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PubMed2004

Combating desertification: building on traditional knowledge systems of the Thar Desert communities.

The Thar Desert of western India is known for its rich and ancient culture system and traditions. The communities have long been part of the Thar Desert ecosystem and have evolved specific strategies to live in harmony with its hostile environment. This culture has provided several miracle plants of immense food and medicinal value to modern civilisation. The ancient rural livelihood knowledge system reflects time-tested techno-scientific knowledge with a proven track record of sustainability, especially during natural hazards like drought and famines. In addition, several of the traditional skills of local communities in arts and crafts, music and instruments have made modern man aware of the art and techniques of sustainably utilising local biological resources and preserving their biodiversity along with using waste products of the forests, without harming the desert ecosystem. Traditional cultural and socio-religious values are fast dwindling under the impact of materialistic approach, industrialisation and development. This paper endeavours to illustrate the need to assist and propagate indigenous rural livelihood systems rather than mindlessly replace or abandon them as a result of state bureaucracies.

Agriculture↗
PubMed2004

Trichloroacetic acid as additional factor contributing to desertification in southern Africa.

There has been an accelerated expansion of deserts in the past five decades. Recent data reveal that the atmogenically formed organic compound, trichloroacetic acid (TCA) is a contributory factor in addition to anthropogenic and natural sources. The aim of this study was to use TCA as an indicator for the possible occurrence of C2-chloroacetic acids; to assess the burden on the vegetation by using pine needles as a bio-indicator system and to deliberate on the possible role of TCA in the dynamics of the vegetation in southern Africa. Field experiments conducted on pine trees and on C3 and C4 crop plants under controlled laboratory conditions, have revealed that plants could be influenced positively or negatively by TCA. To obtain an integrated assessment of the pollution emission over a time span of at least one year, two-year-old pine needles of different Pinus species were used as a bio-indicator for TCA pollution at different measuring sites. The data of our investigation clearly indicate that areas exist in South Africa where the vegetation is burdened by ecotoxicologically relevant TCA contents comparable to those in central Europe and southern Russia where TCA was shown to play a role in the destabilisation of the steppe vegetation.

Air Pollutants↗
PubMed1990

Urban desertification, public health and public order: 'planned shrinkage', violent death, substance abuse and AIDS in the Bronx.

Techniques and approaches from population and community ecology, along with theoretical viewpoints from criminology and the 'social support hypothesis' of health maintenance, are used to examine recent patterns of rising homicide and suicide, intensified substance abuse, low birth weight and AIDS deaths in the Bronx section of New York City. Empirical and theoretical analyses strongly imply present sharply rising levels of violent death, intensification of deviant behaviors implicated in the spread of AIDS, and the pattern of the AIDS outbreak itself, have been gravely affected, and even strongly determined, by the outcomes of a program of 'planned shrinkage' directed against African-American and Hispanic communities, and implemented through systematic and continuing denial of municipal services--particularly fire extinguishment resources--essential for maintaining urban levels of population density and ensuring community stability. This work complements a recent study by McCord and Freeman [1. New Engl. J. Med. 332, 173, 1990] on Harlem, and suggests the present overburdening of New York's criminal justice system arises from almost exactly the same causes as its accelerating inability to meet demands for acute medical service, so-called 'medical gridlock', in that both are expressions of the increasing social disorganization of poor communities initiated and continued in considerable part by government policy. The critical role played by improper policy in triggering the syndrome suggests ecologically informed interventions, particularly essential service restoration, may hold the potential for great positive impact.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1994

Desertification: measuring population decline in rural Ireland.

"This paper addresses the issue of rural population decline in the Republic of Ireland during the past two decades having regard to size of place and estimated net migration for key age groups. The analysis is pursued at the level of some 160 Rural Districts. The results of the analysis confirm expected relationships between peripheral locations, small population size and a depletion of the young working age groups. The method used, however, permits the links between size of place, population change and the composition of that change to be identified with some precision."

Age Factors↗
PubMed2004

Desertification of Mediterranean rocky reefs caused by date-mussel, Lithophaga lithophaga (Mollusca: Bivalvia), fishery: effects on adult and juvenile abundance of a temperate fish.

Macroalgal beds in temperate rocky habitats provide shelter and food for many adult reef fishes and their juvenile stages. In the Mediterranean Sea, the fishery of the endolithic date-mussel Lithophaga lithophaga (which involves dismantling of rocky substrates inhabited by these bivalves) may cause formation of barrens in shallow rocky reefs. Preliminary data collected in SW Apulia (SE Italy) show that rocky reefs impacted by this destructive fishery display different distribution patterns of adult Coris julis (a common labrid fish in the Mediterranean basin), and lower abundance of juveniles. The ecological implications of date-mussel fishery for dynamics of fish populations and rocky-reef ecosystem functioning (e.g., nursery role) are discussed.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2003

A holistic approach towards assessment of severity of land degradation along the Great Wall in northern Shaanxi Province, China.

The farming and grazing interlocked transitional zone along the Great Wall in northern Shaanxi Province is particularly vulnerable to desertification due to its fragile ecosystem and intensive human activity. Studies reveal that desertification is both a natural and anthropogenic process. Four desertification indicators (vegetative cover, proportion of drifting sand area, desertification rate, and population pressure) were used to assess the severity of desertification in a GIS. The first three factors were derived from multitemporal remote sensing and land inventory data. The last factor was calculated from census data. It was found that the overall severity of land degradation in the study area has worsened during the last two decades with severely, highly and moderately degraded land accounting for 84.2% of the total area in 1998. While the area affected by desertification has increased, the rate of desertification has also accelerated from 0.74 to 0.87%. Risk of land degradation in the study area has increased, on an average, by 155% since 1985. Incorporation of both natural and anthropogenic factors in the analysis provides realistic assessment of risk of desertification.

Agriculture↗
PubMed2006

[Spatial-temporal dynamic change of land resource degradation in China].

Large scale spatial and temporal land use survey data were used to study the dynamics of land use change in China recently. With the aid of GIS, the spatial-temporal dynamic change of land resource degradation at the national level was investigated using authoritative datasets from detailed land use surveys (early 1990s approximately 2003). As a result, seven major types of land degradation processes were identified, including sandy desertification, rocky desertification, secondary salinification, non-agricultural land occupation, deforestation, natural grassland degradation and wetlands shrinking. This paper comprehensively explored the characteristics of these land degradation processes and revealed the status and trend of the holistic land resource degradation in China. Results shows that: (1) Although land degradation has been controlled in local area, but it is still continuing to spread in the whole country. The total degradation index of the holistic land resource presented fluctuating trend. Indexes of non-agricultural construction occupation and wetland shrinking process are far more than that of other process, which are two primary causes contribution to heading straight towards full-scale land resource deterioration in China. (2) Land resource degradation process of China focused on natural grass land, and non-agricultural construction land, which attained 66.27%; Land resource degradation rehabilitation mainly focused on desertification and forest restoration, which accounts for 57.5%. (3) Sandy desertification and rocky desertification process have been reversing greatly. The total net change of their quantities was decreased by 15,578km2. But most of the rehabilitation of land desertification was concentrated on the originally ecological vulnerable northwestern zone, whereas newly added desertified land has been expanding and aggravating in eastern zone, especially around river watersheds. (4) Over two-thirds of non-agriculture land expansion came from cultivated land. In addition, almost 60 percent of the loss cultivated land occupied by non-agricultural land was appeared in the Northeast, the Eastern coast and Central China where have many high productive agricultural lands of China. This kind of land degradation has threatened food security of China seriously. (5) However, large scale reclamation of ecological land transferred into cultivated land was the most dominant factor of degradation. For example, the conversion of wetland resource to croplands by reclamation accounts for over 50 percent of wetland shrinking.

Agriculture↗