ASU Scientists Keep Creating a Reserve in Kazakhstan

Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor, Head of the Ecosystem and Bioinformatics Modeling Laboratory of Astrakhan State University Aleksey Laktionov prepared a project on natural science justification for the creation of a specially protected natural area together with colleagues from Kazakhstan, Russia and Germany.

One of the main tasks of the Priority 2030 programme, involving our university, is to preserve, study and increase the biodiversity of the Caspian region. The creation of new specially protected natural areas in the countries located around the Caspian Sea fully meets these requirements.

Creating protected areas is necessary to ensure the long-term preservation of unique, typical and characteristic natural sites of the middle desert zone, taking into account the assessment of the socioeconomic conditions of the project area, the state of ecological systems and threats to their conservation. Northern Ustyurt zoological reserve will be located in the Zhylyoi District of Atyrau Region, the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Aleksey Laktionov developed the natural science justification for the project over the course of several years. To prepare it, four comprehensive botanical and zoological expeditions were carried out in 2017-2019. The total length of the routes was about 2,000 km, including about 800 km along the project area. Now it has been surveyed to identify the species diversity of flora and fauna, the characteristics of the population of terrestrial vertebrates, the composition and distribution of plant communities, ecosystems and landscapes, as well as to study the current situation in the economic use of the area.