Repetek Biosphere State Reserve
Repetek Biosphere State Reserve, often referred to as Repetek Nature or Desert Reserve, is a desert nature reserve of Turkmenistan, located in Lebap Province, East Karakum Desert, near Amu Darya. It is located approximately south from Türkmenabat and is known for its zemzen. Established in 1928 for the study and preservation of a sand-desert ecosystem, it covers an area of.
Geography
The landscape of the reserve is arid, with extensive ridged sand dunes some in height and in length in many areas, large areas of sand dune and valley-like depressions. Black saxaul, rare to most part of Central Asia covers more than, approximately 4.5% of the territory of the reserve. The soils have sandy subsoils, but some "21 trees, 104 grasses, 8 mushrooms, 1 moss, 68 soil algae and 197 fungi" grow within the reserve.History
The Repetek sandy desert scientific station was organized in 1912 by the decision of the Russian Geographical Society, and the reserve was established in 1928 on the base of the scientific station. During the Soviet period the reserve belongs to the Institute of Deserts of the Turkmen SSR Academy of Sciences. The list of scientific publications concerning with the Repetek sandy desert station and the biosphere reserve since 1982 to 1991 consists of about 250 papers.The Institute of Deserts, Flora and Fauna of the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan was established in 1962 to study ways of reclaiming desert land for economic use in the reserve. A museum is present at the site.