Ecological paradigm for sustainable functioning of reclamation systems in arid territories

Abstract

A new ecological paradigm is formed based on environmental issues perceived through the prism of specific social and economic development of society. Sustainable development rests on a positive modification in the existing system of relationships between society and nature in compliance with the principles of ecological balance. The paper deals with the ecological paradigm under safe functioning of ameliorative systems of the Republic of Kalmykia, based on the principles of ecological agroameliorative balance. Based on the criteria for negative impacts, it is found that over 3.0 thousand hectares were withdrawn from the reclamation fund in the area outside Sarpinskaya irrigation and water distribution system, 15% of the territories is susceptible to flooding due to a rise in the groundwater level to 1.3-2.5 m. The efficiency of agroameliorative landscapes was evaluated in three blocks: energy, bioenergy and ecological and economic, which provides a rationale for agricultural methods, reclamation crop rotations, the structure of arable land and sown areas, pursuant to safe and sustainably sourced land and water. Schemes have been developed to design agrolandscapes in the arid-semi-arid zone of the Republic of Kalmykia for highly saline soils with a water-soluble saline content of more than 0.8%, with the following alternation of crops: tall wheatgrass – tall wheatgrass – tall wheatgrass – alfalfa – alfalfa – alfalfa, thus enabling to develop degraded re-saline lands. In saline areas with close mineralized groundwater occurrence (5-10 g/l), agroameliorative landscapes should be designed in such a way as to provide for the cultivation of ameliorant crops (tall wheatgrass, Jerusalem artichoke), with the bioenergy efficiency ratio to reach 6.10/ha. The findings show that environmentally safe reclamation systems operating in arid territories are possible based on a new methodology for constructing agrolandscapes, recognizing the laws of adaptive production strategy, the natural environment-forming and environment-optimizing functions of plants and predicting development trends for agroecosystems.