ADAPTIVE NATURE MANAGEMENT IN SEMIARID REGIONS OF RUSSIA AND CHINA

Our research is devoted to the important problem is devoted to the important problem of the reduction of irrational water loss in the semiarid regions’ environment, where the drought and erosion are under conditions of water resources deficiency. Desertification in the areas of semidesert in Russia, as well as soil erosion on the Loess Plateau in China (despite obvious difference of natural conditions), is caused by negative influence of non-controllable water regime in ecosystems. These processes can amplify due to irrational anthropogenic management of these lands. This problem becomes actual in connection with necessity of balance and coordination between natural resources scarcity, economic development and environment protection. We study if modern agriculture methods, desertification and erosion control can provide the adaptive natural management in conditions of the population increase, reduction of natural resources and climate change. In our work, the particular mechanisms ensuring sustainability of artificially planted forests in arid and semiarid regions of China and Russia are analyzed. It is necessary to overcome several inevitable difficulties that appear in any artificial forest ecosystem. These problems are the simplified ways of planting, slow growth, trees’ small potential to reproduction and low ecological efficiency in semiarid ecological conditions.