- General information about the Registan Desert
- Climatic conditions
- Nearby water sources
- The kingdom of flora on the territory of Registan
Registan - this is the name of the main square of Samarkand, where historical sights and monuments are collected. The word itself literally translated from Arabic means "a place covered with sand." Based on this translation, it becomes clear why the Registan desert received the same name. True, its territories are not located in Uzbekistan, they are located in neighboring Afghanistan, in the eastern part of the Iranian Highlands.
General information about the Registan Desert
Registan belongs to the sandy deserts of the planet, in the photographs you can see that it is a gently sloping plain, occupying an area of about 40 thousand square kilometers. Its neighbors on the geographical map are the following objects:
- the Helmand River and its tributary Argandab, which “cover” the desert from the west and north;
- Quetto-Pishinskoe plateau - in the east;
- Chagai mountains - in the south.
In the video, you can see that the Registan consists of rows of sandy ridges fixed in place, and moving dunes, the height of the latter reaches 60 meters. Another important characteristic of the terrain is the height difference, in the western part the height is about 800 meters above the world ocean level, to the east the rise is already about 1500 meters.
Climatic conditions
Since Afghanistan is located in the subtropical continental climate zone, this in a certain way affects the climatic conditions of the desert. Summers are very dry, hot, the temperature at noon is at least + 30 ° С, while at night a sharp drop in temperature is possible, record values are at the level of + 1 ° С - 0 ° С.
The temperature regime in the cold season in the Registan Desert is distinguished by the same sharp drops, the highest rates are in the region of + 8 ° С, the lowest temperature noted by forecasters is –20 ° С. There is very little rainfall in desert regions, this figure does not exceed 40-50 mm per year, the blessed time of rains is winter and spring.
Nearby water sources
The Helmand River, which borders the Registan from the west and north, makes the climate in this area milder than in the central regions of the desert. It is nourished by glaciers and snow, floods are possible in spring, and by November the runoff becomes the smallest. Water is used for irrigation, so the middle and lower course passes in the area of a narrow strip of land sandwiched by the Dashti-Margo and Registan deserts. It is these irrigated lands that help the local population survive.
The Helmand tributary, the Arghandab River, is also a kind of border of the Registan. Its waters are actively used for irrigation, and the lands in the area of the water stream are cultivated and inhabited by humans. There are not so many settlements, but they do exist; the modernization of the Dala Dam can contribute to the improvement of life in the region. The planned result of the modernization is to double the area of irrigated land.
The kingdom of flora on the territory of Registan
There are various types of plants that thrive in these desert areas. Registan and the neighboring deserts, Sistan, Deshti-Margo, are characterized by the presence of vast areas with more or less mobile sands. Accordingly, there are representatives of the flora adapted to such soils. Among the dominants are Persian saxaul, Selin cereal (refers to perennial plants), Juzgun, various types of feather grass.
Scientists note the fact that most of the territories of the Registan Desert are completely devoid of vegetation, since they are bare sands. In percentage terms, plants can occupy from 1% to 10% of the territory (in places of mobile dunes). On stabilized dunes, plants can already occupy up to 25% of the area.
Another feature of the territories is that in the lower parts of the hollows there are takyrs and salt marshes, which are characterized by their own special flora. Saline depressions are mainly occupied by representatives of the subfamily of hawkers. There is a complete absence of large shrubs, low shrubs are rare, ephemera and geophytes are popular. The latter include various types of tulips, onions, irises (for example, Dzhungarian iris).
Naturally, ephemera are widespread, the name of this ecological group of herbaceous plants is translated from Greek as “daily, for the day”. And this name fully justifies the life cycle of plants, which is characterized by an extremely short growing season. For many members of this group, a few weeks are enough to germinate, develop, mature and give a harvest.
Ephemera in the Registan desert are accompanied by ephemeroids (they should not be confused). This ecological group includes perennial plants, in which the ground part dies off during the dry period, and the root system retains its viability until the next growing season.
