Without plant life in an area, flooding is a lot more imminent. And together with ecosystems disappear even natural resources that were once present. Other factors that cause desertification include urbanization, climate change, overuse of groundwater, deforestation, natural disasters, and tillage practices in agriculture that make soils more vulnerable to wind. Species that once lived in a fertile and productive climate may not survive in a newly desertified region. and space to grow food and build settlements. Research is the key to overcome most of our environmental problems, and it applies to desertification also. This problem becomes even worse when large areas of land that are currently used for farming will then no longer be suitable for farming due to a lack of water triggered by global warming. Not only that up to 6 million people suffer of hunger in the Chad Basin recently, they are also terrorized by Boko Haram, one of the most dangerous terrorist groups in the world. If they fail to do so, they will become extinct for their inability to cope with a sudden change of their environment. They can cope with incremental challenges and adapt, but beyond a certain tipping point they collapse. Once land turns from arable to arid, it is often on longer suitable for farming purposes anymore. Overgrazing and desertification have been always closely linked together. But we couldn’t be more mistaken, for desertification is slowly creeping up into our lives and has the power to change everything. (And Is It Bad For Environment), Are Solar Panels Recyclable? This can cost a lot of money to try and do, so many farmers will have to sell their land and leave the desert areas. Do you know what that means? This usually strips the soil of nutrients, which in turn kills the plant life, and eventually leads to the process of becoming a desert biome as time goes on. The health impacts of desertification and drought [pdf, 1.3 Mb] Review. Animals will also go hungry, which will cause even more of a food shortage. These irrigation methods often lead to a buildup of salt in soils. Land degradation due to urbanization has affected strongly many countries such as Egypt, Iraq, Turkey, Spain and other places with hot climate, where urban and tourist areas spread along the rivers or coastlines, sealing these lands and pushing farming away onto marginal lands, which will only accelerate their desertification over the time [11]. Once the soil is degraded and the precious nutrients are lost, only infertile and lifeless swaths of land are left behind. Faulty irrigation projects have resulted not only in the soil infertility, they have also decreased water table of the country’s largest lakes by 80 percent and more, exposing shores to the effects of rapid drying out and land degradation [14]. Most plants are quite sensitive to their natural living conditions. Desertification also increases vulnerability of whole regions to the unpredictable effects of climate change. One of the very recent examples of climate-induced desertification is the disappearance of the lake Poopó, lying in a high altitude of semi-arid plains in Bolivian Andes. This is driven by a number of factors – alone or in combination – such as overgrazing, deforestation, farming (mal )practices , urbanization, land 'development', climate change, exploitation of land resources, natural disasters and population growth. And it is these fertilizers that are poisoning scarce sources of potable water, as they are flushed with every rain into the river and drinking wells of people [10]. Dust particles in the atmosphere can scatter incoming radiation from the sun, reducing warming locally at the surface, but increasing it in the air above. The reason is simple, people lost their ability to grow food, water resources became scarce and their animals got weak from not having enough to eat. Their loss to buildings and other infrastructure is, therefore, rather wasteful. The link between soil erosion and other consequences of desertification only confirms this, as erosion is another negative outcome but also a catalyst of previously mentioned problems. Therefore, planting trees in the affected areas not only prevents desertification but also fights against additional environmental issues. Or, to put it in another way, desertification results in persistent degradation of dryland and fragile ecosystems due to man-made activities and variations in climate. In turn, many farmers may lose their livelihood, since they often solely rely on farming as their single source of income. (And Are They Compostable? It is in topsoil where large pores and soil aggregates form, allowing for proper water infiltration and aeration. 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