Save Kazakhstan's shrinking Lake Balkhash

In the Balkhash basin, an independent sustainable population of asp fish has formed, which is of great importance in industrial and recreational fishing. In the Republic of Kazakhstan, Lake Balkhash is one of the main fishing reservoirs. In the last decade, this region has experienced a powerful diverse anthropogenic and technogenicimpact, which has led to significant negative changes in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. The role of the state in the regulation of environmental management and environmental protection.

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Lake Balkhash (Kazakhstan): Recent human impact and natural variability in the last 2900 years

Journal of Great Lakes Research ◽

10.1016/j.jglr.2020.01.008 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 46 (2) ◽

pp. 267-276 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Steffen Mischke ◽

Chengjun Zhang ◽

Birgit Plessen

Keyword(s):

Human Impact ◽

Natural Variability ◽

Lake Balkhash

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Human-Induced Enrichment of Potentially Toxic Elements in a Sediment Core of Lake Balkhash, the Largest Lake in Central Asia

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12114717 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (11) ◽

pp. 4717 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Kun Huang ◽

Long Ma ◽

Jilili Abuduwaili ◽

Wen Liu ◽

Gulnura Issanova ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Central Asia ◽

Sediment Core ◽

Human Activities ◽

Toxic Elements ◽

Potentially Toxic Elements ◽

Dominant Factor ◽

Past Century ◽

The Past ◽

Lake Balkhash ◽

The Impact

Over the past century, the impacts of human activities on the natural environment have continued to increase. Historic evolution of the environment under anthropogenic influences is an important reference for sustainable social development. Based on the geochemical analyses of a short sediment core of 49 cm from Lake Balkhash, the largest lake in Central Asia, potential factors historically influencing geochemical variation were revealed, and influences of human activity on regional environmental change were reconstructed over the past 150 years. The results showed that the dominant factor inducing changes in potentially toxic elements (V, Cr, Co, Ni, Zn, Cu, Cd, and Pb) is the physical weathering of the terrestrial materials. The variation in Ca content was influenced by the formation of authigenic carbonate. Since 1930, potentially toxic elements (Cr, Co, Ni, Zn, Cu, Cd, and Pb) in the lake sediments have obviously been affected by human activities, but the impact of human activities has not exceeded that of natural terrestrial weathering. In particular, the enrichment factors (EFs) for Cd and Pb reached 1.5. The average ecological risks of Cd were higher than the criterion of 30, suggesting a moderate risk to the local ecosystem in recent years. Total risk indices indicated moderate potential ecological risk for the lake ecology. The results will provide support for the environmental protection and better management practices of the Lake Balkhash watershed.

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Features of distribution diatoms Lake Balkhash and the Bukhtarma reservoir

Eurasian Journal of Ecology ◽

10.26577/eje-2016-2-877 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 47 (2) ◽

pp. 98-105

Author(s):

K.E. Abit ◽

◽

G.Y. Yernazarova ◽

G.K. Omarova ◽

T.S. Duysebaeva ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Lake Balkhash

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