Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Sustainable development and creeping environmental problems in the Aral Sea region
- 2 Ecological disaster linked to landscape composition changes in the Aral Sea basin
- 3 Alteration of water level and salinity of the Aral Sea
- 4 Desertification in the Aral Sea region
- 5 Climate fluctuations and change in the Aral Sea basin within the last 50 years
- 6 Priaralye ecosystems and creeping environmental changes in the Aral Sea
- 7 Public health in the Aral Sea coastal region and the dynamics of changes in the ecological situation
- 8 The impact of political ideology on creeping environmental changes in the Aral Sea basin
- 9 Change of the rivers' flow in the Aral Sea basin (in connection with the problem of quantitative assessment and consideration of environmental after-effects)
- 10 Fish population as an ecosystem component and economic object in the Aral Sea basin
- 11 Creeping environmental changes in the Karakum Canal's zone of impact
- 12 Environmental changes in the Uzbek part of the Aral Sea basin
- 13 Creeping changes in biological communities in the Aral Sea
- Index
4 - Desertification in the Aral Sea region
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Sustainable development and creeping environmental problems in the Aral Sea region
- 2 Ecological disaster linked to landscape composition changes in the Aral Sea basin
- 3 Alteration of water level and salinity of the Aral Sea
- 4 Desertification in the Aral Sea region
- 5 Climate fluctuations and change in the Aral Sea basin within the last 50 years
- 6 Priaralye ecosystems and creeping environmental changes in the Aral Sea
- 7 Public health in the Aral Sea coastal region and the dynamics of changes in the ecological situation
- 8 The impact of political ideology on creeping environmental changes in the Aral Sea basin
- 9 Change of the rivers' flow in the Aral Sea basin (in connection with the problem of quantitative assessment and consideration of environmental after-effects)
- 10 Fish population as an ecosystem component and economic object in the Aral Sea basin
- 11 Creeping environmental changes in the Karakum Canal's zone of impact
- 12 Environmental changes in the Uzbek part of the Aral Sea basin
- 13 Creeping changes in biological communities in the Aral Sea
- Index
Summary
The Aral Sea region is a classic one for investigation of the processes of anthropogenic desertification in the arid parts of Central Asia. The rapid dynamics of those processes, sparked by the decline of Aral Sea level, and the pollution of river and sea waters among other problems, have taken place in plain view during the span of one generation. Desertification is manifested in the intense degradation of natural resources up to the point of their complete depletion in a given area. Desertification processes observed on the dried part of the newly exposed seabed are especially highly dynamic, having changed within a relatively short period of time. Comprehensive studies of regional desertification processes are of special importance to the development of the concepts and methods needed to plan for the control of those processes on the basis of scientific research.
Scale of desertification
The most negative effect on the environment of the drying out of the Aral Sea is in the delta plains of the Amudarya and Syrdarya, and in a radius of influence of the atmosphere on relative humidity and the temperature regime at a distance of 150–200 km in the southwestern direction. At the same time, the impact of the drying sea has been insignificant on the composition of coastal sediments on the Ustyurt Plateau and in the eastern part of the sea's periphery (the northwest Kyzylkum part of the Aral Sea region).
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999
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