The Sahara Desert
By. Junwon Ko and Inseon Hwang
Introduction
By. Junwon Ko and Inseon Hwang
Introduction
Sahara desert, which
means 'the great desert' in Arabic, is the world's largest and hottest desert. It is still growing in size as certain area
without vegetation is being turned into desert. In comparison of sizes, Sahara desert is
almost as large as the United States and China, covering most of the North
African region. Nonetheless, none of
the African countries nor international NGO's are taking action to protect
Sahara or proposing ways to maximize the benefits it can provide to humanity. The potential of Sahara is unveiling slowly as
new ways of getting energy from the Sahara desert and ways of turning Sahara into vegetated
region are being established. It is indubitable that we can make an
effective use of the
Sahara
desert, and let us begin exploring what we can do!
Current Sahara Desert
Sahara 10,500 Years Ago (Speculative)
Historical State of the Sahara Desert
The Sahara desert went through significant changes during the course of history. 22,000 to 10,500 years ago, the Sahara desert was not occupied by humans besides the civilizations near the Nile Valley due to its harsh environment. Studies have shown that during that period, the Sahara desert extended two hundred and fifty miles further south than today’s Sahara desert.
Sahara Desert Fox
10,500 to 9000 years ago, the Sahara desert was affected by a strong Monsoon rain, which lasted very long. The abundance of water began to transform the region into a habitable area for both humans and animals. As a matter of course, the rain, which continued till 7,300 years ago, allowed significant amount of vegetation to grow. The change within the desert allowed humans and animals to migrate deeper into the Sahara desert. During this era, the Sahara desert was like a Savannah where humans introduced domestic animals to live a flourishing life.
Sahara Desert Oasis
The Golden Age of Sahara desert did not last forever. 7,300 to 5,500 years ago, the Sahara desert went through significant droughts due to lack of rain. The retreating of monsoon rains marked the end of flourishing life in the Sahara desert. As a matter of course, during this era, humans and animals migrated back to the Nile Valley. The lack of rain persisted till this day, creating an environment unsuitable for many species including humans.
Current Human Impacts on the Sahara Desert
One of the major current human impacts on the ecosystem is agriculture, which causes a significant increase in orthopteran pests in Algeria. According to L. Benfekih, B. Chara and B. Doumandji-Mitiche, “the introduction of irrigated crops under pivoting sprayers” (Benfekih 2) has given rise to orthopteran pests due to the change in environment. The major causes of the environmental change are the use of local non-selected seeds, the lack of crop rotation, and the increase of weeds. These are the main contributors of creating an environment extremely favorable for the pests.
L. Migratori
Table 3. Reference in the end
Among the many pests, L. migratori has shown a significant increase after an increase of area of agricultural fields specifically for cereal crops. This is an issue for the ecosystem in Sahara desert because almost all these pests have migrated from their native oasis habitat to human agricultural farms. This migration, researchers speculate, will cause a problem within the food chain and ecosystem of the Sahara desert.
Major Locust Infestation
Figure 3: Reference in the end
Figure 4: Reference in the end
Future Prospects for the Sahara Desert
There are many future prospects available for Sahara. Because it is such a vast region, the use of it can vary. Nonetheless, because Sahara desert is, overall, excessively hot in the day time, the use of heat and sunlight into new form of renewable energy can be one of the prospects of Sahara. Since fossil energy sources are limited and bound to run out, natural sources like sunlight and heat can be the alternative energy source that everyone waits for.
Sahara Forest Project
Adding on, a national project of turning small portion of Sahara into vegetated area can also be another prospect granted a strict regulation. Since the international population is continuously growing and it is predicted that there will not be enough land and resource to serve everyone's need in a few decades, slowly turning Sahara into greener area can provide solution to the over-population problem. Just from the data, it is stated that Sahara desert is about 10% of the African continent, and is about the size of China. A wise use of Sahara might be the solution for the over-population problem.
The creation of vegetated area, as mentioned, may create problems due to a change in the environment. However, with strict governmental regulation purposed to reduce the migration of pests, the Saharan rich nutritional soils can provide a source of food for many in the African continent.
Irrigated crops under Pivoting Sprayers
Improvements for the Sahara Desert
Though Sahara desert is relatively unharmed compared to other regions, there are couple of ways to improve and protect Sahara better than ever.
1: Protect and regulate the water source.
- Due to the fact that water is scarce in desert regions because of low precipitation, oasis area is extremely valuable to any living organisms, including human beings, in Sahara. Because the water source is so limited, there can be dispute and exploitation by certain group of people, which always end in drastic measure. Therefore, there should be an international rule and regulation on Saharan water source to protect Sahara.
A Rare Permanent Water Source in the Sahara Desert
- Current state of agriculture is creating a problem for the ecosystem in the Sahara desert. As a matter of course, the Algerians should promote a safety standard guides to limit the migration of pests from their native oasis in order to prevent the disturbance of native organisms. One major work that can be done is to start using effective crop rotation methods.
3: Stop the excessive hunting.
- Since Sahara desert is such an adverse environment to live in, only certain group of nomads choose to live in the outer ring of the region. Adding on, because Sahara desert allows only few animals to live in her environment, there are limited number of animals in the area. Nonetheless, those limited number of animals are going extinct due to excessive hunting done by nomads in the area. In order to protect and keep the biodiversity, there should be a hunting regulation on animals that are about to go extinct.
Serval (Near extinction due to hunting)
4: African nations' agreement.
- Sahara desert does not lie on only one country. It is spread over more than ten African nations and is expanding in size continuously. Because it is such a vast region all over Africa, there should be an international meetings on the topic of Sahara and how to protect it. As of now, there is only one officially protected area from Sahara: Zellaf nature reserve in Libya. To have a better future for Sahara, there should be many more nationally protected area of the Sahara desert.
Citations
and References
1. Mayr, Ernst. Animal
Species and Evolution. Cambridge:
Belknap of Harvard UP, 1963. Print.
2. CLOUDSLEY-THOMPSON, J. L. Key
Environments Sahara Desert. Oxford:
Pergamon, 1984. Print.
3. Benfekih, L., B. Chara, and B. Doumandji-Mitiche. "Influence of
Anthropogenic Impact on the Habitats and Swarming Risks of Dociostaurus
maroccanus and Locusta migratoria (Orthoptera, Acrididae) in the Algerian
Sahara and theSemiarid Zone." 11. (2002): n. page. Print.
(Table 3, Figure 3, and Figure 4)
(Table 3, Figure 3, and Figure 4)
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