what are the effects of desertification on drylands
Answers
Answer:
Drylands and land degradation
Drylands are areas which face great water scarcity. They cover over 40% of the earth's land surface, and are home to more than two billion people.
They are highly adapted to climatic variability and water stress, but also extremely vulnerable to damaging human activities such as deforestation, overgrazing and unsustainable agricultural practices, which cause land degradation.
Land degradation in drylands is known as desertification, and is the loss of the biological or economic productivity of land.
Desertification reduces agricultural output, contributes to droughts and increases human vulnerability to climate change.
The loss of biodiversity in drylands, including bacteria, fungi and insects living in the soil, is one of the major causes and outcomes of land degradation.
Restoring rangelands and sustainable land management practices can preserve drylands biodiversity, restore ecosystem functions, and halt land degradation.
Answer:
All of this contributes to soil erosion and an inability for the land to retain water or regrow plants. About 2 billion people live on the drylands that are vulnerable to desertification, which could displace an estimated 50 million people by 2030