Global desertification: Drivers and feedbacks

D’Odorico, Paolo; Bhattachan, Abinash; Davis, Kyle Frankel; Ravi, Sujith; Runyan, Christiane W.

doi:10.1016/j.advwatres.2012.01.013

Cited by 695 publications

(472 citation statements)

References 193 publications

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“…Land-atmospheric feedback mechanisms, such as precipitation recycling [e.g. Rodriguez-Iturbe et al, 1991a,b;Eltahir and Bras, 1996] have been linked to the intensification and persistence [Giannini et al, 2003;Wu and Kinter, 2009;D'Odorico et al, 2013;Roundy et al, 2013], and even propagation of droughts within a continent [Dominguez et al, 2009;Sheffield et al, 2009;Sheffield and Wood, 2011]. Thus, in order to understand better how droughts evolve within a region, it is also important to take into account its surroundings, and the regions to which it is atmospherically connected.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal dynamics of global drought

Herrera-Estrada

Satoh

Sheffield

2017

Geophysical Research Letters

137

112

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Understanding the evolution and physical drivers of drought is critical to informing forecasting efforts. One aspect that has seldom been explored is the joint evolution of droughts in space and time. Most studies fix the reference area and focus on their temporal variability or study their spatial heterogeneity over fixed durations. This work implements a Lagrangian approach by aggregating contiguous areas under drought into clusters. These clusters become the frame of reference and are tracked as they evolve through space and time. Clusters were identified from soil moisture data from the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (1979–2009). Evapotranspiration, moisture fluxes, and precipitation were used to explore the relevance of possible mechanisms of drought propagation. While most droughts remain near their origin, the centroid of 10% of clusters traveled at least 1400–3100 km, depending on the continent. This approach also revealed that large‐scale droughts often lock into further growth and intensification.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal dynamics of global drought

Herrera-Estrada

Satoh

Sheffield

2017

Geophysical Research Letters

137

112

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“…However, woody encroachment in drylands alters ecosystem structure and function [Barger et al, 2011;Turnbull et al, 2008a], potentially leading to degradation [Okin et al, 2009;D'Odorico et al, 2013]. The change in structure, following encroachment, is often characterized by a reduction in vegetation cover [Turnbull et al, 2010a] and increased heterogeneity in both soil and vegetation resources [Dickie and Parsons, 2012;Bhark and Small, 2003].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Woody plant encroachment into grasslands leads to accelerated erosion of previously stable organic carbon from dryland soils

et al. 2014

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Drylands worldwide are experiencing rapid and extensive environmental change, concomitant with the encroachment of woody vegetation into grasslands. Woody encroachment leads to changes in both the structure and function of dryland ecosystems and has been shown to result in accelerated soil erosion and loss of soil nutrients. Covering 40% of the terrestrial land surface, dryland environments are of global importance, both as a habitat and a soil carbon store. Relationships between environmental change, soil erosion, and the carbon cycle are uncertain. There is a clear need to further our understanding of dryland vegetation change and impacts on carbon dynamics. Here two grass-to-woody ecotones that occur across large areas of the southwestern United States are investigated. This study takes a multidisciplinary approach, combining ecohydrological monitoring of structure and function and a dual-proxy biogeochemical tracing approach using the unique natural biochemical signatures of the vegetation. Results show that following woody encroachment, not only do these drylands lose significantly more soil and organic carbon via erosion but that this includes significant amounts of legacy organic carbon which would previously have been stable under grass cover. Results suggest that these dryland soils may not act as a stable organic carbon pool, following encroachment and that accelerated erosion of carbon, driven by vegetation change, has important implications for carbon dynamics.

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“…It has been estimated that about 25 % of dryland areas around the world are affected by desertification (D'Odorico et al 2013). Reduced vegetation cover and increased wind energy usually exacerbate sand transport (Wang and Zhu 2001;Wang et al 2005aWang et al , b, 2006D'Odorico et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are debates on the causes and driving forces of desertification in the region (Wang et al 2005b(Wang et al , 2006; most desert areas with vegetated dune systems in arid and semiarid northern China, however, are used for farming or grazing (Mason et al 2008). Activities such as overreclamation, over-grazing, and over-cutting Wang and Zhu 2001;Wu 2001;Runnström 2003;Ci 1998, 2002;Zha et al 2008;Zhang et al 2008;D'Odorico et al 2013) could thus significantly affect land cover and lead to desertification in the area. On the other hand, continued growth in mining and urbanization has also had an adverse impact on the landscape.…”

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confidence: 99%

The measurement of wind erosion through field survey and remote sensing: a case study of the Mu Us Desert, China

et al. 2015

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The measurement of wind erosion is not only important to understand wind erosion itself, but also an important scientific step in efforts to reverse the process of desertification. This study develops a model that predicts sand transport flux at pixel level based on the quantitative relationship between remotely sensed vegetation coverage and observed sand transport rate data. The data were collected from field surveys in the sandy area of Yuyang County, which is located in the Mu Us Desert. The study found that the sand transport flux was 9,643 kilograms per meter annually (kga -1 m -1 ) for a mobile dune, 6,394 kga -1 m -1 for a semi-mobile dune, 2,634.5 kga -1 m -1 for bare cultivated land, and 127.7 kga -1 m -1 for a semi-fixed dune. Using the sand flux derived by our model, the wind erosion modulus in the Yuyang sandy area was found to be 1 123Nat Hazards (2015) 76:1497-1514 DOI 10.1007/s11069-014-1516 increased in the region, while decreasing in some areas, and that the vegetation coverage incensement failed to reduce the quantity of regional wind erosion. This sand flux retrieval method has the potential for successful application in other, similar areas.

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Global desertification: Drivers and feedbacks

Cited by 695 publications

References 193 publications

Spatiotemporal dynamics of global drought

Spatiotemporal dynamics of global drought

Woody plant encroachment into grasslands leads to accelerated erosion of previously stable organic carbon from dryland soils

The measurement of wind erosion through field survey and remote sensing: a case study of the Mu Us Desert, China

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