Desertification of forest, range and desert in Tehran province, affected by climate change
Climate change has been identified as a leading human and environmental crisis of the twenty-first century. Drylands throughout the world have always undergone periods of degradation due to naturally occurring fluctuation in climate. Persistence of widespread degradation in arid and semiarid regions...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2016-06-01
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| Series: | Solid Earth |
| Online Access: | http://www.solid-earth.net/7/905/2016/se-7-905-2016.pdf |
| Summary: | Climate change has been identified as a leading human and environmental
crisis of the twenty-first century. Drylands throughout the world have always
undergone periods of degradation due to naturally occurring fluctuation in
climate. Persistence of widespread degradation in arid and semiarid regions
of Iran necessitates monitoring and evaluation. This paper aims to monitor
the desertification trend in three types of land use, including range, forest and
desert, affected by climate change in Tehran province for the 2000s and
2030s. For assessing climate change at Mehrabad synoptic station, the data
of two emission scenarios, including A2 and B2, were used, utilizing statistical
downscaling techniques and data generated by the Statistical DownScaling Model
(SDSM). The index of net primary production (NPP) resulting from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
(MODIS) satellite images was employed as an indicator of destruction from 2001 to
2010. The results showed that temperature is the most significant driving force
which alters the net primary production in rangeland, forest and desert
land use in Tehran province. On the basis of monitoring findings under real
conditions, in the 2000s, over 60 % of rangelands and 80 % of the
forest were below the average production in the province. On the other
hand, the long-term average changes of NPP in the rangeland and forests
indicated the presence of relatively large areas of these land uses with a
production rate lower than the desert. The results also showed that,
assuming the existence of circumstances of each emission scenarios, the
desertification status will not improve significantly in the rangelands and
forests of Tehran province. |
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| ISSN: | 1869-9510 1869-9529 |