Repetek Biosphere State Reserve, often referred to as Repetek Nature or Desert Reserve, (, ''Репетек горагханасы'') is a

desert A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the la ...

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

(''

zapovednik A zapovednik is an established term on the Post-Soviet states, territory of the former Soviet Union for a protected area which is kept "forever wild". It is the highest degree of environmental protection for the assigned areas, which are strictly ...

'') of

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...

, located in

Lebap Province Lebap Region () is one of the regions of Turkmenistan. It is in the northeast of the country, bordering Afghanistan, Uzbekistan along the Amu Darya. Its administrative centre is Türkmenabat (formerly named Çärjew). It has an area of 93,727 s ...

, East

Karakum Desert The Karakum Desert ( ; rus, Каракумы, p=kərɐˈkumɨ), also spelt and (; ), is a desert in Central Asia. The name refers to the shale-rich sand beneath the surface. It occupies about 70 percent, or roughly , of Turkmenistan. The po ...

, near

Amu Darya The Amu Darya ( ),() also shortened to Amu and historically known as the Oxus ( ), is a major river in Central Asia, which flows through Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. Rising in the Pamir Mountains, north of the Hindu Ku ...

. It is located approximately south from

Türkmenabat Türkmenabat (), formerly Amul, Cärjew/Chardzhou (until 1924 and from 1940-1999), and Novy Chardzhuy (from 1927-1940), is the second-largest city in Turkmenistan and the administrative centre of Lebap Province. , it had a population of approxima ...

and is known for its ''zemzen'' (desert monitor which is ''

Varanus griseus The desert monitor (''Varanus griseus'') is a species of monitor lizard of the order Squamata found living throughout North Africa and Central and South Asia. The desert monitor is carnivorous, feeding on a wide range of vertebrates and inverteb ...

''). Established in 1928 for the study and preservation of a sand-desert ecosystem, it covers an area of .

Geography

The landscape of the reserve is arid, with extensive ridged sand dunes some in height and in length in many areas, large areas of sand dune and valley-like depressions. Black saxaul (''Haloxylon aphyllum''), rare to most part of Central Asia covers more than , approximately 4.5% of the territory of the reserve. The soils have sandy subsoils, but some "21 trees, 104 grasses, 8 mushrooms, 1 moss, 68 soil algae and 197 fungi" grow within the reserve.

History

The Repetek sandy desert scientific station was organized in 1912 by the decision of the

Russian Geographical Society The Russian Geographical Society (), or RGO, is a learned society based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It promotes geography, exploration and nature protection with research programs in fields including oceanography, ethnography, ecology and stati ...

, and the reserve was established in 1928 on the base of the scientific station. During the Soviet period the reserve belongs to the Institute of Deserts of the Turkmen SSR Academy of Sciences. The list of scientific publications concerning with the Repetek sandy desert station and the biosphere reserve since 1982 to 1991 consists of about 250 papers (30% on landscape structure and geography, 20% on botany and 50% on zoology). The Institute of Deserts, Flora and Fauna of the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan was established in 1962 to study ways of

reclaiming desert Desert greening is the process of afforestation or revegetation of deserts for ecological restoration (biodiversity), sustainable farming and forestry, but also for reclamation of natural water systems and other ecological systems that suppor ...

land for economic use in the reserve.Encyclopædia Britannica
/ref> A museum is present at the site.

Environmental protection

The Repetek Biosphere State Reserve is part of an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) and since 1979 has been an under the monitoring of

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

but "the site is under the administration of the Ministry of Nature Protection of Turkmenistan". The reserve "supports the most complete assemblage of bird species typical of the sand desert of the Karakum" and "has an important population of Goitered Gazelle (''Gazella subgutturosa'') which is listed as Vulnerable (VU) in the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

Climate

Repetek Biosphere State Reserve has a

desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk'') is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''BWk''), with cool winters and very hot summers. Rainfall is generally light and erratic, and occurs mainly in the winter and autumn months. On 28 July 1983, Repetek Biosphere State Reserve recorded a temperature of , which is the highest temperature to have ever been recorded in Turkmenistan and the former

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, and higher than the record high temperatures ever recorded for Europe or South America.

Notes

References

*''National Program for the Protection of the Environment'', Ashgabat, 2002, pp. 149–151 * *

External links

*
Image
Flickr {{World Heritage Sites in Turkmenistan Nature reserves in Turkmenistan Protected areas established in 1927 Biosphere reserves of Turkmenistan World Heritage Tentative List