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Most of the water flowing into the sea comes from coastal rivers – currently supplying 300 to 310 cubic km a year. The Volga alone accounts for 80% of inflow. But it has dropped substantially during [..]
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The region presents a wealth of opportunities in other areas, including bioresources, transport corridors, and not least ecotourism. These new ventures may bring increased prosperity, but they also [..]
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The Caspian Sea has internal drainage, which means that it does not have an outlet to the World Ocean. All water entering the sea accumulates or evaporates. The sea surface salinity in the sea [..]
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The Caspian Sea region presents a wealth of opportunities in various aspect, including bioresources, transport corridors, and not ecotourism. These new ventures may bring increased prosperity, but [..]
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With the Caspian Sea's north-south alignment, stretching over a distance of approximately 10 degrees, the water body crosses several different climatic regions. The northernmost regions, with Russia [..]
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The Caspian area is the world’s main producer of wild caviar (83% in 2003) and supplies the three largest markets, the European Union, Japan and the USA. The construction of several hydroelectric [..]
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The comb jelly (Mnemiopsis leidyi) is well adapted to the habitat (salinity, temperature, and food range) and reproduces faster than endemic species. As it eats the same food as them, it has had a [..]
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Contrasting rainfall trends have been observed in the north and south. Whereas rainfall over Russia has increased over the last century, already dry areas such as the coasts of Turkmenistan and Iran [..]
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Mercury and Cadmium are classified as toxic metals, and are persistant pollutants in the environment, that stays in the system and is accumulated through the food chains. The main release of these [..]
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Nitrogen and phosphorous represents nutrients that can be seen as pollutants, as large concentations of those increase eutrophication. Nutrients are present in primarily commercial fertilisers and in [..]
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Turkmenistan and Iran have become drier. Dust storms pick up large amounts of salt and dust as they pass over the Kara-Kum desert and the Caspian Seashore, depositing it in the Volga River valley [..]
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The land-based activities of the oil and gas industry in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have had a much more severe impact on the environment than marine activity. In particular the growth in [..]
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Purchasing power parity (PPP) measures how much a currency can buy in terms of an international benchmark (usually dollars), since the cost of goods and services differs between countries. PPP is [..]
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Decline in public expenditure on health and education, the general level of public health is either steady or actually declining. Inequality is on the rise, with the switch to a two-tier health [..]
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The most threatening event for the Caspian ecosystem was the arrival of the North American comb jelly (Mnemiopsis leidyi). It was brought accidentally to the Caspian in the ballast water of oil [..]
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The characteristic feature in all four post-Soviet countries (Russia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan) is a relatively high level of education in relation to national income and rather low life [..]
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Higher winter temperatures, possibly related to changes in global climate observed in recent years, have caused thinner ice coverage and restricted the traditional reproduction grounds of the Caspian [..]
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It is not clear to what extent the temporary ban on caviar exports has boosted well established illegal domestic and international trafficking, obviously not accounted for in the official figures. The [..]
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Public health policies during the Soviet period eliminated several traditional diseases. But for lack of adequate investment in medical equipment and drugs in the 1970s and 1980s they failed to [..]
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Even if over the last two decades, or perhaps longer, the fertility rate has dropped significantly, the authorities nevertheless have to cope with all the health, education and employment problems [..]
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Kara-Bogaz-Gol is a lowland area that forms a highly saline bay on the east side of the Caspian Sea, in Turkmenistan. In Soviet times it was decided to set up a dam to block the flow of saline water [..]
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Comparing a series of satellite images from different periods a Californian hydrologist discovered in 1983 that a huge white spot had taken the place of the vast Kara-Bogaz- Gol (literally “dark [..]
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Kara-Bogaz-Gol is a lowland area that forms a highly saline bay on the east side of the Caspian Sea, in Turkmenistan. In Soviet times it was decided to set up a dam to block the flow of saline water [..]
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The prospects for rapid oil wealth contrast with fast spreading poverty following the collapse of the Soviet economy. Although massive investment has suddenly been channelled into the area, its effect [..]
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Recent research by the Caspian Environment Programme estimates the number of living seals to be as low as 150,000. A further reduction in ice cover due to a warming climate could well be one of the [..]
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Much of the area near Koshkar-Ata Lake in Kazakhstan, just off the shore of the Caspian Sea, has been severely polluted due to mining activities of uranium phosphate. The area is also affected from [..]
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The Black and Mediterranean Seas are one of the main outlets for transporting fuel resources that have been extracted around the Caspian Sea region and from further inland. Oil is transported in [..]
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There are hundreds of abandoned oil wells in Azerbaijan, and thousands in Kazakhstan, many of which have been submerged by the rising sea. There are reports of big leaks into the water, killing [..]
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For the Caspian Sea countries of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, the extraction of oil represents a significant resource, and the production has been increasing since independence. Numbers [..]
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Thousands of hectares of soil on Azerbaijan’s Apsheron peninsula are unsuitable for agricultural use due to oil spills. The largest of these oil spills happened in May 1996. Oil extraction is [..]
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Invasive and alien species that are brought into a new environment, either on purpose or by accident, can quickly exploit ecological niches that are not fully covered by indigenous (local) species. [..]
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Four years ago Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia agreed to restrict further export of commercial fish products. All three countries, as well as Iran, are party to the UN Convention on International [..]
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Sampled sediments in the Caspian Sea show that the accumulation is at its worst in the south and southwestern shores of this inland sea, off the shores of Iran and Azerbaijan. Sampled pollutants [..]
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Several countries and provinces – Iran, Daghestan, Turkmenistan and parts of Azerbaijan – still enjoy very high population growth rates (in excess of 10 per 1,000). Many of the population tends to [..]
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Apart from two large urban areas – Baku-Sumgait and Makhachkala-Kaspiisk – and the Iranian coast on the southern shore, a very densely populated coastal strip where one agglomeration leads into the [..]
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Oil slicks glittering on the surface of the sea and thousands of hectares of soil penetrated by oil leaking from abandoned wells are just part of the pollution that people living around the Caspian [..]
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The construction of a large number of dams and industrial facilities on the rivers feeding the Caspian has caused a significant change in the quantity of water inflow. The creation of a succession of [..]
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As the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere increases, the temperature in the European part of the Caspian Sea region will continue to rise, at least at first. Some researchers have [..]
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In all the areas bordering on the Caspian, priority must be given to diversifying activities and investment. Particular attention should be given to sectors such as tourism, agriculture and food [..]
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Most of the water flowing into the sea comes from coastal rivers. The quantity and quality of this water, particularly that of the Volga, are key variables in the balance of the Caspian Sea. To this [..]
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The Caspian Sea runs north and south, extending over 1,200 km, with an average width of 320 km. It covers approximately 400,000 sq km (an area slightly larger than Germany). The population of the [..]
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Kara-Bogaz-Gol is a lowland area that forms a highly saline bay on the east side of the Caspian Sea, in Turkmenistan. In Soviet times it was decided to set up a dam to block the flow of saline water [..]
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Pressure from the international community having raised awareness of its value as a bio-resource, the region is now struggling to save the sturgeon. To protect the vulnerable fish species more then [..]
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The caviar trade reportedly fell by about 70% between 1999 and 2003 but there is still every reason to monitor development of the sturgeon population and keep it on the list of endangered species. [..]
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Sampled sediments in the Caspian Sea show that arsenic is spread out at multiple locations, but primarily on the southern and southwest shores of the Sea, on the shores of Iran and Azerbaijan - where [..]
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For many years, coastal navigation has connected republics in the former Soviet Union. It used the only outlet from the Caspian, the Volga-Don canal, which connects the Black Sea and the Russian canal [..]
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The Caspian Sea has been endoreic – inwardly draining, without any outlet – since the Pliocene epoch (about 5 million years ago), prompting some specialists to treat it as the world’s largest lake. [..]
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Kara-Bogaz-Gol is a lowland area that forms a highly saline bay on the east side of the Caspian Sea, in Turkmenistan. Soviet leaders maintained that this was “a useless caldron for evaporation, an [..]
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