Two banks of one river: Russia and China. Problems of ecology

 

The Amur river runs through 3 different regions: the Chitinskaya and Amurskaya Oblasts and the Khabarovskiy Krai. As one of the greatest rivers of this country the Amur is divided into 3 parts: the upper, the middle and the lower Amur. The total length of the Amur river is 27 hundred miles. The distance from Khabarovsk to the Pacific Ocean is 600 miles and it takes 44 hours to reach the estuary by ship. The Amur with its tributaries Shilka and Onon is the longest river in Russia.

In 1858 the Russian-Chinese Treaty on border was signed and then Trans-Amur Territories discovered and populated by Russians were annexed to Russia. Navigation on the Amur was opened the same year, 1858. The growth of population in the territory and construction of the Transsiberian Railroad resulted in the intensive development of the Amur fleet.

To date the two countries’ territories, those of Russia and China, have been separated by the Amur for the space of two thousand kilometers. So, Russians and Chinese are currently united not only by trade and friendship, but also by this great river, which used to be one of the least transformed by man rivers of our planet is now under the threat of an environmental disaster.

Due to the growth of various industries and to dumping of huge amounts of industrial wastes in the waters of this boundary river, the Amur becomes very much polluted and needs to be protected.

Two expeditions to the Amur middle reaches organized by the Institute of Aquatic and Ecological Problems under the Far Eastern branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Amur-side Geographic Society in 1998 provided the researchers with an opportunity to make an assessment of the present-day state of the natural environment of the river and to identify problems of the biological and aquatic resources and vegetation conservation in a situation of intensive economic activities. The expeditions participants unanimously concluded that the Amur eco-system has approached a dangerous borderline and will deteriorate to such an extent that it will have to be reproduced and not protected. And that will be more costly and more complicated to do.

In June and July of 1998, when the Sungary river was in severe flood, the Aquatic and Ecological Problems Institute specialists reported various harmful agents getting into the Amur in gigantic quantities. Dirty and poisonous ribbons of foam, oil patches, all kinds of household wastes floated on the surface of the muddy yellow water. The chemical compounds, while being accumulated in the various aquatic organisms, turn into dangerous sources of water pollution and fish poisoning in the Amur.

On the Chinese bank of the river a sand is extracted on the foreland, the trees are cut down, the lands are ploughed up to the very riverside and fertilizers are applied in big amounts in the fields. The dikes (дамбы) that protect the river banks from washing out and the fields – from flooding, negatively and destructively affect the river. They sometimes stretch for dozens of kilometers along the Chinese bank. Interfering with the natural watercourse dikes contribute to more active washing out of the banks in the other sections and increase the watercourse instability. As a result, navigable paths shift from one arm of the river to the other, the rifts get shallow and new islands are formed in the river. All this not only makes the navigation difficult, but also impedes the development of the borderline relationship between the two countries. The problem of Russian-Chinese cooperation in ensuring ecological safety of one of the richest and the most beautiful rivers in the world is currently extremely important. In the new millennium the people’s welfare on both river banks is subject to what priority its solution will be given.

 

Answer the questions:

 

1. What is the total length of the Amur river?

2. What is the distance from Khabarovsk to the Pacific Ocean?

3. When was the Russian-Chinese Treaty on the Amur River borderline signed?

4. When was the navigation on the Amur opened?

5. For what length are Russia and China separated along the Amur river?

6. What expeditions to the Amur middle reaches were made in 1998?

7. What did happen to the river in June and July of 1998?

8. Why is the Amur river much polluted?

9. What problems harmful to the river ecology do occur on the Chinese bank?

10. What measures should be taken to ensure an ecological safety of the Amur river?

 

Amur tiger

 

In Russia, the tiger occurs in a small area of the extreme Far East of the country. It inhabits the coniferous and broadleaf forests of the Primorsky Krai and the Khabarovsky Krai, mainly on the eastern or right bank of the Ussury and Amur rivers. The northern most boundary of its distribution is located to the south of Khabarovsk City.

The subspecies of the Amur tiger (Latin: Panthera tigris altaica) is distribut­ed only in the extreme Far East of Russia. The Amur tiger differs from other tiger companion subspecies because of its large size and thick winter fur.

Our tigers possess great individual variability in size, especially males which may continue growing even after reaching adulthood. On average, the length of a full grown male can be up to 290 centimeters and their weight can be 260 kilograms or even more. One giant tiger has been recorded with the weight of 390 kilograms and the length of more than three meters. Female tigers are of lesser size, with an average length of 160 to 180 centi­meters and a weight of 140 to 160 kilograms.

Tiger's tracks are frequently seen along any road within coniferous-broadleaf forests in the Bekinsky, Vyazemsky, Lazo and Nanaysky regions of the Khabarovsky Krai. A small number of tigers inhabit nearer to the city of Khabarovsk in the Bolshekhektzirsky State Reserve Area.

Amur tigers can withstand very low temperatures comparatively easy. Thick winter fur and under-skin fat on the abdomen, which is up to lour to five centimeters thick, allows the animal to lie comfortably on the snow for long periods, when chasing its prey, the predator races swift, making leaps of three to four meters long, and leaping over obstacles of two to three meters high. A tiger can even turn in the air while leaping and change direction to follow its prey. When the tiger catches its prey, it grabs half of the body with its fore paws and usually kills it immediately by biting through the prey's neck vertebras. At this moment the tiger is highly excited and begins pulling the kill around for dozens of meters, apparently in order to calm down. Once the excitement has passed, the tiger will lie near the kill licking itself. Afterwards the big predator can pull its prey further on perhaps for a few hundred meters, even up to one kilometer, depending on the size of the kill. The tiger will only stop to make a feast under the cover of thick forest far from the eyes of crows.

Almost all big and middle size species of mammals become prey for tigers in the Khabarovsky Krai. The tiger is at the top of the food chain and can hunt wild boar, the deer species such as izuber, roe buck and musk deer-plus brown bears and Himalayan bears, badgers, raccoon dogs and hares. However, the preferred food, the real "passion" of tigers, is young and middle sized wild boar.

Tigers become mature and ready to breed at the age of three to four years old. The breeding season usually occurs during January and February. One male may visit two or three females. During this "wedding season", males often have ferocious fights between themselves which sometimes end in the death of one of the rivals.

The total current population of Amur tigers within the Khabarovsky Krai is 65 to 70 animals, half of them are grown-up or semi-adults. Around 400 animals can be met in the Primorsky Krai and there maybe a few more on the border with Korea.