What is meant by desertification?

Question

Describe how the processof erosion leads to a loss of water-holding capacity and, hence, to desertification.

Answer 1

Desertification is caused by lack of vegetation, often a result of over grazing or deforestation.  Cattle can compact the dirt beneath their hooves and cause the fine particles that filter water to be compacted so that they cannot hold as much water.  When a rain comes, there will be massive erosion, since the water will not be soaked up by the ground.

  The soil may then become infertile and inhabitable for vegetation- because lack of water holding capacity and nutrients.  Trees, shrubs, grasses, etc, will not be able to regrow because of this and thus lead to a barren desert.

Answer 2

Desertification is the process by which land is transformed into a arid or semi-arid state.  Desertification is the usually the direct result of deforestation.  When vegetation is removed, the loose topsoil (necessary for plants)that was held together by the plants' roots and protected by the plants' leaves is exposed to wind, rain and sunlight.  The topsoil can then either be eroded away by wind and rain, leaving bare, non-productive soil or it can be baked by the Sun's heat, preventing any plant growth.  When vegetation is present, the rain is held back before dropping to the ground gently; this allows the soil to absorb the water.  Without vegetation, the rainwater simply runs across the surface as there's nothing to slow it down.

Answer 3

DESERTIFICATION

Almost all the Desserts on this planet result from human intervention.

the Building of the Spanish Armada deforrested Spain

the Phoenician trading fleet turned Lebanon in a dessert

Ganges Khan put everything to the sword and torch, then filled the wells with sand,

the sun finished of the job and whole countries turned to wastelands.

He would have been envious of the effects of modern day farming.

Slash and burn destroys the protective vegetation (which helps to form the soil ),

leaving it open to the Sun ,and then ,wind and, water erosion.

The Plough turns the soil ,killing micro-biotic life (essential to soil building) and accelerates the drying out .

Pressures of the :vehicles, cattle and rain impact brings the salt to the surface.

Mono cultures ,aided by chemicals Exhaust and pollutes the soil .

Adding to this the effects of overgrazing has resulted in large scale desertification.

Each year billions of tons of topsoil are blown or washed away by storms.

Arable lands and their farms are lost all over the globe. Many farmers sons abandon farming and head for the cities.

two major desserts in northern china are growing together making one giant dessert and,causing dust storms so making thousands of people refugeese,Northern China is drying up, what once were millions of food producing people,

are now hungry refugees ,running for their lives from the all consuming dust storms.

in the dessert the nights are freezing cold and during the days you burn up

the sahara is growing by 7 kilometres every day.

in the days of the dinosaurs this planet was under an aquiferus manta ,a mist that covered the entire earth ,and there were very few desserts .

Count how many there are today,and most of them are as a result of mans actions.

the sahara used to be forrests

arabia ,irak ,iran used to be fertile lands in biblical times

Madagascar a botanic paradise is now destroyed

the exotic animals sold or killed ,the forest slash and burned for agriculture ,the coastal water poluted by topsoils washed fronm the denuded moutains by the rains.

many many countries in Africa (because of poverty and war as well as greedy farming )

Borneo because of the expensive timber

india ,China ,Mexico ,South Americas Amazonia,

Europe because of civilization,USA,Japan because of overpopulation,