Characterization of soil salinization on degraded lands and recommendations for vegetation restoration in the lower Amu Darya biosphere reserve

Biological diversity is a variety of life on Earth. As defined by the UN Convention Biological diversity includes a variety of ecosystems, species and genes and ecological processes which support them. A natural variety in ecosystems provides an essential economic benefit and services for human society, such as food, clothes, a shelter, fuel and medicine, just as ecological, entertaining, cultural and esthetic values, and thus, plays an important role in a sustainable development. The biodiversity is under the threat in many areas of the world. The concern about global loss of a biodiversity appeared as a visible and widespread public problem. Feature of Central Asian arid and semi-arid ecosystems, which represent considerable parts of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, is a high regional endemism. But the biodiversity of regions is under serious threat of desertification, water deficiency and degradation. Influence of these current and internal leading factors on regional loss of a biodiversity nevertheless was insufficiently investigated.