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Abstract. Krupnova TG, Rakova OV, Plaksina AL, Gavrilkina SV, Baranov EO, Abramyan AD. 2020. Effect of urban greening and land use on air pollution in Chelyabinsk, Russia. Biodiversitas 21: 2716-2720. Chelyabinsk is a major industrial Russian city that faces diverse environmental issues, the most important of which is air emissions. The primary sources of air pollution in Chelyabinsk are industry (concrete product plants, ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy such as zinc production plants, and pulp production), thermal power stations, and transport. People have known that trees can help to reduce air pollutants for a long time. We studied 8 zones within a radius of one kilometer from state air pollution monitoring stations. Eight land-use types such as industrial category, residential category, natural and semi-natural broadleaved vegetation, natural and semi-natural coniferous vegetation, broadleaved forest, coniferous forest, artificial broadleaved vegetation, and artificial coniferous vegetation, were obtained. The response of air pollution to land-use and urban greening was analyzed. Analysis results showed that there was no correlation between industrial and residential categories of land-using and concentrations of the most dangerous air pollutants in Chelyabinsk (formaldehyde, hydrogen fluoride, and nitrogen dioxide). The dominant factor affecting urban air quality was urban greening.

Aim. To select the maximum variety of landscape structural units from the watershed to the Sintashta river. To determine the boundaries of the recommended specially protected area.Material and Methods. The Sintashta protected area is currently composed of tracts which only represent a small part of steppe landscape diversity: bushy tracts and forb-grass floodplain and part of the herb-grass steppe terraces. Based on field physical geography description and cartography using GIS systems, the maximum variety of tracts from the watershed to the river in the territory within which lies the Sintashta archaeological monument complex (the cluster section of the Arkaim reserve) was identified.Results. The course of separate tracts that characterise the steppe landscape from the watershed to the Sintashta River comprises: inclined-undulating banks with gullies and sagebrush-mixed grass steppe, lowland forb-fescue steppe with birch and pine groves, plains grass grassland bushed grassland, flat interfleuve with feather grass-forb steppe with pine and birch groves.Conclusion. The territory of the Sintashta site is unique in its natural and historical content. Preserving it in the future as a territorial system with its enclosing landscapes and cultural monuments will allow a comprehensive approach to the issues of reconstruction and preservation of the natural environment and the understanding of the economic structure of ancient societies. In ordere to preserve the historical and cultural complex in inseparable connection with the natural landscape, it is recommended that selected key tracts be incorporated in the protected area.