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Typical deserts are indicated by the hyper-arid category (light yellow). [1] Desertification is a type of gradual land degradation of fertile land into arid desert due to a combination of natural processes and human activities. The immediate cause of desertification is the loss of most vegetation.
For instance, it might be difficult to tell if desertification or desert expansion is the result of climate change or human activity. [19] Desertification in Africa is exacerbated by human factors such as deforestation, overgrazing, and unsustainable farming methods such as monoculture and excessive use of chemical fertilizers.
A satellite image of the Sahara, the world's largest hot desert and third largest desert after Antarctica and the Arctic. Desert greening is the process of afforestation or revegetation of deserts for ecological restoration (biodiversity), sustainable farming and forestry, but also for reclamation of natural water systems and other ecological systems that support life.
Humans have long made use of deserts as places to live, [104] and more recently have started to exploit them for minerals [105] and energy capture. [106] Deserts play a significant role in human culture with an extensive literature. [107] Deserts can only support a limited population of both humans and animals. [108]
Desertification is one of the issues of environmental concern in Nigeria, particularly the northern part of the country. According to UNEP [4] in 1993, Northern Nigeria has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world at about 3.5%, caused by land degradation, increase in agricultural intensity, over-grazing of livestock, and demand for fuel by cutting down trees.
Deforestation, and conversion of grasslands to desert, may also lead to cooling of the regional climate. This is because of the albedo effect (sunlight reflected by bare ground) during the day, and rapid radiation of heat into space at night, due to the lack of vegetation and atmospheric moisture. [18]
From climate change to species loss and pollution, humans have etched their impact on the Earth with such strength and permanence since the middle of the 20th century that a special team of ...
But included in that 10–20% of land is the approximately 9 million square kilometers of seasonally dry-lands that humans have converted to deserts through the process of desertification. [7] The tallgrass prairies of North America, on the other hand, have less than 3% of natural habitat remaining that has not been converted to farmland.