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Journal of Arid Land
Journal of Arid Land  2021, Vol. 13 Issue (1): 71-87    DOI: 10.1007/s40333-020-0077-7
Research article     
Transformation of vegetative cover on the Ustyurt Plateau of Central Asia as a consequence of the Aral Sea shrinkage
Adilov BEKZOD1,2, Shomurodov HABIBULLO1,2, FAN Lianlian2,3, LI Kaihui2,3, MA Xuexi2,3, LI Yaoming2,3,*()
1Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan, Tashkent 100125, Uzbekistan
2CAS Research Center for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia, Urumqi 830011, China
3Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China
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Abstract  

The gradual shrinkage of the Aral Sea has led to not only the degradation of the unique environments of the Aral Sea, but also numerous and fast developing succession processes in the neighborhood habitats surrounding the sea. In this study, we investigated the vegetative succession processes related to the Aral Sea shrinkage in the Eastern Cliff of the Ustyurt Plateau in Republic of Uzbekistan, Central Asia. We compared the results of our current investigation (2010-2017) on vegetative communities with the geobotany data collected during the 1970s (1970-1980). The results showed great changes in the mesophytic plant communities and habitat aridization as a result of the drop in the underground water level, which decreased atmospheric humidity and increased the salt content of the soil caused by the shrinkage of the Aral Sea. In the vegetative communities, we observed a decrease in the Margalef index (DMg), which had a positive correlation with the poly-dominance index (I-D). The main indications of the plant communities' transformation were the loss of the weak species, the appearance of new communities with low species diversity, the stabilization of the projective cover of former resistant communities, as well as the appearance of a new competitive species, which occupy new habitats.

Key words： plant cover      mesophytic plant communities      vegetative succession      xerophytization      biodiversity index      climate change      Aral Sea     
Received: 12 March 2019      Published: 10 January 2021
Corresponding Authors: LI Yaoming     E-mail: lym@ms.xjb.ac.cn
About author: *LI Yaoming (E-mail: lym@ms.xjb.ac.cn)
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BEKZOD Adilov
HABIBULLO Shomurodov
Lianlian FAN
Kaihui LI
Xuexi MA
Yaoming LI
Cite this article:

Adilov BEKZOD, Shomurodov HABIBULLO, FAN Lianlian, LI Kaihui, MA Xuexi, LI Yaoming. Transformation of vegetative cover on the Ustyurt Plateau of Central Asia as a consequence of the Aral Sea shrinkage. Journal of Arid Land, 2021, 13(1): 71-87.

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http://jal.xjegi.com/10.1007/s40333-020-0077-7     OR     http://jal.xjegi.com/Y2021/V13/I1/71

Fig. 1 Location of the Eastern Cliff on the Ustyurt Plateau. (a), study area (Kabanbai investigation area, represented as a square) in the Eastern Cliff of the Ustyurt Plateau; (b), overview of the Ustyurt Plateau (A), Kabanbai (B), and the dried part of the Aral Sea (C). The territory of the Ustyurt Plateau is located to the west from the Kabanbai, and the dried part of the Aral Sea is north from the Kabanbai.
Fig. 2 Trends of annual average air temperature (a) and annual precipitation (b) during the period 1970-2017, as well as the aridity index on a decade scale during the period 1976-2015 (c). Severe dry years (1984, 1996, 2000, and 2008) with precipitation of only 40-60 mm are indicated by arrows.
Plant community Abbreviation Occurrence
FR CR
Rosaeta laxae Rosaeta laxae mixtoherbosum RM + +
Rosaetum laxae R + +
Rosaetum laxae korolkovi crateageosum RC + -
Rosaeta laxae australi phragmitesum RP + -
Rosaeta laxae critmifoli malocacarpesum RM - +
Crateageta korolkovii Crateagetum korolkovi rosaso-sativae medicagosum CRM + +
Crateagetum korolkovi C + +
Crateagetum korolkovi laxae rosasum CR + -
Crataegetum korolkovi australi phragmitesum CP + -
Crateagetum korolkovi mixtoherbosum CM - +
Medicageta sativae Medicagetum sativae viridiflori cynoglosetum MC + +
Medicagetum sativae mixtoherbosum MMH + +
Medicagetum sativae fragile agropyrosum MA + -
Medicagetum sativae arvensi convolvulosum MCA + -
Medicagetum sativae artemisiaso-mixtoherbosum MAM - +
Agropyreta fragile Agropyretum fragile sativae medicagosum AM + +
Agropyretum fragile racemose elymusum AEL + -
Agropyretum fragile dolicholepi puccinelosum AP + -
Agropyretum fragile meyeri echinopsum AE - +
Agropyretum fragile viridiflori cynoglossum AC - +
Agropyretum fragile repensi acroptilosum AR - +
Agropyretum fragile artemisiaso-sativae medicagosum AAM - +
Agropyretum fragile mixtoherbosum AMH - +
Table 1 Occurrence of mesophytic and xero-mesophytic communities in the former-running (FR) and current-running (CR) periods of investigations
Index Maximum±SE Minimum±SE Mean±SE v
FR CR FR CR FR CR FR CR
NS 49.70±1.57 17.40±0.37 5.50±0.26 4.60±0.32 20.60±2.57 9.70±1.95 65.30 39.20
VC (%) 95.10±0.55 95.70±0.27 45.80±0.77 7.10±0.30 63.10±2.30 36.90±1.15 25.60 68.50
nx-h 98.00±0.49 99.00±0.34 55.10±0.47 25.00±0.29 79.40±1.71 81.30±1.11 18.10 20.50
nm-xm 45.50±0.36 75.30±0.25 0.50±0.25 0.80±0.22 20.60±2.81 18.70±2.22 69.40 88.60
VCx-h (%) 98.30±0.40 99.10±0.24 20.40±0.37 11.40±0.15 75.60±1.77 84.20±1.15 35.50 28.50
VCm-xm (%) 80.40±0.83 89.40±0.23 0.80±0.24 0.90±0.20 23.80±2.77 15.90±2.09 109.40 150.40
Table 2 Indices of vegetative cover in the FR and CR periods of investigations
No. Community D I-D H DMg βw
FR CR FR CR FR CR FR CR
I Riparian forest
1.1 Rosaeta laxae
1.1.1 RM 0.04 0.08 0.95 0.91 3.16 2.84 4.84 4.23 0.02
1.1.2 R 0.62 0.56 0.38 0.44 0.86 1.30 1.56 4.20 0.42
1.2 Crataegeta korolkovii
2.1. CRM 0.09 0.16 0.91 0.84 2.87 2.29 4.74 4.65 0.04
2.2. C 0.20 0.56 0.80 0.44 2.27 1.16 3.38 3.16 0.08
II Motley grass
2.1 Medicageta sativae
2.1.1 MCA 0.05 0.22 0.94 0.77 3.25 1.98 6.07 3.85 0.38
2.1.2 MMH 0.03 0.29 0.96 0.70 3.47 1.80 6.38 3.36 0.37
III Steppe
3.1 Agropyreta fragile
3.1.1 AM 0.08 0.07 0.91 0.93 2.74 2.89 3.70 5.25 0.14
Table 3 Changes in the biodiversity indices of the mesophytic plant communities in the FR and CR periods of investigations
Ecological group Specie Abbreviation Life form IVI Average
difference
FR CR
Xerophytes Salsola arbusculiformis SA Semi-shrub 45.20 57.30 6.05
Salsola orientalis SO Semi-shrub 30.30 31.60 0.65
Ephedra distachya ED Semi-shrub 20.30 21.50 0.57
Artemisia terrae-albae ATA Semi-shrub 60.20 19.00 20.60
Artemisia diffusa AD Semi-shrub 18.50 88.70 35.10
Artemisia turanica AT Semi-shrub 9.10 29.80 10.35
Atraphaxis spinosa AS Semi-shrub 25.80 46.80 10.50
Limonium suffruticosum LS Semi-shrub 11.80 17.60 2.90
Ceratocarpus utriculosus CU Annual 15.90 29.40 6.75
Girgensohnia oppositiflora GO Annual 13.80 27.20 6.70
Halophytes Haloxylon aphyllum HA Tree 32.20 36.30 2.05
Tamarix androssovii TA Shrub 20.00 7.70 6.15
Nitraria schoberi NSc Shrub 5.10 9.60 2.25
Anabasis salsa ASа Semi-shrub 32.90 42.10 4.60
Halocnemum strobilaceum HS Annual 22.30 14.10 4.10
Climacoptera lanata CL Annual 35.30 72.90 18.80
Mesophytes
and
xero-mesophytes		 Crataegus korolkovii CK Tree 30.90 20.20 5.35
Rosa laxa RL Shrub 28.60 32.50 1.95
Hulthemia persica HP Shrub 16.60 45.10 14.25
Echinops meyeri EM Perennial grass 16.80 41.90 12.55
Agropyron fragile AF Perennial grass 17.70 22.70 2.50
Acroptilon repens AR Perennial grass 13.40 46.30 16.45
Phragmites australis PA Perennial grass 12.60 6.70 2.95
Medicago sativa MS Perennial grass 25.30 8.40 8.45
Poa bulbosa PB Ephemeroid 37.90 89.40 25.75
Eremopyrum orientale EO Ephemeral 26.70 53.00 13.15
Table 4 Index value of importance (IVI) of plant species in the FR and CR periods of investigations
Fig. 3 Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) diagram of vegetative cover in the study area based on the plant species and projective cover during the periods of 1970-1980 (NMDS1) and 2010-2017 (NMDS2)
Fig. 4 Prognosis trends of species number (NS) and projective cover (VC) in the former-running (FR; a) and current-running (CR; b) periods
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