Anthropogenic climate change has driven over 5 million km2 of drylands towards desertification

Burrell, Arden; Evans, Jason P.; Kauwe, Martin G. De

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-17710-7

Cited by 332 publications

(187 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…For example, windbreaks and shrubs are common in northeastern and northwestern China have played a significant role in preventing the invasion of sand and dust storms (Lyu et al, 2020). And the implementation of numerous ecological restoration projects and policies is also worth trying (Burrell, Evans, & De Kauwe, 2020). Besides, green industries can be introduced to form an innovative mechanism to coordinate economic development and ecological conservation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of climate change on wind erosion in Southern Africa between 1991 and 2015

et al. 2021

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Wind erosion is the main form of soil erosion in arid and semiarid areas. It leads to soil loss and land degradation, which aggravates ecosystem vulnerability and threatens regional sustainable development. Exploring wind erosion and associating driving factors can provide useful information to reduce soil wind erosion and solve corresponding environmental problems. Southern Africa is characterized with severe soil wind erosion, which has brought a series of socioeconomic issues, such as food crises and poverty. This study used meteorological and remote sensing data, and the revised wind erosion equation (RWEQ) model to explore the spatio-temporal dynamics of soil erosion in Southern Africa from 1991 to 2015. The impact of climate change on soil wind erosion was also analyzed. The results showed that wind erosion fluctuated during the study period, which first showed a downward trend and then stabilized at a relatively low level after 2010. Soil wind erosion across 66.65% of the study area significantly decreased (p < .05) and near-surface wind speed was the most important influencing factor. The decrease of wind speed can significantly reduce the soil wind erosion across 39.89% of the study area. Temperature and precipitation were significantly related to soil wind erosion over 18.96% and 24.63% of the study area, respectively. Both can indirectly affect soil wind erosion through their impacts on vegetation cover. This study will help decision-makers to identify highrisk areas for soil erosion in Southern Africa and to take countermeasures effectively.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of climate change on wind erosion in Southern Africa between 1991 and 2015

et al. 2021

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“…Drylands (https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-dese rtification-and-the-role-of-climate-change), i.e. lands receiving too little water to maintain healthy soils, constitute more than 40% of the world's terrestrial surface, include 45% of the world's agricultural land (Burrell et al, 2020) and are home to around 2.7 billion people. Drylands are particularly susceptible to degradation through natural and human activities, which in turn can lead to desertification (https://www.…”

Section: Soil Is the Most Important Microbiome Reservoirmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Human activities that contribute to desertification through degradation of land in areas with low or variable rainfall, include mining and farming/ranching (clearing land of natural vegetation, soil compaction by machines and animals (e.g. Troldborg et al, 2013;Burrell et al, 2020;Krauss et al, 2020), soil tilling, crop depletion of soil nutrients, etc. ), lowering of water tables through excessive extraction of groundwater, etc.…”

Section: Soil Is the Most Important Microbiome Reservoirmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Global warming and extreme weather events can, on one hand, cause increased drying of drylands, which become even more vulnerable to soil losses by wind erosion. On the other hand, storms of increasing frequency and violence, while bringing rain, cause increased soil losses by water erosion (Burrell et al, 2020). It has been estimated that half of the topsoil of the planet has been lost during the last 150 years (https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/soil-erosion-anddegradation).…”

Section: Soil Is the Most Important Microbiome Reservoirmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The soil crisis: the need to treat as a global health problem and the pivotal role of microbes in prophylaxis and therapy

Timmis

Ramos

2021

Microbial Biotechnology

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SummarySoil provides a multitude of services that are essential to a healthily functioning biosphere and continuity of the human race, such as feeding the growing human population and the sequestration of carbon needed to counteract global warming. Healthy soil availability is the limiting parameter in the provision of a number of these services. As a result of anthropogenic abuses, and natural and global warming‐promoted extreme weather events, Planet Earth is currently experiencing an unprecedented crisis of soil deterioration, desertification and erosive loss that increasingly prejudices the services it provides. Such services are pivotal to the Sustainability Development Goals formulated by the United Nations. Immediate and coordinated action on a global scale is urgently required to slow and ultimately reverse the loss of healthy soils.Despite the ‘dirt‐dust’, non‐vital appearance of soil, it is a highly dynamic living entity, whose life is overwhelmingly microbial. The soil microbiota, which constitutes the greatest reservoir and donor of microbial diversity on Earth, acts as a vast bioreactor, mediating a myriad of chemical reactions that turn the biogeochemical cycles, recycle wastes, purify water, and underpin the multitude of other services soil provides. Fuelling the belowground microbial bioreactor is the aboveground plant and photosynthetic surface microbial life which captures solar energy, fixes inorganic CO2 to organic carbon, and channels fixed carbon and energy into soil.In order to muster an effective response to the crisis, to avoid further deterioration, and to restore unhealthy soils, we need a new and coherent approach, namely to deal with soils worldwide as patients in need of health care and create (i) a public health system for development of effective policies for land use, conservation, restoration, recommendations of prophylactic measures, monitoring and identification of problems (epidemiology), organizing crisis responses, etc., and (ii) a healthcare system charged with soil care: the promotion of good practices, implementation of prophylaxis measures, and institution of therapies for treatment of unhealthy soils and restoration of drylands. These systems need to be national but there is also a desperate need for international coordination. To enable development of effective, evidence‐based strategies that will underpin the efforts of soil healthcare systems, a substantial investment in wide‐ranging interdisciplinary research on soil health and disease is mandatory. This must lead to a level of understanding of the soil:biota functionalities underlying key ecosystem services that enables formulation of effective diagnosis‐prophylaxis‐therapy pathways for sustainable use, protection and restoration of different types of soil resources in different climatic zones. These conservation‐regenerative‐restorative measures need to be complemented by an educative‐political‐economic‐legislative framework that provides incentives encouraging soil care: knowledge, policy, economic and others, and laws which promote international adherence to the principles of restorative soil management. And: we must all be engaged in improving soil health; everyone has a duty of care (https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/why‐soil‐is‐one‐of‐the‐most‐amazing‐things‐on‐eart/p090cf64). Creative application of microbes, microbiomes and microbial biotechnology will be central to the successful operation of the healthcare systems.

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“…Initially, TSS-RESTREND was applied to detect the land degradation in Australia [19] using the Global Inventory for Mapping and Modeling Studies (GIMMS) NDVI dataset with a resolution of 1/12 • (approximately 8 km) and a time range from 1982 to 2015 [22]. A combination of TSS-RESTREND and GIMMS NDVI (GIM-TR) was applied to the world's dryland areas, including all of Mongolia's drylands, as well as parts of the drylands in the Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang provinces of northern China [23,24]. TSS-RESTREND mainly employed GIMMS NDVI data (i.e., GIM-TR) to study large areas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting Vegetation Change in the Pearl River Delta Region Based on Time Series Segmentation and Residual Trend Analysis (TSS-RESTREND) and MODIS NDVI

Zhu

Kuang

et al. 2020

Remote Sensing

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Time Series Segmentation and Residual Trend analysis (TSS-RESTREND) can detect an abrupt change that was undetected by Residual Trend analysis (RESTREND), but it is usually combined with the Global Inventory for Mapping and Modeling Studies (GIMMS) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), which cannot detect detailed vegetation changes in small areas. Hence, we used Time Series Segmentation and Residual Trend analysis (TSS-RESTREND) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) NDVI (MOD-TR) to analyze the vegetation dynamic of the Pearl River Delta region (PRD) in this study. To choose the most suitable MODIS NDVI from MOD13Q1 (250 m), MOD13A1 (500 m), and MOD13A2 (1 km), whole and local comparison of results of the break year and MOD-TR were used. Meanwhile, a comparison of vegetation change at the city-scale was also implemented. Moreover, to reduce insignificant trend pixels in TSS-RESTREND, a combination method of TSS-RESTREND and RESTREND (CTSS-RESTREND) was proposed. We found that: (1) MOD13Q1 and MOD13A1 two NDVI were suitable for combination with TSS-RESTREND to detect vegetation change in PRD, but MOD13Q1 was a better choice when considering the accuracy of local detailed vegetation change; (2) CTSS-RESTREND could detect more pixels with a significant change (i.e., significant increase and significant decrease) than those of TSS-RESTREND and RESTREND. Also, its effectiveness could be verified by Landsat data; (3) at the city-scale, the CTSS-RESTREND detected that only vegetation decreases in Shenzhen, Foshan, Dongguan, and Zhongshan were higher than vegetation increases, but, significant vegetation changes (i.e., decreases and increases) were mainly concentrated in Huizhou, Jiangmen, Zhaoqing, and Guangzhou.

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Anthropogenic climate change has driven over 5 million km2 of drylands towards desertification

Cited by 332 publications

References 72 publications

Impacts of climate change on wind erosion in Southern Africa between 1991 and 2015

Impacts of climate change on wind erosion in Southern Africa between 1991 and 2015

The soil crisis: the need to treat as a global health problem and the pivotal role of microbes in prophylaxis and therapy

Detecting Vegetation Change in the Pearl River Delta Region Based on Time Series Segmentation and Residual Trend Analysis (TSS-RESTREND) and MODIS NDVI

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