DOCSLIB.ORG

Development Team

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Development Team Paper No: 01 Ecosystem Structures & Functions Module: 26 Desert Ecosystem Development Team Prof. R.K. Kohli Principal Investigator & Prof. V.K. Garg &Prof.Ashok Dhawan Co- Principal Investigator Central University of Punjab, Bathinda Dr. Renuka Gupta, YMCA University of Science and Paper Coordinator Technology, Faridabad, Haryana Dr. Sharda R. Gupta, former Professor Content Writer Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra Content Reviewer Prof. V.K. Garg, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda Anchor Institute Central University of Punjab 1 Ecosystem Structures & Functions Environmental Sciences 26 Desert Ecosystem Description of Module Subject Name Environmental Sciences Paper Name Ecosystem Structures & Functions Module Name/Title 26 Desert Ecosystem Module Id EVS/ESF-I/26 Pre-requisites To learn about the distribution, abiotic environment, biodiversity, and Objectives functions of the desert ecosystems Aridity Index, Hyperarid and arid regions, hot and dry desert, Keywords cold/temperate desert, coastal desert, biodiversity, adaptations, productivity, foodwebs, land degradation, resource management 2 Ecosystem Structures & Functions Environmental Sciences 26 Desert Ecosystem Module 26: Desert Ecosystem Objectives: Controlling Factors Forming Deserts The distribution and climate of deserts Adaptation of Plants and Animals to Dry conditions Biodiversity and Community Composition • Desert ecosystem functions • Human impact on Desert Ecosystems 3 Ecosystem Structures & Functions Environmental Sciences 26 Desert Ecosystem 26.1. Introduction Dry areas as created by global circulation patterns contain most of the deserts on the Earth. Mostly, deserts occur in specific latitudes (25 to 35° north and south of the equator). Deserts are arid where less than 250 mm of rain falls in a year resulting in low soil water availability, sparse growth of vegetation, and low productivity. However, evaporation exceeds rainfall in these ecosystems. The deserts in the world are not restricted by latitude, longitude, or elevation and show extreme variability in abiotic and biotic components. The causes of formation of deserts are varied; they show disjunct distribution and have independent floral histories. Mostly, deserts are often regions of extreme temperatures where living conditions are harsh; temperature variability is extremely variable. For example, many deserts such as the Sahara in Africa are hot all year-round but others, such as Asia's Gobi desert, become quite cold in winter. It is interesting that deserts are having high biodiversity in spite of their low productivity. The world’s deserts occupy almost 17 percent of the earth’s land surface. The deserts and desert margins are home to about eight per cent of the global human population; some of the poorest and most marginalized people in the world live in deserts. The poor people depend on deserts for sustainable ecosystem services under changing climate. 26.2. Controlling Factors Forming Deserts 26.2.1. Earth’s air circulation patterns: Subtropical deserts are formed because of the circulation patterns of air masses. They are found along the Tropic of Cancer, between 15o and 30 o north of the Equator, or along the Tropic of Capricorn, between 15o and 30o south of the Equator. Included in this group are the Sahara Desert and the Kalahari Desert in Africa. In these regions, hot, moist air rises into the atmosphere near the Equator. As the air rises, it cools and drops its moisture as heavy tropical rains. The resulting cooler, drier air mass moves away from the Equator. As it approaches the tropics, the air descends and warms up again. The descending air hinders the formation of clouds, so very little rain falls on the land below. 26.2.2. Rain shadow effect: A rain shadow is a patch of land that becomes a desert because mountain ranges blocked all rainy weather. On one side of the mountain, wet weather systems drop rain and snow. On the other side of the mountain, the rain shadow side, it’s warm and dry (Fig.26.1). When 4 Ecosystem Structures & Functions Environmental Sciences 26 Desert Ecosystem an air mass moves from a low elevation to a high elevation, it expands and cools. Cool air forms clouds, causing rain and snow, as it rises up a mountain. After the air mass crosses over the peak of the mountain and starts down the other side, the air warms up and the clouds dissipate resulting in less rainfall. Rain shadow deserts exist near the leeward slopes of some mountain ranges. For example, the Gobi Desert, The Tibetan Plateau, the deserts of Nevada east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Major rain shadow effects occur in Atacama Desert, located in Chile. 26.2.3. Distance from the ocean. Some land is so far from oceans (where air absorbs most of its water) that deserts form. Interior deserts, which are found in the heart of continents, exist because no moisture-laden winds reach them. The Gobi Desert, in China and Mongolia, lies hundreds of kilometers from the ocean. Winds that reach the Gobi have very low moisture. The Gobi is also in the rain shadow of the Himalayan Mountains to the south. 26.2.4. Near cold ocean currents: Cold ocean currents contribute to the formation of coastal deserts. The cold ocean air warms as it passes over continents. A coastal desert may be almost totally rainless, yet damp with fog. The Atacama Desert, on the Pacific shores of Chile, is a coastal desert. Fig. 1. The rain shadow effect, windward and leeward sides of a mountain range, the windward side receives heavy precipitation while the Leeward side is dry ( adapted from Singh et al., 2015). 5 Ecosystem Structures & Functions Environmental Sciences 26 Desert Ecosystem 26.3. The main Characteristics of Deserts Deserts are dry and arid, have an aridity index (P/PET) lower than 0.20. Humidity (water vapor in the air) is near zero in most deserts. Light rains often evaporate in the dry air, never reaching the ground. Temperature extremes are a characteristic of most deserts. Annual precipitation less than the potential evaporation. Low soil moisture to support primary productivity. Animals and plants that live in deserts have adapted to survive in harsh conditions. Many desert dwellers rely on groundwater, stored in aquifers below the surface. 26.4. The Desert Ecosystems: A Global Perspective Aridity is an important criterion for defining a desert. One of the most common approaches to measure aridity is through an estimator called the Aridity Index, which is the ratio between mean annual precipitation (P) and mean annual potential evapotranspiration (PET) (Thornthwaite 1948). The hyperarid and arid regions of the world are defined as those areas with an aridity index (P/PET) lower than 0.20 (Table26.1). Potential evapotranspiration (PET) is calculated from Thornthwaite’s (1948) equations as a function of mean monthly temperatures and mean monthly number of daylight hours, while precipitation (P) is measured directly from weather stations. Arid and hyper-arid regions have a P/PET ratio of less than 0.20; rainfall supplies less than 20 per cent of the amount of water needed to support optimum plant growth (UNEP 1997). Based on this criterion, aridity is highest in the Saharan and Chilean-Peruvian deserts, followed by the Arabian, East African, Gobi, Australian, and South African Deserts, and it is generally lower in the Thar and North American deserts. 6 Ecosystem Structures & Functions Environmental Sciences 26 Desert Ecosystem Table 26.1. Area of hyper-arid and arid regions of the world (based on UNEP 1997; Safriel et al. 2005) Classification Aridity Index Area of world Area of world (P/PET)* total(%) total(%) (UNEP 1997) (Safriel et al. 2005) Hyperarid < 0.05 7.5 6.6 Arid 0.05–0.20 12.1 10.6 * The ratio of precipitation (P) to potential evapotranspiration (PET) The global distribution of deserts as Hyperarid and arid regions is shown in Fig. 26.2. In the northern hemisphere, the deserts are found in three regions (UNEP, 2006, http://www.unep.org/geo/gdoutlook/112.asp): i. The Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan Deserts in North America, ii. The Sahara desert forms an immense swathe in Northern Africa and the Somali-Ethiopian deserts in the Horn of Africa. iii. The deserts of Asia, including the Arabian, Mesopotamian, Persian, and Thar deserts that stretch from West Asia into Pakistan and India, as well as the Central Asian deserts in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and the Taklimakan and Gobi deserts in China and Mongolia. The world's largest desert, the Sahara of North Africa, which experiences temperatures as high as 57°C, is a trade wind desert. Mid latitude deserts occur between 30° and 50° N. and S, poleward of the subtropical high pressure zones. These deserts are in interior drainage basins far from oceans and have a wide range of annual temperatures. The Sonoran Desert of southwestern North America- is a typical mid latitude desert. The Rajasthan Desert of India and the Thar Desert of Pakistan are parts of a monsoon desert region west of the range. 7 Ecosystem Structures & Functions Environmental Sciences 26 Desert Ecosystem In the southern hemisphere, the desert chainis formed by (i) the Atacama, Puna, and Monte Deserts in South America, (ii ) the Namib and the Karoo in southern Africa, and (iii) the vast expanse of the Australian Deserts, ( UNEP 2006 and references there in) ( http://www.unep.org/geo/gdoutlook/112.asp). Parts of the Arctic and the Antarctic are classified as deserts. These polar deserts contain great quantities of water, but most of it is locked in glaciers and ice sheets year-round. The largest desert in the world is also the coldest. Almost the entire continent of Antarctica is a polar desert, experiencing little precipitation. Few organisms can withstand the freezing, dry climate of Antarctica Fig. 26.2. The hyperarid and arid regions representing deserts cover about 17 percent of the Earth's land surface and are found on every continent.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A Mesolithic Site in the Thal Desert of Punjab (Pakistan)
    Asian Archaeology https://doi.org/10.1007/s41826-019-00024-z FIELD WORK REPORT Mahi Wala 1 (MW-1): a Mesolithic site in the Thal desert of Punjab (Pakistan) Paolo Biagi 1 & Elisabetta Starnini2 & Zubair Shafi Ghauri3 Received: 4 April 2019 /Accepted: 12 June 2019 # Research Center for Chinese Frontier Archaeology (RCCFA), Jilin University and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 1Preface considered by a few authors a transitional period that covers ca two thousand years between the end of the Upper The problem of the Early Holocene Mesolithic hunter-gatherers Palaeolithic and the beginning of the Neolithic food producing in the Indian Subcontinent is still a much debated topic in the economy (Misra 2002: 112). The reasons why our knowledge prehistory of south Asia (Lukacs et al. 1996; Sosnowska 2010). of the Mesolithic period in the Subcontinent in general is still Their presence often relies on knapped stone assemblages insufficiently known is due mainly to 1) the absence of a de- characterised by different types of geometric microlithic arma- tailed radiocarbon chronology to frame the Mesolithic com- tures1 (Kajiwara 2008: 209), namely lunates, triangles and tra- plexes into each of the three climatic periods that developed pezes, often obtained with the microburin technique (Tixier at the beginning of the Holocene and define a correct time-scale et al. 1980; Inizan et al. 1992; Nuzhniy 2000). These tools were for the development or sequence of the study period in the area first recorded from India already around the end of the (Misra 2013: 181–182), 2) the terminology employed to de- nineteenth century (Carleyle 1883; Black 1892; Smith scribe the Mesolithic artefacts that greatly varies author by au- 1906), and were generically attributed to the beginning thor (Jayaswal 2002), 3) the inhomogeneous criteria adopted of the Holocene some fifty years later (see f.i.
    [Show full text]
  • The Amazing Life in the Indian Desert
    THE AMAZING LIFE IN THE INDIAN DESERT BY ISHWAR PRAKASH CENTRAL ARID ZONE RESEARCH INSTITUTE JODHPUR Printed June, 1977 Reprinted from Tbe Illustrated Weekly of India AnDual1975 CAZRI Monogra,pp No. 6 , I Publtshed by the Director, Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur, and printed by B. R. Chowdhri, Press Manager at Hl!ryana Agricultural University Press, Hissar CONTENTS A Sorcerer's magic wand 2 The greenery is transient 3 Burst of colour 4 Grasses galore 5 Destruction of priceless teak 8 Exciting "night life" 8 Injectors of death 9 Desert symphony 11 The hallowed National Bird 12 The spectacular bustard 12 Flamingo city 13 Trigger-happy man 15 Sad fate of the lord of the jungle 16 17 Desert antelopes THE AMAZING LIFE IN THE INDIAN DESERT The Indian Desert is not an endless stretch of sand-dunes bereft of life or vegetation. During certain seasons it blooms with a colourful range of trees and grasses and abounds in an amazing variety of bird and animal life. This rich natural region must be saved from the over­ powering encroachment of man. To most of us, the word "desert" conjures up the vision of a vast, tree-less, undulating, buff expanse of sand, crisscrossed by caravans of heavily-robed nomads on camel-back. Perhaps the vision includes a lonely cactus plant here and the s~ull of some animal there and, perhaps a few mini-groves of date-palm, nourished by an artesian well, beckoning the tired traveller to rest awhile before riding off again to the horizon beyond. This vision is a projection of the reality of the Saharan or the Arabian deserts.
    [Show full text]
  • Automated Detection of Archaeological Mounds Using Machine-Learning Classification of Multisensor and Multitemporal Satellite Data
    Automated detection of archaeological mounds using machine-learning classification of multisensor and multitemporal satellite data Hector A. Orengoa,1, Francesc C. Conesaa,1, Arnau Garcia-Molsosaa, Agustín Lobob, Adam S. Greenc, Marco Madellad,e,f, and Cameron A. Petriec,g aLandscape Archaeology Research Group (GIAP), Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology, 43003 Tarragona, Spain; bInstitute of Earth Sciences Jaume Almera, Spanish National Research Council, 08028 Barcelona, Spain; cMcDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, CB2 3ER Cambridge, United Kingdom; dCulture and Socio-Ecological Dynamics, Department of Humanities, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08005 Barcelona, Spain; eCatalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies, 08010 Barcelona, Spain; fSchool of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa; and gDepartment of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, CB2 3DZ Cambridge, United Kingdom Edited by Elsa M. Redmond, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, and approved June 25, 2020 (received for review April 2, 2020) This paper presents an innovative multisensor, multitemporal mounds (7–9). Georeferenced historical map series have also machine-learning approach using remote sensing big data for been used solely or in combination with contemporary declas- the detection of archaeological mounds in Cholistan (Pakistan). sified data (10–14). In recent years, RS-based archaeological The Cholistan Desert presents one of
    [Show full text]
  • Desert-2.Pdf
    Desert Contens Top Ten Facts PG 1 front cover 1 All Deserts are all different but they all have low amounts of rain PG 2 contens 2 Deserts normally have less than 40 CM a year 3 The Sahara desert is in Northern Africa and is over 12 different countries PG 3 top ten facts 4 Sahara desert is the largest desert in the Earth PG 4 whether and climate 5 Only around 20% of the Deserts on Earth are covered in sand 6 Around one third of the Earth's surface is covered in Desert PG 5 desert map 7 The largest cold Desert on Earth is Antarctica PG 6 animals and people that live there 8 Located in South America, the Atacama Desert is the driest place in the world PG 7 what grows there 9 Lots of animals live in Deserts such as the wild dog 10 The Arabian Desert in the Middle East is the second largest hot desert on Earth but is substantially smaller than the Sahara. This is a list of the deserts in Wether And Climate the world Arabian Desert. ... Kalahari Desert. ... Wether Mojave Desert. ... Sonoran Desert. ... Chihuahuan Desert. ... This is a map showing Deserts are usually very, very dry. Even the wettest deserts get less than ten Thar Desert. ... the deserts in the world inches of precipitation a year. In most places, rain falls steadily throughout the Gibson Desert. year. But in the desert, there may be only a few periods of rains per year with a lot of time between rains.
    [Show full text]
  • Palaeochannels of the Thar Desert May Bring Prosperity for Its Inhabitants, Rajasthan, Nw India
    PALAEOCHANNELS OF THE THAR DESERT MAY BRING PROSPERITY FOR ITS INHABITANTS, RAJASTHAN, NW INDIA. S.R. Jakhar Department of Geology, Faculty of Engineering, Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India [email protected] KEY WORDS: River Linking, Former Courses, Forestation, Precipitation. ABSTRACT: The Thar Desert exists mainly in western part of the Rajasthan state of northwestern part of India. The state occupies an area about two third of the total area of the desert. Because of scarcity of rain fall in the desert, the frequency of occurrence of draughts is very high. The inhabitants of the desert are bound to migrate in search of water, food and fodder frequently. There are a number of palaeochannels exist in the Thar Desert of the western Rajasthan. The presence of these palaeochannels have been proved through study of remote sensing imageries and it is inferred that sometime in the past a very mighty Himalayan river and its tributaries were flowing through western Rajasthan and meeting Arabian Sea. India plans to transfer water from the water surplus regions of the north and north-east to the water scarce regions of western and southern India. The plan is called the National River Linking Project (NRLP). If the rivers of Himalaya are linked to Palaeochannel of the Thar Desert through canals, it will thrust up the economic condition of desert residents by increase of crop sowing area, tree plantation and fish production from aqua-culture. When water will flow through these pre-existing river courses in the desert, it will be available for irrigation, forestation, cultivation of grasses, aqua-culture, drinking and for industrial supply.
    [Show full text]
  • The Middle Palaeolithic in the Desert and Its Implications for Understanding Hominin Adaptation and Dispersal
    Quaternary International 300 (2013) 1–12 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Quaternary International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quaint Guest Editorial The Middle Palaeolithic in the desert and its implications for understanding hominin adaptation and dispersal 1. Introduction: into the desert location of major changes in hominin demography during the Pleis- tocene. These demographic changes relate to both the expansion The mid-latitude desert belt extending from the Atlantic coast of and dispersal of hominin populations and changing patterns of North Africa, through the Middle East and deep into Asia is one of behaviour and hence survivability. The dispersal of Homo sapiens the fundamental environmental and biogeographical features of from sub-Saharan Africa into Eurasia must have involved the colo- the modern world. Although today much of this region can only nisation and occupation of the mid-latitude arid belt. Given the be inhabited as a result of complex cultural adaptations to these analogous environmental and climatic settings of North Africa arid environments (e.g. irrigation, camel domestication, etc.), a and southern Asia, the binary opposition of Africa and Eurasia ap- rich variety of archaeological evidence attests to the occupation pears to be an unproductive approach to understand how hominins of the desert belt during the Pleistocene. The aim of this volume were able to expand into new, diverse habitats. Rather than the cur- of Quaternary International is to explore the Palaeolithic occupation rent focus upon modern human dispersals ‘Out of Africa’, we sug- of this desert belt, and highlight these regions as critical to under- gest a reorientation towards understanding the dispersal of standing changes in hominin behaviour and demography that have hominins ‘Into the Saharo-Arabian Belt’.
    [Show full text]
  • Biodiversity in Thar Desert and Its Role in Sustainable Agriculture M
    103 DOI : 10.33451/florafauna.v25i2pp103-120 FLORA AND FAUNA ISSN 2456 - 9364 (Online) 2019 Vol. 25 No. 2 PP 103-120 ISSN 0971 - 6920 (Print) Biodiversity in Thar Desert and its Role in Sustainable Agriculture M. M. Roy* and Sharmila Roy *ICAR - Central Arid Zone Research Institute, JODHPUR (Raj.) 342001 ICAR- Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, LUCKNOW (UP) 226017 *Corresponding Author Email: [email protected] Received : 18.09.2019; Accepted : 21.10.2019 ABSTRACT The country has both hot and cold deserts. The Thar Desert, seventh largest desert in the world, harbors several species that have adapted themselves to survive in the harsh desert conditions. The floral diversity includes 682 species (63 introduced species), belonging to 352 genera and 87 families. The degree of endemism of plant species in the Thar Desert is 6.4 percent, which is relatively higher than the degree of endemism in the world famous Sahara desert. The faunal diversity represents 755 invertebrate and 440 vertebrate species, including 140 bird and 41 mammalian species and the only known population of the Asiatic wild ass. It is highlighted that sustainable use and management of this biodiversity is necessary to support human and livestock needs besides conservation. The strategy should be such that it is supported by public. Figure : 01 References : 68 Tables : 08 KEY WORDS : Desert ecosystem, Forests, Grasslands, Livestock, Management, Wildlife Introduction all sources and the ecological complexes of which they India is having a critical blend of tradition and are a part- including diversity within species, between 66 modernity. Apart from being one of the oldest civilizations species and of ecosystems .
    [Show full text]
  • The Deserts of Pakistan
    THE DESERTS OF PAKISTAN Thar (Sindh) The Thar Desert (Hindi: also known as the Great Indian Desert, is a large, arid region in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. With an area of more than 200,000 sq. km., (140,000 sq. mi.) it is world's seventeenth largest desert. It lies mostly in the Indian state of Rajasthan, and extends into the southern portion of Haryana and Punjab states and into northern Gujarat state. In Pakistan, the desert covers eastern Sind province and the southeastern portion of Pakistan's Punjab province. The Cholistan Desert adjoins the Thar Desert spreading into Pakistani Punjab province. The Thar Desert is bounded on the northwest by the Sutlej River, on the east by the Aravalli Range, on the south by the salt marsh known as the Rann of Kutch (parts of which are sometimes included in the Thar), and on the west by the Indus River. Its boundary to the large thorny steppe to the north is ill-defined. Depending on what areas are included or excluded, the nominal size of the Thar can vary significantly. Cholistan (Punjab) The word Cholistan is derived from the Turkish word Chol, which means Desert. Cholistan thus means Land of the Desert. The people of Cholistan lead a semi-nomadic life, moving from one place to another in search of water and fodder for their animals. The dry bed of the Hakra River runs through the area, along which many settlements of the Indus Valley Civilisation have been found. Thal (Punjab) The Thal desert is situated in Punjab, Pakistan.
    [Show full text]
  • Reasons for the Expansion of Thar Desert & Methods to Control This
    CPUH-Research Journal: 2017, 2(1), 12-17 ISSN (Online): 2455-6076 http://www.cpuh.in/academics/academic_journals.php Reasons for the Expansion of Thar Desert & Methods to Control this Spreading Dr. Kirti Mohan Sharma1*, Sarvansh Singh2 and Himanshu Jain3 1 & * Career Point University, Alaniya, Kota (Raj.) INDIA 2 Career Point University, Kota (Raj.) INDIA 3 Career Point University, Kota (Raj.) INDIA *Correspondence Email: [email protected] (Received 03 June, 2017; Accepted 06 July, 2017; Published 11 July, 2017) ABSTRACT: Rajasthan is the western part of country with arid climatic condition with low average rainfall (150- 200mm).In past fifty years number of drought came is twenty four which is approx (47%). Out of total thirty four districts in the most droughts affected nine districts. Total 23 years were drought affected out of last fifty years which is (45%). These nine districts have dry climate and average rainfall (32-78mm). The Great Indian Desert has similarity with other deserts of world in respect of flora and fauna. The increasing rate of desert affects our econ- omy, anthropology, sociology and geography. In this review article we have tried to reveal reason behind the expan- sion of Indian desert and its effect on human being and local flora and fauna and have also suggested possible solu- tions by which we can stop its expansion. Keywords: Thar Desert; Rainfall; Change in climate; Prevention of flora and fauna; Drought. INTRODUCTION: Thar Desert which is also known region is very rich in comparison with the other de- as The Great Indian Desert or Marusthali (land of serts of the world.
    [Show full text]
  • Prospective Role of Thar Desert in Ecological and Socio- Economic Development of Pakistan Masood Nawaz KALYAR Dr
    Journal of Multidisciplinary Engineering Science and Technology (JMEST) ISSN: 3159-0040 Vol. 1 Issue 5, December - 2014 The Unexplored Jewel of Desert: Prospective Role of Thar Desert in Ecological and Socio- Economic Development of Pakistan Masood Nawaz KALYAR Dr. Yusuf KARAKILÇIK Faculty of Economics and Administrative Professor, Faculty of Economics and Sciences, Administrative Sciences, İnönü University, Malatya, Turkey. İnönü University, Malatya, Turkey. [email protected] Abstract— The Thar Desert is a large, arid rural area, about 45% of its labor force is engaged in region in the northwestern part of the Indian agriculture and contributing 25% in GDP (CIA, 2014). subcontinent and forms a natural boundary Despite the fact that economy of Pakistan is running along the border between India and growing (3.6% GDP growth rate for 2013) the country Pakistan. The purpose of this study is to analyze is still victim to various political, social, geographical, and present favorable and viable conditions for ecological, environmental, energy, and economic formulating and implementing afforestation plan problems. Increasing rate of people living under in Thar Desert of Pakistan. Afforestation of Thar poverty line, electricity and gas load shedding, stock Desert apart from provision of employment, wood market and currency fluctuations, poor transportation and charcoal supply, habitats for wildlife, and and logistics infrastructure, terrorism, drought, flood, ecotourism opportunities, may also play a and collapse of tourism industry are few examples significant role in overcoming ecological, that picture the consequence of the problems stated environmental, and other soil related issues. The above. If we have a look on recent economic, social, ‘prospective desert’ could also serve as home for environmental, and political trends it is clear that a medicinal plants and in protecting form further country rich in natural resources is unable to prevent desertification as well as soil erosion.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 2 Description of Thal Desert and Area Profile
    Contents Acknowledgements 4 Acronym and Vocabulary of Local Words 5 Executive Summary 6 Chapter 1 The Background 1.1 Introduction 7 1.2 Objectives of the study 8 1.3 Methodology 8 Chapter 2 Description of Thal Desert and Area Profile 2.1 Brief Historical Background of Thal Desert 10 2.2 Profile of District Layyah 11 2.3 Study Area Profile 12 2.4 Settlement Patterns 13 2.4 Use of Energy and Communication Technology 15 2.5 Education, Health and other Infrastructure 16 2.6 Water and Sanitation Facilities 17 Chapter 3 MAJOR FINDINGS 3.1 Agriculture and Livestock as a Source of Major Livelihood 18 3.2 Wheat and Channa (Gram/Chickpea) – A major source of 18 Livelihood and Food Security 3.3 Livestock 22 3.4 Scarcity of Water 24 3.5 Shifting Sand Dunes 25 3.6 Wildlife, Flora Fauna and Bio-Diversity 27 3.7 Role of Women in Desert Ecology & Economy 28 3.8 Climate Change and Coping Strategies 30 3.9 Effects of drought on the community 31 3.9.1 Shortage of Food and Fodder 31 3.9.2 Drinking Water Scarcity 31 3.9.3 Increase in Land Degradation and Desertification 31 3.9.4 Decrease in Agricultural Production 31 3.9.5 Decrease in Animals Population 32 3.9.6 Increase in Indebtedness 32 3.9.7 Increase in malnutrition specially among women and children 32 3.9.8 Increase in infant and maternal mortality 33 3.9.9 Increase in the burden of women 33 Chapter 4 Conclusion and Way Forward 4.1 Sand Dunes Stabilization 34 4.2 Dew Harvesting and Vegetable Production 35 4.3 Promoting Energy Conservation 35 References Acknowledgements This study has been conducted under the supervision of Dr.Shahid Zia, Managing Director, Lok Sanjh Foundation (LSF), who provided valuable guidance from designing of study to collection of data and report writing.
    [Show full text]
  • Provenance of Thal Desert Sand
    Revised Manuscript with Changes Marked 1 Provenance of Thal Desert sand: focused erosion in the western 1 2 Himalayan syntaxis and foreland-basin deposition driven by latest 3 4 Quaternary climate change 5 6 7 8 9 10 1* 1* 1 2 11 Eduardo Garzanti , Wendong Liang , Sergio Andò , Peter D. Clift , Alberto 12 1 3 1 13 Resentini , Pieter Vermeesch , Giovanni Vezzoli . 14 15 16 17 1 18 Laboratory for Provenance Studies, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, 19 20 University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano 20126, Italy 21 2 Department of Geology and Geophysics, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, 22 23 USA 24 25 3London Geochronology Centre, Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, 26 27 London, C1E 6BT, UK 28 29 30 * Corresponding authors (e-mail: [email protected] and [email protected]) 31 32 33 34 Keywords: Sand petrography and geochemistry; Detrital-zircon geochronology; Variability of 35 Nd values; Focused erosion; Himalaya-Karakorum; Kohistan Arc; Indus River, Delta, and Fan. 36 37 38 39 Highlights: 40 41 The Thal Desert is an inland archive of Indus sand from the western Himalaya syntaxis 42 43 44 Sand stored in the Thal dunefield reveals major detrital supply from the Kohistan arc 45 46 High variability of Nd values is controlled by minimal changes in monazite content 47 48 49 The Thal Desert formed in a dry landscape between the LGM and the wet early Holocene 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 2 Abstract 1 2 3 4 As a latest Pleistocene repository of Indus River sand at the entry point to the Himalayan foreland 5 6 basin, the Thal dune field in northern Pakistan stores crucial information that can be used to 7 8 9 reconstruct the erosional evolution of the Himalayan-Karakorum orogen and the changes in the 10 11 foreland-basin landscape that took place between the Last Glacial Maximum and the early Holocene.
    [Show full text]