The countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus are linked by travel and trade, which is promoted by visa-free mobility across borders. Unfortunately, this migrant mobility has given rise to the transmission of various infections within this region. O...
This article is the continuation of a study by authors to create the most complete and representative earthquake catalogs with a unified magnitude scale. The catalog created of the Ossetian sector of the Greater Caucasus (the territory of the Republi...
12 December 2024
Geological mapping provides vital information about the structure, evolution, natural resource potential, and geohazards of a specific area. The role of geological mapping is especially valuable for mountainous countries like Georgia. In this context...
Rock glaciers are an integral part of the periglacial environment. At the regional scale in the Greater Caucasus, there have been no comprehensive systematic efforts to assess the distribution of rock glaciers, although some individual parts of range...
Field investigations in the northwestern segment of the Greater Caucasus, a Late Cenozoic orogen, have permitted the establishment of two new geosites, namely the Ubin and Bezeps geosites. Both represent Berriasian–Middle Valanginian (Early Cre...
The Greater Caucasus is a part of seismically active Alpine–Himalayan orogenic belt and has been a center of significant volcanic activity during the Quaternary period. That led to the formation of the number of hydrothermal habitats, including...
This paper discusses the joint impact of catchment complexity in topography, tectonics, climate, landuse patterns, and lithology on the suspended sediment yield (SSY, t km−2 year−1) in the Caucasus region using measurements from 244 gauging stations...
The charophytes in many regions of the world are still poorly understood. This hampers the synthesis of distributional and ecological datasets at worldwide and continental scales, as well as complicates the generalization of species concepts for wide...
Nowadays, much attention has been paid to the study of the specific activity of radionuclides on the surface of glaciers. This work is devoted to the study of specific activity of natural (K-40, U-235, U-238, Th-232) and anthropogenic (Cs-137) radion...
Supra-glacial debris cover is important for the control of surface ice melt and glacier retreat in mountain regions. Despite the progress in techniques based on various satellite imagery, the mapping of debris-covered glacier boundaries over large re...
Climate-change-induced environmental impacts has an especially strong influence on water resources. Declining water availability not only results in droughts, but is also responsible for decreasing the quality of water in water-scarce regions, such a...
Glaciers and snow in the Caucasus are major sources of runoff for populated places in many parts of this mountain region. These glaciers have shown a continuous area decrease; however, the magnitude of mass balance changes at the regional scale need...
In this study, we used culture-independent analysis based on 16S rRNA gene amplicons and metagenomics to explore in depth the microbial communities and their metabolic capabilities of artisanal brine cheeses made in the North Caucasus. Additionally,...
This paper analyzes and reviews the rapid uplifts of the Earth’s crust in the Caucasus that occurred over the last century. The uplifts were registered by precise repeated state leveling and reflected on officially published maps of vertical mo...
Granitoids are known to crop out on ancient seashores, but the related geological evidence remains limited. The information from the Western Caucasus sheds light on the stratigraphical distribution of coarse siliciclastic beds associated with late Ca...
In this study, there was an attempt to estimate seismic hazard in terms of b-value distribution over the southern slope of Greater Caucasus (Azerbaijan). The southern slope of Caucasus (Azerbaijan) is influenced by tectonic activity driven by Arabian...
In this paper, we use survey data from the South Caucasus countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia) to document the presence of gender gaps in the labor market and examine its consequences. To do the analysis, we use a numerical general-equilibriu...
Common walnut (Juglans regia L.) is a valuable nut crop widely distributed within the temperate climate zone. It has several secondary centers of origin associated with refugia formed during the LGM (Last Glacial Maximum) period, one of which was pre...
Background: In 2023, tuberculosis (TB) caused 1.25 million deaths globally, remaining a leading infectious killer. Central Asia and Southern Caucasus face high TB burdens, particularly Mongolia. This review synthesizes TB prevalence data and diagnost...
The Caucasus is a diverse region with many climate zones that range from subtropical lowlands to mountainous alpine areas. The region is marked by irrigated croplands fed by irrigation canals, heavily vegetated wetlands, lakes, and reservoirs. In thi...
The paper analyzes the state and dynamics of key actors and institutions that regulate the use of resources within the protected areas of the North Caucasus, using the examples of the Teberda Biosphere Reserve and the Elbrus National Park. The networ...
Background: Investigations that are focused on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (AMF) biodiversity is still limited. The analysis of the AMF taxa in the North Caucasus, a temperate biodiversity hotspot, used to be limited to the genus level. This study...
Mountain glaciers are sensitive indicators of climate variability, and their retreat since the end of the Little Ice Age (LIA) has strongly reshaped alpine environments worldwide. In the Greater Caucasus, glacier shrinkage has accelerated over the pa...
The first list of terrestrial enchytraeids of the north-western Caucasus includes 24 species belonging to seven genera. A new enchytraeid species of the genus Fridericia, Fridericia gongalskyi sp. nov., is described. It clearly differs from other spe...
Supra-glacial material, including light-absorbing impurities (LAI) such as mineral dust of crustal and soil origin, black carbon, algae and cryoconite, reduce the reflectance of snow and glacier ice. The reduction depends on the amount of LAI and the...
Relief inversion is the result of an unusual interplay between landform evolution and peculiarities of geological settings. Recent fieldwork in Mountainous Adygeya in the western part of the Greater Caucasus mountains has enabled the identification o...
The Caucasus Mountains are recognized as a global center of biodiversity but currently face significant risks of degradation due to intensified economic development and the effects of climate change. Forest inventory and mapping are essential for bio...
The rates of incision and aggradation in the channels in the Terek River basin (North Caucasus) for the last 50–85 years were estimated at 18 gauging stations. The stage–discharge method (annual low water stages at the same discharges) wa...
We present the chemical composition and the U-Pb chemical age of the recently discovered uranium mineralisation occurrence in the crystalline Shkhara Massif in the Greater Caucasus. The mineralisation consists of hydrothermal uraninites from veins th...
In this study, we sampled malaria mosquito larvae in natural and artificial breeding places to study the geographical distribution, ecological preferences, and chromosomal variability of different species of the genus Anopheles in the territory of th...
Existing high-resolution reconstructions of hydroclimate variability in the Caucasus are lacking tree-ring data from Armenian Plateau, the most continental part of the region. Our research presents the first dendrochronological investigation in Armen...
Geomorphosite inventory remains an urgent task for many geographical domains where it can facilitate the exploration of geoheritage resources. The present study reports a new and sufficient portion of information from Mountainous Adygeya in southwest...
Kiwifruit is a high-value subtropical crop with significant nutritional and economic importance, but its cultivation faces growing challenges due to climate change, particularly in Caucasus. This study aims to study the impact of abiotic stressors su...
The Snezhnaya (=Snow) Cave System (depth −1760 m; total length 40.8 km), located in the West Caucasus, is inhabited by distinctly troglomorphic collembolan species from several families. Two new species of the family Arrhopalitidae occur in the...
A review and partial revision of the diversity of freshwater stygobiotic crustaceans in the territory of the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania, in the North Caucasus, is presented here. Previously, two species of the genus Proasellus Dudich, 192...
Understanding the interactions among the functional groups of living organisms within ecosystems is a main challenge in ecology. This question is particularly important in relation to the interactions between the above- and below-ground components of...
Understanding glacier and climate variations since pre-Industrial times is crucial for evaluating the present-day glacier response to climate change. Here, we focus on twelve small glaciers (≤2.0 km2) on both the northern and southern slopes of th...
Toward the middle of the nineteenth century, a large Subbotnik community established itself in the village of Privol’noe in the Lankaran district of Baku province in Southern Caucasus. By early 1909, however, the names of two small Subbotnik co...
The “European Green Deal” has ambitious aims, such as net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. While the European Union aims to make its energies greener, Russia pursues power-goals based on its status as a geo-energy superpower. A succ...
The gene pool of the East Caucasus, encompassing modern-day Azerbaijan and Dagestan populations, was studied alongside adjacent populations using 83 Y-chromosome SNP markers. The analysis of genetic distances among 18 populations (N = 2216) represent...
High mountain areas are prone to extreme hydrological events, and their study is especially important in the context of ongoing intensive deglaciation. In this research, a model “chain” consisting of a hydrodynamic model and a runoff formation model...
Based on a literature review, as well as on our own data, 14 ixodid tick species belonging to 5 genera were registered for the lizard hosts of the genus Lacerta (L. agilis, L. media, and L. strigata) in the Caucasus and the adjacent territories: Haem...
This study provides a comprehensive assessment of the geoecological status of selected mountain rivers in the North-Eastern Caucasus—specifically, the Sunzha, Sulak, Ulluchay, Karachay, and Atachay—through an analysis of chemical element...
The UN framework of “Integrated Water Resources Management” recommends countries establish a sustainable management of their water resources, which relies on the availability of proper assessment indexes for the ecological status of surfa...
This study introduces a comparative framework to understand patriarchal genealogies and technologies, with reference to an anthropological commentary concerning the broader forms of coloniality of power between dominant male and dominated female bodi...
Since dust aerosols are one of the major pollutants in Georgia, it is important to study the aeolian desert dust (ADD) invasion to Georgia from the neighboring deserts to find out its contribution to the dust pollution problem. Therefore, the main ob...
The Oligocene–Miocene Maykop Group sediments, mainly composed of illite–smectite, store mercury in strongly variable concentrations from 10 to 920 μg/kg. Extremely high Hg levels (98–920 μg/kg) coupled with abnormal mercury-to-total organic carbon (T...
This first inventory of the charophytes of the Caucasus region was compiled based on records from published references, online sources, a review of herbarium collections, and our own field collections. The documented Caucasian charophyte flora includ...
Studies of the history of regional insect fauna are important for understanding the changes in ecosystems. We analyzed the dynamics of ladybird fauna at the main sea resort of Russia over a period of 120 years to determine the following: (1) what spe...
The Caucasus region, characterized by its complex topography and diverse climatic regimes, exhibits pronounced spatial variability in temperature and precipitation patterns. This study investigates the seasonal behavior of air temperature, precipitat...
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