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As little as 6,000 years ago, the vast Sahara Desert was covered in grassland that received plenty of rainfall, but shifts in the world's weather patterns abruptly transformed the vegetated region into some of the driest land on Earth. A Texas A&M university researcher is trying to uncover the clues responsible for this enormous climate transformation – and the findings could lead to better rainfall predictions worldwide.
Robert Korty, associate professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, along with colleague William Boos of Yale University, have had their work published in the current issue of Nature Geoscience.
The two researchers have looked into precipitation patterns of the Holocene era and compared them with present-day movements of the intertropical convergence zone, a large region of intense tropical rainfall. Using computer models and other data, the researchers found links to rainfall patterns thousands of years ago.
"The framework we developed helps us understand why the heaviest tropical rain belts set up where they do," Korty explains.
"Tropical rain belts are tied to what happens elsewhere in the world through the Hadley circulation, but it won't predict changes elsewhere directly, as the chain of events is very complex. But it is a step toward that goal."
(Score: 1, Informative) by Type44Q on Saturday December 03 2016, @04:20AM
That's easy: goats. Next question?
(Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Saturday December 03 2016, @07:36AM
Exactly. Goats. And camels. They don't just eat the grass - they pull up the roots to make sure it won't grow back.
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(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 03 2016, @04:54PM
No, goats do not pull up grass by the roots. I have a herd of 24 goats and there's plenty of grass in their pasture. Goats are browsers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browsing_(predation). [wikipedia.org] I think you're thinking of sheep.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 03 2016, @11:36PM
Goats and camels... The two animals most closely associated with Muslims. Coincidence that the Sahara was turned into a wasteland? Ecological terrorism more like it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 03 2016, @09:02AM
Overgrazing by cattle could even be a valid reason why this changed. It is even a process that is currently going on (the Sahara is still increasing its size). It is a gradual effect where soils become dryer (less absorption of rain water), less plants that transport water from the soil into the air and washout of nutrients by the non-absorbed rain.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Saturday December 03 2016, @10:36AM
Yes, cattle - but the people who live in and around the sahara are traditionally sheep and goat herders. For the most part, at least. And, camel jockeys. You don't find a lot of cowboys around the Sahara.
Here in the US, overgrazing by cattle has happened, but our dust bowl is attributed to farmer's plows. Likewise, in Arizona, the land could and did support a lot of flora and fauna, until those plows tore the ground up. It's possible that the Sahara got it's start when more and more people discovered agriculture. Chop the ground, kill the root networks, watch the ground dry, then blow away. It's a beautiful formula, isn't it?
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(Score: 1) by Type44Q on Saturday December 03 2016, @01:07PM
Nodded down by the uninformed assuming I was trolling?? It's well understood that overgrazing played the largest part in the desertification of the Sahara, so whoever modded me down... now would be the time for some self-realization [i.e. that you're a fucking idiot]. ;)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 03 2016, @04:23PM
To be fair your answer was short and comical sounding. Undoubtedly more than goats happened, I thought it was understood that over farming is what happened? (includes goats)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Saturday December 03 2016, @08:00PM
That's the traditional answer, but the evidence is scant. Goats *do* tend to eat young trees, and thus kill off forests and scrub, but that doesn't hurt grass. And the time period doesn't match herds of goats being protected by humans, so one might ask why carnivores didn't keep them in check. It's just as likely that the arrow of causation points the other direction: The land turned into a desert, so the only mammals that could live, even around the fringes, were goats (and camels).
Also, the traditional story ignores the role of sheep, if you assume that over grazing was the cause of desertification. Sheep are a much more reasonable culprit. But assuming that overgrazing was the cause is a bit presumptive when there's no real evidence. That overgrazing degraded an already inhospitable land *is* clear, but it's not at all clear that this was what originally caused the land to become inhospitable.
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