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Main Tendencies in the Dynamics of Floodplain Ecosystems and Landscapes of the Lower Reaches of the Syr Darya River under Modern Changing Conditions

  • SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF ARID TERRITORIES
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Abstract

The Aral disaster led to the almost complete loss of the Aral Sea. After the construction of the Kokaral dam in 2005, it became possible to rescue the northern part of the Aral Sea (the Little Aral). Due to natural (climatic) and anthropogenic causes, the flow of the Syr Darya River increased in the beginning of the 21st century, its hydrological regime changed dramatically, spring-summer floods decreased, and winter discharges significantly increased. All of these changes strongly affected the dynamics of floodplain ecosystems and landscapes. A comprehensive assessment of current trends in the dynamics of ecosystems and landscapes under changing environmental conditions was attempted in the study. The study was carried out based on field material with data from remote sensing of the Sentinel 2 satellite, as well as climatic and hydrological materials. The office and field data were analyzed according to the developed methodology developed by Zh.V. Kuzmina and S.E. Treshkin for the assessment of transformations in ecosystems and landscapes from natural and hydrotechnical disturbances. The main trends were established as follows: hydromorphic saline formation for the second floodplain level of the river valley; a gradual decrease in the groundwater level, accompanied by a gradual increase in soil salinization with depth and the absence of strong salinization at the top for interstream delta depressions; the withdrawal of the territories from the flood regime without increased soil salinization for the third floodplain level and floodplain terrace; the substitution of a typical perennial grass stand due to its freezing and damping on an annual small weed grass due to winter discharges for the depressions of the first and second levels of the floodplain.

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Notes

  1. RCC—the relative rate of change of any parameter reflects the ratio of the modulus changes of the trend parameter values (precipitation, temperature, flow or water levels, groundwater level, etc.) over a multiyear period to the modulus of amplitude of the actual (measured) values of this parameter in the multiyear aspect: \(RCC = \frac{{\left| {\left. {F({{g}_{n}}) - F({{g}_{1}})} \right|} \right.}}{{\left| {\left. {{{g}_{{\max }}} - {{g}_{{\min }}}} \right|} \right.}}100\% \), where F(g1) and F(g2) the initial and final values of the linear trend of the estimated characteristics (in this case, precipitation), and gmax and gmin – maximal and minimal actual (measured) values of this parameter (precipitation) over a long-term period (Kuzmina and Treshkin, 2014).

  2. Alkaline degree of soil salinity is taken at a dry residue of 1% or more (author’s note).

  3. The determination of salinization was carried out in the soil analysis laboratory of the Federal Scientific Center for Agroecology, complex amelioration and protective afforestation of the Russian Academy of Sciences and is given based on dry residue.

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Funding

This work was carried out on the topic of the Research Activity of Water Problems Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (State task no. 0147-2019-0002) “Modeling and forecasting the processes of restoration of water and ecosystem quality under various scenarios of climate change and anthropogenic activity” (State registration number AAAA-A18-118022090104-8), and the topic of Research Activity of the Federal Research Center for Agroecology, Integrated Land Reclamation and Protective Afforestation of the Russian Academy of Sciences “Performance of theoretical and geo-information modeling, monitoring, forecasting of the degradation processes of components of agro-forest landscape on the basis of aerospace research in the forest-steppe, steppe and desert zones and develop management methods for anti-degradation agroforestry technologies for the prevention of desertification of lands, increase their fertility and formation of an ecological framework” (State registration number AAAA-A16-116122010038-9).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Water Problems Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119333, Moscow, Russia

    Zh. V. Kuz’mina

  2. Volgograd State University, 400062, Volgograd, Russia

    S. S. Shinkarenko & D. A. Solodovnikov

  3. Federal Scientific Center for Agroecology, Integrated Land Reclamation and Protective Forest Development, Russian Academy of Sciences, 400062, Volgograd, Russia

    S. S. Shinkarenko

Authors
  1. Zh. V. Kuz’mina
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  2. S. S. Shinkarenko
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  3. D. A. Solodovnikov
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Correspondence to Zh. V. Kuz’mina, S. S. Shinkarenko or D. A. Solodovnikov.

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Conflict of interest. The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Statement of animal welfare. All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. The article does not concern any studies using animals as objects.

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Translated by V. Mittova

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Kuz’mina, Z.V., Shinkarenko, S.S. & Solodovnikov, D.A. Main Tendencies in the Dynamics of Floodplain Ecosystems and Landscapes of the Lower Reaches of the Syr Darya River under Modern Changing Conditions. Arid Ecosyst 9, 226–236 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1134/S207909611904005X

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