Caspian

Environmental vulnerability varies considerably from area to area. For example the North Sea, which is displaced into the Atlantic over a two year period,-is a much more robust area than the Caspian Sea which is enclosed. Regional standards should reflect those differences. 

Not considering the former USSR, world production of iodine was ca 13,500 metric tons in 1992. Japan provided about 45% of the world total, compared to 44% from Chile and 11% from the United States. An annual output of 2300 t from 1976 to 1979 was estimated by the U.S. Bureau of Mines (66) but was revised to 2000 tons in 1981. No official data are available for the former USSR where iodine production is reported to be produced from iodine—bromine brines. Two areas have been mentioned the Neftechalinki field in the Slavianski-Triotskoe area near the Black Sea, and a plant in the Baku area in Azerbaidzhan on the Caspian Sea where ca 1400 metric tons was estimated for 1990 production. 

Great Salt Lake, Utah, is the largest terminal lake in the United States. From its brine, salt, elemental magnesium, magnesium chloride, sodium sulfate, and potassium sulfate ate produced. Other well-known terminal lakes ate Qinghai Lake in China, Tu2 Golu in Turkey, the Caspian Sea and Atal skoje in the states of the former Soviet Union, and Urmia in Iran. There ate thousands of small terminal lakes spread across most countries of the world. Most of these lakes contain sodium chloride, but many contain ions of magnesium, calcium, potassium, boron, lithium, sulfates, carbonates, and nitrates. 

Birds. In avian populations, organochlorine-associated suppression of T-cell mediated immune response has been found in herring gull and Caspian tern colonies adjacent to the Great Lakes in Northern America.In the most severe cases, immune response was suppressed by up to 50%. Similarly, seabirds exposed to petrochemicals from oil spills have been found to have suppressed immune function. " ... 

First off-shore wells, fixed to piers, are drilled in the Caspian Sea. 

Ludwig, J.P., Auman, H.J., and Kurita, H. et al. (1993). Caspian tern reproduction in the Saginaw Bay ecosystem following a 100 year flood event. Journal of Great Lakes Research 19, 96-108... 

The situation is further compounded by major oil and gas deposits in Northern Iraq and Azerbaijan (Caspian Sea), as well as critically important and contentious pipeline routes such as Balor-Ceyhan and Baku-Supsa. The volatility of this region can be seen even today, with the deployment of Russian troops in Chechnya. Indeed the three states that make up the geostrategic unit of the South Caucasus, - Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, two of whom share borders with Turkey, will be directly impacted by the advancement of Russian forces in Dagestan and Chechnya. 

Energy. The Trans-Caspian pipeline project is the basis of collaboration between Turkey and the US. in the region. This integrated project has two parts, one being the... 

This is a pipeline project whose time has come. Whatever is required to effect Baku-Ceyhan as the Main Export Pipeline for Caspian oil must be done, and done as soon as possible. 

Pesticide storehouses were examined in five regions of the Astrakhan Oblast because of the rise in the Caspian sea level and the possibility of flooding in 1993-95. Only eight of 39 storehouses were standard however, even they did not meet construction standards, and most were in terrible condition. Residual pesticides contaminated the land surrounding many of these storehouses. In the Volodarsk Region, the maximal values for contamination were atrazine at 1330 times MPC DDT at 53 times MPC, methyl parathion at 1330 times MPC, trifluraline at 8000 times MPC, and phosalone at 107 times MPC. 

Arid and semi-arid lands are quite widespread in Asia, where deserts make up some 11% of this continent (Table 1.1) in Central Asia, north and east of the Caspian to Aral Sea area. In the Turkestan desert, large dunes form huge sand seas (Nettleton and Peterson, 1983). West and North of China, the Takla-Makan and Gobi deserts dominate the landscapes. More to the south, the Great Indian Desert extends up to the Himalayan foothills. More to the west are the hyperarid areas of the Dasht-i-Lat and Dasht-i-Kavri deserts in Iran and Syrian deserts. Immense areas in the north-central part of the Arabian Peninsula and in the Rub al Khali deserts in its southeastern part are hyperarid or arid. 

The semi-arid areas receiving somewhat higher rainfall are covered by a steppe-like fairly continuous vegetative cover of Xerophilous shrubs and grasses. In the Central Asian Plains, east of the Caspian Sea, wind erosion and transport are the dominant features. Sand dunes dominate the landscape for hundreds of kilometers. 

In Europe, a minor area of aridic zones occurs near the Black and Caspian Seas. According to Dregne (1976), the southern parts of Spain, Italy and Greece are semi-arid. 

Ewins, P.J., D.V. Weseloh, R.J. Norstrom, K. Lagierse, H.J. Auman, and J.P. Ludwig. 1994. Caspian Terns on the Great Lakes Organochlorine Contamination, Reproduction, Diet, and Population Changes, 1972-1991. Canad. Wildl. Serv., Occas. Paper Numb. 85. 28 pp. 

Struger, J.S. and D.V. Weseloh. 1985. Great Lakes Caspian terns egg contaminants and biological implications. Colonial Waterbirds 8 142-149. 

Caspian tern, Sterna caspia Egg Washington State 1991 ... 

Mora, M.A., H.J. Auman, J.P. Ludwig, J.P. Giesy, D.A. Verbrugge, and M.E. Ludwig. 1993. Polychlorinated biphenyls and chlorinated insecticides in plasma of Caspian terns relationships with age, productivity, and colony site tenacity in the Great Lakes. Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 24 320-331. 

Grasman, K.A., and Fox, G.A., Associations between altered immune function and organochlorine contamination in young Caspian terns (Sterna caspia) from Lake Huron, 1997-1999, Ecotoxicology, 10, 101, 2001. 

Ludwig, J.R, et al., Deformities, PCBs, and TCDD-equivalents in double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) and Caspian terns (Sterna caspia) of the upper Great Lakes, 1986-1991 Testing a cause-effect hypothesis, J. Great Lakes Res., 22, 172, 1996. 

Cu deficit, excess of Mo and SO Pre-Caucasian plain, Caspian low plain, West Siberian Steppe ecosystems Meadow-Steppe, Eustric Chernozems, Solonchaks, Arenosols The reducing Cu content in the central nervous systems, depressed function of oxidation ferments and activation of catalase, demielinization of the central nervous systems, disturbance of motion, convulsions. Endemic ataxia. Lamb disease is predominant... 

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