South Aral Sea Syr Darya, would be diverted in order to irrigate cotton and food crops in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. In 1986, due to an accelerated loss of water, the Aral Sea was split into northern and southern parts; the northern part is the current North Aral Sea. In 2007, the western basin had a salinity of 70 g/l and the eastern basin 100 g/l. Once the water level falls below the connecting channel (elevation 29 m), the salinities can be expected to diverge further. Under current conditions, the eastern basin may receive water from the Amu Darya in wet years, fluctuating in
Mastogloia Sea a new outlet at the Great Belt. The Ancylus Lake reached the level of the sea ca. 8500 years ago, marking the beginning of the Mastogloia Sea (Björck 1995, Donner 1995). At this time the global sea level was rising rapidly as the melting of the last remnants of the great ice age ice sheets still continued (Fleming "et al." 1998). As a result, some amounts of salt water started to penetrate into the Baltic basin through the Danish straits, mixing into the vast freshwater body. This resulted in slightly brackish conditions in the Baltic. The Mastogloia Sea bears the