The Laboratory for Ecology of Arid Territories
Address: Russia, 119071, Moscow, Vavilova street, 41, office 1.
Phone: +7(499)124-79-34; +7(499)124-33-13
e-mail: monexp@mail.ru
Headed by Sergey N. Bazha, Dr. Biol. Sci.
The Laboratory for Ecology of Arid Territories was organized in 1993 on the initiative of Petr D. Gunin, Dr. Biol. Sc, Professor. To the development of the laboratory’s scientific program a great contribution was made by Nina T. Nechaeva - an outstanding scientist in the study of arid landscapes, Academician of Turkmenistan Academy of Sciences.
The main goal of the laboratory is to study the functioning and development of arid ecosystems in various landscape-ecological regions of Eurasia, and to identify the main mechanisms and diagnostic signs of their degradation and desertification under the influence of natural and anthropogenic factors.
The developed landscape-ecosystem approach to the processes of degradation and desertification of soil cover and plant communities is a priority for the laboratory investigations.
The research areas of the laboratory are focused on carrying out and summarizing the interdisciplinary comprehensive studies in biogeography, landscape ecology, paleogeography, eco-physiology, etc.
The dominant, functionally important ecosystems - from extra arid and true deserts, to forest-steppe and exposition forests, located on a series of stationary polygons in Buryatia and Mongolia serve as model research objects of the laboratory. A large portion of the laboratory research is the study of the ecosystems state in the Lake Baikal Basin.
Since 1988, to the present, the laboratory team is responsible for organizing and logistical support for expeditionary research in Mongolia within the framework of the Russian-Mongolian Complex Biological Expedition RAS and MAS (JRMCBE RAS and MAS).