Encyclopedia of Seas – serie

It includes 700 articles on the hydrographic and geographic objects, hydrological features and biological resources, as well as the administrative-territorial units of the Adriatic countries, briefly describing significant natural objects like islands, peninsulas, bays, rivers, mountains, and their geographical peculiarities.

The book is dedicated to the Ionian Sea, which is part of the Mediterranean.

This Encyclopedia is designed to accumulate and systematize our knowledge about the unique natural water areas - the Laptev, East Siberian and Chukchi seas, their wealth, the events that took place on its waters and shores, and the remarkable people whose lives were and are closely intertwined with the seas. The Encyclopedia contains about 1,500 terms and concepts related to the seas in alphabetical order. It describes geographical features: rivers, lakes, straits, bays; provides information about towns, seaports, transport communications, basic aquatic biological species, nature reserves, national and international programs for the study of the sea, research institutes, historical monuments, activities of prominent explorers and travelers, researchers and scientists. The Encyclopedia also includes a chronology of major historical events connected with the Eastern Arctic seas for more than 400 years.

This Encyclopedia is designed to accumulate and systematize our knowledge about the unique natural water areas - the Barents, White and Kara seas, their wealth, the events that took place on its waters and shores, and the remarkable people whose lives were and are closely intertwined with the seas.

The situation of the Aral Sea is known as one of the worst man-made environmental crises of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Many have seen the satellite photos evidencing the startling shrinkage and deterioration of the sea, as it was a few decades ago and how it appears today. Whereas the Aral Sea was the world's fourth-largest inland body of water in 1960, it has now shrunk to a small fraction of that within three increasingly saline and polluted parts, primarily due to the diversion of waters for agricultural irrigation. The Aral Sea Encyclopedia is devoted to the remarkable phenomenon of the possibility of Aral Sea's imminent disappearance from the Earth in the time span of a single human generation. It first describes the sea before it started drying-out, and then the actions and efforts of the Central Asian countries, as well as the international community, to mitigate the socioeconomic and environmental hazards caused by this desiccation and increasing salinity. This comprehensive reference not only addresses the key environmental issues and presents national and international programs.It also documents the history of the related research studies, the involvement of prominent historical figures, and the chronology of events over three centuries, which became the milestones in the economic development of the Aral Sea and its subsequent diminution.The publication of the Aral Sea Encyclopedia initiates a group of similar valuable references that gather multi-disciplinary perspectives on the world's seas, including planned volumes on the Caspian and Black Seas and the Sea of Japan.

“The Caspian Sea Encyclopedia” is the second one in the new series of encyclo- dias about the seas of the former Soviet Union published by Springer-Verlag. The ?rst volume – “The Aral Sea Encyclopedia” was published by Springer in 2009. The series will be continued by “The Black Sea Encyclopedia” in 2010. Today the Caspian Sea is known to readers thanks to its oil and gas resources, sturgeon and caviar, signi?cant sea-level variations, socio-economic and political problems. The Caucasus and Central Asia (http://eurodialogue. org/?les/fckeditor_?les/Caspian-s- map2. png) vii viii Introduction For more than 250 years the Caspian Sea was shared by two states: Russia (the Soviet Union) and Persia (Iran). After the disintegration of the USSR in 1992, the new independent states of Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan have radically changed the political and economic situation in the region. In addition to Russia and Iran, who had determined the situation on the Caspian for a long period, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan are now interested parties, beginning a new stage in the historical development of the Caspian region. This increase in the number of the Caspian legal entities from two to ?ve has given rise to a whole tangle of geopolitical, economic, international legal, ethnic and environmental problems, each of which demands its own approach and settlement mechanism.

The Black Sea Encyclopedia