Research from Tatarstan between 2018-23 reviewing winter bird species richness: We show for the first time the results of a study into the spatial distribution of birds in forests at the eastern edge of Europe (Republic of Tatarstan, Russia) and changes from early to late winter. A transect method was used to census randomly selected…
Category: Central Asia
Remote sensing of Mongolian grasslands
Mongolia has 156 million hectares of grasslands, with approximately two-thirds as pasture and 1.7 million hectares for agriculture. Over half of Mongolia’s grasslands are classified as degraded, partly due to overgrazing. They wish to improve monitoring of vegetation health. With global desertification increasing alongside global temperature rise, researchers at the Botanic Garden and Research Institute…
Understanding climate politics in Central Asia – interview with Alina Bychkova
Alina Bychkova has nearly completed her PhD thesis ‘Understanding climate change narratives in Central Asia: science, politics and media discussions’ at Nottingham Trent University. She co-published ‘Kazakhstan’s climate change policy: reflecting national strength, green economy aspirations and international agenda’, Post-Communist Economies,34:7,894-915,DOI: 10.1080/14631377.2021.1943916 What is your PHD and how is it going? My PhD is in…
Dust detectors in the Aral Sea basin
The Aral Sea repeatedly appeared and disappeared over the last century but has now steadily decreased as the dust increased, resulting in desertification. There is still water in the north of the Aral Sea but the ‘desert’ lakebed in the middle has more dust and sandstorms than anywhere else in the world. Researchers used two…
Linking science and action – how to resolve water challenges in Central Asia
With its mixed continental climate, Central Asia faces unstable periods of draughts and rains. This has led to serious water shortages across the regions (Fig. 1) followed by escalating water-based conflicts between countries, increased hunger and threatened economics. However, despite the scientific progress and the continuous international effort, Central Asian water management institutes still rely on…
Cottoning onto warmer farming in Central Asia #climate
Researchers from the Voeikov Main Geophysical Observatory, Saint Petersburg have assessed future climate change impacts on agriculture in the Central Asian republics. The analysis looks at the consequences of global warming for the main branches of agriculture in Central Asia, such as cotton, wheat and barley by the middle of 21st century. They found that…
Russian Climate Research 