Changing mountain Landscapes

Kyrgyzstan is home to barren steppes 2,500 metres above sea level, walnut forests and towering mountain ranges with peaks over 7,000 metres. The majority of the population of five million is still dependent on agriculture and mining; outdated infrastructure and the lack of industry means that modernisation is proceeding more slowly than hoped. Yet the land is not only undergoing social upheaval; constant geological change is altering the landscape as well.

Kyrgyzstan’s landscape both above and below ground have been formed by the upthrust of the Pamir, Tien Shen and Himalaya ranges. This Central Asian region is one of the most tectonically active areas in the world. Scientists of the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam – GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences set up a modern georesearch institute four years ago in the capital Bishkek, under the leadership of Professor Christoph Reigber and Dr. Bolot Moldobekov, to study the geological, hydrological and climatological processes involved. The Central Asian Institute for Applied Geosciences (CAIAG) was set up as a collaborative project between the Kyrgyz Republic and the GFZ and other partners, including the International Center for Development and Environmental Research at the Justus Liebig University, Gießen. The Institute is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Kyrgyz government. Scientists from Central Asian countries can perform research at the institute and the next generation of earth scientists can also be educated here. Dr. Oliver Bens, head of staff of the scientific executive board at the GFZ, explains, “We want to enable our Kyrgyz colleagues to link up with international research.” One of their tasks is to set up a Global Change Observatory Central Asia at CAIAG, because Kyrgyzstan is the ideal location from which to observe the forces which form and alter landscape and climate. “The Indian subcontinent is in collision with the Eurasian plate and the geological forces are enormous, as shown by the upthrust of the Himalayas. These forces are felt as far away as China and Central Asia,” Bens explains. This research is fascinating to scientists but also of practical relevance. In Kyrgyzstan, the activity of System Earth can be experienced on a day-to-day basis. In Bens’ words, “Geoscientific data is essential in predicting risks for settlements, roads and pipelines, because this is one of the  most geologically active regions in the world.” Landslips, rockslides, mudflows and even earthquakes are everyday occurrences. At CAIAG, satellite data are evaluated along with findings from ground stations and glacier measurements to record current developments.

Geoscientists do not just see the landscape as it is: they are also interested in how it was formed and shaped and how it will develop in the next millennia. The same applies to the climate: sediment drilling in lake beds helps the researchers to reconstruct the development and climatic history of the region, for the deposits of flora and fauna enable conclusions to be drawn about more than 100,000 years of varied climatic history – enough dissertation topics for all the doctoral students from all over the world who work at CAIAG. Water as a geo-resource is a further subject of research. In early summer, when snowfields and glaciers melt, large quantities of water are dammed; when the dam breaks, fields and settlements are flooded. At the same time there is a lack of water in the plains of Central Asia, so the steppes are expanding, the ground is becoming saline and eroding. Contamination is also a problem, for example caused by uranium mining; landslips can cause spoil from former mines to contaminate drinking water reservoirs. As Bens says, “Kyrgyzstan is an enormous landscape laboratory”, and the Kyrgyz-German research institute CAIAG can provide the scientific basis for wise decisions, enabling the country to develop and improve its infrastructure. An institute like this which deals with the use and management of natural resources helps the country to help itself and to activate its own geoscientifical potential, as Bens explains. His Kyrgyz colleagues can develop problem-solving strategies and implement them with partners from other central Asian states and Germany.