Current changes in the vegetation of the Amu Dar’ya delta

Abstract

The flora of the Amu Dar’ya delta and the nature of its changes following recent anthropogenic desertification is one of the most thoroughly studied research topics concerning problems of the Aral Sea. Numerous publications and dissertations (Bachiev 1985, Bachiev et al. 1989; Kabulov 1990, Maylun 1964, Mamutov 1990, Novikova 1992, Treshkin, 1990 and others) indicate the nature of the transformation of the tugai communities, document the process as one of degradation, and predict their demise and replacement by solonchak desert (Figure 1). Until the second half of the 1980s, predicted changes have indeed occurred, but processes of vegetation transformation under the impact of environmental aridity continues and has not yet been described. Here, I am concerned not with vegetation degradation but with the processes of formation of stable desert communities. Apart from rapid increases in repetitive inundation of the delta, commencing in the mid-1980s and generally regarded in a positive light, there has also been further environmental destabilization of the delta, and this has led to degradation of the vegetation. In this connection, the present work aims to assess the current dynamic state and likely changes in the vegetation in the near and distant future.