This paper focuses on the causes of ecosystem degradation. Historically, poor communities have been identified as among the key degrading agents. The thesis of this paper is that such communities do not voluntarily destroy the resource base which is the source of their livelihoods and provides them sustenance. Therefore, the damage that they visibly cause is induced by institutional failure.

To convert deserts into arable, green landscapes is a global vision, and desert farming is a strong growing area of agriculture world-wide. However, its effect on diversity of soil microbial communities, which are responsible for important ecosystem services like plant health, is still not known.

Original Source

Dust is all that's needed to plunge the world into an ice age. When blown into the sea, the iron it contains can fertilise plankton growth on a scale large enough to cause global temperatures to drop. The finding adds support to the idea of staving off climate change by simulating the effects of dust - perhaps by sprinkling the oceans with iron filings.

Answers to why dust storms  are on the rise in East Asia. Over  the past two decades there has been an increase in the outbreak of dust storms over East Asia. Large quantities of dust particles suspended in the air not only block the amount of sunlight reaching the earth, they also cause respiratory and visual complications. Dust storms are attributed to two factors. First erodibility—susceptibility of soil to wind erosion and second erosivity—ability of wind to cause erosion.

Rainfall variability and associated remote sensing indices for vegetation are central to the development of early warning systems for epidemic malaria in arid regions. The considerable change in land-use practices resulting from increasing irrigation in recent decades raises important questions on concomitant change in malaria dynamics and its coupling to climate forcing.

In an extensive survey to Garhwal Himalaya and arid soil of western Rajasthan, twenty four leguminous nitrogen fixing species were identified including seven herbs, nine shrubs, four climbers and four tree species which were screened for nodulation and nitrogen fixation activity between 400-2100m altitudes.

Ruhi Kandhari travels to a cold desert in Himachal Pradesh to see how a former bureaucrat is greening it.

Desert dust perturbs climate by directly and indirectly interacting with incoming solar and outgoing long wave radiation, thereby changing precipitation and temperature, in addition to modifying ocean and land biogeochemistry.