Desertification-Climate Change Interactions - Mexico's Battle Against Desertification

Abstract

Arid and semi-arid regions are characterized by short rainy seasons. When they experience dry periods, degradation of vegetation promotes erosion and thus desertification. Temperate regions with steep slopes are also vulnerable to loss of productive capacity because when vegetation that protects the soil is, naturally or induced, affected either storms or wind starts pouring the floor that lasted years to form complicating ecosystem restoration. At the same time, land use changes also have an impact on the climate; in fact, deforestation increases the evaporation of available water in the soil, minimizing transpiration by plants and reducing water storage. The increase of arid zones also has an impact on production and suspension of particles in the atmosphere and altering the climate mechanisms. Finally, the reduction of biomass and organic matter in degraded lands, reduces carbon storage in soil, contributing to global warming of the atmosphere, altering global atmospheric circulation and dramatically intensifying the frequency and impact of extreme events related to climate change.