Research: Atmospheric Teleconnections and Anthropogenic Telecouplings Drive Land Change in Central Asian Highlands (LCLUC)

Our LCLUC project builds on our prior research findings in the region support to advance understanding of the land change occurring in the rural highlands of montane Central Asia due both to changing environmental conditions and socioeconomic processes. Our study region encompasses all highland pastures between 1800 and 4800 m amsl in the Tien Shan and Pamir mountain ranges in Central Asia. This area includes much of Kyrgyzstan (92.3K km2) and Tajikistan (56.3K km2), and smaller portions of Kazakhstan (15.1K km2), Uzbekistan (12.6K km2), and Turkmenistan (158 km2). The project’s three key questions are: (1) How, where, and when do changes in environmental drivers affect pasture productivity and land degradation? (2) How, where, and when do environmental changes (e.g., changing snow season, natural disasters, pasture degradation, risk perception) trigger/drive migration? and (3) How, where, and when do migration and remittances increase risk of pasture & land degradation?