Английский язык

6. В 1930 году уровень Каспия начал резко снижаться и к 1941 году он достиг 1,9 м.

7. Каспийский регион расположен в центре Палеарктической зоогеографической зоны.

8. Биоразнообразие Каспийской водной среды происходит от долголетней истории существования моря и его изолированности, что создает благоприятные условия для обитания биологических видов.

9. Побережная территория привлекает большое разнообразия птиц, которые изобилуют в течении всего года над и вокруг Каспийского моря.

4. Answer the questions:

1. What are the length, width and water volume of the Caspian sea?

2. What rivers flow into the Caspian?

3. What is the most salient physical characterize of the Caspian?

4. Why is the calculation of long – term forecasts of water level thought not reliable?

5. Which biomes and climatic conditions determine the biodiversity of the Caspian.

6. How many and which species of fish constitute the endemic aquatic taxa?

7. Which phenomenon can lead to the potential loss of diversity?

8. What are the principal economic activities in the Caspian basin.

Part II

suffering (n)– страдание

comprehensive – всесторонний

to alleviate (v) – облегчать ослабить

approaches – подход

profound – глубокий

decline – спад

dissolution – распад

to resume – возобновлять

bottom – дно

neglect – пренебрежение

spill – выброс

contention –

feasible – возможный

oil – extraction – добыча нефти

fingerling –

to inundate –

reversible – обратимый

beyond doubt – несомненно

to pose a threat – представлять угрозу

in turn – в свою очередь

a urgent need – срочная необходимость

the highest priority – высший приоритет

ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES

15. During the Joint Mission and in other consultations, the Caspian governments repeatedly emphasized the primacy of the impacts of sea level rise as the leading environmental problem facing them. While response to the environmental impacts of sea level rise may well be considered the most urgent in terms of alleviating human suffering, protecting valuable infrastructure and preventing pollution incidents, other types and sources of environmental problems must also be considered in a comprehensive environmental program for the region. The Caspian Sea Environment Program seeks to address environmental problems due to human activity in or near the Sea and in the catchments of rivers draining into the Caspian, as well as problems caused by fluctuations in water levels. The measures to address these problems will be most successful if they combine long term, integrated and strategic approaches with short term emergency resources.

a) Pollution

16. The ecological integrity of the Caspian is under significant threat from pollution by particulate organic matter and excess inorganic nutrients (eutrophication) and by various toxic materials (radionuclides, heavy metals, pesticide residues, and persistent synthetic organic compounds such as phenols, PCB s and dioxins). As in other countries undergoing similar profound economic change, the economic decline that accompanied the dissolution of the former Soviet Union substantially reduced contaminant loading to the Caspian. However, as economic activity picks up, previous discharge and non-point source contamination levels can be expected to resume. The potential impact of a changing industrial profile should also be examined in order to understand how future degradation patterns may differ from those of the past.

17. Except for oil products from oilfields or transportation by ship or pipeline , all other sources of pollution that are quantitatively important are well localized point sources. The Volga is beyond doubt the single major source: it drains the sewage of half the population of Russia, and of most its heavy industry. Much of the Volga pollution is broken down en route, or deposited on the bottoms of the Volga reservoirs, but sufficient amounts still reach the Caspian to cause major imbalances especially in the shallow north basin, which has limited absorption capacity. While the Volga is a point source for the Caspian, it is itself a complex mix of point and non-point sources along its course. Coordination between the CSEP and the Upper and Middle Volga Components of the World Bank –funded Russian Environmental Management Project should be pursued as feasible and useful.

18. Major land-base point sources of pollution are oil extraction in Baku and Sumgait (Azerbaijan), the site of a century of oil production and environmental neglect, and radioactive solid and liquid waste deposits near the Gurevskaya nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan. The Sumgait industrial area, currently operating of at only a fraction of capacity, has been partly constructed in a flood-prone zone. Large quantities of toxic waste run-off and spills have been generated by on-shore oil fields, refineries and petrochemical plants. The shorelines and near-shore water are heavily polluted in many areas, most prominently in Baku Bay.