Pamirs Research Articles

Diatoma kalakulensis sp. nov. – a new diatom (Bacillariophyceae) species from a high-altitude lake in the Pamir Mountains, Western China

A new araphid diatom, Diatoma kalakulensis sp. nov., was discovered in Lake Kalakul, located in the Pamir Mountains in north-western China. The morphology and ultrastructure of this new species are described on the basis of observations made under light and electron microscopy. Compared to Diatoma tenuis, Diatoma kalakulensis is characterized by longer valves, higher stria density, wider apical ends and the position of its rimoportula.

Nature's patchwork: How water sources and soil salinity determine the distribution and structure of halophytic plant communities in arid environments of the Eastern Pamir.

The eastern part of the Pamir Mountains, located in Central Asia, is characterized by great climatic continentality and aridity. Wetlands developed in this hostile region are restricted to spring areas, terraces of shallow lakes or floodplains along rivers, and provide diversified ecosystem services e.g. as water reservoirs, refugia for rare species and pastures for domestic cattle. These ecosystems are particularly susceptible to climate changes, that in the Pamir Mountains result in increased temperatures, intense permafrost/glacial melt and alterations of precipitation patterns. Climatic changes affect pasture management in the mountains, causing overutilization of sites located at lower elevations. Thus, both climate and man-induced disturbances may violate the existing ecological equilibrium in high-mountain wetlands of the Eastern Pamir, posing a serious risk to their biodiversity and to food security of the local population. In this context, we sought to assess how environmental drivers (with special focus on soil features and potential water sources) shape the distribution and diversity of halophytic plant communities developed in valleys in the Eastern Pamir. This task was completed by means of a vegetation survey and comprehensive analyses of habitat conditions. The lake terraces and floodplains studied were covered by a repetitive mosaic of plant communities determined by differences in soil moisture and salinity. On lower, wetter sites, this patchwork was formed by Blysmus rufus dominated salt marshes, saline small sedge meadows and saline meadows with Kobresia royleana and Primula pamirica; and on drier, elevated sites, by endemic grasslands with Hordeum brevisubulatum and Puccinellia species and patches of xerohalophytic vegetation. Continuous instability of water sources and summer droughts occurring in the Pamir Mountains may lead to significant structural and functional transformations of described wetland ecosystems. Species more tolerant to decreased soil moisture and/or increased soil salinity will expand, leading to alterations of ecosystem services provided by the Pamirs’ wetlands. The described research will help to assess the current state of the wetlands and to predict directions of their future changes.

Precipitation‐driven glacier changes in the Pamir and Hindu Kush mountains

AbstractGlaciers in the Pamir‐Hindu Kush‐Karakoram appear to be less influenced by global warming and have instead experienced slight gains in mass, unlike most other glaciers around the world. Here we apply laser altimetry and satellite‐derived precipitation products to characterize the relationship between the glaciers and precipitation. We found a strong correlation (r ≥ 0.92, p < 0.005) between the year‐to‐year changes in glacier thickness and precipitation in the Pamir and Hindu Kush from 2003 to 2008, indicating the primary role of precipitation in the glacier changes. The amount of precipitation in the glacial region is underestimated by approximately 7 ± 2 times in the gridded precipitation product. This underestimation is attributed to the low resolution and lack of orographic precipitation in the gridded products. The long‐term precipitation data show strong interannual variations, which probably cause similar variations in glaciers and biases in previous glacier mass change estimates.

Glacier melt buffers river runoff in the Pamir Mountains

AbstractNewly developed approaches based on satellite altimetry and gravity measurements provide promising results on glacier dynamics in the Pamir‐Himalaya but cannot resolve short‐term natural variability at regional and finer scale. We contribute to the ongoing debate by upscaling a hydrological model that we calibrated for the central Pamir. The model resolves the spatiotemporal variability in runoff over the entire catchment domain with high efficiency. We provide relevant information about individual components of the hydrological cycle and quantify short‐term hydrological variability. For validation, we compare the modeled total water storages (TWS) with GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) data with a very good agreement where GRACE uncertainties are low. The approach exemplifies the potential of GRACE for validating even regional scale hydrological applications in remote and hard to access mountain regions. We use modeled time series of individual hydrological components to characterize the effect of climate variability on the hydrological cycle. We demonstrate that glaciers play a twofold role by providing roughly 35% of the annual runoff of the Panj River basin and by effectively buffering runoff both during very wet and very dry years. The modeled glacier mass balance (GMB) of −0.52 m w.e. yr−1 (2002–2013) for the entire catchment suggests significant reduction of most Pamiri glaciers by the end of this century. The loss of glaciers and their buffer functionality in wet and dry years could not only result in reduced water availability and increase the regional instability, but also increase flood and drought hazards.

The evolution (2010–2015) and engineering mitigation of a rockslide-dammed lake (Hunza River, Pakistan); characterisation by analytical remote sensing

The remnants of rockslide dams are widespread in the deeply incised river valleys of the northwest Himalayas and adjacent Pamir Mountains of Central Asia. In January 2010 a major rockslide (estimated volume~55Mm3) dammed the Hunza River (NW Pakistan) and a rockslide-dammed lake (Lake Gojal) immediately began to form. The lake overtopped the rockslide dam 145days later through a spillway excavated in the surface of the debris by Pakistan authorities. Lake Gojal successively reduced in volume in response to spillway widening and deepening in engineering works up to May 2013; on August 28, 2015 (Day 2063 of impoundment) a remnant lake still remains. Using SRTM 3-arc-second digital terrain data and ten high-resolution satellite images from the period March 2010–August 2015, we document the river-damming environment of the Attabad rockslide, track and quantify the development of rockslide-dammed Lake Gojal and calculate lake areas and volumes at various stages of filling, stable overtopping, and partial draining to a final stable configuration. We introduce a method of delimiting lake shorelines by a pixel method which produces a mean elevation surface in the SRTM DEM; this technique results in accurate estimates of shoreline elevation and corresponding lake areas and volumes. We estimate the maximum volume reached by Lake Gojal, 51days after overtopping, to have been approximately 455Mm3. Using this data we also evaluate the mitigation works carried out by Pakistan authorities and find that i) they achieved an initial reduction of about 26% in the maximum possible volume of Lake Gojal that would have been reached without engineering intervention, and ii) as of August 28, 2015, in drawing down the lake by ~40m, they had achieved a 72% reduction in the maximum volume reached by Lake Gojal after overtopping without a catastrophic release taking place. The emplacement of rockslide dams and the behaviour of their impounded lakes are critical hazards to communities and the development of infrastructure, including hydroelectric facilities, in this region of Central Asia. We show that a combination of high-resolution optical satellite imagery and SRTM 3-arc-second digital topography is very effective in producing key first-order data on rockslide-dammed lakes for geomorphic and hydrological analysis as well as the evaluation of engineering mitigation.

First Lithium Isotope Data from Rivers and Subsurface Water in the Pamirs

Lithium and its isotopes has generally been used as a proxy for silicate weathering and only in a few case studies investigated the link between Lithium isotope systematics of surface and ground waters with respect to residence times in crustal reservoirs and aquifers. However, the processes controlling the Lithium isotope fractionation in such systems are not fully understood, yet. In order to gain a better understanding of how Lithium isotopes are fractionated in large catchments we analyzed Lithium concentrations and Lithium isotope compositions of different water reservoirs (rivers, groundwater, thermal water and lakes) of a high alpine granitic catchment in the Pamir Mountains. We also determined the Lithium concentration and Lithium isotope composition of the (granitic) basement as well as the suspended particulate matter (SPM) in the waters. We observe large isotopic variations in the water samples (from δ7Li = +3 to +36‰) and light isotopic compositions for the bedrock and SPM (δ7Li = -14 to +1.5‰). The wide span of Li isotope composition in the water samples reflects the weathering of silicate rock along the flow path of the (sub) surface water within the catchment.

Geographic Variation Across the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan

The Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan are a crossroads of diverse natural and human phenomena. Defining geographic traits include earthquakes, debris flows, snow avalanches, flooding, dust storms, high-velocity winds, and altitudinal variation of plant and animal communities. This relentless mountain environment effectively separates three broad ethnic groups from each other: Lowland Tajiks, Mountain Tajiks (also called Pamirians), and Kirghiz. Within each group are scores of diverse clan and family subdivisions that make cultivating a unified national identify difficult. The mountain economy centers on market and subsistence agriculture, pastoralism, and limited mining, with small service and government sectors. There is an evolving focus on developing abundant water resources and tourism infrastructure. Soviet-era geographers divided the Pamir into subregions of the Western foothills and Academy Range, and the Eastern Pamir Plateau. However, their scheme does not fully account for the unique cultural and biophysical differences found east and west of the Pamir crest. This essay further subdivides the Pamir into four subregions of distinct climate, landforms, resources, people, and economy. These include the Western Pamir, the High Pamir ( Academia Nauk ), the Eastern Pamir and Pianj River Corridor, and the Pamir Plateau. The ongoing post-Soviet era environmental and demographic change is deepening human-cultural geographic variance across the range.

Report of the Seventy-Ninth Annual Meeting: Portland, Oregon October 5–8, 2016

Report of the Seventy-Ninth Annual MeetingPortland, Oregon October 5–8, 2016 Hunter Shobe and David Banis The Association of Pacific Coast Geographers held its seventy-ninth annual meeting on October 5–8, 2016, at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. More than 250 academic, professional, and student members of the APCG came together for paper and poster sessions, the welcoming keynote session and reception, the presidential plenary, field trips, and the student awards banquet. Presenters came from more than forty-two different APCG universities. The collegial and supportive atmosphere at the APCG meetings makes it a great forum for exchanging ideas and we were pleased to host this year’s meeting at PSU. The Portland State University Department of Geography faculty hosted the meeting on their campus, and most of the events took place in the Smith Memorial Student Union. The opening session began on (a rainy) Wednesday evening. PSU Provost Sona Andrews; APCG President Stephen Cunha; Director of PSU’s Institute for Sustainable Solutions, Robert Liberty; and PSU Geography Department Chair Heejun Chang each greeted the gathering before the opening plenary. Philip Mote, Director of the Oregon Climate Change Research Center and Oregon Climate Services, and Professor at the College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University, delivered the opening plenary, “Planning in the face of uncertainty: what we don’t know about our changing climate.” A reception with Oregon beers and wines followed in the browsing room overlooking the South Park Blocks. For the 2016 meeting, all poster and paper sessions met on Thursday and Friday, and the field trips took place on Saturday. APCG members presented more than 140 papers and posters in four (and at times five) concurrent sessions. Session topics spanned the range of interests held by the members of our organization; the program [End Page 267] is available online at the APCG and PSU Department of Geography websites. A number of organized events and sessions took place on (an also rainy) Friday. In the morning, the APCG Women’s Network sponsored a panel discussion focused on mentorship and action strategies related to gender equity and diversity in higher education. Organized and chaired by Katie Meehan of the University of Oregon and Jessie Clark of the University of Nevada, Reno, the session panelists were Kate Berry, University of Nevada, Reno, Harriet Hawkins, University of London, and Amy Lobben, the University of Oregon. Late Friday morning, Stephen Cunha delivered his Presidential Address, discussing his research on evolving land protection in the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan. The environmental and political context provided by Stephen was supported and illustrated by an extraordinary collection of his photographs from the region. The Student Awards Banquet took place in the Smith Memorial Student Union ballroom on Friday evening at this year’s meeting. Excellent student presentations were plentiful, and the great turnout made decisions about choosing award winners particularly difficult this year. APCG vice-president Dennis Dingemans, of UC Davis, emceed the event. On Saturday (the day it did not rain much and when the weather was actually quite nice), four field trips coordinated by Barbara Brower offered a number of different looks at the Portland area. Martha Works led a group on a “Landscapes of Wine in Oregon” tour. Andrés Holz and Martin Lafrenz led an excursion on the biogeography and geo-morphology of Mount Hood. Barbara Brower and Robert Voeks took a group to the Columbia River Gorge and the Hood River Valley. David Banis and Hunter Shobe led a crew of participants on a meandering walking and public-transportation tour of Portland, connected to their book Portlandness: A Cultural Atlas. The event came together thanks to the efforts of many APCG members and people at Portland State University. Steve Graves, of California State Northridge, single-handedly put the registration site [End Page 268] together. David Deis and James Craine, also of California State North-ridge, designed the clean and sharp look of the meeting program. The PSU Department of Geography staff, especially Seyrra Croy, Iliana Torres, and Andrea Celentano, were instrumental in helping pull everything together before, during, and after the meeting. The success of the meeting...

Perestroika to Parkland: The Evolution of Land Protection in the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan

This article traces the evolution of land protection in the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan. The Pamirs form the “Roof of the World,” where the Hindu Kush, Karakoram, Tian Shan, and Kunlun Shan ranges converge. Field and archival research identified (1) the origin and diffusion of parks and protected areas across the globe, (2) the biophysical properties of the Pamir Mountains that inspired the conservation efforts, (3) the sequence of land protection from national park to supranational World Heritage recognition, and (4) the characteristics of the Pamir Mountains that justify UNESCO Biosphere Reserve status. Stalin forcefully depopulated these highlands in the 1930s. Tense Soviet–Sino relations in the 1960s and the prolonged Soviet–Afghan war further restricted human movements. When Gorbachev's perestroika allowed return migration in the mid-1980s, Tajik farmers and Kirghiz pastoralists resettled a landscape of thriving plants and wildlife. Concurrently, a nascent coalition of citizen scientists and government officials began advocating for a park. In 1992 the government established the Tajik National Park to protect environmental and sacred sites, promote traditional economic activity, and develop tourism. The antecedent Soviet collapse, civil war, economic upheaval, and renewed conflict in Afghanistan, however, complicated land protection. In 2013, UNESCO designated the Tajik National Park as a World Heritage Site. Establishing a Biosphere Reserve is the next step to promoting transboundary conservation with the adjacent protected areas in China, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. The potential reserve size, terrain, and demographic trajectory are consistent with the Man and the Biosphere model.

On the 90th Birthday of Rem Viktorovich Khokhlov

July 15th 2016 marked the 90th birthday of Rem Viktorovich Khokhlov, a prominent Russian physicist, talented organiser of national and world science and higher education, rector of Lomonosov Moscow State University, vice-president of the USSR Academy of Sciences, founder and head of the Department of Wave Processes. He tragically died on 8 August 1977 trying to conquer the highest peak of the Pamir Mountains.

Remote assessment of reserve capacity of outburst alpine lakes

Results of distant satellite sounding (the TERRA satellite) of high-mountainous areas and digital models SRTM 4.1 and ASTER DEM G2 of the same relief were used to calculate the following parameters of high-mountain dammed glacial lakes: area, depth, the water volume, excess of the dam above the water level. It is important for estimation of the water volume that can be dangerous for a break-through of a dammed lake. Formulas deduced to calculate the depth and volume of a lake for several sections of its area were tested and proposed. It is demonstrated that the regression equation V = Hmax × F, where Hmax is maximum depth of the lake, can be used as the parameterization of the formula «lake volume V equals the product of the area F on average depth D». More precise values of the coefficients a and b in the formula V = aFb were also obtained. Parameters and the water volumes of lakes were estimated for the river Gunt (right tributary of Pyanj River) basin. According to [28], there are 428 high-mountain lakes in this region with their total area ≥ 2500 m2. For basin Inflow of melted snow and glacier water caused by the rise of mean summer air temperatures in 1931–2015 was estimated for the lake Rivankul basin (the Pamir Mountains).

Investigation of mineral aerosols radiative effects over High Mountain Asia in 1990–2009 using a regional climate model

Mineral aerosols scatter and absorb incident solar radiation in the atmosphere, and play an important role in the regional climate of High Mountain Asia (the domain includes the Himalayas, Tibetan Plateau, Pamir, Hindu-kush, Karakorum and Tienshan Mountains). Dust deposition on snow/ice can also change the surface albedo, resulting in perturbations in the surface radiation balance. However, most studies that have made quantitative assessments of the climatic effect of mineral aerosols over the High Mountain Asia region did not consider the impact of dust on snow/ice at the surface. In this study, a regional climate model coupled with an aerosol–snow/ice feedback module was used to investigate the emission, distribution, and deposition of dust and the climatic effects of aerosols over High Mountain Asia. Two sets of simulations driven by a reanalysis boundary condition were performed, i.e., with and without dust–climate feedback. Results indicated that the model captured the spatial and temporal features of the climatology and aerosol optical depth (AOD). High dust emission fluxes were simulated in the interior of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and the Yarlung Tsangpo Valley in March–April–May (MAM), with a decreasing trend during 1990–2009. Dry deposition was controlled by the topography, and its spatial and seasonal features agreed well with the dust emission fluxes. The maximum wet deposition occurred in the western (southern and central) TP in MAM (JJA). A positive surface radiative forcing was induced by dust, including aerosol–snow/ice feedback, resulting in 2-m temperature increases of 0.1–0.5°C over the western TP and Kunlun Mountains in MAM. Mineral dust also caused a decrease of 5–25mm in the snow water equivalent (SWE) over the western TP, Himalayas, and Pamir Mountains in DJF and MAM. The long-term regional mean radiative forcing via dust deposition on snow showed an rising trend during 1990–2009, which suggested the contribution of aerosols surface radiative effects induced by snow darkening was increased since 1990.

Polycythemia happen in the Tajiks of Pamirs: a case report

Polycythemia happen in the Tajiks of Pamirs: a case report

Villages Must Recalibrate Time to Survive in the Pamir Mountains

Scientists plan projects this year to help a rugged, troubled region of central Asia retune traditional timekeeping methods based on environmental cues in the face of climate change.

Understanding continental subduction: A work in progress

Understanding continental subduction: A work in progress

Towards improving the Central Asian dendrochronological network—New data from Tajikistan, Pamir-Alay

Millennial long tree-ring records are crucial for better understanding temperature and hydroclimatic variability over the globe. Juniper is one of particularly long-lived species, which can provide more than a thousand-year record, especially in Central Asia. However, there is a lack of dendrochronological series from the Pamir Mountains. Here we report the first 1010-year (AD 1005–2014) juniper tree-ring chronology from the mountain ranges of north-western Tajikistan, the western Pamir-Alay. We present the potential of Juniperus semiglobosa and Juniperus seravshanica in developing millennia-long records. We sampled three study sites at the elevations from 2200 to 3500m. In general, the climate-growth analyses show that radial growth of the Himalayan pencil juniper is positively correlated with the winter precipitation and spring temperature. At some sites tree rings were also positively correlated with summer temperature. Our findings demonstrate the importance of developing the tree-ring data network for the Pamir-Alay and its potential for reconstruction of hydroclimatic variability over the last thousand years in this region.

Multispectral and Texture Feature Application in Image-Object Analysis of Summer Vegetation in Eastern Tajikistan Pamirs

We tested the Moment Distance Index (MDI) in combination with texture features for the summer vegetation mapping in the eastern Pamir Mountains, Tajikistan using the 2014 Landsat OLI (Operational Land Imager) image. The five major classes identified were sparse vegetation, medium-dense vegetation, dense vegetation, barren land, and water bodies. By utilizing object features in a random forest (RF) classifier, the overall classification accuracy of the land cover maps were 92% using a set of variables including texture features and MDI, and 84% using a set of variables including texture but without MDI. A decrease of the Kappa statistics, from 0.89 to 0.79, was observed when MDI was removed from the set of predictor variables. McNemar’s test showed that the increase in the classification accuracy due to the addition of MDI was statistically significant (p < 0.05). The proposed method provides an effective way of discriminating sparse vegetation from barren land in an arid environment, such as the Pamir Mountains.

Early Jurassic corals with dominating solitary growth forms from the Kasamurg Mountains, Central Asia

First description of two Early Jurassic shallow-water coral faunas differing in age and ecological type is presented from the middle Afghanistan, the Nalbandon River area at the Kasamurg Mountains range. Hettangian/Sinemurian corals consist mainly of solitary and phaceloid forms: solitary Amphiastreid Coral A, Archaeosmilia duncani,Fungiaphyllia communis n. gen. n. sp., Fungiaphyllia? sp., Oppelismilia aff. gemmans, O. spectabilis n. sp., Parepismilia dronovi n. sp., P. dolichostoma n. sp., solitary Stylophyllopsis sp., phaceloid Thecactinastraea fasciculata, and rare colonial corals, cerioid Guembelastraea dronovi n. sp. and Stephanastrea sp., as well as some indeterminable forms. The second fauna, close to Pliensbachian–Toarcian border, contains Fungiaphyllia communis. Two families are described as new, family Oppelismiliidae and Parepismiliidae. The corals are contained in micrite with fine quartz grains, generally, with remnants of moluscs and echinoderms, in some occurrences with benthic forams and small gastropods. In their growth forms and generic contents the corals partly resemble the Hettangian fauna from British Isles, Hettangian/Sinemurian fauna from the Pamir Mountains, and partly resemble the middle Early Jurassic fauna from Morocco. The corals are discussed from palaeoecological, palaeoenvironmental, and evolutionary aspects.

Geographic Layers as Landscape Drivers for the Marco Polo Argali Habitat in the Southeastern Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan

We described in this report the essential geographic layers used as landscape drivers for the Marco Polo Argali habitat in the eastern Tajik Pamirs. Using remote sensing techniques and geographic information systems (GIS), individual layers were generated in order to acquire more information on argali patterns and habitat suitability and to make the dataset available online. We introduced an improved object-based image analysis in our mapping of the vegetation cover by utilizing spectral, topographic, and texture variables. We exhausted every Landsat image band and texture feature combination to select the best pairing of band-texture components. For vegetation class alone, the producer’s accuracy was 90.8% and the user’s accuracy was 91.6%.

Cenozoic evolution of the Pamir and Tien Shan mountains reflected in syntectonic deposits of the Tajik Basin

Abstract The NE Tajik Basin in Central Asia, compressed between the ranges of the Tien Shan in the north and the Pamir in the south, is a key region for understanding the evolution of these mountain systems. Erosion and deposition history of the NE Tajik Basin and the adjoining orogens since the late Oligocene is reflected in the sedimentary record. The sedimentary rocks of the NE Tajik Basin are composed of thick units of proximal braided river deposits. They reflect large fluvial plains extending from the margins of the Northern Pamir and the Southern Tien Shan mountains, but are not related to the established lithostratigraphic scheme. Almost all Oligocene–Pliocene synorogenic deposits of the NE Tajik Basin were derived from the northern Pamir ranges, except upper Miocene–Recent proximal deposits close to the active margin of the Tien Shan. Initial uplift in some areas of the SW Tien Shan since the Oligocene was followed by a phase of low-energy sedimentation and a predominance of the southern source area. Since the middle Miocene, erosion of the ranges has occurred with the proximal sedimentation of coarse fluvial deposits along the northern margin of the Tajik Basin.