Due to the undermining of the dam of the Kakhovsky hydroelectric power station, dozens of civilians died by Russian invaders, and hundreds of people lost housing and property. This is a cruel war crime causing a large -scale humanitarian and environmental disaster.

Predicted that the bottom of the Kakhovsky reservoir will become a desert like the bottom of the former Aral Sea. But the ecosystem, recovering from shock, began to recover. Today there are impassable thickets of willows and poplars in which birds and animals settled. The Dnieper returned to the natural channel, sturgeons are re -mastered - they have not been seen here since the flooding. Nature confirmed the thesis of scientists: "

How the young forest lives, what will happen to ecosystems at the bottom of the former reservoir?

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About this zn. UA asked the academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the head of the Department of Geobotanics and Ecology of the Institute of Botanika. Cold Nan of Ukraine Jacob Didokh. Together with the scientific team, with the support of non-governmental organizations "

- Yakov Petrovich that it is you who are observing during research at the bottom of the reservoir?

- Three weeks after undermining the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, our group began the study of the processes taking place there. We fix intensive and powerful reproduction of natural groups, the formation of different biotopes. There is a decrease in the scale of eutrification, that is, mass wiping and decay of algae. As well as the development of high-grass groups of coastal-water plants: cornea, reeds, sedge and others. The dense thickets of poplars and willows are formed up to five meters high and the half -open bare areas of sand and shells, which are gradually populated by vegetation.

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- From time to time, the opinion sounds that undermining the dam is not a catastrophe, but a kind of “service” to nature. How much such a statement is true?

- You can’t say this, because undermining as an act of large -scale destruction of a functioning system is a disaster, and not only for society, but also for nature. We were not ready for such events, so at first different - most often pessimistic - forecasts about the consequences: dust storms, outbreaks of diseases, and so on. Fortunately, they did not materialize, but there are still some negative consequences.

Unfortunately, we do not have access to the left bank, but it is obvious that the scale of the destruction of natural ecosystems there is much larger than on the high right bank. Due to the flooding of large territories south of the dam, centuries-old giant oaks could suffer, unique locals-collars-natural groups of endemic birch of the Dnieper, as well as the population of a short-headed cornflow listed in the Red Book of Ukraine. Zoologists recorded the destruction of the populations of Nordman's mouse, Slovy Sandy, Himranchik Falz-Fein and other species.

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In addition to assessing the scale and destruction objects, the legal aspect of this problem is no less important. The catastrophe of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station was the impetus for discussions both in Ukraine and at the international level. Both lawyers and environmentalists take part in them, in particular, our scientific team. Regarding the "

- What risks and opportunities do this territory be for Ukraine?

- risks are a sharp change in the hydrological balance both in nearby territories and in the water supply system of infrastructure and agricultural lands, which were technologically and environmentally associated with the Kakhovsky reservoir. They are enhanced by global climatic changes. Also, this situation may have distant consequences, which are now impossible to calculate.

- In your opinion, can a new environmental landscape with its own unique views be formed on the site of the Kakhovsky reservoir, or will this territory remain a zone of ecological disaster?

- In fact, new ecosystems are already being formed today. The largest of them are poplar-vegetable forests, which in Ukraine have almost disappeared or have been preserved only fragmented. Verba is one of the most productive woody species: has a high increase, actively evaporates moisture through the leaves (this process is called transpiration) and very effectively absorbs carbon dioxide from the air. Therefore, such groups are extremely great for climate regulation.

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Floody forests also play a key role in the stabilization of highly dynamic processes characteristic of floodplain ecosystems. They form symbiotic associations with mycorrhic mushrooms, which not only improve plant nutrition, but also due to interaction with microorganisms are able to decompose oil products and purify the soil. Trees accumulate nitrogen and phosphorus compounds, as well as heavy metals, in particular cadmiums, and are already used for reconciliation of contaminated territories.

This biotope is of high environmental significance, because such gallery forests, according to European zoologists, are characterized by a rich fauna of insects (up to 450 species), a high density of reproduction and stopping of bird species, are the habitat of numerous rare species of animals and plants, and also have a high recreational value. They provide the so -called environmental services, that is, provide environmentally important functions that have value for society.

That is why, according to a number of international environmental agreements, in particular the Berne Convention (ratified by Ukraine in 1996) and the Directive of the Council of Europe 92/43/EU “On the preservation of natural habitats and types of wild fauna and flora”, such biotopes are subject to protection.

However, unforeseen processes are also possible. Floodplains often serve as corridors to resettle invasive (adventive) plant species, and these trends are already fixed. In particular, the verba in question is not the local verba white, but a hybrid with a red verba of red. Such hybrids can differently affect other natural species.

Yes, we see the reproduction of natural ecosystems. But they are no longer the same in the past. Nature never returns to its original position. But we do not believe that the newly formed ecosystems will pose a threat to the environment, on the contrary, they have the potential for sustainable development.

- how the climate and nature will change after the disappearance of the reservoir? Is it worth waiting for drought, dusty storms, new diseases of plants and animals?

- There were publications that reservoirs have a positive effect on the climate, because they reduce the temperature. But everything needs to be evaluated in comparison. As you know, in the forest under the cover of trees the temperature is lower than in an open place.

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Forests are a kind of “biotic pump”, pumping atmospheric moisture to those places where more evaporation occurs through powerful flows of transpiration of the leaf surface of the trees. This leads to an increase in precipitation. It is Verba that pumps out the most moisture from the soil to the atmosphere, and simultaneously emits oxygen, absorbs carbon dioxide.

Are the negative phenomena that you are asking is possible? In the steppe zone, no one is safe from drought, especially in conditions of climatic changes. At the beginning of the XXI century, when the topic of global warming was just starting to discuss, optimistic forecasts sounded: they say, in Ukraine it will be possible to grow tropical crops and collect double yields.

- What should society and the state do now? Is it necessary to develop programs for the restoration and monitoring of this territory or, conversely, allow nature to heal the wounds independently?

- On the one hand, natural ecosystems in Ukraine are already seriously violated by thousand -year human activity: they are fragmented, surrounded by agriculturals and occupy the lowest percentage of the territory among European countries. Therefore, without human intervention, they will not be able to independently heal the wounds. An additional factor is that foreign (adventive) species that ours are actively introduced into weakened natural groups, primarily the most vulnerable, rare.

And on the other hand, we deeply understand natural processes, so we can reasonably affect them. Modern environmental science allows not only to track the dynamics of changes, but also to evaluate the so -called ecosystem services. Such calculations are of practical importance and may be the basis for reasonable solutions in the field of environmental policy. For example, according to estimates, the cost of only part of the ecosystem services of mature poplar-powerful forests, which can be formed on 30% of the former Kakhovsky reservoir, is 1.523 billion US dollars.

- How real and appropriate, in your opinion, is the restoration of the Kakhovskoy dam and, accordingly, the reservoir?

-If the flooding of the territory of the former reservoir will, say, ten years after the destruction of the dam (because now this is almost impossible due to the occupation of the left bank), then nature will suffer losses in the amount of at least $ 825 million. And then only because of the destruction of formed floodplain forests. And after 20 years this figure will be more than a billion dollars.

With this in mind, the question arises of not only economic expediency, but also the morality and legality of the possible decision to destroy the largest forest biotope in the case of restoring the Kakhovsky reservoir in the future. Of course, we do not deny the possibility of restoring the reservoir, but in reasonable volumes to ensure irrigation, the needs of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant and shipping. We must abandon Soviet giantomania. You need to calculate everything, look for optimal flexible options, and not act contrary to nature.

- What lessons should we learn from this tragedy? Will it change the attitude of Ukrainians to water resources, ecology and the safety of critical infrastructure?

- This and many other tragedies caused by the war (large -scale fires in forests, the construction of fortifications, pollution of soils and reservoirs) will require both losses of losses and the development of resistance measures for possible negative consequences. This requires specialists who are critically lacking. Another problem is the formation of the environmental consciousness of the population and, first of all, power structures. Unfortunately, we do not see this, because even the reorganization of ministries and the liquidation of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources is a movement in the opposite direction, when environmental problems will be evaluated by economists or farmers from the standpoint of benefit or profit, rather than preserving nature.

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