The conference "Combating Desertification with Plants" was held in Beer Sheva, Israel, from November 2-5, 1999, and was attended by 70 participants from 30 countries and/or international organisations. Desertification - the degradation of soils in drylands - is a phenomenon occurring in scores of countries around the globe. The number of people (in semiarid regions) affected by the steady decline in the productivity of their lands is in the hundred millions. The measures required to halt and reverse the process of desertification fall into many categories - policy, institutional, sociological-anthropological, and technical. Although technical "solutions" are not currently in vogue, the conference organizers felt that perhaps the pendulum had swung too far in the direction of "participatory approaches." Hence IPALAC - The International Program for Arid Land Crops - whose function is to serve as a catalyst for optimizing the contribution of plant germplasm to sustainable development in desertification-prone regions - felt the time was opportune for providing a platform for projects where the "plant-driven" approach to development finds expression. Some 45 papers were delivered at the conference, falling into the categories of this volume: Overview, Potential Germplasm for Arid Lands, Introduction, Domestication and Dissemination of Arid Land Plants, Land Rehabilitation, and Mechanisms of Plant Transfer. The conference was funded by UNESCO (Division of Ecological Sciences), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, and MASHAV, Israel's Center for International Development Cooperation.

This publication supports processes related to rural communities’ resilience in implementing land restoration of the Great Green Wall Programme on the ground. It serves a dual purpose of consolidating biophysical operations and socio-economic assessments, and is mainly built on five-year interventions and practical experiences gathered through Action Against Desertification. The first part of the publication is a practical manual expressly created for stakeholders, partners, non-governmental organizations and community-based organizations. Its purpose is to guide the implementation of restoration operations at scale on the ground, as well as to provide detailed practical instructions based on the successful results obtained by Action Against Desertification. The manual describes how to implement an innovative approach to the large-scale restoration of degraded land for small-scale farming. This innovative approach consists of combining enrichment planting of native woody and fodder grass species and the preparation of large-scale land for rainwater harvesting and soil permeability. The second part of the manual introduces a methodology for socio-economic assessments. This easy to-to-use approach is based on household surveys and can be used by socio-economic experts to monitor, evaluate and assess the socio-economic impacts of the large-scale restoration interventions. Household surveys are not only used for impact assessment but can potentially serve to collect useful data needed to plan a restoration intervention. Quantitative information is collected through carefully chosen standardized questions to households as samples.

This book is about the ‘how’ of desertification control as opposed to an analysis of the ‘why’ and fills a gap in the desertification-related literature in that it shows what to do in situations ranging from fixing mobile sands to arresting accelerated soil erosion in sloping lands. There are numerous illustrations to show the successful techniques. This compilation demonstrates that desertification and land degradation can be controlled and reversed with existing techniques in such widely varying environments as the Sahel of Africa to Sri Lanka and the Philippines in SE Asia, from mountains in Lesotho to low lands on desert margins in Mongolia. Proven approaches include technical interventions, changes in governance and to the legislative framework and policy reform. The book fills a gap in the desertification-related literature in that it shows what to do in situations ranging from fixing mobile sands to arresting accelerated soil erosion in sloping lands.

Although much is known about the processes and effects of desertification, land degradation and climate change, little is understood about the links between them. Less still is known about how these processes are likely to interact in different social-ecological systems around the world, or how societies might be able to adapt to this twin challenge. This book identifies key vulnerabilities to the combined effects of climate change and land degradation around the world. It identifies triple-win adaptations that can tackle both climate change and land degradation, whilst supporting biodiversity and ecosystem services. Desertification, Land Degradation and Climate Change : Assessment, Mitigation and Remediation research results in sustainable land management, land degradation status and mitigation in the world. It includes background chapters with continental and international perspectives dealing with desertification, land degradation and climate change studies. The book assembles various topics of interest for a large audience. They include carbon sequestration and stocks, modern techniques to trace the trends of land degradation, traditional and modern approaches of resource-base conservation, soil fertility management, reforestation, rangeland rehabilitation, land use planning, GIS techniques in desertification risk cartography, participatory ecosystem management, policy analyses and possible plans for action. Various climatic domains in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas are covered. The book will be of interest to a variety of environmental scientists, agronomists, national and international policy makers and a number of organizations dealing with sustainable management of natural resources.

This book reports an approach developed to research and apply methods of assessing patterns of processes in the landscape, and suitability of different types of vegetation to mitigate soil erosion and sediment flux. Practical guidelines on a spatially strategic approach to management of land degradation at a range of spatial scales were produced. Originally developed for the Mediterranean environment, it has much wider potential global application. It provides researchers with methods to acquire the knowledge necessary for such an approach and provides practitioners with guidance on implementation and benefits of targeted methods of soil erosion control. It includes substantial information about processes and vegetation in the Mediterranean environment and the species effectiveness in soil erosion control.

This book presents the definition of aeolian desertification and uncovers its processes, driving factors, and consequences, and focuses on measures to effectively combat aeolian desertification in Northeast Asia. Aeolian desertification in Northeast Asia is of great concern for its destructive influences on the environment and society not only in the local but also in faraway areas. The topics of this book are addressed by compiling theoretical review, remote sensing monitoring, synoptic analysis, and laboratory and field studies in China, Japan, and Mongolia. This is the first comprehensive book to address the aeolian desertification in Northeast Asia. Readers can learn the basic theory of aeolian desertification and the primary causes of this environmental problem. More critical is the successful practical countermeasures to combat desertification which can be referred to by various stakeholders who concern the aeolian desertification in Northeast Asia. To meet the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations adopted in 2015, especially its Goal 15.3 to achieve a land degradation-neutral world by 2030, desertification combating actions should be taken cross country borders. This book is not only intended for environmental professionals but also for people who are affected and concerned about desertification and land degradation. The concept and processes in this book will serve as a ready reference to understand the aeolian desertification with countermeasures and successful preventing stories that can be referred to.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the multiple strategies that plants have developed to cope with drought, one of the most severe environmental stresses. Experts in the field present 17 chapters, each of which focuses on a basic concept as well as the latest findings. The following major aspects are covered in the book: · Morphological and anatomical adaptations · Physiological responses · Biochemical and molecular responses · Ecophysiological responses · Responses to drought under field conditions The contributions will serve as an invaluable source of information for researchers and advanced students in the fields of plant sciences, agriculture, ecophysiology, biochemistry and molecular biology.

Nitrogen (N) is a mineral nutrient that is essential for the normal growth and development of plants that is required in the highest quantity. It is an element of nucleic acids, proteins, and photosynthetic metabolites, therefore crucial for crop growth and metabolic processes. Recently, it was estimated that N fertilizers could meet the 48% demand of the world’s population. However, overuse and misuse of N fertilizers raised environmental concerns associated with N losses by nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, ammonia (NH3) volatilization, and nitrate (NO3−) leaching. For instance, NH3 is a pollutant in the atmosphere, N2O is a greenhouse gas that has a warming potential 298 times higher than CO2 and contributes to ozone depletion, and NO3− causes eutrophication of water bodies. Agricultural practices account for about 90% of NH3 and 70% of N2O anthropogenic emissions worldwide. The efficient use of N chemical fertilizers can be attained through cultural and agronomic practices. Nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) is an important trait that has been studied for decades in different crops. The grain production or economic return from the per unit supply of N fertilizer simply explained the NUE. Several definitions were suggested by different researchers. NUE can be defined as the product of N uptake efficiency (NUpE) and N utilization efficiency (NUtE). An increase in NUE increases the yield, biomass, quality, and quantity of crops. N is generally applied as chemical fertilizer to the soil, whereas a small amount is added to some crops like grain legumes through the fixation process. On the other hand, crop plants take N through the root system in the form of nitrate or ammonium which is thereby used in different metabolic processes. A number of studies have been conducted to increase the NUE in different crops and it has been indicated that NUE can be improved by agronomic, physiological, biochemical, breeding as well as molecular approaches. Nitrogen is the main limiting nutrient after carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen for the photosynthetic process, phyto-hormonal and proteomic changes, and the growth-development of plants to complete their lifecycle. Excessive and inefficient use of N fertilizer results in enhanced crop production costs and atmospheric pollution. Atmospheric nitrogen (71%) in the molecular form is not available for the plants. For the world's sustainable food production and atmospheric benefits, there is an urgent need to upgrade nitrogen use efficiency in the agricultural farming system. Nitrogen losses are too high, due to excess amount, low plant population, poor application methods, etc., which can go up to 70% of total available nitrogen. These losses can be minimized up to 15–30% by adopting improved agronomic approaches such as optimal dosage of nitrogen, application of N by using canopy sensors, maintaining plant population, drip fertigation, and legume-based intercropping. Therefore, the major concern of modern days is to save economic resources without sacrificing farm yield as well as the safety of the global environment, i.e. greenhouse gas emissions, ammonium volatilization, and nitrate leaching.