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Week 10 Land Degradation and Desertification
Week 10 Land Degradation and Desertification
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Where/What are the drylands/deserts?
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Orographic deserts
Existing on the
downwind sides of
major mountains
ranges.
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This is the origin of the great Basin and Range deserts of the American West.
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The intermountain valley
in Ecuador is also
extremely arid.
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Polar Deserts
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Interior Asian deserts exist due to extreme distances from moisture
sources, compounded by jet stream diversion and orographic
blockage of southern monsoons by the Himalaya.
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Global Distribution of Drylands
Early (II)
Shrubland
Middle (III)
Shrub duneland
Late (IV)
Woody Plant Encroachment:
Drivers and Feedbacks
• Exogenic drivers
• Regional and global warming
• Overgrazing
• Increase in atmospheric CO2
• Large-scale fire suppression
• Endogenic feedbacks
• Fire-vegetation
• Soil erosion-vegetation
• Vegetation-microclimate