Vol 8, No 2 (2018)

Patterns of the formation of productive resources in soils of arid territories are revealed. The functioning of an independent category of soil production resources is justified, and the parameters of factors associated with the seasonal cycles of the soil hydrochemical properties are described. The production processes are shown to be specific by the soil types and their independence on the sizes of functioning soil areas. The technologies of the development of productive resources with the cultivation of plants with a short vegetative cycle have been experimentally studied based on the use of natural laws of salt and water accumulation.

During the last few decades, the inland and coastal aeolian landforms of southern Kuwait showed severe land degradation and deterioration of plant cover due to human impacts such as spring camping, offroad driving and overgrazing. This study aimed to quantify the edaphic conditions and vegetation composition of the main types of aeolian landforms in the southern desert of Kuwait and to investigate the effects of vegetation, climate, physiography and impacts of anthropogenic activities on the features and stability of aeolian sand deposits and subsequently land degradation and vegetation loss. This study classified the southern aeolian deposits into four main landforms: inland active sand sheets, inland stable sand sheets, coastal stable sand sheets and coastal stable sabkhas. These landforms are mostly influenced with soil texture, moisture content, organic matter, salinity, vegetation cover, wind strength and intensity of land use. A total of 46 plant species in 23 families was found in these landforms. Poaceae species dominated the vegetation of inland active and stable sand sheets; however Asteraceae and Chenopodiacea species dominated the vegetation of coastal stable sand sheets and coastal sabkhas. Therefore, the growth of these species in hot deserts is adaptive to the accumulation of wind-borne sediments within or around their canopies. Annuals and perennial herbs were the dominant growth forms in the aeolian landforms. The Shannon-diversity of the plant species was lower at inland stable sand sheets than at inland active sand sheets, coastal stable sand sheets and coastal stable sabkhas. The dominant perennials were Cyperus conglomeratus, Stipagrostis ciliata and Moltkiopsis ciliata at inland aeolian landforms, and Zygophyllum qatarense, Salsola imbricate, Suaeda aegyptiaca, Cyperus conglomeratus and Launaea mucronata, Suaeda vermiculata, Lycium shawii and Halocnemum strobilaceum at coastal aeolian landforms. The dominant annuals were Schismus barbatus at inland aeolian landforms and Polycarpaea repens, Schismus barbatus, and Cornulaca aucheri at coastal aeolian landforms. Deterioration of plant cover, decline in sub-shrubs and shrubs, lacking of trees and severe land degradation in the inland and coastal aeolian landforms of southern Kuwait are attributed to human impacts. Effective management plan for human activities and restoration program for degraded aeolian landforms may include prohibitions of human activities that adversely affect native plant communities, planting of certain native perennial species efficient in trapping sands and stabilization of aeolian landforms, such as Poaceae species and Chenopodiaceae species. In addition, awareness programs and participation of local inhabitants are crucial measures to guarantee successful of restoration plan.

This article presents the results of two years of development of technological methods to create fodder agrophytocenoses in natural environments under arid climatic conditions in order to restore the ecology and improve the productivity of degraded pasturable ecosystems. The dynamics of the phytopotential performance of agrophytocenoses have been studied in different variants according to plant species, sowing times, and sowing methods. The experiments have been conducted with methods developed by the All-Russia Research Institute of Fodder (2015) and Dospekhov (1985). Therefore, the experiments conducted with the different pasturable plants investigated that the winterfat (Eutoria ceratoides) was reputed to be the most productive of all of the sown species. Its annual average crop yield was three times higher than that for the native pasture in the first year and 3.6 times in the second year. The experiments conducted with wheatgrass (Agropyron) sown at different times have proved that the pasture was generally (71–76%) occupied by wheatgrass (Agropyron) sown in autumn in the first year of vegetation, while the spring-sown wheatgrass crop had a projective cover of only 49–54% up to the second year of vegetation. The experiments conducted with wheatgrass sown by different methods proved that the spring- and autumn-sown projective cover crops of agrophytocenoses with the use of the broadcasting method represented increases of 7% and 17%, respectively, as compared to the drilling method.

A comparative analysis of the variability of traits of seed productivity of leguminous plants was carried out in the dry conditions of zones of Dagestan with common beans as a representative of the oldest culture with high productivity. The correlation of the weight and numerical characteristics of seed productivity, varietal diversity, and high-altitude gradient in their variability is estimated. The random character of the influence of varietal diversity on the variability of weight characteristics of seed productivity and the insignificant effect of the altitude gradient on the variability of the dry mass of fruits and seeds, for which the differences in the mean values of the Student’s t-test were noted, are determined.

A considerable increase in the social vole population distributed in the northwestern Caspian region (Republic of Kalmykia) in 2014–2016 has been recorded. The average long-term dominance index of the rodent cenosis in 2014–2016 was three times as high as in 2002–2010. The rise in the rodent population was caused by an increase in the reproduction rate due to adequate fodder supplies under favorable climatic conditions. In May 2016, social vole mass migration and deaths were registered; it is a rare phenomenon arising in rodents that may be caused by overdensity of their population. All of the males were first involved in the migration process because of increased intraspecific competition, higher aggression levels, and weaker attachment to the habitats as compared to the females. The mass migration and deaths of social voles in the northwestern Caspian region may reflect the unstable equilibrium dynamics caused by changes in the anthropogenic pressure and land-use system, which interacts with the damping effects in the climate.