Modern ecological problems of restoration and conservation of the sturgeon population in the Ural River basin

Ахмеденов, К. М.; Чибилев, А. А.

doi:10.18470/1992-1098-2023-1-6-16

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 21 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Most of the catchment is polluted with heavy metals from mining and metallurgy, and concentrations of toxic nitrites, oxides, and organic compounds are often above allowable limits [74,96]. Moreover, pollutants from the Ural River are eventually swept into the Caspian Sea, adding to the already significant contaminant load and further degrading sturgeon habitat [97][98][99][100]. Contaminated water subjects Caspian sturgeon to serious disorders, including tumor formation, muscle atrophy, gonadal dysfunction, and abnormal morphogenesis [44,101,102].…”

Section: Habitatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Re-Establishing Naturally Reproducing Sturgeon Populations in the Caspian Basin: A Wicked Problem in the Ural River

Pueppke,

Nurtazin,

Murzashev

et al. 2023

Water

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Although Eurasia’s Caspian basin once supported the world’s richest and most diverse complex of sturgeon species, recent human activities have decimated populations of these ecologically and economically important fish. All five anadromous Caspian sturgeon species are critically endangered, and the potamodromous sterlet is also threatened. The precipitous decline of these species is due to a combination of factors that includes illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing; destruction of feeding and spawning habitat; water pollution; and the environmental consequences of climate change. International efforts are currently underway to re-establish sustained naturally reproducing sturgeon populations in the basin. Here, we update and review the status of sturgeon in the Caspian Sea with emphasis on the northern basin and the inflowing Volga and Ural rivers. We then focus on efforts to restore sturgeon in the Ural, which originates in Russia and flows through Kazakhstan before entering the Caspian Sea. With nearly ideal hydrological conditions for sturgeon, the Ural is the basin’s sole remaining river that allows migrating sturgeon unimpeded access to potentially productive spawning grounds. The challenge of re-establishing sturgeon in the Ural River exhibits the classical characteristics of wicked problems: ambiguous definitions, changing assumptions and unanticipated consequences, tradeoffs and economic dependencies, an incomplete and contradictory knowledge base, and no straightforward pathway toward a final solution. This challenge is examined here for the first time from the perspective of its wicked dynamics, with consideration given to approaches that have proven effective elsewhere in resolving wicked environmental problems.

show abstract