An introduction to Russian geoecology through a tribute to Professor Sergei Gorshkov

• Main Authors: Touchart, Laurent, Motchalova, Olga, Bartout, Pascal
• Other Authors: Centre d'Etudes pour le Développement des Territoires et l'Environnement (CEDETE), Université d'Orléans (UO)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: French
• Published: HAL CCSD 2020
• Subjects: Sergei Gorshkov’s biography; epistemology of Russian geography; Vernadsky; biosphere; geoecology; biofiltration; homeostasis; epicontinental sea; biographie de Sergueï Gorchkov; épistémologie de la géographie russe; Vernadski; biosphère; géoécologie; homéostasie; mer épicontinentale; [SHS.GEO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Geography; permafrost; Siberia
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03698544

International audience This paper is a testimony to the life of Professor Sergei Gorshkov (1932-2018), one of the pioneers of Russian geoecology, and it finalizes a scientific story he left unfinished. The two first biographical parts reveal unpublished anecdotes about the life of Sergei Gorshkov, which he himself told the authors, and emphasize the field missions in Siberia, which awakened in him the consideration of the entirety of the geographical environment. Like pedology for Dokuchaev, permafrost science became Sergei Gorshkov the melting pot of all environmental components. To understand the evolution of Siberian cryolithozone, this geomorphologist studied climate, vegetation, and waters. His works with geologists instilled in him the consideration of long-time scales and he became passionate about paleo-environments. The third scientific part first explains the consequences of the tendency to replace the oceanic crust by the continental crust. Therefore, inorganic and biogenic spheres evolve in the opposite direction. The first one casts away the excess crystallochemical energy inherent in the inert matter of the Earth mantle. The second one, while becoming more complex, increases its energy potential linked to the mineral associations of the metamorphic basement and to its sedimentary cover rich in solar energy accumulated by biogenic factors. If we consider that geoecology must be based on the understanding of the homeostasis of the biosphere, then we must study a kind of resilience of the highest level of organization on global world scale, with the difference that the resilience leads to a return to initial equilibrium, while homeostasis leads to a new equilibrium. The homeostatic function of productive biofiltration of the ocean dominates all others in its overall scale. Thanks to this biofiltration, solar radiation penetrates the ocean. This heat storage is transferred by advection to the air masses which discharge their wetness on the continents and increase biomass of terrestrial ecosystems. ...