Possible scenarios of the Aral Sea crisis solution are discussed, and a new scenario is proposed. Previous scenarios have provided for the transfer of water from Siberian Rivers to Central Asia and the restriction of unsustainable expansion of irriga...
A buffer zone can be used to analyze the influence of the lake on the surrounding spatial elements, which is of great significance for discussing the problems of lake retreat, vegetation degradation, and overall environmental deterioration in the Ara...
The South Aral Sea has been massively affected by the implementation of a mega-irrigation project in the region, but ground-based observations have monitored the Sea poorly. This study is a comprehensive analysis of the mass balance of the South Aral...
The Aral Sea is an indispensable component of the socio-economic progress of Central Asia but has undergone substantial ecological transformations over the last few decades, primarily due to global warming and human activities. Among these changes, t...
Once one of the largest saline lakes, the Aral Sea, was recognized as a significant environmental disaster as the water level decreased dramatically. Water level decrease increases water salinity, affecting biodiversity. Exposed lake beds become the...
The Aral Sea in Central Asia plays an essential role in the socio-economic development of the region. During the last six decades, there has been remarkable changes observed in the water level and areal extent of the Aral Sea Basin; however, the caus...
Ice gouging, or scouring, i.e., ice impact on the seabed, is a well-studied phenomenon in high-latitude seas. In the mid-latitudes, it remains one of the major geomorphic processes in freezing seas and large lakes. Research efforts concerning its pat...
29 October 2022
With the desiccation of the Aral Sea, salt–alkali dust storms have increased in frequency and the surrounding environment has deteriorated. In order to increase our understanding of the characteristics and potential impact zone of atmospheric a...
Inland water storage change is a fundamental part of the hydrologic cycle, which reflects the impact of climate change and anthropogenic activities on water resources. In this study, we used multisatellite data (from satellite altimetry, remote sensi...
Agriculture contributes the most to the economy and provides agro-ecological benefits in the environmentally unsustainable Aral Sea region, but its productivity is steadily dropping. To improve the resilience of farming communities in the region, cro...
The burial of organic carbon in lake sediments plays an important role in the terrestrial carbon cycle. Clarifying the current status of carbon burial in the lakes of Central Asia is of great significance for the application of carbon balance assessm...
The paper examines ecotourism in the Aral Sea region of Uzbekistan, an area with a fragile environment that has faced ecological crises and requires careful sustainable development. It looks at the supply side of ecotourism by examining Uzbekistani t...
During the last few decades, the rapid separation of the Small Aral Sea from the isolated basin has changed its hydrological and ecological conditions tremendously. In the present study, we developed and validated the hybrid model for the Syr Darya R...
The long-term reduction of the Aral Sea area has led to an ecological catastrophe and a deterioration in the health of the population. The progressing demographic crisis necessitates research on factors that negatively impact the fertility of the pop...
One of the worst natural, economic, and social catastrophes caused by human activity is the Aral Sea crisis in Central Asia. The Aral Sea’s desiccation, which has an impact on the region’s overall sustainable development, human welfare, security, and...
The accurate calculation of sustainable development indicators is essential for the accurate assessment of the Sustainable Development Goals. This study develops a methodology that combines nighttime light indices, population distribution data, and s...
Common carp (Cyprinus carpio) is a widespread freshwater fish species of the Cyprinidae family, one of the largest and most diverse fish families. The natural habitats of C. carpio extend from Western Europe to South-East Asia. Common carp has remain...
The Aral Sea basin (ASB) is one of the most environmentally vulnerable regions to climate change and human activities. During the past 60 years, irrigation has greatly changed the water distribution and caused severe environmental issues in the ASB....
The Aral Sea has received worldwide attention for the deterioration of its biological and chemical status. The accumulation of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in the lake sediments reflects changes in the surrounding watershed and represents a pote...
The current status of the barbels inhabiting the Kazakhstan section of the Syrdarya River needs special study, as has been noted since the second half of the 20th century. Stocks of commercial fish valuable in the past as barbels in the Aral–Sy...
The dust originating from the extinct lake of the Aral Sea poses a considerable threat to the surrounding communities and ecosystems. The accurate location of these wind erosion areas is an essential prerequisite for controlling sand and dust activit...
Central Asia (CA) faces growing Water–Energy–Food (WEF) Nexus challenges, due to its complex transboundary water management, legacy Soviet-era water infrastructure, and increasing climate and socio-economic pressures. This study presents...
The surface water area and types in the Aral Sea Basin (ASB) have undergone extensive changes due to the impacts of climate change and anthropogenic activities. This study explores the changes in the surface water area in the ASB based on the Google...
The dramatic shrinkage of the Aral Sea in the past decades has inevitably led to an environmental calamity. Existing knowledge on the variations and potential transport of atmospheric aerosols from the Aral Sea Basin (ASB) is limited. To bridge this...
Energy plays an essential role in the modern society and can serve as one of the vital parameters of socio-economic development. Despite developments in technology, over three billion persons living in rural parts of the low- and middle-income countr...
Two freshwater rivers, the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, flow into the Aral Sea, but they began to diminish in the early 1960s, and by the 1980s, the lake had nearly ceased to exist due to excessive water consumption for agriculture and the unsustainable...
19 November 2025
The legacy of Soviet-era agricultural practices in Central Asia has contributed to severe environmental degradation through residual organochlorine pesticide contamination, dramatic reduction in surface water, and the near-total desiccation of the Ar...
18 September 2022
Along with pharmacological applications due to bioactive elements such as flavonoids and glycyrrhizin, licorice has positive influences on the rehabilitation, rejuvenation, and management of salt-affected degraded lands in arid regions. These feature...
Endophytes associated with halophytes may contribute to the host’s adaptation to adverse environmental conditions through improving their stress tolerance and protecting them from various soil-borne pathogens. In this study, the diversity and antifun...
The Aral Sea basin is the most active source of salt-dust storms in the central Asian region, while its exposed bottom is acting as a “distributer” of salts and chemicals over the adjoining areas. In this study, the Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian...
The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and its successor, the GRACE Follow-On (GRACE-FO) gravity satellite missions, have been providing monthly gravity field solutions for almost 20 years, enabling a unique opportunity to monitor large-...
Biodiversity conservation entails not only the preservation of specific taxa but also genetic diversity. Despite the crucial role of molecular data in freshwater fish conservation management, there is a scarcity of information regarding the genetic d...
The intensity of agricultural activities and the characteristics of water consumption affect the hydrological processes of inland river basins in Central Asia. The crop water requirements and water productivity are different between the Amu Darya and...
Based on water sampling of the upper reaches of the Syr River and its tributaries from the parts of Aral Sea Basin in Kyrgyzstan, the chemical compositions of river waters were systematically analyzed for revealing the hydrochemical characteristics a...
The aim of this work was to study the possibility of using medicinal plants in combination with salt-containing raw materials from the Aral Sea region for cosmetic purposes. The chemical and mineralogical compositions of salts occurring in this regio...
The rapid desiccation of the Aral Sea has transformed the region into one of the world’s most severe soil wind-erosion hotspots. Despite growing concern, long-term, high-resolution assessments and driver attribution remain insufficient. This st...
Cropland abandonment is globally widespread and has strong repercussions for regional food security and the environment. Statistics suggest that one of the hotspots of abandoned cropland is located in the drylands of the Aral Sea Basin (ASB), which c...
This study investigates how life expectancy is influenced by CO2 emissions, health spending, GDP, water usage, agricultural output, and renewable and non-renewable energy consumption within the Aral Sea basin, which is an environmentally catastrophic...
The fine particles produced during the desertification process provide a rich material source for sand and dust activities. Accurately locating the desertified areas is a prerequisite for human intervention in sand and dust activities. In arid and se...
In arid-zone water resource management and water-security assessment, changes in water-body volume are key indicators of water availability and regulation performance. However, arid-zone lakes often lack sufficient bathymetric information to constrai...
Understanding the factors driving the farmers’ decisions to diversify their crop production is important for management strategies and policies promoting climate-smart agricultural development. Options for diversification and its associated dri...
The average monthly profiles of the dust extinction coefficient (ε) were analyzed according to the CALIOP lidar data from 2006–2021 for 24 cells (size of 2° × 5°) in the Aral-Caspian arid region (ACAR; 38–48°N, 5...
Assessing the impacts of human activities on the variations in terrestrial water storage (TWS) is essential for water resource management, particularly in regions like the Aral Sea Basin which suffers from severe water scarcity. In this study, the va...
The huge decrease in water volume in the Aral Sea, which was caused predominately by enormous water withdrawals from the Aral Sea tributaries, has changed the former world’s fourth-biggest inland lake into a new desert called Aralkum. Due to it...
The incredible drying of the Aral Sea has resulted in a large area of exposed seafloor with saline soils, which has led to catastrophic consequences. This study investigated ground-truth soil salinity data and used Landsat data to map the soil salini...
Protective forests play a crucial role in ecosystems, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions, where they provide irreplaceable ecological functions such as windbreaks, sand fixation, soil and water conservation, and climate regulation. This study...
Due to the falling water level in the Aral Sea and Muynak Lake, the content of salts dissolved in the water has gradually increased, and toxic elements have been deposited at the lake’s bottom and subsequently washed into the Aral region by the...
The Aral Sea Basin (ASB), situated in Central Asia, serves as a prime example of a man-made environmental disaster. The practice of irrigation can be traced back to ancient times. However, the substantial water withdrawals that have occurred since th...
The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission, operational from 2002 to 2017, provided critical measurements of Earth’s gravity field anomalies which have been extensively used to study groundwater and terrestrial water storage (T...
The water-energy-food (WEF) nexus is a holistic concept used to understand the synergies and trade-offs of interdependent water, energy, and food resources. Despite its widespread use, this concept often overlooks environmental concerns. In addition,...
of 4