directions, trying to visit unknown, unexplored places, and boldly fly over the once inaccessible ice cap of the Arctic.

Neither at the poles, nor in the depths of sun-baked Africa, nor in the virgin forests of Brazil - nowhere does science expect to find any special secrets. And some people begin to feel that there are too few undiscovered lands and unknown seas left in the world, and that soon science will have nothing to discover. But this is not true. No matter how much people have learned about the world around them, no matter how immeasurable successes science has made, the unexplored still surrounds us on all sides. It is difficult to believe that animals unknown to science have survived in our time, but, nevertheless, they exist. There are many places on the globe where no human has literally set foot. People have seen many wild and inaccessible territories only from the air, but have never been there. There are also areas that have not been surveyed at all or are poorly studied by zoologists and botanists, where one or two expeditions have visited in the entire history of mankind. But land is only 29 percent of the globe's area. The rest is the oceans. And there are still not many places where a person has descended to a depth of over a thousand meters. But the average depth of the ocean reaches four kilometers, and the maximum depth is more than eleven.

Jacques Cousteau recently described more than a hundred previously unknown fish off the coast of Argentina. Often, scientists discover creatures that seem to have become extinct long ago. Among these relict animals are the tuatara, a contemporary of the dinosaurs, and the deep-sea neopilina mollusk that lived in the ocean 400-500 million years ago. Recently, hunters in Paraguay shot an animal. In the seas, rivers and lakes you can find an abundance of fish and various underwater animals.

Life underwater world complex and interesting. Biologists, for example, study the lifestyle of fish. When searching for food, fish are helped by their taste organs. Pisces distinguish between sour and salty, sweet and bitter. Based on numerous observations, we can conclude: many fish make sounds. The biological significance of the sounds produced by fish is very great. Fish make sounds mainly during periods of spawning and feeding. Consequently, they try to attract each other, call each other to safer places or with abundant food. Sounds contribute to greater organization of the school, and sometimes fish use sounds to warn each other about danger. Fish have hearing organs; they hear well. Fish perceive low sounds especially well. Currently, biologists are conducting research on the sounds made by fish. Their results can be used in the development of special equipment and methods for exploring fish aggregations.

soil-geographical zoning consists of the following units.

1. Soil-bioclimatic zone.

2. Soil bioclimatic region.

For flat areas For mountain areas

3. Soil zone 3. Mountain soil province

(vertical structure of soil zones)

4. Soil province 4. Vertical soil zone

5. Soil District 5. Mountain Soil District

6. Soil region 6. Mountain soil region

Soil-bioclimatic zone– a set of soil zones and vertical soil structures (mountain soil provinces), united

similarity of radiation and thermal conditions. There are five of them: polar, boreal, subboreal, subtropical, tropical. The basis for their identification is the sum of average daily temperatures above 10°C during the growing season (see Chapter 5).

Soil-bioclimatic region – a set of soil zones and vertical structures united within a belt by similar conditions of moisture and continentality and the resulting characteristics of soil formation, weathering and vegetation development. Regions differ according to the Vysotsky-Ivanov humidification coefficient (HC). There are six of them: very wet, excessively wet, wet, moderately dry, arid (dry), very dry. The soil cover of the region is more homogeneous than in the belt, but intrazonal soils can be distinguished within it.

Soil zone– component region, the distribution area of ​​the zonal soil type and accompanying intrazonal soils. Each region includes two or three soil zones.

Subzone – part of the soil zone, elongated in the same direction as the zonal soil subtypes.

Soil facies – part of a zone that differs from other parts in temperature and seasonal moisture conditions.

Soil province – part of a soil facies, distinguished by the same characteristics as the facies, but with a more detailed approach.

Soil District – is distinguished within the province by the characteristics of the soil cover, determined by the nature of the relief and soil-forming rocks.

Soil region – part of a soil district characterized by the same type of soil cover structure, i.e. regular alternation of the same combinations and complexes of soils.

Vertical soil structure – the distribution area of ​​a clearly defined kind of vertical soil zones, determined by the position of a mountainous country or part of it in the system of a bioclimatic region and the main features of its general orography.

Mountain Soil Province similar to the soil zone on the plain. The meaning of the remaining taxometric units is the same for lowland and mountainous areas.

The basic units of soil-geographical zoning in the plains are soil zones, and in the mountains - mountain soil provinces.

Polar belt

Polar belt. Its area without continental ice is about 0.6 billion hectares. In the northern hemisphere, there are two fairly large regions: Eurasian and North American. Each of them has arctic and subarctic soil zones.

The Arctic zone is located closer to the pole and is divided into two subzones: Arctic deserts and the Arctic proper. The soil cover of Arctic deserts is represented by primitive Arctic desert soils, as well as saline soils that develop with low precipitation and when salts freeze to the surface under conditions of extreme hypothermia (Antarctica, northern Greenland, Arctic sea coasts).

The subarctic zone is characterized by tundra soils. It is divided into three subzones: northern, or arctic, typical and southern tundra. The main soil processes in the tundra occur under conditions of increased moisture and stagnant water regime due to low evaporation. Gley processes are confined to the upper part of the soil column. The northern tundra is dominated by arctic-tundra soils, while the rest of the subarctic zone is dominated by tundra-gley soils.

The circumpolar position of the Arctic zone determines its harsh climatic conditions: short cold summers, long harsh winters, and the presence of permafrost almost everywhere. The zone is represented on the islands and extreme coasts of Asia and North America. An extremely important role in such conditions is played by currents and air masses that bring heat and moisture. A cold trans-Arctic current passes from Chukotka to the west. Along the North American shelf, the same current goes east. Along Iceland, the warm North Atlantic Current emerges to the north. In the area where these two powerful currents meet, cyclones arise that regulate the climate of the Arctic. On Spitsbergen, precipitation falls up to 400 mm per year, on Franz Josef Land - 200-300, Severnaya Zemlya 100-200 mm, that is, the severity of the climate increases to the east. In the south of Greenland there is up to 1000 mm of precipitation, in the north - 25 mm. In the north-east of Canada and Greenland, the January temperature reaches -40 ° C, in Spitsbergen - only -12 ° C. The movement of heat and air masses is reflected in the nature of vegetation. The degree of coverage of the territory, biomass, and productivity depend on moisture content. Evaporation in the Arctic zone is 100-200 mm, so with 300-400 mm of precipitation there may even be an excess of moisture, with less than 100 mm - a lack. The vegetation of the tundra is represented mainly by mosses and lichens, there are dwarf willow, saxifrage, cassiopeia, dryads, and individual grasses. Lichens dominate the vegetation of polar deserts. The phytomass of tundras is 3-7 t/ha, of arctic deserts 0.1-0.2 t/ha, annual production is 1-1.5 t/ha and 10-15 kg/ha, respectively. The biomass of vegetation in depressions is several times higher due to additional moisture.

Soil-forming rocks are diverse: loose glacial clastic deposits, sandy-clayey marine terraces, coarse clastic products of cryogenic destruction of dense rocks, eluvial-deluvial deposits on the Canadian Arctic archipelago.

The relief is dominated by glacial abrasion and accumulative forms (Eurasia) and denudation surfaces (America). The most favorable areas for the formation of Arctic soils are the upland areas of low sea terraces. The thickness of the soil profile is determined by the depth of thawing of the soil-ground layer, rarely more than 0.3 m. The differentiation of the profile is weak due to cryogenic processes. Only the plant-peaty horizon Ao is well expressed and the thin A1 horizon is worse. In areas of normal and excessive moisture, brown arctic-tundra soils are formed. Ao 0-3 cm, thin A13 6 cm, B/C 6-13 cm, C – up to 30-40 cm, up to permafrost. These soils always have high humidity, moderate acidity (pH 5.5-6.6), 2.5-3.0% humus. An increase in climate humidity is accompanied by an increase in phytomass in upland habitats and increases the decomposition of organic residues, so the pH drops to 5 and below.

An important geochemical factor in Arctic soil formation is the carbonate composition of rocks, which actively migrate with the soil solution and increase pH to 7 and higher. There are many such Arctic rendzinas in the Canadian archipelago.

With excessive moisture, peat-permafrost soils are formed, confined to depressions. In summer, these are swamps with hummocks, in the middle of which there is an ice stock. At (0-5 cm) is replaced by A2t (5-15 cm) and B/C (up to 40 cm).

Limited gelatinization possible. Peat horizons in the Arctic are limited to hydromorphic landscapes.

In the arid regions of the Arctic zone, the soils are alkaline (7-8), there is little humus (1% or less). They are usually called polar deserts. The landscapes of Arctic deserts are characterized by salt accumulation, sometimes salt marshes of marine origin.

The soils of the Arctic are extremely susceptible to impacts; they are poorly restored, which is a definite environmental problem.

Boreal belt

The area of ​​the belt is about 2.4 billion hectares, of which mountainous areas occupy 1.6 billion hectares. Soils and vegetation receive a lot of moisture, but not enough heat. 16% of flat areas are occupied by hydromorphic and semi-hydromorphic soils. * The area of ​​the belt falls on taiga-forest areas with podzolic, sod-podzolic and partially gray forest soils, the rest is colder, continental and less moist frozen-taiga (cryogenic) soils. In accordance with this, within the boreal belt, boreal-

taiga-forest and meadow-forest regions: North American, European-Siberian, Icelandic-Norwegian, Bering-Okhotsk and Fuegian, as well as boreal permafrost-taiga regions: East Siberian and North American

To the south of the taiga forests there are mixed coniferous-deciduous forests. They are widespread on the East European Plain, but in the Asian part they do not form a continuous zone.

The climate is warmer compared to the taiga, with 500-600 mm of precipitation per year. Continentality increases to the east, but everywhere the amount of precipitation exceeds evaporation.

In the European part, forests consist of spruce, birch, and aspen; fir appears in the Cis-Ural region; birch and aspen appear in Western Siberia. The grass cover is well developed. Biomass is 200-300 t/ha, litter is greater than in the taiga, but it is mineralized more intensely, so there is less forest litter.

The soil-forming rocks are mainly boulder loams and sandy loams of glacial origin. Over the course of several thousand years, the moraine has leached, and the abundance of boulders makes farming difficult. Heavy lacustrine-glacial deposits and introglacial sandy loams are also common; there are loess-like loams (south of the last glaciation boundary) and ancient alluvial deposits.

The most characteristic are soddy-podzolic soils, which are especially typical on cover loams A0-A1-A2-B-C.

In the interfluves, surface swamping of the soil may occur, and peat-podzolic-gley soils may form.

Soddy-carbonate soils (rendzins) are formed under automorphic conditions on carbonate rocks. There are especially many of them in the Baltic states. A1(15 cm)-B(15-18cm)-C(D).

Automorphic soils in the mixed forest zone develop under a well-defined leaching water regime. With an increase in the content of the coniferous component, the mass of dead organic matter on the soil surface increases.

In Belarus, in spruce forests there is about 50 t/ha, in coniferous-broad-leaved forests – 20 t/ha. The abundance of fulvic acids promotes acidity, which becomes significantly less acidic further down the profile. The most important role is played by the process of movement of dispersed particles with filtered water - lessivage. Acidic waters remove the main coagulant, calcium, from the soil, which makes it possible for silt particles to be released and moved downwards.

The process of seasonal gleying also takes part in the formation of the soil profile of mixed forests, which is associated with the formation of a significant amount of iron-manganese nodules in the mountains. The name soddy-podzolic does not accurately reflect the essence of these soils - they are acidic loessified soils with a differentiated profile (podzoluvisols).

In these soils, many elements are bound into the mountains. Ao and energetic removal of the most active components to the mountains. B. The hydromorphic soils of the mixed forest zone are quite diverse. When watershed spaces are excessively moistened and nutrients are insufficient, mosses develop rather than grasses—high, low-ash (1-5%) sphagnum bogs are formed due to excess atmospheric moisture.

Most of the chemical elements enter with water into the lower parts of the slopes, where low-lying swamps are formed, characterized by high ash content, estimated in tens of percent. In the profile of such soils, humus A1 often lies under the peat horizon and, below, gley of a bluish-gray color.

Groundwater is enriched as a result of soil formation with iron and manganese, therefore ferruginous and manganese new formations are formed. Sometimes there are so many of them that they can be mined as ore. There is also a layer of accumulations of iron phosphates (vivianite, bosphorite, etc.). There is a fairly clear geochemical subordination in the watershed-closed depression system.

A more complex interaction of automorphic and hydromorphic soil formation takes place in river floodplains. Floodplain soils occupy up to 8% of the soils in the zone.

A characteristic feature is annual floods or high waters, the proximity of groundwater.

Poorly developed turfy soils, sometimes podzolized, are usually formed on the riverbed floodplain. In the summer there is even a moisture deficit for asthenia. The layering is clearly expressed. On the central floodplain, the surface is usually flat, the water regime is stable, there are many nutrients - lush floodplain meadows. Meadow soils here are characterized by a high thickness of the humus horizon (up to 1 m) and gleying in the lower part of the profile.

The near-terrace floodplain is low, swampy, and the most finely dispersed particles from hollow waters are deposited here. Floodplain swamps often form.

There are especially many silty soils such as lowland swamps. Many elements from adjacent parts of the landscape are concentrated here.

In general, the mixed forest zone has a rather variegated soil cover. To the south, soddy-podzolic soils become more and more similar in properties to gray forest soils. Soddy-podzolic soils are usually formed on loamy deposits, and iron-illuvial podzols and acid sandy soils without an illuvial horizon develop on loose rocks, especially in Polesye. A strip of sandy podzols stretches along the coast of the Baltic Sea, in the wetlands of which peat-marsh soils develop. In this zone, in some places there are soddy-carbonate soils and brown forest soils (under coniferous-deciduous forests on residual carbonate rocks.

In North America, in the zone of mixed forests in the Atlantic part, soils of the acid brown type are developed, in more continental areas - gray-brown soils with a lightened A2 horizon.

The loamy soils of the zone are most favorable for agriculture, but the acidic reaction and waterlogging in places make their use difficult. In the territory covered by the last glaciation, use is hampered by heavy debris. The degree of agricultural development is 30-45%. Extremely important techniques are liming and the application of organic and mineral fertilizers.

Subboreal

Subboreal belt. Its total area is about 2.2 billion hectares. Mountain areas occupy about 33% of the belt's surface. Semiarid and arid regions account for about 71% of the area, of which deserts occupy 46%. Automorphic soil formation predominates: hydromorphic soils account for only 9% of the belt's surface. Latitudinal zoning is expressed on the vast internal plains of Eurasia. The sub-borel belt is one of the main suppliers of agricultural products; 1/3 of the world's agricultural area is located on its territory. Almost half of all agricultural products are produced here.

Within the belt, three series of soil regions are distinguished: 1. subboreal humid forest regions; 2. subboreal arid steppe regions; 3. subboreal semi-desert and desert areas. The first are located on the oceanic margins of the continents: Western European, North American Atlantic, North American Pacific, East Asian; in the southern hemisphere, the South American and New Zealand-Tasman regions are distinguished. In the second row, three steppe regions with chernozems and chestnut soils are distinguished: Eurasian, North American and South American. In the third row, the Central Asian and South American semi-desert and desert regions are distinguished.

Deciduous forests with rich ground cover are common within the subboreal zone. Some were formed in a mild oceanic climate, others in inland areas. The landscapes of these forests have been greatly altered by humans; the vegetation has either been completely destroyed or replaced by secondary vegetation.

Gray forest soils are formed in inland areas, from Belarus to Lake Baikal. To the east, the severity and dryness of the climate increases, average annual temperatures vary from +7 in the west to -5 in the east, the duration of the frost-free period - from 250 to 180 days, precipitation - from 600 to 300 mm.

The dominant vegetation is deciduous herbaceous forests, in the west hornbeam-oak forests, between the Dnieper and Volga - linden-oak forests with an admixture of ash, in Western Siberia - birch-aspen forests, and larch appears even further east. The mass of litter is 7-9 t/ha, that is, significantly more than in the taiga. The litter is rich in ash elements, especially calcium, which reaches up to 100 kg/ha.

The soil-forming rocks are usually cover loess-like loams, often carbonate.

Gray forest soils have a thick (20-30 cm) humus horizon A1 with a lumpy structure, under which lies a less powerful A2 (A1A2) of gray color and leafy-lamellar structure, replaced by a thick washing horizon B of brown-brown color (up to 100 cm).

There are three subtypes: light gray, gray, dark gray, and dark gray soils do not have an A2 horizon. The clear differentiation of the soil profile is due to intensive processes of lessivage. The content of sludge in the mountains. B is twice as high as in layer A.

The formation of subtypes of gray forest soils is determined by bioclimatic conditions: light gray - to the north, dark gray - to the south. There are serious provincial peculiarities. In Ukraine they have a very powerful A1 (up to 50 cm), in the Cis-Ural region the power is less, but the humus content is higher.

For a long time, the origin of gray forest soils was explained either by the degradation of chernozems when the forest encroached on the steppe, or by the progradation of forest soils (according to Williams) when the steppe encroached on the forest. Currently, they are considered as zonal soils of deciduous forests with moderate moisture.

In North America, the distribution of gray forest soils also does not extend beyond the interior regions.

As a result of long-term use, gray forest soils are often depleted and eroded and require chemical reclamation. Grains, fodder, horticultural crops, flax, and sugar beets are grown here.

Gray forest soils are zonal soils of the forest-steppe, in which treeless spaces alternate with forest areas, gray soils with typical northern and podzolized chernozems. In the northern part of the zone they are in contact with soddy-podzolic soils, in the southern part - with steppe chernozems. Their total area in Eurasia is 303.6 thousand km2. They are formed within the Perm and Ufa plateaus, the middle part of the Central Russian, Dnieper and Volga uplands, in the foothills of the Carpathians, in the foothills of the Stara Planina mountain range, part of the Dobrudzha plateau (Bulgaria) and others; in North America they occupy 615.2 km2 , mainly in Canada.

A number of assumptions have been made about the genesis of gray forest soils, which can be summarized in four groups.

1. The theory of primary origin as an independent soil type under broad-leaved forests (V.V. Dokuchaev, 1886).

2. The theory of secondary origin through degradation of chernozems due to the settlement of forest vegetation on them (SI. Korzhinsky, 1887).

3. The theory of the formation of gray forest soils from forest sod-podzolic soils during the development of the soddy process under the influence of the change of woody vegetation to grassy meadow-steppe (V.I. Galiev, 1904; V.R. Williams, 1920).

4. Gray forest soils are formed under the influence of the following processes: humus accumulation and associated accumulation of ash substances, leaching of carbonates and readily soluble salts, laissez-faire, clay formation, migration of humic substances and mineral decomposition products in the form of organometallic and oxide compounds (B.P. Akhtyrtsev, 1979 ).

The theory of degradation of chernozems under forests has not been confirmed over time. It has been established that the distribution zone of gray forest soils is stable and that modern soil formation under broad-leaved forests leads to the formation of soils similar to gray forest soils.

Depending on the thickness of the humus horizon and humus content the type of gray forest soils is divided into three subtypes: light gray, gray and dark gray. The profile of gray soils consists of horizons Ao - Aa - A1A2 - A2B - Bm - BC - C and has the following structure:

Ao - forest litter up to 5 cm thick of varying degrees of decomposition; Ad - humus horizon from light gray to dark gray color depending on the subtype, in typical gray ones it is gray with a brownish tint, densely penetrated by roots and has a powdery-grainy-lumpy structure; A1A2 - transitional humus-eluvial horizon (may be absent in dark gray soils), with brownish spots, lamellar or platy-nutty structure, characterized by abundant whitish powder; A2B - transitional eluvial-illuvial horizon, heterogeneous, gray-brown color with spots, nutty-prismatic structure, abundant whitish powder along the edges; W - illuvial horizon, gray-brown or brownish-brown, large nutty structure, whitish powder and varnish, dense; BC is a horizon transitional to the parent rock; accumulation of carbonates is possible. It passes into the parent rock (C), which usually contains carbonates in the form of veins and cranes.

In light gray soil, humus, transitional and podzolized horizons are lighter, in dark gray soil they are darker in color with less clear differentiation according to the eluvial-illuvial type. The A1A2 horizon may be absent. In areas with increased moisture, sulfur forest gley soils are distinguished, within which there are three subtypes: 1) superficial gleyic; 2) soil-gleyish; 3) soil-gley. On the western landscape of the Oksko-Don plain there are gray forest surfaces of gleyic-eluvial and gray forest solodized-solonetzic soils.

In each subtype the following genera are distinguished: ordinary, residual carbonate, developed on carbonate rocks; contact-meadow on two-member sediments; variegated on native variegated rocks; gray forest with a second humus horizon.

The division into types is made according to the thickness of the humus horizon (Ai + A1A2) - powerful (> 40 cm), medium-thick (20–40 cm) and low-thick (< 20 см) и по глубине вскипания – высоковскипающие (100 см) и глубоковскипающие (ниже 100 см).

Properties of gray forest soils in many respects they are close to soddy-podzolic soils. In them, the upper horizons are depleted in the silt fraction compared to the rock, they are enriched in SiO2 and depleted in sesquioxides, which is due to the processes of podzolization and lessivage. However, the humus content in them is higher, it varies from 1.5 to 12.0%. Features of genesis clearly reflect their physicochemical properties. Light gray forest soils are acidic, base saturation is about 70%, CEC in loamy soils is about 14–16 in the humus horizon and increases in the illuvial horizon to 90 meq/100 g of soil.

Dark gray forest soils are characterized by a higher supply of nutrients, a slightly acidic reaction, a high (80–90%) degree of saturation

density of bases and cation exchange capacity (35–45 meq), i.e. according to these indicators they are close to podzolized chernozems.

Physical and physicomechanical properties depend on the degree of humus content and granulometric composition. Dark gray soils have the best properties, which differ from other subtypes in their high humus content and well-defined water-resistant structure. They are less favorable in light gray soils, which have low moisture capacity and permeability, easily float and form a crust. For the agricultural use of light gray and gray forest soils, the measures are of the same type. For their effective use, it is necessary to apply organic and mineral fertilizers, liming, and sowing perennial grasses. Phosphoritation is effective on these soils. It is advisable to gradually deepen the arable layer with the simultaneous application of lime and organic fertilizers. On dark gray forests

In some soils, deepening can be done in one step; liming is carried out in exceptional cases.

Erosion is widespread in the forest-steppe zone, so it is necessary to implement anti-erosion measures: soil-protective crop rotations, strip placement of crops, cultivation across slopes, furrowing, digging, creating forest strips.

On gray forest gley and solodized soils, it is necessary to loosen the compacted illuvial horizon and apply manure with superphosphate. Measures to preserve and accumulate moisture (snow retention, soil cultivation methods) are of great importance.

Brown forest soils are formed under deciduous forests in a humid and mild oceanic climate. There are no such soils on the plains

trawling parts of Eurasia, but many in Western Europe. There are many brown forest soils in the Atlantic part of North America, where they occupy an intermediate position between soddy-podzolic soils and red-brown forest soils and red soils in the south.

With a significant amount of precipitation (600-650 mm), the profile of brown forest soils is poorly leached, since most of the precipitation falls in the summer and the leaching regime is very short-lived. The mild climate promotes the activation of organic matter transformation processes. A significant part of the litter is energetically processed by numerous invertebrates, forming a mule humus horizon. Quite a lot of brown humic acids are formed in a subordinate position to the quantitatively predominant fulvic acids, which form complexes with iron. These compounds are deposited in the form of weakly polymerized films on fine particles. A weak nutty structure is formed.

The presence of this type has been generally recognized since 1930 under the name either “brown forest” soil or “brown soil”.

For the development of brown soils, the following environmental conditions are necessary: ​​1) broad-leaved (coniferous-deciduous) forests with rich ground grass cover with a powerful nitrogen-calcium cycle of substances; 2) rinsing water regime; 3) subsoil drainage; 4) short soil freezing, providing intense weathering; 5) a relatively small age of soil formation due to the tendency of brown soils to evolve into other types.

Two soil-forming processes dominate in burozems: clay formation of the entire soil column without movement of weathering products down the profile and humus formation with the formation of a dark, but with brown tones due to the predominance of brown humic and fulvic acids, a humus horizon colored by iron oxides. Brown forest soils are always soils of drained slopes or dissected hilly areas. There are no brown soils in the lowlands. The higher the slope, the more humus.

A very common particular soil-forming process is lessivage, that is, the slow washing of silt particles in the form of suspensions into the B horizon. The profile of brown forest soils is characterized by weak differentiation, thin (20-25 cm) humus (4-6% humus, up to 12 %) horizon. The gray-brown humus horizon is replaced by an influx horizon Bm (50-60 cm) with a lumpy-nutty structure. A diagnostic feature of such soils is the presence of clay mountains. B in the absence of eluvial horizons. The degree of browning depends on the content of free iron hydroxides.

Clay formation in the brown soil profile can be the result of both the transformation of primary minerals and the synthesis of clays from ionic components.

Transformations of micas into illite are especially common, and the brown color predominantly determines the deposition of goethite.

The soil-forming material is usually loess-like pale yellow loam, sometimes with carbonate formations. The aqueous extract has a medium reaction close to neutral. The large number of silt particles causes a significant absorption capacity with a predominance of calcium.

Burozems have a lot of transitional forms with other types. On International map world FAO/UNESCO such soils are called cambisols. In Soviet taxonomy, in addition to ordinary burozems, gleyic, podzolic-brown, podzolic-brown gleyic, meadow burozems were distinguished (especially common in Far East). High moisture capacity with good water permeability, good thermal properties, significant absorption capacity with a predominance of calcium, and a stable lumpy structure determine a high level of natural fertility. These soils are very fertile with sufficient fertilizers and optimal agricultural technology. The highest grain yields in Europe are obtained on brown forest soils, some of which are occupied by vineyards and orchards. Due to their high water permeability, brown soils are resistant to water erosion, and the clay composition prevents deflation.