Exploring environmental connection: ecological network opportunities in the Shahdagh National Park, Azerbaijan

The high growth rate of consumption of natural resources by people in the last century have seriously and negatively affected ecosystems and led to the loss of biodiversity. At present, it is important to take the necessary measures to ensure sustainable development and biodiversity conservation. Ecological networks play an important role in maintaining and controlling the stability and balance of communication between ecosystem complexes. For this purpose, the possibility of creating an ecological network that includes core areas, buffer zones, ecological corridors and restoration areas in the section of Shamakhi district of the Shahdagh National Park was explored. The designated buffer zone of the national park includes 14 villages and 1 settlement type administrative unit. Mountainous landscapes predominate in the area, and the absolute height ranges from 500-200 m. Riverbeds, intermountain depression, mountain passes, trails and forests which should be planted in the areas we offer, were considered as main factors during the construction of ecological corridors in the national park and the buffer zones. The materials obtained from the literature and our field studies, also, vector and raster data were used during the site identification. The data was processed in software such as ArcGIS 10, ERDAS Imagine, Global Mapper, Google Earth, etc. Existing ecosystems were identified, and areas were calculated in separate elements of the ecological network in the study area.

Scientific-methodical and practical principles for assessment of the key territories of the Eastern Podillya's econetwork based on the main criteria of their formation

The article presents scientific-methodical and practical principles for assessment of key territories of the ecological network of Eastern Podillya based on the main criteria of their formation. It offers the system of appropriate approaches and principles to be applied for formation of the key territories of the region's ecological network. The principle of representativeness should serve as a main criterion for selection of the key territories, however, we still advise to consider three types of such territories – biotic (botanical, zoological, mycological); geographical (landscape; biogeographical); geozoological (object; categorical; functional). Such aspects as area, size, configuration, state of internal ecological balance should play a significant role in creating the key territories, however, the qualitative and quantitative composition of protected objects, degree of anthropogenic impact on natural and man-made ecosystems and types of conservation regimes are also extremely important. Matrix representativeness, which is widely used in EU countries, should be also of great importance in forming a network of key territories. It is based on the landscape-zonal principle, where the systems of natural zoning units (biogeographical, geobotanical, floristic, forest typological, zoogeographical, physical-geographical) form the matrix of biodiversity species and landscapes. According to this principle, the basis for creation of key territories should by all means include typical (indicator) species of biodiversity, landscapes of all natural zones, subzones, regions, provinces, sub-provinces, districts. The field surveys of Eastern Podillya led us to a conclusion that a significant number of key territories do not perform a function of preserving biotic and landscape diversity. The conducted field researches allowed establishing the fact that there is a risk of losing such diversity under current ecological conditions of the region. Therefore, using the principle of representativeness, we presented a method of assessing the key territories of the Eastern Podillya's ecological network based on the main criteria of their formation. The main criteria include degree of naturalness of a certain key territory, its floristic and faunistic significance, landscape-coenotic and specific (relating to species) representativeness, purpose of a key territory, and its protected status (regime).