Desertification

Desertification is the degradation of land in arid, semi arid and dry sub-humid areas into desert, resulting from various factors including climatic variations and human activities. Modern desertification often arises from the demands of increased populations that settle on the land in order to grow crops and graze animals.

Related Topics:
Degradation - Arid - Semi arid - Desert - Climatic - Crops - Animal

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However, there has been major controversy over the definition of the term, as well as its causes. Attempts to define or map areas that are or have turned into desert have been sharply criticized. What is usually less controversial is the fact of biodiversity loss, and loss of productive capacity, such as the transition from grassland dominated by perennial grasses to one dominated by perennial shrubs. In the southwestern deserts of the United States, semiarid ecosystems dominated by perennial bunchgrasses, including blue grama and black grama, have been replaced by shrublands dominated by creosotebush since the early 1900s. The change in vegetation is thought to have induced desertification in this region.

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