Impact of the Aral Sea Syndrome - the Aralkum as a Man-Made Dust Source

¹ University of Marburg, Department of Geography, 35037 Marburg, Germany
² Kazakh Research Institute for Ecology and Climate, 480072 Almaty, Kazakhstan
³ UZHYDROMET, Hydrometeorological Research Institute (NIGMI), 100052 Tashkent, Uzbekistan
⁴ Korea University, Division of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, 02841 Seoul, South Korea

^* Corresponding author: opp@staff.uni-marburg.de

Abstract

Ground based dust monitoring is an important tool for the long-term monitoring of aeolian sediment transport in Central Asia as it provides valuable insights into the spatial and temporal dynamics of dust deposition as well as grants access to the transported material for further analyses. Between 2006 and 2012 such a monitoring was carried out in the Turan lowland to analyze the effects of the newly formed Aralkum. The detected spatial and temporal dust deposition variability was significant and encourages further studies. The dust deposition increased over time, which correlates with a decreasing trend in precipitation, increasing wind speeds and a shift towards northern winds. More than 50% of all dust samples collected exceed the health based deposition threshold and the most intense dust storm events reached ground level deposition rates of up to 150 g/m² per hour. This study showed the impact of the Aralkum, but also that the Kyzylkum is a far more active dust source. With regard to climate change and an increasing aridity in the region it can be expected that the aeolian dust transport will continue to increase, making a wide-spread monitoring program even more important.