Land cover dynamics of Oleshky Sands: time-series analysis 1987-2017 (original) (raw)
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For the first time assessment and mapping of desertification have been performed in Russia at the 1 : 2500000 scale using data of geometrical sounding of the earth and in accordance with the approaches recommended by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). It is shown that desertified areas, areas experiencing desertification, and areas threatened by desertification occupy about 1250000 km2. Nineteen causes of changes in natural and natural-artificial systems, seven degradation trends, and three progradation trends are recognized. Data on their prevalence are also presented. Top-priority objectives in combating desertification are outlined.
Assessment and Geographical Zoning of Desertification in Russian Federation
The desertification assessment and mapping (1:1.5 mln.) of the southern (semi-arid) belt of Russian Federation has been taken out using the comprehensive methodology based on the UNCCD approaches and space imagery processing. The map shows the areas of the main chains of causes and impacts and the rate of desertification trends and risks. One of the distinctive peculiarities of the assessment is demonstration not only of degradation but both land improvement (progradation) trends. It has been shown that about 1 220 000 sq. km in the Russian Federation or 7.2% of its area are prone to desertification or desertification risk. A set of indicators and diagnostic keys has been elaborated for the purpose of desertification assessment at the regional and local levels. A geographical zoning of desertification has been developed, which includes 15 desertification provinces subdivided into 58 districts differ in combinations of desertification risks, trends and rates, and in regional peculiarities of land use. A set of policy oriented recommendations are suggested Keywords: desertification, mapping, zoning
To the Treatment and Interpretation of the “Desertification” Term in Russia
Abstract—The article discusses the issue on contradictions and shortcomings in the application and inter pretation in official documents of the Government of the Russian Federation (State reports, projects, and programmes) of the “desertification” term used in the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) ratified by Russia in 2003. The attention is paid that the risks connected with these contradictions can cause an inhibition of preparation and implementation of measures combating desertification and soil degradation in Russia. Two different consistent approaches are offered for the further use of this term for internal political and legislative purposes, including state programmes in the Russian Federation. Keywords: desertification, land degradation, soil degradation, drought, UNCCD (Convention to combat desertification)
Vegetation changes within the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, Ukraine
Environmental & Socio-economic Studies, 2023
The article presents data from the study of vegetation dynamics in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone 30 years after the nuclear disaster and the resettlement of its local people. The 1993 prognostic data on the further development of grass and forest community groups in this area was only partially correct. The new prognosis for demutation successions reflects deviations from the linear development with a possible horizontal "shift", depending on climatic conditions, bio-ecological features of plants, as well as the impact of fires. Based on the analysis of recent data from geobotanical studies of the vegetation, the values of ecofactors that determine the course of demutation of communities were calculated. In particular, the classic course of succession is now inherent in the former settlements of the exclusion zone where the formation of forests takes place. In the old fallow lands, the previously prevailing Elytrigia repens has lost its dominant position, and has been replaced by Calamagrostis epigejos, which we associate with a certain deficiency of nitrogen compounds in the soil. The allelopathic properties of cereals inhibit the process of replacing grass communities with forest ones, which affects the course of succession. The issues of demutation of residential areas of the Exclusion Zone are considered and the sequence of changes in different habitats is described. Post-pyrogenic changes in the forest vegetation are noted and the capacity of invasive plant species to invade natural ecosystems are characterized. It is emphasized that frequent and large-scale fires cause a significant imbalance in forest ecosystems, and result in the appearance of a largenumber of alien species.
of the Zadroże Dune near the city of Toruń: Comparison of the conditions in 1948 and 2009
2016
The relief of the Zadroże Dune was described, as well as the comparison was done on its vegetation cover and the flora in its two phases of the development, i.e. before the afforestation of the dune and approximately 60 years after reconstruction of the forest. The first state was described in the paper dated 1949. During that period the dune constituted the first common study area for the research team consisting of ecologists and geographers from the Nicolaus Copernicus University. Our contemporary scientific studies were carried out in 2009. In the comparative analysis, a particular attention was paid to the distribution, the number and the size of heath patches with Arctostaphylos uva-ursi. In the description of the contemporary state of vegetation, the structure and the biomass of tree stands were included. The GIS and GPS technologies were applied in the comparative analysis of the vegetation, in the comparison of the former and contemporary cartographic materials, aerial and satellite images, as well as in the development of a digital elevation model. As a result of comparisons of the vegetation cover, it was found that the surface area of heaths decreased from 59.21 ares in 1948 to 2.96 ares in 2009. As a result of comparisons of the flora, it was found that 7 and 26 species of lichens occurred in 1948 and 2009 respectively, 5 and 42 species of mosses, 0 and 7 species of liverworts, as well as 102 and 204 species of vascular plants. The number of families, within which the species of vascular plants are classified, increased from 31 to 52. The compared floras have only 66 species in common. The percentage contribution of geographical and historical groups has undergone only inconsiderable changes during the 60-year period. Contribution proportions of non-synanthropic spontaneophytes and apophytes has changed slightly. Whereas, the contribution of alien species, mainly kenophytes and ergasiophytes significantly increased. This paper discuss the significance of natural and anthropogenic factors, which brought about this considerable range of transformations in the species composition and in the contribution of alien species.
STEPPES MADE DESERTS INTO IRRIGATED AGRICULTURAL AREAS IN UZBEKISTAN (Еxampling Mirzachul steppe)
Web of Scientist: International Scientific Research Journal, 3(6), 1015–1020. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/UKQ42, 2022
This article contains the authors' research on the resettlement policy of the Soviet government in the Uzbek SSR for the development of nature reserves and gray lands. It included the propaganda work of the Soviet government to relocate the local population to the newly developed lands (in the example of Mirzachul), the impact of labor migration on the living standards of the population, the development of cotton monoculture, as well as the forced relocation of the population. issues such as socioeconomic status.
Community Ecology, 2013
A key driver of biodiversity loss is human landscape transformation. Change detection and trajectory analysis are frequently applied methods for studying landscape change. We studied to what degree habitatspecific change detection and trajectory analysis provide different information on landscape change compared to the analysis with land-cover statistics. Our research was carried out at two spatial scales (regional, 1800 km 2 , 360 random points; local, 23 km 2 , polygon-based maps) in the Kiskunság, Hungary. Spatio-temporal databases were prepared using historical maps, aerial photos and satellite images from 1783, 1883, 1954, and 2009. Local expert knowledge of landscape history and recent vegetation was used during the historical reconstructions. We found large differences at both scales between land-cover based and habitat-specific analyses. Habitatspecific change detection revealed that grassland loss was not continuous in the different habitats, as land-cover based analysis implied. Ploughing affected open sand grasslands and sand steppes differently in different periods. It was only apparent from the habitat-specific analyses that from the grasslands only mesotrophic and Molinia meadows were relatively constant, up until the 1950s. The gradual increase in forest area revealed by land-cover CHD analyses was split into natural and anthropogenic processes by habitat-specific analyses. Habitat specific trajectory analysis also revealed ecologically important historical differences between habitats. Afforestation affected especially the open sand grasslands, whereas wetland habitats were relatively stable. The most important trajectory was the one in which closed sand steppes were ploughed during the 19 th century, and remained arable fields until present. Fifty percent of the regional trajectories of 18 th century open sand grasslands terminated in tree plantations at present, though 82% of the current open sand grasslands of the local site can be regarded as ancient. We concluded that dividing land-cover categories into finer habitat categories offered an opportunity for a more precise historical analysis of key habitats, and could reveal important ecological processes that cannot be reconstructed with land-cover based analyses. It also highlighted habitat-specific processes making natural and social drivers better interpretable. Information on the diversity of habitat-histories may serve as a basis for spatially more explicit conservation management.
Survival and Sustainability, 2010
The Algerian steppe has become for a few years the theatre of an ecological and climatic imbalance. The intense degradation for this fragile medium (stranding wind erosion, overgrazing, clearing, salinisation ….) inducing the turning into a desertification require a better comprehension in order to see how to fight against this plague and to adapt an adequate installation to him. Thus, this work lies within the scope of the follow-up of the phenomenon of the turning into a desertification on a space with the heart of the high Oranian southem steppe plains, in fact the area of Mecheria. Techniques of numerical cartography, since the satellite image processing until the geographic information systems (SIG) for the realization of the charts sets of themes, being able to highlight this calamity. The use of the approaches based on the exploitation of the satellite data multi dates (1998 & 2004) of the sensor Thematic Mapper (TM) of Landsat 5 permitted us to obtain a gathering of an interpretative photo maps and vegetation index which , in their turn , helped us to see the changes arrived in the medium , copiously regressive that progressive.
The Central Asian ergs: A study by remote sensing and geographic information systems
Aeolian Research, 2011
Ergs are large, relatively flat areas of deserts covered by wind-swept sand and with varying degrees of vegetation cover. The ergs of Central Asia extend from Turkmenistan to the Syr-Darya River in Kazakhstan. They are crossed by the Amu-Darya River, to the north and south of which lie Kyzyl-Kum and Kara-Kum, respectively. This research focuses on identifying and mapping the ergs of Central Asia and analyzing the climate factors that set the dunes in motion and that later stabilize them. The vast area encompassed by the Central Asian ergs and their inaccessibility make traditional mapping methods virtually impossible. A variety of spaceborne imagery with varying spectral and spatial resolutions was used. These images provided the basis for mapping sand distribution, dune forms, and vegetation cover. Wilson (1973) defined the Central Asian ergs as active based on precipitation. Our results, in contrast, show that these ergs are mostly stabilized, with the estimated sand mantled area for the Kara-Kum desert ∼260,000 km2, and for the Kyzyl-Kum it is ∼195,500 km2. Meteorological analysis of wind and precipitation data indicate a low wind power environment (DP < 200) and sufficient rainfall (>100 mm) to support vegetation. The age of the sand samples was determined by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) (∼5–7 Ka), which provides insight about past climate characteristics. GIS analysis was performed in parallel with field work to obtain validation and verification.► We mapped the Central Asian sands using remote sensing. ► The Sandy area of the Kara-Kum ∼260,000 km2, and of the Kyzyl-Kum is ∼195,500 km2. ► The wind power environment is low (DP < 200). ► Rainfall is above threshold to support vegetation (>100 mm). ► OSL ages of the sands are ∼5–7 Ka.