How Climate Change is Accelerating Desertification and How to Mitigate It

 How Climate Change is Accelerating Desertification and How to Mitigate It

Desertification is one of the greatest environmental calamities afflicting today, posing significant threats to biodiversity, food security, poverty reduction and socio-economic development.

Land degradation or desertification occurs when topsoil that binds and supports healthy soil is lost through erosion due to factors like unsustainable farming practices, overgrazing (when animals eat grass that then erodes), deforestation and clearing of land for development - climate change only hastening this process further.

 

Increased Temperature

 

Desertification is one of the major environmental calamities threatening millions of people living in dryland areas today. A key driver behind desertification is human mismanagement of land through inappropriate agriculture practices such as overgrazing, over-irrigation and deforestation; such actions have resulted in decreased soil organic matter and water storage capacity as well as biodiversity loss that provides ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration.

Climate change is also hastening desertification as temperatures in its target regions increase both average and extreme temperatures, degrading dryland landscapes. Warmer temperatures make it harder for plants to absorb and retain moisture - thus increasing aridity and hastening decomposition of organic matter in soil. Furthermore, higher temperatures alter rainfall patterns and can even cause evaporation from wetter surfaces.

Farmers rely on rain as their main source of water for irrigation and other farm activities, and drought can wreak havoc by decreasing productivity, leading to wildfires that are difficult to contain and increasing wildfire risks. Therefore, climate change poses an existential threat that affects their livelihoods directly.

According to the United Nations Convention on Desertification (UNCCD), climate change is one of the main contributors to desertification. Not only can climate change increase average temperature and aridity levels, it can also hasten desertification by altering precipitation patterns; warmer air can hold more water vapour which leads to both an increase in average rainfall amounts as well as extreme precipitation rates in certain locations - making it harder for these places to avoid desertification altogether.

The UNCCD defines desertification as any gradual shift in vegetation over an extended period, which negatively affects production and provision of other ecosystem services. To determine its extent, scientists use measurements such as minimum and maximum values of maximum NDVI as an indicator of plant health.

Desertification also has other ways of having an immediate effect on climate, according to Kimutai. He notes how dust storms may increase as desertification progresses, which in turn scatter sun rays away from ground levels while simultaneously increasing them elsewhere in the atmosphere. Dust storms may also influence cloud formation and lifespan which could subsequently impact how much moisture reaches ground level.

 

Decreased Rainfall

 

Desertification occurs when land areas lose their native vegetation, turning into barren landscapes of sand and rock. Without vegetation to absorb rainfall and replenish groundwater reservoirs, rainfall does not penetrate the soil as needed to feed plants and replenish groundwater sources. Furthermore, desertification often contributes to increased erosion due to warm, dry conditions; erosion destroys topsoil which is later washed away or washed off by rainwater, leaving exposed layers of sand and clay that speed the rate at which rain evaporates, potentially leading to flash floods as a result of increased raindrops hitting groundwater reservoirs causing flash floods as a result of increased evaporation rate in turn leading to flash floods as rainwater evaporates faster and quickly causing flash floods as a result.

Increased heat and decreased water availability combine to decrease soil fertility, leading to another factor of desertification: overgrazing by livestock can strip land of its nutrients, leading to desertification.

Desertification not only causes environmental harm, but has an influence on global climate by scattering dust particles into the air. These dust particles absorb and reflect solar rays into space, increasing warming in an already hot and dry region. Desertification's dust particles may even have some of the same impacts as greenhouse gases; for instance they can alter surface albedo and greenhouse gas fluxes.

Although land degradation may be difficult to measure and quantify, various indicators can help detect changes over time. One such indicator is changing precipitation patterns - shown below - which provides valuable insights into any changes occurring in this regard. Specifically, areas shaded red may become drier as projected PET increases more quickly than rainfall while areas shown as green will likely experience wetter conditions.

One of the key methods of mitigating desertification is by restoring degraded land through planting and protecting natural forests, grasslands and wetlands. Doing so can reverse some of the climate-altering effects of land degradation by storing carbon, increasing biodiversity, restoring food supplies and fibre production potential - with local people encouraged to get involved and take part in restoration efforts - especially women as they often take on such roles in developing countries as they possess patience, empathy and the capacity to learn new skills more readily than men do.

 

Increased Dust

 

Desertification may conjure images of windswept sand dunes and salt pans, but its definition encompasses much more. Desertification refers to environmental calamities that threaten to transform currently non-desert ecosystems into deserts due to human mismanagement of land and water resources (UNCCD, 2014).

Human activities accelerate desertification primarily through soil degradation and loss of vegetation, with livestock and wild animal grazing disrupting soil surfaces, increasing their erosion, leading to fine dust particles entrain in the air, which in turn contribute to poor air quality, negatively affecting human health and visibility; exposure to atmospheric dust can aggravate respiratory and cardiovascular conditions as well as cause irritation to eyes and skin; it may even increase incidences of life-threatening fungal infections like Coccidiomycosis in southwestern United States (Crooks et al 2016).

Desertification can have serious repercussions for human health and agriculture, while also having direct climate impacts through decomposition of soil organic matter and biomass, contributing to global carbon cycling, as well as warming by decreasing land surface temperature, altering potential and actual evapotranspiration rates, altering energy budget of ground surfaces, adding dust particles into the air, and altering cloud formation processes.

Finally, climate variability and its effects can alter rainfall patterns, further speeding desertification. Increased temperatures can increase water evaporation while decreased temperatures can result in droughts or waterlogging (Crooks et. al. 2016).

Desertification is a global issue that necessitates partnerships at all levels to combat. Land restoration, water conservation and improving agricultural technology must all be implemented as solutions to improve livelihoods in these regions. Furthermore, developed countries should help developing nations implement these strategies so as to avoid an unfavorable cycle of land degradation and climate change-induced disasters; to reach this goal requires commitment from all involved and cooperation between these regions and those most severely impacted by desertification.

 

Human Impact

 

Desertification may conjure images of windswept sand dunes and vast salt pans, but in reality, it is much more. Desertification is a global issue that threatens billions' lives and livelihoods and can be caused by factors like climate change, land mismanagement and overpopulation - factors which must be addressed if we want to improve life in drylands worldwide.

Drought is a natural phenomenon caused by fluctuations in weather patterns such as El Nio events or La Nina phenomena; it may also result from human activities such as over-cultivation that destroys soils, overgrazing that exhausts pastures, inadequate irrigation technologies or farming technologies that fail to keep up.

These events disrupt the water cycle, decreasing availability of freshwater for humans and animals while increasing dust in the air. This alters planet temperature by decreasing solar absorption while increased dust scatters solar radiation back out to space; further warming our global climate and potentially leading to desertification.

Desertification and drought are intrinsically connected. A lack of vegetation makes it more difficult for rainwater to soak into soils, leading to erosion and flooding as excess rain runs off into rivers or lakes. Desertification also exacerbates regional droughts by decreasing how much water soils absorb as well as heating up its surface area.

Impacts of climate change on desertification is a complex topic and it is hard to pinpoint exactly how much can be linked back to human activities, yet one thing remains true - human activities are making the situation worse and there are steps that can be taken to slow the process.

Education of people about sustainable land management is paramount, particularly female education and empowerment, since women often are responsible for cultivating soils, planting seeds and maintaining traditional agriculture practices.