LAUSR

This article presents the results of long-term studies of the process of desertification (degradation) of the dry lands of the northwestern Pre-Caspian region. Modern vegetation is considered to occur as a result of pasture overload with livestock. The authors consider this process to be “unification,” which leads to a decrease in species diversity in communities and, as a consequence, to uniformity of the vegetation cover. The complexity of the soil and vegetation cover characteristic of the Pre-Caspian region disappears, and a sequential change occurs in indigenous plant communities by a group of short-term derivatives. Quantitative assessment of the desertification process includes (classes) the stages of desertification, the criteria for pastoral digression, and the corresponding indicators, plant communities. They determine the ecological–dynamic series of plant communities, which reveal the mechanism of the degradation process. The study showed that the vegetation of the youngest New Caspian terrace within the northwestern Pre-Caspian region is characterized by high susceptibility to this process.