₦airaland Forum

The loss of fertile land to desertification has brought an end to many majestic civilizations throughout human history and continues to threaten the existence of 1.5 billion people until the present day. Desertification is the process by which fertile land is transformed into desert as it becomes progressively drier and unable to support any plant growth for food production. One-third of the land surface on Earth has fallen victim to desertification and according to the estimates, it claims 12 million hectares (approx. 30 million acres) more every year. For comparison, it is the same size as the area of New York State turning in the desert just within a year. Desertification is having a major impact in many places on our planet today, and is expected to affect humanity even more in the future as we experience an increase in human population, and as our planet faces scarcity of natural resources such as clean water.

The process happens due to a number of reasons, but much of the desertification that is occurring around the world today is caused by human activity on lands that are extremely vulnerable to overexploitation and improper agricultural methods.
The following are some of the primary causes and effects of desertification in our world.

CAUSES
Overgrazing: In arid regions, grass and other vegetation is necessary to keep the soil in place. If the vegetation is overgrazed by livestock, there is nothing that remains to prevent soil from blowing or washing away, and if this process occurs long enough, it can lead to desertification.
Deforestation: Forests are being cut down at much larger scale than ever before to be used as fuel, to provide products we use in our daily life, or to simply create more space for agriculture to sustain growing human population. Once the trees and other vegetation in an area are gone, there is nothing left to hold the soil in place.
The soil then turns to dust and can be blown and washed away, and the soil is degraded and the precious soil nutrients are lost, leaving the soil infertile and useless.
Unsustainable agriculture techniques: Improper irrigation methods used in arid areas, such as canal irrigation, lead to a buildup of salt in the soil and make it difficult for crops and other plants to grow, increasing desertification. Similarly harmful is the cultivation of already deteriorated lands.
Through inconsiderate farming methods, farmers only speed up the process of desertification in exchange for poor quality crops with low economic value. Besides, while preparing the soil for sowing, natural vegetation that holds the soil in place is removed, leaving land more vulnerable to degradation.

Overpopulation: Our planet’s ecosystems sustain life only when balanced. They can cope with incremental challenges and adapt but beyond a certain tipping point they collapse. A rapid increase in human population demands higher amounts of natural resources and expands more and more over the landscape, leading to increased desertification.

Climate change: As humans continue to remove vegetation from landscapes, there is less remaining vegetation to add moisture to the soil that will evaporate into the air and form clouds that lead to rainfall. With significantly reduced rainfall, drought occurs and leads to a hotter and drier climate, and later causes desertification in the surrounding landscape.
Famine, poverty and political instability
While desertification certainly leads to these problems, they can also be a cause of desertification. This is because people on the brink of famine, extreme poverty or political instability in their country need to solve the crisis at the moment and do not think about sustainable cultivation strategies.
Unfortunately, the outcome are poor land use practices such as keeping too many animals in a small pen and unsustainable short-term food production, which might destroy soils beyond repair, and put lives of people even more in danger.

EFFECTS OF DESERTIFICATION
The soil becomes infertile: As desertification occurs, the soil can be blown or washed away, and valuable soil nutrients are lost. Through the use of unsustainable irrigation techniques, salt can also build up in the soil, rendering the soil useless for growing crops or other plants.
As the soil dries out, it hardens and it becomes difficult for any rainfall that does occur to penetrate below the soil’s surface. And what remains left is a lifeless pile of dust instead of a life-giving medium.
Vegetation is damaged or destroyed: Desertification reduces the ability of land to support plant life. Loose soil bury plants, or their roots become exposed and cannot fulfill their function. With plants dying, rainwater gets washed away instead of being drawn into the soil, which only scales up the problem as remaining plants do not have enough moisture to survive dry spells as they used to.
Additionally, if the land is used for grazing at this stage, it only results in a quicker loss of plant species and total degradation.

Soil erosion: The reduction in plant cover increases the erosion of the soil due to increased runoff and direct exposure to wind. This results in the decrease of water storing capacity of soils. The process of desertification is worsened as the soil becomes increasingly arid, and there are no more plants to hold it in place and distribute nutrients. Soil erosion is the final step that closes the loop of continual soil deterioration that is impossible to revert.

Disasters: Desertification makes natural disasters worse. Events such as flooding, dust storms, and pollution, all become stronger in areas with heavily degraded soils. Without any plants stabilizing the soil and slowing down the runoff, rainwater easily accumulates and floods human settlements in the blink of an eye. Except causing damage, flood water also picks up unwanted pollutants while making its progress through urban areas, and that’s how pollution spreads over vast areas.

Polluted sources of drinking water: Vegetation plays an important role in cleaning our water. Plants and trees function like natural filters, storing pollutants such as heavy metals from water in their own bodies.

Barren soils lack this green filter, and therefore, more of these harmful substances enter our groundwater reservoirs.
Famine, poverty, and starvation: Due to drought conditions and a loss of productive land, local people find themselves experiencing famine and poverty, as well as potentially the starvation of themselves and their livestock.

By Students of Department Of Biological Sciences, Federal University Of Technology, Minna, Niger State, Nigeria.

MAHMUD BILIAMIN OLATUNJI
ALAYO SHINA S.
DAUDA SEMIRATU

INTRODUCTION

The weather condition or pattern of an area which has been recorded over a long period of time using statistical data, ranging an average of 30 – 35 years is referred to as climate. The word climate seems to be often confused with weather. They have two different meanings; Weather is defined as the atmospheric condition of a particular place or region in a short period of time. It can occur spontaneously and it can also change in a matter of minutes. Climate and weather can be distinguished majorly by their respective measure of time as climate is the pattern of atmospheric behaviour over a relatively long period of time frame and weather is the pattern of atmospheric behaviour in a short period of time. Climate involves the total evaluation of the average humidity, temperature sunshine wind precipitation frost, hailstorm, fog and other parameters/measures of weather that prevails over a long period of time. For instance, after studying some ecological measures (weather related) over a period of time, scientists can actually deduce if there is a change in the climate of an area or not.

Climate Change

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2014), the change in climatic conditions of different regions or a particular region is currently a challenging situation mainly encountered by different related bodies/ fields like plant biologists, agriculturists and even conservation biologist. With the resulting effects of anthropogenic activities (global warming) continually rising, there has been a forecasted increase in the Carbon dioxide (CO2) level in the atmosphere which is expected to result in variation of temperature and precipitation. These factors in one way or another affect plant ecophysiology, distribution and status as regards relationship / interactions with other organisms.

Response of Species to Rapid Climate Change

Following the statements of Sullivan and Clark (2007), rapid climate change has majorly two impacts on species; direct and indirect. These two effects are not independent of each other as the effect of the effects of one leads to the creeping in of the effects of the other towards the species diversity. The direct impact consists of those arising as a result of temperature rise, CO2 increase which are majorly caused by global climate change. At the most basic level of biodiversity, climate change is able to decrease genetic diversity of populations due to directional selection and rapid migration, which could in turn affect ecosystem functioning and resilience (Botkin et al., 2007). Furthermore, the various effects on populations are likely to change the interactions at the community level. These direct effects result to numerous potential indirect effects, like changes in the hydrologic cycles (precipitation and evaporation) and also increase in the frequency of extreme weather events. These changes influence biodiversity in numerous ways (positive or negative) which include change in the timing of important events that influence the reproduction and survival of species.

In 2007, Sullivan and Clark also described in general, three possible responses of species that maybe affected to global climate change, which are ―change, move, or die. Species may adapt by altering life cycles or by extending the ranges of their habitat to a more suitable, generally cooler climate, or finally can become drastically reduced in a region or extinct as the case maybe. There are evidences that the three responses are occurring worldwide as plant and animal species are already migrating towards the poles or to higher elevations, hatching earlier, blooming earlier, or even evolving very fast. Species-specific differences in the reaction to climate change can become particularly important when interacting species, such as plants and their pollinators, are considered.

Bellard and colleagues, (2012) also stated that due to climate change, species might not adapt through fluctuations set by the environmental conditions in a given region and could therefore fall outside their climatic niche. For adaptation to occur, individuals, populations or species must develop resistant and adaptive responses, which might involve certain mechanisms. The first mechanism would be for a given species to acclimate as fast as possible to enable it to keep up with the rapid pace of changing climate via flexibility which provides a measure of short-term responses within individual lifetimes. This may involve intraspecific variation in morphological, physiological or behavioural traits, which can occur at different temporal scales within the spatial range of the populations.

Another type of response is a genetic one, where micro-evolution takes place. In this case, species can genetically adapt to new conditions through mutations or selection of the existing genotypes. Evolution can be very rapid through mutation and selection and this could allow species with short life cycles to adapt successfully to serious environmental changes. However, many plant species show a unique and often slow response to environmental changes, which is related to specific plant life history traits. It may take many generations for genetic drift to have a significant impact on population genetic structure.

Article by the students of the Department Of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Technology Minna, Niger State, Nigeria.

OSUJI ANDERSON U.
AJADI ABDULSALAM K.
TAJUDEEN BASHEERAT A.

Afforestation is the effort to plant trees in barren lands so as to create a forest. It is important because it helps check the over-use of natural resources by providing an alternative source pool and maintain the biodiversity. Afforestation is the process of planting trees, or sowing seeds, in a barren land devoid of any trees to create a forest. The term should not be confused with reforestation, which is the process of specifically planting native trees into a forest that has decreasing numbers of trees. While reforestation is increasing the number of trees of an existing forest, afforestation is the creation of a ‘new’ forest. The need to preserve our forest to improve the quality of trees has become more important than ever.

In Nigeria, afforestation is of critical importance, as the whole country has been ravaged by many environmental problems. Many of our thick forest with valuable trees have been destroyed. People engaging in timber business and bush burning have left our forest empty. With time, there may be empty land with virtually no useful trees. The trees which are meant to protect us from direct sun rays of ultraviolet radiation are been destroyed on daily basis. And our health is been affected. Forests are an important component of the environment which plays a significant role in water and soil conservation. Oxygen, as we all know, is the most important need of our life. We inhale oxygen when we breathe and exhale carbon dioxide. Trees take it and convert it into oxygen again, so the cycle continues. We get food, fruits, timber and medicines from forests. Paper industry and rubber industry depend on forests. They give shelter to wild animals like lions, tigers, bears, etc.

Without a doubt, forest in Nigeria is being depleted at an alarming rate. Apart from serving as a source of timber, forests are destroyed daily for farming activities, and also the destruction of this natural environment for the sitting of industries, residential buildings, and road construction. When the forests are destroyed, the soil is left bare and as a result exposed to erosion and in some cases, flooding. Therefore, many plant species are lost and the natural home of wildlife destroyed. Afforestation is, therefore, beneficial to the environment as it addresses environmental degradation, particularly desertification, deforestation, erosion, and flooding as well as reducing the effects of climate change. Afforestation also forms a background for important developments to take place particularly in land use practices, environment, and natural resources management.

However, the conservation of our forests should not be limited to the government alone. Individuals, private and public firms should also adopt the culture of preserving nature’s gift to us. We should all work together to protect and preserve our forests for future generations.

From final year students of the Department of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Technology Minna.

Military that is the standard. Is that clear?

eddyjibs:
Yeye. U still go write tattoo.

Back it up with the scripture from the bible. Leviticus 19 vs 28.

natsinta:
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gommex:
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Gommex, how fr nw have you gotten a cure?

deriod:
please if you've gotten cured of staphyloccocus
kindly tell me what u use to cure it please i beg u in
d name of God I'm seriously sick i can't work or do
anything please to many fake herbal doctor
and antibiotics is not working
c

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gommex:
i tot u were in support of herbs for staph treatment, y d sudden change

Gommex I sent you a pm mail me frm a concerned brother

And Pogba managed the pressure very well, there is more room for improvement. #ManUtd

I know they will refute this claim and blame Jonathan for that slap that made him flew to India.

The love a mother has toward her child can't be over emphasize. #Sweetmother

DBossNG:
Pervert!

Not ready for an e-war this mrng.

Buhari is a scam, but meanwhile Fayose has been wailing since 1901.

Na pishure him go chop?

The lady at the end open her legs for her to receive fresh air, in order to get inspiration.

Yes that's if i am Dasuki

RhAngel:
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RhAngel:
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#TeamJanuary

But did you encounter the same problem?

RhAngel:
This login issue, at first I thought it WS just me.
Funny enough d day it happened I logged in like 20min before then.
My advice is u should try requesting for a new password if that failed, then u should rush down to I.T.S dept.
Once they correct it mk sure u login urself n cross-check ur details bfor u leave yhere CU's some of ur data might b missing., Speaking from experience.
Good luck to all of US.

Are you in mx at the moment? How did you go about it because i am having the same issue and it is freaking me out.

Masta01:
Pls oo I can't login to my eportal is saying invalid password for existing user (returning student)

What have you done to rectify it?

Atobeia:
RhAngel, payment has started. Don't have your contacts.

@Atobeia how did you go about the e-portal login that is showing invalid login for existing user, that is for returning students.

Space for sale

We are now in the age of a photocratic government.. Fayose talks too much and does less work in Ekiti state. Naija sha

Why are you taking panadol for her headache.. Anyways these indomie generation bloggers can do anything just for publicity. Skibii see what you have caused.

God will not allow this to happen to us and our family. Amen

The purpose of this protest is not clear.

Very true. God help us all

.

God help us all, what is this world turning into?