Physical geography and nature reserve of Turkmenistan

With its area of 491,200 km² Turkmenistan is one of the Turkish countries situated in the Central Asia. The country's landforms are quite simple. All of the parts outside of Koyten Mountains in the Southeast, Kopet Mountains in the south, Karabil and Bathyz plateaus in the southwest have a flat landform appearance. Considered to be one of the branches of Alp Himalayan Mountains, these mountain systems are remarkable with their worn bare surfaces. By being resistant enough against the rocks, Koyten Mountain form the highest point with the height of 3139 meters. At the same time fault lines are located on these mountain areas. Began to nascent Neogene, Karakum desert covers a large portion of 80% area of the country. By being Turkmenistan's most important stream, the Amu Darya (Jeyhun) river after collecting the materials from the southern mountains and by being deprived of moisture due to lack of rain and great violence of evaporation as a result of changing the direction of the river made the formation and improvement of topography of arid regions within the country. As a result of this, the formation of the arid region's topography in Turkmenistan has been accelerated even more. Dominating to topography of arid region the Karakum desert is remarkable with its relief like barchans, dunes like ridges playa, ripple marks and alluvial plain. Arid climate is seen in Turkmenistan. Temperature differences between day and night is high. Mid-day temperature in July is 40-45 ° C in desert fields. The temperature is sometime observed to decrease at -30 ° C in the desert area in winter months while it was measuredaround -15° C in average. Turkmenistan is a very water-poor country. Most of the rivers, except for the significant ones such as Amu Darya (Ceyhun), Murghap, Tejen, Atrek Qaraqum Canal, are seasonal rivers. Different soil types were developed in the country due to the impact of the many natural conditions. With respect to the soil properties, it is possible to divide Turkmenistan in two; the soil of highlands and plane areas. The distribution of soil covers in mountainous and plain regions affects also the vegetation cover. Plant groups in the territories of the country, where many plant species exist, are divided into 4 zones including mountain vegetation, desert vegetation, oasis vegetation and river vegetation. There are many natural beauties in the country depending on the geographical formations. Special natural reserve zones were created for their protection. There are many species in these areas which are protected by many international organizations such as IUCN. There are eight natural reserve sites in the country, these are Repetek, the Kopetdag, Koytendag, Badkhyz, Syunt - Hasardag, Caspian, Amu Darya and Kaplankyr. In this study, it is aimed to reveal the general characteristics of physical geography and natural reserves of the Republic of Turkmenistan which has an important position in Central Asia. Therefore, geological characteristics of Turkmenistan are discussed through addressing its geomorphology characteristics, climate characteristics, hydrographic characteristics, soil properties, natural vegetation and natural reserves. Keywords: Turkmenistan, geomorphology, topography of arid region, nature reserve