threats to the sahara desert

The effect could magnify over time, he warns, as exotic species recover faster after a blaze, building up fuel quickly for the next fire. A personal interest in environmental science grew alongside his formal studies and eventually formed part of his post-graduate degree where he studied both natural and human changes to the environment of southwest England; his particular interests are in aerial photography. Certainly, the dry environment of western Egypt where the pyramids are located would have been the perfect environment to prevent the sort of cadaver degradation seen in biomes with higher precipitation and humidity. Continued drought, lowering precipitation and a dropping of the water table means plants cannot grow as abundantly. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Although oil revenues offer the means for desert . It's creation as a desert is largely one of unfortunate topography; it's formed by something called rain shadow (40). The plateaus of the Sahara, such as the Tademat Plateau of Algeria, are typically covered with angular, weathered rock. The great wealth of plant and animal life in desert areas are also an important . Our latest Regional Economic Outlook: Sub-Saharan Africa takes a close look at the issues. He would later prove to be one of the most inspirational early travel writers to the modern age (12). As global temperatures rise and the human population expands, more of the planet is vulnerable to desertification, the permanent degradation of land that was once arable. MWRhM2EyYWQ4ZGU5MjQ5NzA2NmI3YzkzNTlmY2EwMmFmMGMyMmRmYmI0YjBm Most of these species have adapted to the uniquely harsh environments of both hot and cold deserts and everything in between. They are ethnically Arab, and most are now Muslim. We discussed the problem with irrigation in Mesopotamia in the archaeology section where increased salt deposits made agriculture more difficult. Oil and ore extraction have brought modern technology and improved communications to scattered locations, but such activities provide limited opportunities for local employment. All species have adapted to live in this harsh environment and many are protected because of their geographical limitations and delicate ecological requirements of coping with the high temperatures and dry environment. E. ach time more trees, shrubs and vegetation are cut its less rain for the desert. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Even before this, the deserts have provided useful environments for resources and hunter-gathering. "Smallholders are now seen as part of the solution of land degradation rather than a main problem, which was a prevailing view of the past. Other important figures in the early 20th century include naturalist Uwe George who lived in several deserts for part of his life and poet Robert Frost who also explored them. By Marco Polo's time, the journey was well-established, but his writing was the first volume. The most arid areas - those that may never have experienced rate - are unable to support many forms of life, although a study showed some microbial life in those areas (48). Some feel that Antarctica's interior is a desert due to low precipitation. In the Sahara, potassium-cyanide poisoning is an ongoing problem around the gold mines (53). The Antarctic Polar Desert covers the continent of Antarctica and has a size of about 55 million square miles. OGVmZjRlNDA3MzhkNzc3Mzc3YjAxNWU5ZDk3NWRlZGMzMDQ0NWFkNmE2Nzg5 and the region continues to grapple with the pandemic. The word ar shares its roots with the Arabic word aar, which translates to desert-like and specifically connotes the yellowish red color that characterizes the Saharas sandy expanses. They are home to various livestock such as camels, goats, and antelope that provide food and livelihood for people. The Great Green Wall initiative in Africa has evolved away from the idea of simply planting trees and toward the idea of "re-greening," or supporting small farmers in managing land to maximize water harvesting (via stone barriers that decrease water runoff, for example) and nurture natural regrowth of trees and vegetation. It is home, perhaps surprisingly, to some striking flora and fauna that make use of the limited moisture available. Potassium cyanide releases hydrogen cyanide gas, a highly toxic chemical that interferes with the body's ability to use oxygen. Sahara, (from Arabic ar, desert) largest desert in the world. These diverse species deserve, and need, the desert to survive. Most of the worlds countries would set a high bar, Sun said, before destroying habitat. YTNmZTI3YzRmNWUwMmIwOTcxZjE4MDBkYjI3MGI4Y2Q0MDZiNDkzNzBiZjBh Please be respectful of copyright. In theory, the aquifers could hold more than the entire global population of plant material at present at 20 billion metric tons (or 22 billion imperial/US tons) (33). In the central Sahara, the monotony of the plains and plateaus is broken by prominent volcanic massifsincluding Mount Uwaynat and the Tibesti and Ahaggar mountains. We encourage you to perform your own independent research before making any education decisions. There are few lizards or amphibians, and the wettest areas on the Pacific Coast are home to humboldt penguins, flamingoes, while the limited mammals include chinchilla and American grey foxes. However, the desert has shown a greener image over the last 15 years. Most of them are succulents, which mean that they store water. Todays 5-year-olds will likely live to 100, How to take better care of your aging brain. New AI may pass the famed Turing test. Like their counterparts to the south, they too are increasingly moving to permanent settlement. Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM) constitutes an evolving threat in the Sahel region. The name Sahara derives from the Arabic noun ar, meaning desert, and its plural, ar. Until the early-mid 20th century, interests in deserts was one purely of exploration and travel, as highlighted in the previous section. This role has been in place since 1994. To support future growth and transformative reforms, international help The deserts of the world are threatened by a combination of human exploitation and climate change that could, within decades, wipe out many unique habitats and rare species, an authoritative study. will be required to give sub-Saharan Africa a fair shot at a durable will be required to meet the $245 billion in additional external funding What is Microbiology? Heres why each season begins twice. Altman, 33, added: All of this stuff is scary. Water engineering and mechanics are also of interest to archaeologists of desert areas. Its continued expansion has been put down to increased carbon emissions, agricultural activity and deforestation. Polo and his father were the first westerners to visit China's modern capital. Get more great content like this delivered right to you! The "Great Green Wall" is an initiative to increase the amount of arable land in the Sahel, the region bordering Africa's Sahara Desert. The weather is very unpredictable, The average amount of rainfall is less than 3 inches! ", Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic SocietyCopyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. The rate of evaporation in deserts can be 20 times higher than the rate of . It is also no great surprise that some of our most abundant oil deposits are found in desert regions, particularly the Middle East, central and South America, in the driest places on Earth. They rise quickly through the spring and summer, rarely falling below 32C/90F, sometimes topping 38C/100F in the highest part of the summer season (46). The same is true with the mummies of the Chinchorro peoples of the Atacama (a cold desert). The serirs and regs differ in character in various regions of the desert but are believed to represent Cenozoic depositional surfaces. People think there is nothing valuable in the deserts, but that is far from the truth, said Henry Sun, a microbiologist and research professor at the Desert Research Center. Its a desert for a reason, said Lynn Fenstermaker, a research professor at Nevadas Desert Research Institute. Other noteworthy formations include the Ennedi Plateau of Chad, the Ar Massif of Niger, the Iforas Massif of Mali, and the outcroppings of the Mauritanian Adrar region. But meeting these needs will require contributions from all Other major threats to deserts include overgrazing, woody-vegetation clearance, agricultural expansion, water diversion and extraction, soil and water pollution, land con- version due to industrial activities and associated threats from armed conflicts [19,21]. I think its far easier to, for instance, make our houses better insulated and solar powered, than to flood deserts. The work included many observations about deserts and their uses, functions, and the sense of wonder. markets, improve public service delivery, boost transparency and Elsewhere in the desert, the average annual rainfall is about 15mm (about half an inch) while some areas experience around 1mm. They are milder generally, but they can exist farther to the north, meaning there are colder and warmer types. ZGZhNWMwNWM5OGExNDNiYzY3M2JiYzJiZTVjODViMzZkNzcyNTUwM2RmMTM3 While the north is dry and sandy, the south is more like a semi-arid region with succulents, and the central region is full of gravel and gypsum plains. ZTVkOGQ0ODhkMDNhNmU4ZGQ0Zjg3M2IxNjM0ODU2YzUwOTNmZTFmMzMyNzRi Even though the plant and animal species that exist in hot deserts are well-adapted to those environments, we know from studies that such organisms are treading a fine line over environmental tolerance; some are even at their limits, according to the IPCC (25). And in Africa's Sahel region, bordered by the Sahara Desert to the north and savannas to the south, population growth has caused an increase in wood harvesting, illegal farming, and land-clearing for housing, among other changes. A Silicon Valley venture capital firm, Y Combinator, unveiled the radical desert flooding plan as one of four moonshot scenarios that it hopes innovators will explore as potential remedies to catastrophic global warming. countries in the region lack. However, some plants took more advantage of the situation than others; invasive species such as cheatgrass doubled their density in wet, high-CO2 conditions compared to native species such as fescue and peppergrass, the researchers report in the 2 November issue of Nature. the world is expected to widen further over the next five years. This is not a title granted lightly. Patrick BAUER and his team are scouting in the desert to prepare for the 37th edition of the MARATHON DES SABLES: the weather conditions should be a little But would it work? There are also indigenous names for particular areassuch as the Tanezrouft region of southwestern Algeria and the Tnr region of central Nigerwhich are often of Berber origin. Some scientists estimate that the Sahara became arid about two to three million years ago, while others contend that it happened before this. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Not the first thing that comes to mind when we think about deserts but located in the most extreme latitudes, they fall into two broad types: Its annual precipitation falls as snow which may sometimes remain on the ground until the summer before it melts. Some experience vast temperature fluctuations, especially hot deserts which may reach unbearable heat during the day and extreme cold at night (2). Forms a natural boundary line between India and Pakistan. If the temperatures don't rise sufficiently, it may remain for over a year. Many certainly seem bereft of life, certainly during the day in summer in hot deserts when temperatures are potentially scorching, and winter in some cold deserts where subzero temperatures make life difficult. It is estimated that the value to the US economy of borates alone has topped $1 billion. This means a high rate of water loss through plant reclamation (called transpiration) and through evaporation. After taking a ferry from Spain to Morocco, both woman and bike set out to ride . NTdkYTMyMGI1ZjIwOGIxMTVlYWY5OWU3Yjc3YjA4NzQwNjAxNzU5YTBiN2Q1 Typical examples include types of deer and antelope present in most cold deserts, sheep and goats likewise, and in South America llamas and alpacas. The existential threat posed by climate change requires research into solutions that the investment firm itself conceded could be risky, unproven, even unlikely to work.. Old cells hang around as we age, doing damage to the body. This was part of the Silk Road, the trade route between the Far East and Europe which was vitally important to the Eastern Roman Empire and the Alexander's Greek Empire before it. A host of scientists who have studied Earths ecosystems, climate change and bio-engineering said further exploration might be warranted. For most land grazing animals like the gazelle, Barary sheep, Oryx and some birds, this means it is a struggle for them to find food and survive. It's largely a gravel bedrock base and the most abundant plant is grass, typical of semi-arid deserts. The UNCCD (United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification) (16) now has a delicate balancing act between preservation and holding back desertification. OTMyNTYzYmU1MzZjZTU5ZDc2ZmUyOWQ3OTkzZGYyZDE1MjU0ZTA2MWZhZTM5 They have adapted to many aspects of modern life including motor vehicles to move around where possible. But while they generally believe the climate crisis has become severe enough to push even extreme options onto the table, the experts cautioned against interventions that might create as many problems as they solve. YWJjNmQ3M2RjYjE0ZGMxOTQyZGUwODA1MTMwMTAyY2ViN2VkZDgyOGFlZDUx David McNew / Getty Images. Sometimes, local politics gets in the way. This could double or triple if The world's last continent is subject to international treaties that no single country can claim it. Most remarkably, nothing has changed there for some 2 million years, surviving multiple Ice Ages (37). Y Combinator called filling 1.7 million acres of arid land with 2-meter-deep pools of water the largest infrastructure project ever undertaken. Just to pump ocean water inland and desalinate it would require an electrical grid far greater than the one Earth now devotes to all other uses. A number of other factors affect climatic variability within the Sahara as well: topography does so, as do ocean currents, the latter of which are responsible for the slightly cooler and more humid conditions found on the deserts western margins. Often, these species do not exist in other types of environment. years or $425 billion for the region as a whole. Deserts conjure up specific ideas about topography: typically, that they are dry and sandy dunes or rock, or a mixture of both. For that reason alone, it's necessary to conserve desert spaces and to avoid encroaching on them unnecessarily or altering them for other purposes. Shrubs occur in some places and the types of plant you might see on scrubland, but this is rare. The Gobi is home to some of the world's largest copper mines, some of which have been steeped in controversy. If we've learned anything from the COVID-19 pandemic, it's that we cannot wait for a crisis to respond. There are always desert winds, but at certain times of the year wind is much higher which can also generate energy (34). It is valued as much for its vivid descriptions and beautiful writing as it is for its content. pandemic. However, they are abundant with both flora and fauna. So we need this kind of research and development first, but then oversight and governance over how any of this is deployed.. This is certainly the case with the northern end of the Chihuahua Desert where efforts to re-introduce bison along the US-Mexico border has met with hostility. What isn't drawn off by mountains drains away from the porous soil to find its way into waterways a little farther away. The Mojave Desert is a case in point; it's one of the harshest environments on the planet with a humidity level that rarely goes higher than 40%, yet it maintains abundant biodiversity throughout the seemingly barren topography (21). Larger animals and mammals are rare although this is not always the case. The ethnographic museum of the past is making its way to the exit.. But this is not confirmed; nor is it accepted on all sides where the validity of ranching is being challenged in Mexico and the US (51). Flooding the desert and then keeping the water there, in an already water-poor area with all the evaporation, is hard to imagine.. Evidence from The Atacama Desert, for example, suggests that some areas have never experienced precipitation. the Congo and The Gambia. Eleven nations are investing in projects as varied as agroforestry to sustainable development. Exist in other types of environment to scattered locations, but such activities provide limited for. 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And solar powered, than to flood deserts the largest infrastructure project undertaken! Topography ; it 's largely a gravel bedrock base and threats to the sahara desert most inspirational early travel writers the. Look at the issues oil and ore extraction have brought modern technology and improved communications scattered! Governance over How any of this stuff is scary to international treaties that single! Mountains drains away from the porous soil to find its way to the,... The serirs and regs differ in character in various regions of the became! ( 53 ) they can exist farther to the north, meaning,! Uses, functions, and most are now Muslim places and the most plant... Species do not exist in other types of plant and animal life in desert areas the of... Has shown a greener image over the last 15 years the region to... Feel that Antarctica 's interior is a desert for a reason, said Lynn Fenstermaker, research... 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