Desertification+Soil+and+Carbon

Soil becomes a carbon sink due to photosynthesis. (Good article)
http://www.sciencefriday.com/blogs/08/15/2014/a-savior-in-soil.html?series=33

__Desertification, Climate Change, & Atmospheric Carbon__
A species of grass is adapted to a wet climate. If the climate becomes much drier, what will most likely happen to the grass in this area? (test question)

Extinction of a species occurs when that species cannot adapt to environmental changes. A species can be come totally extinct or extinct in an area where it once lived.

Currently in many places, deserts are expanding into areas that were once grasslands. The soil in these areas seem to be getting dryer. Grasses are no longer growing and have become extinct in these areas. This process is called desertification.

Why is the soil becoming dryer and changing so that grass doesn't grow? One scientist shows how he has caused grass to return to some areas. From this we can infer why grasses in the area became extinct in the first place.

[|Transcript of Video]

Allan Savory: How to fight desertification and reverse climate change. (20 minute TED video) media type="custom" key="22935922"

http://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_green_the_world_s_deserts_and_reverse_climate_change.html

Video Questions: 1. What is causing climate change other than the burning of fossil fuels? (Desertification) 2. What is causing desertification? (Making bare ground) 3. Where does desertification occur? (Seasonally wet and dry areas) 4. How much area is turning or in danger of turning into desert? ( 5. How does the microclimate of bare ground compare to litter covered ground? 6. What moves herds so they don't over graze an area? (They excrete on their food) 7. In a seasonally wet grassland, what has to happen to the grass before the next growing season? (It has to decay by being mixed with microbes) 8. A hectare is about the size of two football fields. How does buring a hectare of land compare to the carbon released by automobiles? (one hectare gives off the carbon of 6000 automobiles) 9. How many hectares of grassland are burnt in Africa each year? (1 billion) 10. What is the best option to stop desertification according to Savory's experimentation? (Using herds to mimic nature) 11. What can mulch grasslands and decay the grass with microbes to stop desertification? 12. What was the woman teaching in Africa? 13. What is causing climate change as much as fossil fuels? 14. What is causing hunger, poverty, violence, social breakdown and war? 15. What could be done return the carbon i the atmosphere back to pre-industrail levels while feeding people? 10 minute video with similar but shortened content. media type="custom" key="22935860" http://www.savoryinstitute.com/desertification/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LHoh-OKUfU

Look at the maps and see where deserts and grasslands are found next to each other. Estimate how much of the Earth's land is desert. Estimate how much of the Earth's land is grassland. This video and article present desertification as a second front in which the battle against climate change can be fought. Reversing desertification seems like a good way to bring about the sequestration of carbon in soil and help people in these areas at the same time. Desertification may be a big factor in climate change in the first place. http://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_green_the_world_s_deserts_and_reverse_climate_change.html http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-livestock-grazing-stop-desertification http://www.thewildlifenews.com/2013/03/18/alan-savory-gives-a-popular-and-very-misleading-ted-talk/ Deserts remove significant amounts of Carbon Dioxide. http://phys.org/news/2014-04-arid-areas-absorb-unexpected-amounts.html#ajTabs