From Aral Sea to Aralkum: An Ecological Disaster or Halophytes’ Paradise

Abstract

The Aral Sea no longer exists. Only the Small Aral Sea has now again a constant water level. The former Aral Sea, once the fourth largest lake on the globe, is almost dry, and the desiccated seafloor is a new desert, called the Aralkum. It is the source of salt-enriched dust and sandstorms. These are affecting large proportions of the villages and agricultural systems in the whole region, as well as livelihood and health of the people. This new desert has developed within about 50 years. It is caused by human activities; thus, it is an artificial desert, but all the ongoing processes follow natural laws and are most interesting for science. The area can be called the largest primary succession experiment of mankind or depending on viewpoint, one of the biggest ecological catastrophes. About 70 {\%} of the area is salt desert; thus, halophytes play a major role. One-fourth of the flora are species from Chenopodiaceae. Within the last decades, many new developmental projects have been performed in the region. However, most of them need basic knowledge which only can be provided by scientific expertise. So it is necessary to bring together interdisciplinary and international scientists not only on ecology and geography (with remote sensing and GIS methods), but also climatologists and soil scientists, with social science and economy as well as with nature conservation organisations, developmental and health agencies, and other main stakeholders of the area. Research on the scientific aspects of the Aralkum area has been done in the last years, mainly on dust storms and climate, on soil substrate, but also on vegetation dynamics and flora, as well as on the specific site conditions in such a continental salt desert which are the basis of highly diverse and dynamic halophytic communities adjacent to the tugai woodlands, the riverine forest remnants.