The Kyzylkum Desert is the 15th largest desert in the world. Its name means Red Sand in Turkic languages. It is located in Central Asia in the doab between the rivers Amu Darya and Syr Darya, a region historically known as Transoxania or Sogdiana. Today it is divided between Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. It covers about 298,000 km2 (115,000 sq mi).
Honeysuckles are arching shrubs or twining vines in the family Caprifoliaceae, native to northern latitudes in North America and Eurasia. Approximately 180 species of honeysuckle have been identified in North America and Eurasia. Widely known species include Lonicera periclymenum, Lonicera japonica and Lonicera sempervirens. L. japonica is an aggressive, highly invasive species considered as a significant pest on the continents of North America, Europe, South America, Australia, and Africa.
Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands is a terrestrial biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The predominant vegetation in this biome consists of grass and/or shrubs. The climate is temperate and ranges from semi-arid to semi-humid. The habitat type differs from tropical grasslands in the annual temperature regime as well as the types of species found here.
Crambe is a genus of annual and perennial flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae, native to a variety of habitats in Europe, Turkey, southwest and central Asia and eastern Africa. They carry dense racemes of tiny white or yellow flowers on stems above the basal leaves. Crambe hispanica subsp. abyssinica, formerly known as Crambe abyssinica, is grown for the oil from the seeds that has characteristics similar to whale oil.
The Antilopinae are a subfamily of Bovidae. The gazelles, blackbucks, springboks, gerenuks, dibatags, and Central Asian gazelles are often referred to as "true antelopes", and are usually classified as the only representatives of the Antilopinae. True antelopes occur in much of Africa and Asia, with the highest concentration of species occurring in East Africa in Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, and Tanzania. The saigas and Tibetan antelopes are related to true antelopes (Antilopinae) and goats (Caprinae), but often placed in their own subfamily, Saiginae. These animals inhabit much of central and western Asia. The dwarf antelopes are sometimes placed in a separate subfamily, Neotraginae, and live entirely in sub-Saharan Africa.
The saiga antelope, or saiga, is a critically endangered antelope which during antiquity inhabited a vast area of the Eurasian steppe spanning the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains in the northwest and Caucasus in the southwest into Mongolia in the northeast and Dzungaria in the southeast. During the Pleistocene, they also occurred in Beringian North America and the British Isles. Today, the dominant subspecies is only found in one region in Russia and three areas in Kazakhstan. A portion of the Ustiurt population migrates south to Uzbekistan and occasionally Turkmenistan in winter. It is extinct in China and southwestern Mongolia. It was hunted extensively in Romania and Moldova until it became extinct in those regions at the end of the 18th century. The Mongolian subspecies is found only in western Mongolia.
Chornye Zemli Nature Reserve (also) is a Russian 'zapovednik'. The name in Russian means "Black Lands". The main part of the reserve is located in the Caspian Depression, northwest of the Caspian Sea. It was originally created in 1990 to protect the saiga antelope. In the meantime the economy of Kalmykia collapsed and the numbers of saiga have crashed due to poaching for meat and horns and desertification caused by overgrazing by domestic animals. The reserve also has colonies of egrets, cormorants, and rare pelicans. The reserve is situated in the Chernozemelsky District of Republic of Kalmykia. It was created in 1990, and covers 1,219 km² in two locations, with a 900 km² buffer zone.
Chechen Island is a coastal island on the western shore of the Caspian Sea. It is located 20 km east of Krainovka right off the headland on the northern tip of the Agrakhan Peninsula. This island belongs to the Republic of Dagestan, a federal subject of the Russian Federation.
Lonicera tatarica is a species of honeysuckle known by the common name Tatarian honeysuckle. It is native to Siberia and other parts of eastern Asia, but it is probably better known in North America, where it is a widespread introduced species and noxious weed. This plant, one of several exotic bush honeysuckles present in North America, was introduced as an ornamental plant in 1752. It is known across the continent west to Alaska and California, where it easily grows in disturbed habitat. It is a bushy shrub which may approach three meters (9.8 ft) in erect height. It is lined with oval or rounded leaves 3 to 6 centimetres long. The inflorescence is generally a pair of white to pink to crimson red flowers each about 1.5 centimetres (0.59 in) long. The flowers are somewhat tubular, their stamens and styles protruding. The fruit is a shiny orange or red berry up to a centimeter wide. The plant forms thickets and spreads easily when birds and other animals consume the fruits.
Buinsky District is a territorial administrative unit and municipality of the Republic of Tatarstan within the Russian Federation. The district is located in the southwest of the republic and occupies a total area of 1,543 square kilometers (596 sq mi). According to the 2010 census, the municipality had a population of 25,101. As of the beginning of 2020, the population had grown to 41,587. The district currently consists of 98 settlements.
The Saiga Conservation AllianceSCA is a network of researchers and conservationists working to study and protect the critically endangered Saiga Antelope and their habitat. The Saiga are often seen a major flagship species of the Central Asian and pre-Caspian steppes. In the last ten years, saiga populations have declined by 96%, which is the fastest decline ever recorded for a mammal species. Saiga Conservation Alliance is partnered with the Wildlife Conservation Network
The Kazakh semi-desert is an ecoregion in the deserts and xeric shrublands biome, located in Kazakhstan. The climate is semi-arid and continental, with a total annual precipitation of 160 millimetres (6.3 in), and mean temperatures in January averaging −15 °C (5 °F) and in July 23 °C (73 °F). It is a transitional area between the steppes and the deserts of Central Asia and supports flora found in both biomes, predominantly grasses, particularly Stipa species, and shrubs such as Artemisia species. A number of mammals and birds are found in this ecoregion but the habitat is threatened by overgrazing and fragmentation from human encroachment. However, a recent reduction in livestock numbers in Kazakhstan is allowing the native plants a greater opportunity to regenerate.
The Central Asian northern desert is an ecoregion in the deserts and xeric shrublands biome, located in the Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The annual precipitation ranges from 100 to 150 mm, the winters are cold at −10 to −15 °C and the summers hot at around 25 °C (77 °F). There are a range of habitat types including salt flats, clay desert, rocky desert and some sand desert. The vegetation consists of scanty xeric shrubs including Artemisia and Salsola. The fauna is varied, as well as mammals and birds, there are a large number of reptiles and many species of invertebrate. Some protected areas are included in this ecoregion but other parts are being degraded by conversion to farmland, overgrazing and poaching.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) Concerning Conservation, Restoration and Sustainable Use of the Saiga Antelope is a Multilateral Environmental Memorandum of Understanding and came into effect on 24 September 2006 under the auspices of the Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), also known as the Bonn Convention. The MoU covers five range States, all of which have signed. A number of cooperating organizations have also signed the MoU.
Lactuca tatarica, the blue lettuce, is a Eurasian and North American species of plants in the dandelion tribe within the daisy family. It is widespread across much of Europe, Asia, and North America.
The East European forest steppe ecoregion is a patchwork of broadleaf forest stands and grasslands (steppe) that stretches 2,100 km across eastern Europe from the Ural Mountains in Ural, through Povolzhye, Central Russia to the middle of Ukraine.There are also isolated areas of similar character off the western end in eastern Romania, Moldova, and Bulgaria. The region forms a transition zone between the temperate forests to the north, and the steppe to the south. The forest-steppe is an area of Russia in which precipitation and evaporation are approximately equal. The ecoregion is in the Palearctic realm, with a Humid Continental climate. It covers 727,269 km2 (280,800 sq mi).
Saigini is a tribe of artiodactyl mammals of the Bovidae family, subfamily Antilopinae, comprising two species of medium-sized gazelles that inhabit the Eurasian steppes.
Stepnoi State Nature Sanctuary is a protected area located in Liman district of Astrakhan Oblast, Russia.
Lonicera × bella, known as Bell's honeysuckle and showy fly honeysuckle, is a hybrid species of flowering plant in the family Caprifoliaceae. It was first described by Hermann Zabel in 1889. Zabel reported that he grew it in cultivation from seeds obtained from a plant of Lonicera morrowii, but that its appearance suggested the influence of L. tatarica. It has escaped from cultivation and become an aggressive invasive species in central and eastern parts of the United States.
