The Alpine-steppe is a high altitude natural alpine grassland , which is a part of the Montane grasslands and shrublands biome.
123-999: Alpine-steppes are unique ecosystems found throughout the world, especially in Asia , where they make up 38.9% of the total Tibetan plateau grassland's area. Alpine grasslands, like the Alpine-steppe, are characterized by their intense radiation , with direct solar radiation periods averaging 2916 hours annually. The average temperature in this ecosystem is very low. For example, they may experience temperatures around −10 °C in winter, and 10 °C in summer. Winters also tend to be long and cold, and summers are mild and short. This ecosystem also experiences year-long frost, with no reported frost-free season. The annual rates of precipitation in Alpine-steppes are very low, with mean ranges falling anywhere between 280 and 300 mm. In addition, upwards to 80% of this falls between
246-513: A base , a proton acceptor. Ammonia is moderately basic; a 1.0 M aqueous solution has a pH of 11.6, and if a strong acid is added to such a solution until the solution is neutral ( pH = 7 ), 99.4% of the ammonia molecules are protonated . Temperature and salinity also affect the proportion of ammonium [NH 4 ] . The latter has the shape of a regular tetrahedron and is isoelectronic with methane . The ammonia molecule readily undergoes nitrogen inversion at room temperature;
369-484: A vapour pressure of less than 1 bar even at 25 °C (77 °F). However, few oxyanion salts with other cations dissolve. Liquid ammonia will dissolve all of the alkali metals and other electropositive metals such as Ca , Sr , Ba , Eu and Yb (also Mg using an electrolytic process ). At low concentrations (<0.06 mol/L), deep blue solutions are formed: these contain metal cations and solvated electrons , free electrons that are surrounded by
492-507: A South Asian country, emerges as one of the world's fastest movers since 1970 mainly due to health and education achievements. Its present life expectancy is 25 years longer than in the 1970s. More than four of every five children of school age in Nepal now attend primary school, compared to just one in five 40 years ago. Hong Kong ranked highest among the countries grouped on the HDI (number 7 in
615-444: A cage of ammonia molecules. These solutions are strong reducing agents. At higher concentrations, the solutions are metallic in appearance and in electrical conductivity. At low temperatures, the two types of solution can coexist as immiscible phases. The range of thermodynamic stability of liquid ammonia solutions is very narrow, as the potential for oxidation to dinitrogen, E ° ( N 2 + 6 [NH 4 ] + 6 e ⇌ 8 NH 3 ),
738-415: A cloud of ammonium chloride , which seems to appear 'out of nothing' as the salt aerosol forms where the two diffusing clouds of reagents meet between the two bottles. The salts produced by the action of ammonia on acids are known as the ammonium salts and all contain the ammonium ion ( [NH 4 ] ). Although ammonia is well known as a weak base, it can also act as an extremely weak acid. It
861-550: A colourless liquid , which boils at −33.1 °C (−27.58 °F), and freezes to colourless crystals at −77.7 °C (−107.86 °F). Little data is available at very high temperatures and pressures, but the liquid-vapor critical point occurs at 405 K and 11.35 MPa. The crystal symmetry is cubic, Pearson symbol cP16, space group P2 1 3 No.198, lattice constant 0.5125 nm . Liquid ammonia possesses strong ionising powers reflecting its high ε of 22 at −35 °C (−31 °F). Liquid ammonia has
984-475: A common practice in China because of the sensitivity of these grassland areas. At an elevation of 4,500–6,000 m, Northern Tibet 's area is covered by approximately 94% grasslands, including the alpine-steppe and alpine meadow. The alpine-steppe in this area has less than 20% vegetation coverage, which consists mainly of Stipa purpurea , Artemisia capillaris , and Rhodiola rotundaia assemblages. Compared to
1107-406: A far lower temperature than would be possible with water alone. Substances containing ammonia, or those that are similar to it, are called ammoniacal . Ammonia is a colourless gas with a characteristically pungent smell . It is lighter than air , its density being 0.589 times that of air . It is easily liquefied due to the strong hydrogen bonding between molecules. Gaseous ammonia turns to
1230-407: A fuel for thermal power production. The flammable range of ammonia in dry air is 15.15–27.35% and in 100% relative humidity air is 15.95–26.55%. For studying the kinetics of ammonia combustion, knowledge of a detailed reliable reaction mechanism is required, but this has been challenging to obtain. Ammonia is a direct or indirect precursor to most manufactured nitrogen-containing compounds . It
1353-403: A huge positive impact on atmospheric carbon dioxide and global carbon levels, as well as ecosystem sustainability. But carbon is not the only important factor. Low levels of nitrogen and phosphorus have also been found to limit plant growth and net primary productivity. In one study, exclusion fencing was found to increase the carbon stored in the biomass, as well as the nitrogen and phosphorus in
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#17327646999491476-452: A laboratorial setting, gaseous ammonia can be detected by using concentrated hydrochloric acid or gaseous hydrogen chloride. A dense white fume (which is ammonium chloride vapor) arises from the reaction between ammonia and HCl(g). Ammoniacal nitrogen (NH 3 –N) is a measure commonly used for testing the quantity of ammonium ions, derived naturally from ammonia, and returned to ammonia via organic processes, in water or waste liquids. It
1599-676: A major hub for outsourcing. Trade between Asian countries and countries on other continents is largely carried out on the sea routes that are important for Asia. Individual main routes have emerged from this. The main route leads from the Chinese coast south via Hanoi to Jakarta, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur through the Strait of Malacca via the Sri Lankan Colombo to the southern tip of India via Malé to East Africa Mombasa (see also: Indo-Pacific ), from there to Djibouti , then through
1722-575: A marsh or lowland containing a marsh in Lydia as ασιος . The term was later adopted by the Romans , who used it in reference to the province of Asia , located in western Anatolia. One of the first writers to use Asia as a name of the whole continent was Pliny . The history of Asia can be seen as the distinct histories of several peripheral coastal regions: East Asia , South Asia , Southeast Asia , Central Asia , and West Asia . The coastal periphery
1845-432: A pale yellowish-green flame. Ignition occurs when chlorine is passed into ammonia, forming nitrogen and hydrogen chloride ; if chlorine is present in excess, then the highly explosive nitrogen trichloride ( NCl 3 ) is also formed. The combustion of ammonia to form nitrogen and water is exothermic : The standard enthalpy change of combustion , Δ H ° c , expressed per mole of ammonia and with condensation of
1968-559: A total of eight electrons, or four electron pairs that are arranged tetrahedrally . Three of these electron pairs are used as bond pairs, which leaves one lone pair of electrons. The lone pair repels more strongly than bond pairs; therefore, the bond angle is not 109.5°, as expected for a regular tetrahedral arrangement, but 106.8°. This shape gives the molecule a dipole moment and makes it polar . The molecule's polarity, and especially its ability to form hydrogen bonds , makes ammonia highly miscible with water. The lone pair makes ammonia
2091-438: A useful analogy is an umbrella turning itself inside out in a strong wind. The energy barrier to this inversion is 24.7 kJ/mol, and the resonance frequency is 23.79 GHz , corresponding to microwave radiation of a wavelength of 1.260 cm. The absorption at this frequency was the first microwave spectrum to be observed and was used in the first maser . One of the most characteristic properties of ammonia
2214-465: A very high standard enthalpy change of vapourization (23.5 kJ/mol ; for comparison, water 's is 40.65 kJ/mol, methane 8.19 kJ/mol and phosphine 14.6 kJ/mol) and can be transported in pressurized or refrigerated vessels; however, at standard temperature and pressure liquid anhydrous ammonia will vaporize. Ammonia readily dissolves in water. In an aqueous solution, it can be expelled by boiling. The aqueous solution of ammonia
2337-497: Is basic , and may be described as aqueous ammonia or ammonium hydroxide . The maximum concentration of ammonia in water (a saturated solution ) has a specific gravity of 0.880 and is often known as '.880 ammonia'. Liquid ammonia is a widely studied nonaqueous ionising solvent. Its most conspicuous property is its ability to dissolve alkali metals to form highly coloured, electrically conductive solutions containing solvated electrons . Apart from these remarkable solutions, much of
2460-814: Is a protic substance and is capable of formation of amides (which contain the NH − 2 ion). For example, lithium dissolves in liquid ammonia to give a blue solution ( solvated electron ) of lithium amide : Like water, liquid ammonia undergoes molecular autoionisation to form its acid and base conjugates : Ammonia often functions as a weak base , so it has some buffering ability. Shifts in pH will cause more or fewer ammonium cations ( NH + 4 ) and amide anions ( NH − 2 ) to be present in solution . At standard pressure and temperature, Ammonia does not burn readily or sustain combustion , except under narrow fuel-to-air mixtures of 15–28% ammonia by volume in air. When mixed with oxygen , it burns with
2583-406: Is a colourless gas with a distinctive pungent smell. Biologically, it is a common nitrogenous waste , and it contributes significantly to the nutritional needs of terrestrial organisms by serving as a precursor to fertilisers . Around 70% of ammonia produced industrially is used to make fertilisers in various forms and composition, such as urea and diammonium phosphate . Ammonia in pure form
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#17327646999492706-402: Is a measure used mainly for quantifying values in waste treatment and water purification systems, as well as a measure of the health of natural and man-made water reserves. It is measured in units of mg/L ( milligram per litre ). The ancient Greek historian Herodotus mentioned that there were outcrops of salt in an area of Libya that was inhabited by a people called the 'Ammonians' (now
2829-399: Is a region where various independent cultures coexist rather than sharing a single culture, and the boundary between Europe is somewhat arbitrary and has moved since its first conception in classical antiquity . The division of Eurasia into two continents reflects East–West cultural differences, some of which vary on a spectrum. China and India traded places as the largest economies in
2952-659: Is a unimodal pattern across precipitation and vegetation rain use efficiency (RUE), with an increasing trend in Alpine-steppe regions. RUE is lower here compared to the alpine meadow because of differences in species richness, soil texture, and soil carbon content. Changes in vegetation have been used recently as an indicator of grass land degradation in the Tibetan Plateau, along with land desertification and decreased overall productivity. Vegetation shifts from non-poisonous to poisonous plants seem to correlate with increased land degradation. Plants defined as poisonous in
3075-568: Is about 10 . Liquid ammonia is an ionising solvent, although less so than water, and dissolves a range of ionic compounds, including many nitrates , nitrites , cyanides , thiocyanates , metal cyclopentadienyl complexes and metal bis(trimethylsilyl)amides . Most ammonium salts are soluble and act as acids in liquid ammonia solutions. The solubility of halide salts increases from fluoride to iodide . A saturated solution of ammonium nitrate ( Divers' solution , named after Edward Divers ) contains 0.83 mol solute per mole of ammonia and has
3198-415: Is also applied directly into the soil. Ammonia, either directly or indirectly, is also a building block for the synthesis of many chemicals. Ammonia occurs in nature and has been detected in the interstellar medium. In many countries, it is classified as an extremely hazardous substance . Ammonia is produced biologically in a process called nitrogen fixation , but even more is generated industrially by
3321-437: Is an irritant and irritation increases with concentration; the permissible exposure limit is 25 ppm , and lethal above 500 ppm by volume. Higher concentrations are hardly detected by conventional detectors, the type of detector is chosen according to the sensitivity required (e.g. semiconductor, catalytic, electrochemical). Holographic sensors have been proposed for detecting concentrations up to 12.5% in volume. In
3444-403: Is formed. Pentavalent ammonia is known as λ -amine, nitrogen pentahydride decomposes spontaneously into trivalent ammonia (λ -amine) and hydrogen gas at normal conditions. This substance was once investigated as a possible solid rocket fuel in 1966. Ammonia is also used to make the following compounds: Ammonia is a ligand forming metal ammine complexes . For historical reasons, ammonia
3567-508: Is found throughout the Solar System on Mars , Jupiter , Saturn , Uranus , Neptune , and Pluto , among other places: on smaller, icy bodies such as Pluto, ammonia can act as a geologically important antifreeze, as a mixture of water and ammonia can have a melting point as low as −100 °C (−148 °F; 173 K) if the ammonia concentration is high enough and thus allow such bodies to retain internal oceans and active geology at
3690-1112: Is generally defined as comprising the eastern four-fifths of Eurasia. It is located to the east of the Suez Canal and the Ural Mountains , and south of the Caucasus Mountains (or the Kuma–Manych Depression ) and the Caspian and Black Seas . It is bounded on the east by the Pacific Ocean , on the south by the Indian Ocean and on the north by the Arctic Ocean. Asia is subdivided into 49 countries, five of them ( Georgia , Azerbaijan , Russia , Kazakhstan and Turkey ) are transcontinental countries lying partly in Europe . Geographically, Russia
3813-587: Is generated via the Ostwald process by oxidation of ammonia with air over a platinum catalyst at 700–850 °C (1,292–1,562 °F), ≈9 atm. Nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide are intermediate in this conversion: Nitric acid is used for the production of fertilisers , explosives , and many organonitrogen compounds. The hydrogen in ammonia is susceptible to replacement by a myriad substituents. Ammonia gas reacts with metallic sodium to give sodamide , NaNH 2 . With chlorine, monochloramine
Alpine steppe - Misplaced Pages Continue
3936-514: Is growing rapidly. In 2010, Asia had 3.3 million millionaires (people with net worth over US$ 1 million excluding their homes), slightly below North America with 3.4 million millionaires. In 2011, Asia topped Europe in number of millionaires. Citigroup in The Wealth Report 2012 stated that Asian centa-millionaire overtook North America's wealth for the first time as the world's "economic center of gravity" continued moving east. At
4059-519: Is its basicity . Ammonia is considered to be a weak base. It combines with acids to form ammonium salts ; thus, with hydrochloric acid it forms ammonium chloride (sal ammoniac); with nitric acid , ammonium nitrate , etc. Perfectly dry ammonia gas will not combine with perfectly dry hydrogen chloride gas; moisture is necessary to bring about the reaction. As a demonstration experiment under air with ambient moisture, opened bottles of concentrated ammonia and hydrochloric acid solutions produce
4182-467: Is moist across southeast sections, and dry across much of the interior. Some of the largest daily temperature ranges on Earth occur in western sections of Asia. The monsoon circulation dominates across southern and eastern sections, due to the presence of the Himalayas forcing the formation of a thermal low which draws in moisture during the summer. Southwestern sections of the continent are hot. Siberia
4305-440: Is named ammine in the nomenclature of coordination compounds . One notable ammine complex is cisplatin ( Pt(NH 3 ) 2 Cl 2 , a widely used anticancer drug. Ammine complexes of chromium (III) formed the basis of Alfred Werner 's revolutionary theory on the structure of coordination compounds. Werner noted only two isomers ( fac - and mer -) of the complex [CrCl 3 (NH 3 ) 3 ] could be formed, and concluded
4428-588: Is one of the coldest places in the Northern Hemisphere , and can act as a source of arctic air masses for North America. The most active place on Earth for tropical cyclone activity lies northeast of the Philippines and south of Japan. Climate change is particularly important in Asia, as the continent accounts for the majority of the human population. Warming since the 20th century is increasing
4551-404: Is only +0.04 V. In practice, both oxidation to dinitrogen and reduction to dihydrogen are slow. This is particularly true of reducing solutions: the solutions of the alkali metals mentioned above are stable for several days, slowly decomposing to the metal amide and dihydrogen. Most studies involving liquid ammonia solutions are done in reducing conditions; although oxidation of liquid ammonia
4674-669: Is partly in Asia, but is considered a European nation , both culturally and politically. The Gobi Desert is in Mongolia and the Arabian Desert stretches across much of the Middle East. The Yangtze in China is the longest river in the continent. The Himalayas between Nepal and China is the tallest mountain range in the world. Tropical rainforests stretch across much of southern Asia and coniferous and deciduous forests lie farther north. There are various approaches to
4797-493: Is projected to move to third place, behind China and India. While nearly half of the world's new renewable energy capacity is built in Asia, this is not yet sufficient in order to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement . They imply that the renewables would account for 35% of total energy consumption in Asia by 2030. Asia has the largest continental economy in the world by both GDP nominal and PPP values, and
4920-429: Is the fastest growing economic region. As of 2023 , China is by far the largest economy on the continent, making up nearly half of the continent's economy by GDP nominal. It is followed by Japan, India, South Korea, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which are all ranked among the top 20 largest economies both by nominal and PPP values. Based on Global Office Locations 2011, Asia dominated the office locations with 4 of
5043-403: Is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometers, about 30% of Earth 's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which has long been home to the majority of the human population , was the site of many of the first civilizations . Its 4.7 billion people constitute roughly 60% of
Alpine steppe - Misplaced Pages Continue
5166-581: Is the limiting factor, phosphorus can be a greater influence on the N:P ratio of plant nutrients. alpine grassland temperature range from 14 degrees Fahrenheit in winter to 50 degrees Fahrenheit in summer Because of their elevation, alpine regions are thought to experience higher rates of warming, causing them to be more sensitive and vulnerable to global climate change . Other major threats to Alpine-Steppes include overgrazing , as well as land use change associated with increases in population size. Because of this,
5289-543: Is the precursor to nitric acid, which is the source for most N-substituted aromatic compounds. Amines can be formed by the reaction of ammonia with alkyl halides or, more commonly, with alcohols : Its ring-opening reaction with ethylene oxide give ethanolamine , diethanolamine , and triethanolamine . Amides can be prepared by the reaction of ammonia with carboxylic acid and their derivatives. For example, ammonia reacts with formic acid (HCOOH) to yield formamide ( HCONH 2 ) when heated. Acyl chlorides are
5412-438: Is usually slow, there is still a risk of explosion, particularly if transition metal ions are present as possible catalysts. The ammonia molecule has a trigonal pyramidal shape, as predicted by the valence shell electron pair repulsion theory (VSEPR theory) with an experimentally determined bond angle of 106.7°. The central nitrogen atom has five outer electrons with an additional electron from each hydrogen atom. This gives
5535-461: Is very difficult in the absence of a catalyst (such as platinum gauze or warm chromium(III) oxide ), due to the relatively low heat of combustion , a lower laminar burning velocity, high auto-ignition temperature , high heat of vapourization , and a narrow flammability range . However, recent studies have shown that efficient and stable combustion of ammonia can be achieved using swirl combustors, thereby rekindling research interest in ammonia as
5658-598: The European Union (EU), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or APEC ). This ended in 2010 when China overtook Japan to become the world's second largest economy. It is forecasted that India will overtake Japan in terms of nominal GDP by 2027. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Japan's GDP by currency exchange rates was almost as large as that of the rest of Asia combined. In 1995, Japan's economy nearly equaled that of
5781-450: The Haber process . The process helped revolutionize agriculture by providing cheap fertilizers. The global industrial production of ammonia in 2021 was 235 million tonnes. Industrial ammonia is transported by road in tankers , by rail in tank wagons , by sea in gas carriers , or in cylinders . Ammonia boils at −33.34 °C (−28.012 °F) at a pressure of one atmosphere , but
5904-731: The Hebrew Bible in the narrative of Noah —and later to Christians in the Old Testament , and to Muslims in the Quran —is earliest found in Mesopotamian mythology , in the Enûma Eliš and Epic of Gilgamesh . Hindu mythology similarly tells about an avatar of Vishnu in the form of a fish who warned Manu of a terrible flood. Ancient Chinese mythology also tells of a Great Flood spanning generations, one that required
6027-621: The Hindu Kush region will become more unstable as its enormous glaciers , known as the "Asian water towers", gradually melt. These changes to water cycle also affect vector-borne disease distribution, with malaria and dengue fever expected to become more prominent in the tropical and subtropical regions. Food security will become more uneven, and South Asian countries could experience significant impacts from global food price volatility. Historical emissions from Asia are lower than those from Europe and North America. However, China has been
6150-477: The Siwa oasis in northwestern Egypt, where salt lakes still exist). The Greek geographer Strabo also mentioned the salt from this region. However, the ancient authors Dioscorides , Apicius , Arrian , Synesius , and Aëtius of Amida described this salt as forming clear crystals that could be used for cooking and that were essentially rock salt . Hammoniacus sal appears in the writings of Pliny , although it
6273-722: The Surami Pass and along the Kura River to the Caspian Sea), a convention still followed by Herodotus in the 5th century BCE. During the Hellenistic period , this convention was revised, and the boundary between Europe and Asia was now considered to be the Tanais (the modern Don River). This is the convention used by Roman era authors such as Posidonius , Strabo and Ptolemy . The border between Asia and Europe
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#17327646999496396-915: The Ural River prevailed in the mid-19th century. The border had been moved perforce from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea into which the Ural River projects. The border between the Black Sea and the Caspian is usually placed along the crest of the Caucasus Mountains , although it is sometimes placed further north. The border between Asia and Oceania is usually placed somewhere in the Indonesia Archipelago , specifically in Eastern Indonesia . The Wallace Line separates
6519-596: The century of humiliation , with the British-supported opium trade and later Opium Wars resulting in China being forced into an unprecedented situation of importing more than it exported. Foreign domination of China was furthered by the Japanese colonial empire , which controlled some of East Asia and briefly much of Southeast Asia (which had earlier been taken over by the British, Dutch and French in
6642-638: The monsoons will experience more flooding. The waters around Asia are subjected to the same impacts as elsewhere, such as the increased warming and ocean acidification . There are many coral reefs in the region, and they are highly vulnerable to climate change, to the point practically all of them will be lost if the warming exceeds 1.5 °C (2.7 °F). Asia's distinctive mangrove ecosystems are also highly vulnerable to sea level rise . Asia also has more countries with large coastal populations than any other continent, which would cause large economic impacts from sea level rise. Water supplies in
6765-553: The steppes . The earliest postulated expansion out of the steppe is that of the Indo-Europeans , who spread their languages into West Asia, South Asia, and the borders of China, where the Tocharians resided. The northernmost part of Asia, including much of Siberia , was largely inaccessible to the steppe nomads, owing to the dense forests, climate and tundra . These areas remained very sparsely populated. The center and
6888-415: The sustainability of the vegetation in the area. Measures have been taken to regulate the use of these grasslands, including the implementation of protected or ‘fenced areas’. While these measures are certainly a step in the right direction as far as sustainability legislation, they have not been shown to have a very strong effect on the above ground net primary productivity (ANPP). Based on studies done in
7011-767: The 17th century, the Manchu conquered China and established the Qing dynasty . The Islamic Mughal Empire (preceded by the Delhi Sultanate of the 13th to early 16th century) and the Hindu Maratha Empire controlled much of India in the 16th and 18th centuries respectively. Western imperialism in Asia from the 18th to 20th centuries coincided with the Industrial Revolution in the West and
7134-528: The 1990s, with extreme poverty now below 20%; India and China's rise has coincided with growing tension between the two, with the Indo-Pacific now an actively contested area between China and counterbalancing forces. Asia is the largest continent on Earth. It covers 9% of the Earth's total surface area (or 30% of its land area), and has the longest coastline, at 62,800 kilometres (39,022 mi). Asia
7257-587: The 7th century; Islam also spread over centuries to the southern regions of India and Southeast Asia through trade along the Maritime Silk Road . The Mongol Empire conquered a large part of Asia in the 13th century, an area extending from China to Europe. Before the Mongol invasion, Song dynasty reportedly had approximately 120 million citizens; the 1300 census which followed the invasion reported roughly 60 million people. The Black Death , one of
7380-594: The Asian and Wallacea biogeographical realms, a transition zone of deep water straits between the Asian and Australian continental shelves. Weber's Line split the region in two with regard to the balance of fauna between Asian origin or Australo-Papuan origin. Wallacea's eastern boundary with Sahul is represented by the Lydekker's Line . The Maluku Islands (except the Aru Islands) are often considered to lie on
7503-606: The Asian goods traffic is carried out across the Pacific towards Los Angeles and Long Beach . The melting of the Arctic is also paving the way for new shipping routes from Northeast Asia to Europe and North America. In contrast to the sea routes, the Silk Road via the land route to Europe is on the one hand still under construction and on the other hand is much smaller in terms of scope. Intra-Asian trade, including sea trade,
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#17327646999497626-818: The Bering Strait, with Big Diomede in Russia and Little Diomede in the United States . The Aleutian Islands are an island chain extending westward from the Alaskan Peninsula toward Russia's Komandorski Islands and Kamchatka Peninsula . Most of them are always associated with North America, except for the westernmost Near Islands group, which is on Asia's continental shelf beyond the North Aleutians Basin and on rare occasions could be associated with Asia, which could then allow
7749-539: The Hittite king Tudhaliya I around 1400 BCE. Roughly contemporary Linear B documents contain the term aswia ( Mycenaean Greek : 𐀀𐀯𐀹𐀊 , romanized: a-si-wi-ja ), seemingly in reference to captives from the same area. Herodotus used the term in reference to Anatolia and the territory of the Achaemenid Empire , in contrast to Greece and Egypt. He reports that Greeks assumed that Asia
7872-542: The Indian Ocean respectively in the late 15th century. The Russian Empire also began to expand into northwestern Asia from the 17th century, and would eventually take control of all of Siberia and most of Central Asia by the end of the 19th century. Among non-European empires, the Ottoman Empire controlled Anatolia, most of the Middle East, North Africa and the Balkans from the mid 16th century onward, while in
7995-600: The Middle East has been affected since 1948 by the Arab–Israeli conflict and American-led interventions . East Asian nations (along with Singapore in Southeast Asia) became economically prosperous with high-growth " tiger economies "; China, having undergone capitalistic reforms under Deng Xiaoping , regained its place among the top two economies of the world by the 21st century. India has also grown significantly because of economic liberalisation that started in
8118-464: The Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century led to the Middle East also being contested and partitioned by the British and French. With the end of World War II in 1945 and the wartime ruination of Europe and imperial Japan, many countries in Asia were able to rapidly free themselves of colonial rule. The independence of India came along with the carving out of a separate nation for
8241-616: The Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. Asia has three main financial centers: Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore. Call centers and business process outsourcing (BPOs) are becoming major employers in India and the Philippines due to the availability of a large pool of highly skilled, English-speaking workers. The increased use of outsourcing has assisted the rise of India and the China as financial centers. Due to its large and extremely competitive information technology industry, India has become
8364-504: The Philippines. China has many languages and dialects in different provinces. Many of the world's major religions have their origins in Asia, including the five most practiced in the world (excluding irreligion ), which are Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Chinese folk religion (classified as Confucianism and Taoism), and Buddhism. Asian mythology is complex and diverse. The story of the Great Flood for example, as presented to Jews in
8487-551: The Red Sea over the Suez Canal into Mediterranean (see also: Indo-Mediterranean ), there via Haifa, Istanbul and Athens to the upper Adriatic to the northern Italian hub of Trieste with its rail connections to Central and Eastern Europe or further to Barcelona and around Spain and France to the European northern ports. A far smaller part of the goods traffic runs via South Africa to Europe . A particularly significant part of
8610-580: The U.S. state of Alaska as well as the United States itself to be considered a transcontinental state. The Aleutian Islands are sometimes associated with Oceania, owing to their status as remote Pacific islands, and their proximity to the Pacific Plate. This is extremely rare however, due to their non-tropical biogeography, as well as their inhabitants , who have historically been related to Indigenous Americans . St. Lawrence Island in
8733-673: The US as the largest economy in the world for a day, after the Japanese currency reached a record high of 79 yen /US$ . Economic growth in Asia since World War II to the 1990s had been concentrated in Japan as well as the four regions of South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore located in the Pacific Rim , known as the Asian tigers , which are now all considered developed economies, having among
8856-440: The above-ground biomass. However this effect was minor, and not enough to compensate for the considerable loss of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus pools from the soil surface layer. Another study found exclusion fencing to be a beneficial tool in lowering carbon dioxide emissions, and increasing methane consumption, which improves both the soil carbon and nitrogen stores. Although findings are controversial, enclosure fencing remains
8979-443: The addition of Nessler's solution , which gives a distinct yellow colouration in the presence of the slightest trace of ammonia or ammonium salts. The amount of ammonia in ammonium salts can be estimated quantitatively by distillation of the salts with sodium (NaOH) or potassium hydroxide (KOH), the ammonia evolved being absorbed in a known volume of standard sulfuric acid and the excess of acid then determined volumetrically ; or
9102-486: The alpine grasslands area include species such as locoweed , which is known to be very invasive. Not only are poisonous plants an indicator of decline, they result in increased mortality of grazing animals. This invasion of poisonous species is spread across all regions of the Tibetan Plateau, but the alpine steppe is the most affected area. The Tibetan Plateau is an extremely important area for livestock farming, and historically overgrazing has been as issue with regard to
9225-463: The alpine meadow, the alpine-steppe is cooler, arid or semi-arid, with little precipitation and barren soils. The highest vegetation carbon pool can be found in August, and nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in the area exhibit seasonal variations throughout the growing period. Asia Asia ( / ˈ eɪ ʒ ə / AY -zhə , UK also / ˈ eɪ ʃ ə / AY -shə )
9348-407: The alpine steppe region of the Tibetan Plateau, different soil nutrients have differential effects on the nutrient composition and uptake of plants in the area. Soil phosphorus seems to have a much more significant impact on the nitrogen:phosphorus ratio in plants than soil nitrogen does. This type of finding can have implications for different nutrient conservation strategies among plant species in
9471-443: The ammonia may be absorbed in hydrochloric acid and the ammonium chloride so formed precipitated as ammonium hexachloroplatinate , [NH 4 ] 2 [PtCl 6 ] . Sulfur sticks are burnt to detect small leaks in industrial ammonia refrigeration systems. Larger quantities can be detected by warming the salts with a caustic alkali or with quicklime , when the characteristic smell of ammonia will be at once apparent. Ammonia
9594-567: The area of multinational corporations , but increasingly the PRC and India are making significant inroads. Many companies from Europe, North America, South Korea and Japan have operations in Asia's developing countries to take advantage of its abundant supply of cheap labour and relatively developed infrastructure. According to Citigroup in 2011, 9 of 11 Global Growth Generators countries came from Asia driven by population and income growth. They are Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Mongolia,
9717-419: The authorities in areas throughout China are under pressure to implement programs to protect and preserve this fragile ecosystem. One such program is the "Retire Livestock and Restore Pastures" initiative, which requires the use of special enclosure fencing . The purpose of this protective fencing is to prevent the grazing activity of large livestock, like sheep , yaks , and goats , in an attempt to restore
9840-634: The border of southeast Asia, with the Aru Islands and Western New Guinea , to the east of the Lydekker's Line, being wholly part of Oceania, as both lie on the Australian continental plate. Culturally, the Wallacea region denoted the transition between Austronesian and Melanesian people , with varying degrees of intermixing between the two. In general, the further west and coastal a region is,
9963-490: The chemistry in liquid ammonia can be classified by analogy with related reactions in aqueous solutions . Comparison of the physical properties of NH 3 with those of water shows NH 3 has the lower melting point, boiling point, density, viscosity , dielectric constant and electrical conductivity . These differences are attributed at least in part to the weaker hydrogen bonding in NH 3 . The ionic self- dissociation constant of liquid NH 3 at −50 °C
10086-459: The combined efforts of emperors and divinities to control. The Abrahamic religions including Judaism , Christianity , Islam , Druze faith , and Baháʼí Faith originated in West Asia. Ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic chemical compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula N H 3 . A stable binary hydride and the simplest pnictogen hydride , ammonia
10209-549: The continent of Asia". Geographically, Asia is the major eastern constituent of the continent of Eurasia with Europe being a northwestern peninsula of the landmass. Asia, Europe and Africa make up a single continuous landmass— Afro-Eurasia —and share a common continental shelf . Almost all of Europe and a major part of Asia sit atop the Eurasian Plate , adjoined on the south by the Arabian and Indian Plate and with
10332-443: The cultural borders of its various types of constituents. From the time of Herodotus, a minority of geographers have rejected the three-continent system (Europe, Africa, Asia) on the grounds that there is no substantial physical separation between them. For example, Sir Barry Cunliffe , the emeritus professor of European archeology at Oxford, argues that Europe has been geographically and culturally merely "the western excrescence of
10455-407: The degraded biomass, and maintain ecosystem function. Often these effects can best be seen by the changes they produce in the biogeochemical properties of the soil. The overall goal is to improve ecosystem carbon , nitrogen , and phosphorus storage, by increasing both vegetation and soil pools of these elements. This effect is crucial because even a small percent change in carbon storage can have
10578-596: The dethroning of India and China as the world's foremost economies. The British Empire first became dominant in South Asia, with most of the region being conquered by British traders in the late 18th and early 19th centuries before falling under direct British rule after a failed 1857 revolt ; the 1869 completion of the Suez Canal , which increased British access to India, went on to further European influence over Africa and Asia. Around this time, Western powers started to dominate China in what later became known as
10701-474: The east of the Suez Canal separating it from Africa; and to the east of the Turkish straits , the Ural Mountains and Ural River , and to the south of the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian and Black seas, separating it from Europe. Since the concept of Asia derives from the term for the eastern region from a European perspective, Asia is the remaining vast area of Eurasia minus Europe. Therefore, Asia
10824-684: The easternmost part of Siberia (east of the Chersky Range ) on the North American Plate . The term "Asia" is believed to originate in the Bronze Age toponym Assuwa ( Hittite : 𒀸𒋗𒉿 , romanized: aš-šu-wa ) which originally referred only to a portion of northwestern Anatolia . The term appears in Hittite records recounting how a confederation of Assuwan states including Troy unsuccessfully rebelled against
10947-492: The end of 2011, there were 18,000 Asian people mainly in Southeast Asia, China and Japan who have at least $ 100 million in disposable assets, while North America with 17,000 people and Western Europe with 14,000 people. With growing Regional Tourism with domination of Chinese visitors, MasterCard has released Global Destination Cities Index 2013 with 10 of 20 are dominated by Asia and Pacific Region Cities and also for
11070-688: The equatorial south via the hot deserts in parts of West Asia , Central Asia and South Asia , temperate areas in the east and the continental centre to vast subarctic and polar areas in North Asia . The boundary between Asia and Africa is the Suez Canal , the Gulf of Suez , the Red Sea , and the Bab-el-Mandeb . This makes Egypt a transcontinental country , with the Sinai peninsula in Asia and
11193-414: The first time a city of a country from Asia ( Bangkok ) set in the top-ranked with 15.98 million international visitors. East Asia had by far the strongest overall Human Development Index (HDI) improvement of any region in the world, nearly doubling average HDI attainment over the past 40 years, according to the report's analysis of health, education and income data. China, the second highest achiever in
11316-497: The highest GDP per capita in Asia. Asia is the largest continent in the world by a considerable margin, and it is rich in natural resources, such as petroleum , forests , fish , water , rice , copper and silver . Manufacturing in Asia has traditionally been strongest in East and Southeast Asia, particularly in China, Taiwan , South Korea, Japan, India, the Philippines, and Singapore. Japan and South Korea continue to dominate in
11439-583: The late 19th century), New Guinea and the Pacific islands ; Japan's domination was enabled by its rapid rise that had taken place during the Meiji era of the late 19th century, in which it applied industrial knowledge learned from the West and thus overtook the rest of Asia. One significant influence on Japan had been the United States, which had begun projecting influence across the Pacific after its early-to-mid-19th century westward expansion . The breakup of
11562-511: The ligands must be arranged around the metal ion at the vertices of an octahedron . Ammonia forms 1:1 adducts with a variety of Lewis acids such as I 2 , phenol , and Al(CH 3 ) 3 . Ammonia is a hard base (HSAB theory) and its E & C parameters are E B = 2.31 and C B = 2.04. Its relative donor strength toward a series of acids, versus other Lewis bases, can be illustrated by C-B plots . Ammonia and ammonium salts can be readily detected, in very minute traces, by
11685-588: The liquid can often be handled in the laboratory without external cooling. Household ammonia or ammonium hydroxide is a solution of ammonia in water. Pliny , in Book XXXI of his Natural History , refers to a salt named hammoniacum , so called because of the proximity of its source to the Temple of Jupiter Amun ( Greek Ἄμμων Ammon ) in the Roman province of Cyrenaica . However, the description Pliny gives of
11808-516: The lowlands did not have enough open grasslands to support a large equestrian force; for this and other reasons, the nomads who conquered states in China, India, and the Middle East often found themselves adapting to the local, more affluent societies. The Islamic Caliphate 's defeats of the Byzantine and Persian empires led to West Asia and southern parts of Central Asia and western parts of South Asia under its control during its conquests of
11931-728: The majority of South Asian Muslims , which in 1971 further split into the countries Pakistan and Bangladesh ; Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union strained relations between India and Pakistan and affected Asia more generally. The end of the Cold War and the Soviet Union by 1991 saw the independence of the five modern Central Asian countries. Some Arab countries took economic advantage of massive oil deposits that were discovered in their territory, becoming globally influential, though stability in
12054-456: The months of May and September, causing the climate to be arid or semi-arid , making the environment much harsher for plant and livestock life. Vegetation in the alpine steppe is very vulnerable to climate change . Average air temperature has been increasing by approximately 0.3 degrees Celsius every ten years since the 1960s. This is three times the global average, indicating the sensitivity of this area. Studies have been done that show that
12177-516: The most devastating pandemics in human history, is thought to have originated in the arid plains of central Asia, where it then travelled along the Silk Road . European involvement in Asia became more significant from the Age of Discovery onward, with Iberian-sponsored sailors such as Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama paving the way for new routes from Atlantic Europe to Pacific Asia and
12300-474: The most reactive, but the ammonia must be present in at least a twofold excess to neutralise the hydrogen chloride formed. Esters and anhydrides also react with ammonia to form amides. Ammonium salts of carboxylic acids can be dehydrated to amides by heating to 150–200 °C as long as no thermally sensitive groups are present. Other organonitrogen compounds include alprazolam , ethanolamine , ethyl carbamate and hexamethylenetetramine . Nitric acid
12423-716: The northern Bering Sea belongs to Alaska and may be associated with either continent but is almost always considered part of North America, as with the Rat Islands in the Aleutian chain. At their nearest points, Alaska and Russia are separated by only 4 kilometres (2.5 miles). Geographical Asia is a cultural artifact of European conceptions of the world, beginning with the Ancient Greeks , being imposed onto other cultures, an imprecise concept causing endemic contention about what it means. Asia does not exactly correspond to
12546-470: The peripheries were mostly kept separated by mountains and deserts. The Caucasus and Himalaya mountains and the Karakum and Gobi deserts formed barriers that the steppe horsemen could cross only with difficulty. While the urban city dwellers were more advanced technologically and socially, in many cases they could do little in a military aspect to defend against the mounted hordes of the steppe. However,
12669-708: The regional division of Asia. The following subdivision into regions is used, among others, by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). This division of Asia into regions by the United Nations is done solely for statistical reasons and does not imply any assumption about political or other affiliations of countries and territories. Asia has extremely diverse climate features. Climates range from Arctic and subarctic in Siberia to tropical in southern India and Southeast Asia. It
12792-693: The remainder of the country in Africa. The threefold division of the Old World into Africa, Asia, and Europe has been in use since the 6th century BCE, due to Greek geographers such as Anaximander and Hecataeus . Anaximander placed the boundary between Asia and Europe along the Phasis River (the modern Rioni river) in Georgia of Caucasus (from its mouth by Poti on the Black Sea coast, through
12915-600: The salt does not conform to the properties of ammonium chloride . According to Herbert Hoover 's commentary in his English translation of Georgius Agricola 's De re metallica , it is likely to have been common sea salt. In any case, that salt ultimately gave ammonia and ammonium compounds their name. Traces of ammonia/ammonium are found in rainwater. Ammonium chloride ( sal ammoniac ), and ammonium sulfate are found in volcanic districts. Crystals of ammonium bicarbonate have been found in Patagonia guano . Ammonia
13038-413: The same community, as plants seem to be more sensitive to changes in soil phosphorus than nitrogen, though nitrogen is still extremely important. What also makes this interesting is the fact that nitrogen is a limiting factor for plant growth, and so is actually critical for the overall health of the plant community. Grazing of herd animals has been shown to have a positive effect on the levels of nitrogen in
13161-435: The single largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the 21st century, while India is the third-largest. As a whole, Asia currently accounts for 36% of world's primary energy consumption, which is expected to increase to 48% by 2050. By 2040, it is also expected to account for 80% of the world's coal and 26% of the world's natural gas consumption. While the United States remains the world's largest oil consumer, by 2050 it
13284-405: The soil, though the return of nitrogen in the excrement. The addition of dung to the soils of this region in a laboratory setting resulted in increased availability of ammonia for plants (their primary nitrogen source). However, in an unaltered system, soil nitrogen tends to be more constant, whereas soil phosphorus is more influenced by climate variation, which may explain why, even though nitrogen
13407-582: The spread of vegetation has changed dramatically since the Holocene period. The Tibetan Plateau is composed of three main regions, based on yearly precipitation levels and types of vegetation, namely the alpine meadow , alpine steppe , and the alpine desert-steppe . Since the Holocene, studies of fossil pollen records have shown that the alpine meadow has extended into areas that were previously alpine steppe as precipitation increased during that period. There
13530-605: The stronger the Austronesian influences, and the further east and inland a region is, the stronger the Melanesian influences. The terms Southeast Asia and Oceania, devised in the 19th century, have had several vastly different geographic meanings since their inception. The chief factor in determining which islands of the Indonesian Archipelago are Asian has been the location of the colonial possessions of
13653-608: The threat of heatwaves across the entire continent. Heatwaves lead to increased mortality, and the demand for air conditioning is rapidly accelerating as the result. By 2080, around 1 billion people in the cities of South and Southeast Asia are expected to experience around a month of extreme heat every year. The impacts on water cycle are more complicated: already arid regions, primarily located in West Asia and Central Asia , will see more droughts , while areas of East , Southeast and South Asia which are already wet due to
13776-541: The top 5 being in Asia: Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and Seoul . Around 68 percent of international firms have an office in Hong Kong. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the economy of China had an average annual growth rate of more than 8%. According to economic historian Angus Maddison , India had the world's largest economy during 1000 BCE and 1 CE. India was the largest economy in the world for most of
13899-533: The two millennia from the 1st until 19th century, contributing 25% of the world's industrial output. China was the largest and most advanced economy on earth for much of recorded history and shared the mantle with India. For several decades in the late twentieth century Japan was the largest economy in Asia and second-largest of any single nation in the world, after surpassing the Soviet Union (measured in net material product) in 1990 and Germany in 1968. (NB: A number of supernational economies are larger, such as
14022-476: The various empires there (not all European). Lewis and Wigen assert, "The narrowing of 'Southeast Asia' to its present boundaries was thus a gradual process." The Bering Strait and Bering Sea separate the landmasses of Asia and North America , as well as forming the international boundary between Russia and the United States. This national and continental boundary separates the Diomede Islands in
14145-488: The water formed, is −382.81 kJ/mol. Dinitrogen is the thermodynamic product of combustion : all nitrogen oxides are unstable with respect to N 2 and O 2 , which is the principle behind the catalytic converter . Nitrogen oxides can be formed as kinetic products in the presence of appropriate catalysts , a reaction of great industrial importance in the production of nitric acid : A subsequent reaction leads to NO 2 : The combustion of ammonia in air
14268-489: The world from 1 to 1800 CE. China was a major economic power for much of recorded history, with the highest GDP per capita until 1500. The Silk Road became the main east–west trading route in the Asian hinterlands while the Straits of Malacca stood as a major sea route. Asia has exhibited economic dynamism as well as robust population growth during the 20th century, but overall population growth has since fallen. Asia
14391-408: The world in terms of HDI improvement since 1970, is the only country on the "Top 10 Movers" list due to income rather than health or education achievements. Its per capita income increased a stunning 21-fold over the last four decades, also lifting hundreds of millions out of income poverty. Yet it was not among the region's top performers in improving school enrollment and life expectancy. Nepal ,
14514-587: The world's population. Asia shares the landmass of Eurasia with Europe , and of Afro-Eurasia with both Europe and Africa . In general terms, it is bounded on the east by the Pacific Ocean , on the south by the Indian Ocean , and on the north by the Arctic Ocean . The border of Asia with Europe is a historical and cultural construct , as there is no clear physical and geographical separation between them. A commonly accepted division places Asia to
14637-591: The world, which is in the "very high human development" category), followed by Singapore (9), Japan (19) and South Korea (22). Afghanistan (155) ranked lowest amongst Asian countries out of the 169 countries assessed. Asia is home to several language families and many language isolates . Most Asian countries have more than one language that is natively spoken. For instance, according to Ethnologue , more than 700 languages are spoken in Indonesia, more than 400 languages spoken in India, and more than 100 are spoken in
14760-522: Was historically defined by European academics. In Sweden, five years after Peter's death, in 1730 Philip Johan von Strahlenberg published a new atlas proposing the Ural Mountains as the border of Asia. Tatishchev announced that he had proposed the idea to von Strahlenberg. The latter had suggested the Emba River as the lower boundary. Over the next century various proposals were made until
14883-766: Was home to some of the world's earliest known civilizations, each of them developing around fertile river valleys. The civilizations in Mesopotamia , the Indus Valley and the Yellow River shared many similarities. These civilizations may well have exchanged technologies and ideas such as mathematics and the wheel . Other innovations, such as writing, seem to have been developed individually in each area. Cities, states and empires developed in these lowlands. The central steppe region had long been inhabited by horse-mounted nomads who could reach all areas of Asia from
15006-477: Was named after the wife of Prometheus , but that Lydians say it was named after Asies , son of Cotys, who passed the name on to a tribe at Sardis . In Greek mythology , "Asia" ( Ἀσία or Ἀσίη ) was the name of a " Nymph or Titan goddess of Lydia". The Iliad (attributed by the ancient Greeks to Homer ) mentions two Phrygians in the Trojan War named Asios (an adjective meaning "Asian"); and also
15129-442: Was the birthplace of most of the world's mainstream religions including Hinduism , Zoroastrianism , Judaism , Jainism , Buddhism , Confucianism , Taoism , Christianity , Islam , Sikhism , and many other religions. Asia varies greatly across and within its regions with regard to ethnic groups, cultures, environments, economics, historical ties, and government systems. It also has a mix of many different climates ranging from
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