how much of the earth's land surface is desert

A place that receives less than 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain per year is considered a. Sometimes, rock is carved into tablelike formations such as mesas and buttes. Of course, with a different classification the answer would be different. The radius of the Earth is approximately 6,371 kilometers. And in Africa's Sahel region, bordered by the Sahara Desert to the north and savannas to the south, population growth has caused an increase in wood harvesting, illegal farming, and land-clearing for housing, among other changes. The city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, sits in the Arabian Desert. Water scarcity increases with an increase in aridity. This interactive map shows the total area of forest cover, as measured in hectares (ha). Please be respectful of copyright. These areas exist under a "moisture deficit," which means they can frequently lose more moisture through evaporation than they receive from annual precipitation. Of the total Earth's surface, approximately 20 percent is covered with deserts. Forests account for a little over one-third (38%) of habitable land area. We previously looked at total forest area across the world. That might sound like a surprisingly large amount, but that’s based on the official definition of a desert. world. 30 percent. WWII soldiers accidentally discovered this ancient royal tomb, Why some people celebrate Christmas in January, See the innovations origami inspired in the world around us, Origami's revolutionizing tech, from medicine to space. Playas, also called sinks, pans, or salt flats, can be hundreds of kilometers wide.The Black Rock Desert in the U.S. state of Nevada, for instance, is all that remains of the prehistoric Lake Lahontan. Why coarser resolution would bias to higher values for arid areas? Use MathJax to format equations. About 1.5 billion people directly depend on these degrading . Some xerocoles avoid the sun by resting in scarce shade. It ranges from 10 people per square kilometer in the deserts to 71 people in the dry sub-humid (rangelands) areas. One legend holds that the Persian Emperor Cambyses II sent an army of 50,000 men to the Siwa Oasis in western Egypt around 530 BCE. Some weather stations in the Atacama have never recorded a drop of rain.Rain Shadow DesertsRain shadow deserts exist near the leeward slopes of some mountain ranges. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, Not the answer you're looking for? These activities include overgrazing of livestock, deforestation, overcultivation of farmland, and poor irrigation practices. The roots of a mesquite tree, for example, can reach water more than 30 meters (100 feet) underground.Mesquites, saguaros, and many other desert plants also have thorns to protect them from grazing animals.Many desert plants are annuals, which means they only live for one season. Throughout the Middle East, communities have dug artificial wadis, where freshwater can flow during rainy seasons. About 90 major, inhabited oases dot the Sahara. Grasslands cover approximately 25% of the Earth's land surface (approximately 3.4 billion ha) and contain roughly 12% of the terrestrial carbon stocks (1,2). Drylands store approximately 46% of the global carbon share. To be specific, however, this article relies on the definition of a mountainous landscape as put forth by the United Nations Environmental Programme. During a shortage of food or water, camels draw upon this fat for nutrition and moisture. Climate scientists predict that global warming will lead to more rainfall in some regions, but less rainfall in other places. The highest temperature on Earth was recorded there: 56.7 C (134.1 F).The largest polar desert is Antarctica, at 13 million square kilometers (5 million square miles). Their seeds may lie dormant for years during long dry spells. The size of a country can be affected by many factors and borders can change over time. About 2 billion people live on the drylands that are vulnerable to desertification, which could displace an estimated 50 million people by 2030. When land degradation happens in the world's drylands, it often creates desert-like conditions. Since 71% of the Earth is covered by water then about 9.5% of the Earth's surface is desert. According to UN-Habitat, the 18.5% population growth rate in the drylands was faster than that of any other ecological zone. Cactuses have no leaves at all. When land becomes desert, its ability to support surrounding populations of people and animals declines sharply. About 33% of the earth's land surface is covered by deserts. More than 75 percent of Earth's land area is already degraded, according to the European Commission's World Atlas of Desertification, and more than 90 percent could become degraded by 2050. As it heads into its millennium year, a new sustainable development plan aims to protect it for the future. Traditionally, drylands have been largely used for livestock, but they are increasingly being converted into cropland. Up to 44% of all the world's cultivated systems are in the drylands. A canine elixir for longevity could lead to one for us: They live in our houses, breathe the same air, and suffer many of the same ailments that affect older people. We’ve also recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast all about planet Earth. Although temperatures outside varied greatly from day to night, temperatures inside did not. Rainwater, including water from flash floods, collects in large depressions called basins. The Dead Sea has had flourishing spas since the time of King David.Air transportation and the development of air conditioning have made the sunny climate of deserts even more accessible and attractive to people from colder regions. As tectonic plates move together, the pressure pushes the ground upward, resulting in a mountain. So would it matter if drylands did not exist? from oceanic glaciers, sediment consisting of ice-rafter clasts mixed with marine sediment Moraine Unsorted debris deposited by a glacier, refer to a pile of depris carried by of left by glaciers (ie: Cape Cod, Long Island) How much of Earth's land surface is covered by deserts today? Thanks for contributing an answer to Earth Science Stack Exchange! Additionally, mountains may be created by volcanic activity. Freak FloodsDeserts are defined by their dryness. [20] Ground temperatures of 72 °C or 161.6 °F have been recorded in the Adrar of Mauritania and a value of 75 °C (167 °F) has been measured in Borkou . It only takes a minute to sign up. Brazil is the only other country with more than 10% of global forest cover. The authors also estimated that over 15 billion trees are cut down each year, and the global number of trees has fallen by almost half (46%) since the start of human civilization. Eurasia, the combination of both the European and Asian continents, makes up around 36.2% of the Earth’s surface and 33% of the area here is mountainous. Some areas of the Atacama are often covered by fog. Deserts cover more than one-fifth of the Earth's land area, and they are found on every continent. That's 1/3 of the surface. What is sub-tropical wet climate, semi-arid climate and semi-tropical continental climate? How much of the world’s land surface today is covered by forest? Why Is Biodiversity Critical To Life On Earth? It is sucking excess atmospheric carbon into the soil. Can I suggest that my professor use slides instead of writing everything on the board? About 8% of the drylands are protected, which is comparable to an average of about 10% in other ecosystems. This range extends around 1,500 miles in total. 7 Hottest Deserts on Earth are Absurdly… This is The Largest Desert In Africa. @jamesqf Well, that's what I meant by "It will depend on the exact definition of arid", I took common definition of arid as given by the Köppen classification, which doesn't consider vegetation type. So, despite the presence of millions of liters of water, there is actually little available for plants and animals.The largest desert in the world is also the coldest. This is around one-quarter (26%) of total (both habitable and uninhabitable) land area. Daytime temperatures in the Chihuahua can climb beyond 37°C (100°F), while nighttime temperatures can dip below freezing (0°C or 32°F). Animal-friendly laws are gaining traction across the U.S. COVID-19 is more widespread in animals than we thought. The Urals stretch in a north to south direction, covering around 1,600 miles in length, making up a large portion of the northern border of Kazakhstan. The Mojave Desert, in southern California and Nevada, for instance, is sinking due to aquifer depletion. This warming has effects beyond simply making hot deserts hotter. In the 1930s, parts of the Great Plains of North America became the “Dust Bowl” through a combination of drought and poor farming practices. By the time air masses from coastal areas reach the interior, they have lost all their moisture. Windbreaks made of trees have been planted throughout the Sahel, the southern border region of the Sahara Desert. It can be folded and unfolded to cover the mouth, nose, and eyes. Which is the largest sand desert in the world Sahara? The longest mountain range in the world is located in South America, the Andes mountains. States of the Colorado River Basin continue to negotiate today to prepare for population growth, agricultural development, and the possibility of future droughts.Life in the DesertPlants and animals adapt to desert habitats in many ways. This interactive map shows the share of total land area that is covered by forest. Seen from space, the majority of the Earth’s surface is covered by oceans – that makes up 71% of the surface of the Earth, with the remaining 29% for land. Hooves from grazing livestock compact the soil, preventing it from absorbing water and fertilizers. This is followed by North America (24%), South America (19%), and Africa (14%). The Gobi is also in the rain shadow of the Himalaya mountains to the south.Polar DesertsParts of the Arctic and the Antarctic are classified as deserts. The commission's Joint Research Centre found that a total area half of the size of the European Union (1.61 million square miles, or 4.18 million square kilometers) is degraded annually, with Africa and Asia being the most affected. Many desert dwellers rely on groundwater, stored in aquifers below the surface. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. Rapidly expanding populations in California, Nevada, and Arizona have compounded the problem. There are areas (I live in one) which are arid if considered from a climate perspective - that is, very little rainfall - but which have non-arid climate vegetation due to water from streams and/or aquifers. The lizard catches rain and dew in these grooves and sucks them into its mouth by gulping.Camels are very efficient water users. Tents can be rolled up and transported on pack animals (usually horses, donkeys, or camels). Dew can collect in these burrows, providing the foxes with fresh water. Additionally, it is home to a number of plateaus, including the Altiplano, which is the second highest in the world. Additionally, some areas of this mountainous landscape are inhabited by humans. The Sahara Desert is almost the size of the entire continental United States. Using python to get / read the font used in Geometry Nodes String To Curves Node. Using the most up-to-date present climate data (2006) provided by the WORLD MAPS OF KÖPPEN-GEIGER CLIMATE CLASSIFICATION at 0.5° of resolution, that looks like this (in an equal area projection): We get that the four arid climates (group B), add up to $4.401 \times They are home to one-quarter of the world’s forest area. Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. Sustainable land management refers to the multi-functional use of land, and is contrasted to mono-functional land uses. And in any case. They are home to around 1 billion people—one-sixth of the Earth’s population.Although the word “desert” may bring to mind a sea of shifting sand, dunes cover only about 10 percent of the world’s deserts. Other subtropical deserts include the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa and the Tanami Desert in northern Australia.Coastal DesertsCold ocean currents contribute to the formation of coastal deserts. Large areas of desert soil are irrigated by water pumped from underground sources or brought by canal from distant rivers or lakes. Madagascar, for instance, is a tropical island in the Indian Ocean. It matters for human well-being and the two key functions of land, namely, primary production and nutrient recycling. 10^8 {km}^2$ inventoried in the dataset (A good match for the figure of of global land area of $1.489 \times 10^8 km^2$ listed by wikipedia), leading to a grand total of 28.8% of Earth's land surface corresponding to arid climates. ARID LANDS: CHALLENGES AND HOPES by EARTH SYSTEM: HISTORY AND NATURAL VARIABILITY – Vol. First science fiction story in which a character discovers they are not human? The use of artifices does not make the land arable. 36% of the United Sates is Rangeland 53% of the 19 Western States is Rangeland Who Manages Rangeland? Death Valley, the lowest and driest place in North America, is in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Could a parasitic fungus evolve to control humans? One of the most well-known mountain ranges located here is the Himalayas, which covers area throughout India, China, Nepal, Pakistan, and Bhutan. Climatologists identify this period as the “Green Sahara.”Archaeological evidence of past settlements is abundant in the middle of what are arid, unproductive areas of the Sahara today. Poverty is both a cause and a consequence of land degradation. How can Estonia give "all" of their 155mm howitzers to Ukraine? But within this total, there are multiple types of forest: primary forests which have not been disturbed by human activities versus regenerated or planted forests. Separating Ground and Neutrals in Mainpanel before installing sub panel. This often produces several human health problems that range from malnutrition, respiratory disease caused by dusty air, and other diseases stemming from a lack of clean water. In a study, published in the journal Nature, Thomas Crowther and colleagues (2015) mapped tree density across the world.3 To do this, they utilised 429,775 ground-sourced measurements of tree density from every continent on Earth to generate a global map of forest trees. The resulting fences break the force of the wind at ground level, stopping dune movement by confining the sand within the squares of the grid.New technologies are also being developed to combat desertification. The descending air warms up, making it difficult for clouds to form.Death Valley, in the U.S. states of California and Nevada, is a rain shadow desert. Many desert regions discourage visitors from hiking or camping in arroyos for this reason.Even urban areas in deserts can be vulnerable to flash floods. What activities are driving this? People often use the adjectives “hot,” “dry,” and “empty” to describe deserts, but these words do not tell the whole story. III - Arid Lands: Challenges and Hopes - Barakat H.N. Their ancestors and wild relatives still grow here. A mountainous landscape can be any place where mountains are present. 2 10,000 years ago 57% of the world's habitable land was . These oases are supported by some of the world’s largest supplies of underground water. Previous visualizations have looked at forests in terms of the area they cover. One of the largest mountain ranges in North America is the Rocky Mountains, which begin in the northwestern region of Canada and extend over 3,000 miles to the southwestern region of the US. Still, more than half of the world's habitable land was forested. Sand and ground temperatures are even more extreme. The Mediterranean region would experience a drastic transformation with warming of 2 degrees Celsius, according to one study, with all of southern Spain becoming desert. Rising from the AshesThe desert city of Phoenix, Arizona, is named for the mythical desert bird that burns to death only to be reborn, rising from its own ashes. Its soils contain 53% of global soil carbon and its plants 14% of the global biotic carbon. All the software and code that we write is open source and made available via GitHub under the permissive MIT license. They are found along the Tropic of Cancer, between 15 and 30 degrees north of the Equator, or along the Tropic of Capricorn, between 15 and 30 degrees south of the Equator.Hot, moist air rises into the atmosphere near the Equator. The data produced by third parties and made available by Our World in Data is subject to the license terms from the original third-party authors. Most of these individuals identify as Berbers, an indigenous group. The Sahara, which covers much of North Africa, is the world's largest hot desert. Winds that reach the Gobi have long since lost their moisture. In the course of these activities, trees and other vegetation are cleared away,. More than half of the proven oil reserves in the world lie beneath the sands of the Arabian Desert, mostly in Saudi Arabia. Here’s an article about the Atacama desert, seen from space, and here’s an article about the largest desert in the world. The right bar shows the breakdown of surface freshwater. These spinning columns of dirt can rise hundreds of feet in the air. Head to Bryce Canyon. This is around one-quarter (26%) of total (both habitable and uninhabitable) land area. Another widely recognized mountain range in Eurasia is the Ural mountains, which begin in the western central region of Russia. Unfortunately, at the time farmers were investing in slash-and-burn agriculture, Madagascar experienced long-term droughts. 10% of the world is covered by glaciers, and a further 19% is barren land - deserts, dry salt flats, beaches, sand dunes, and exposed rocks. is affecting economies, industries and global issues, with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale. Devil of a StormDust devils are common in hot deserts. The most notable desert resource in the world is the massive oil reserves in the Arabian Desert of the Middle East. The Hohokam used the canals to irrigate their crops. Across this area lives a population of approximately 52.7 million individuals. I'd think perhaps that number is a bit high, owing to the coarse resolution. Africa makes up around 20.4% of Earth’s total land area and 14% of the area of Africa is mountainous. Answer link. Those zones are often long & narrow, like the Nile valley or the areas on the leeward sides of mountain ranges, so averaging over a coarse grid misses them. And most deserts, far from being empty and lifeless, are home to a variety of plants, animals, and other organisms. But you are right in the sense that the answer depends on the climate classification used (as I stated at the start of the answer). The Rockies measure around 300 miles at its widest location and only 70 miles at its most narrow. Please consult our full legal disclaimer. We will always indicate the original source of the data in our documentation, so you should always check the license of any such third-party data before use and redistribution. With little vegetation to block it, the wind can carry sand and dust across entire continents and even oceans. This leaves what we call 'habitable land'. How Is Climate Change Impacting The Water Cycle. 12.1%, while semiarid zones are more extensive, occur in all continents, and cover 17.7% of Earth's land surface. Mount Everest reaches 29,029 feet above sea level and forms the border between Tibet and Nepal. These techniques are also part of the technology toolbox known as sustainable land management (see below). To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. The booming Inland Empire of southeastern California is made up of deserts (the Mojave and the Sonoran) that rely on water for agriculture, industry, and residential development. People, animals, and plants all surround these oases, which provide stable access to water, food, and shelter.When groundwater doesn’t seep to the surface, people often drill into the ground to get to it. South America makes up around 12% of the Earth’s surface and is 19% of its area is covered by mountains. Image: Pixabay/PIRO4D, .chakra .wef-1vg6q84{font-weight:700;}Mining Editor, Visual Capitlaist. A soaking rain can change a desert into a wonderland of flowers almost overnight. The need to find food and water has led many desert civilizations to become nomadic. According to this definition, a landscape may be considered mountainous if it meets any of the following criteria: an elevation of 980 feet, if that elevation gain occurs within 4.3 miles; an elevation of 3,300 feet with a slope of 5 degrees or more; an elevation of 4,900 feet with a slope of 2 degrees or more; or an elevation of 8,200 feet or more. Tent walls are made of thick, sturdy cloth that can keep out sand and dust, but also allow cool breezes to blow through. Nearly 1billion of the poorest and most marginalized people, who live in the most vulnerable areas, may be the most severely affected by desertification. Globally, 24% of the land is degrading. However, fennec foxes have adapted so they do not have to drink water at all: Their kidneys retain enough water from the food they eat.Most xerocoles are nocturnal. The Atlas mountains are home to a number of mineral deposits as well as a significant number of endangered plant and animal species. Global warming is the most current instance of climate change. If you have questions about licensing content on this page, please contact ngimagecollection@natgeo.com for more information and to obtain a license. Is this California wine region the new Napa? Our World in Data is free and accessible for everyone. Antarctica is the world's largest cold desert (composed of about 98% thick continental ice sheet and 2% . Additionally, it is the point of origin for several rivers, including 3 major ones: the Ganges, the Tsangpo-Brahmaputra, and the Indus. However, flash floods take more lives in deserts than thirst does. Camels, nicknamed “ships of the desert,” are widely used for transportation, meat, and milk in the Maghreb (a region in Northwest Africa), the Middle East, and the Indian Subcontinent.People and the DesertAbout 1 billion people live in deserts. dry climate. Earth Science Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for those interested in the geology, meteorology, oceanography, and environmental sciences. A large saguaro is a living storage tower that can hold hundreds of liters of water.Other desert plants have very deep roots. Heat prevents microbes from converting nutrients to nitrates, which are necessary for almost all living things. But what about the number of trees that exist globally and by country? These are areas where 0.5% of the plant species are endemic to the region but habitat loss exceeds 70%. The Atlas mountains are one of the most well-known mountain ranges in this continent and are located in the northern region of Africa. This was followed by South America which has one-fifth of forest area. Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses. Human activities such as burning fossil fuels contribute to global warming.In deserts, temperatures are rising even faster than the global average. Interior deserts are sometimes called inland deserts.The Gobi Desert, in China and Mongolia, lies hundreds of kilometers from the ocean. Includes selectively logged-over areas, areas regenerating following agricultural land use, areas recovering from human-induced fires, etc.”, “Forest predominantly composed of trees established through planting and/or deliberate seeding.”. 10 Largest Mass Burial Grounds In The World, Meet 12 Incredible Conservation Heroes Saving Our Wildlife From Extinction, India's Leopard God, Waghoba, Aids Wildlife Conservation In The Country, India's Bishnoi Community Has Fearlessly Protected Nature For Over 500 Years, Wildfires And Habitat Loss Are Killing Jaguars In The Amazon Rainforest, In India's Sundarbans: Where People Live Face-To-Face With Wild Tigers, Africa's "Thunderbird" Is At Risk Of Extinction. Only a little more than 1.2% of all freshwater is surface water, which serves most of life's needs.

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