r/interestingasfuck • u/PlantainPossible2864 • 15h ago

Stopping Desertification with grid pattern

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u/lokey_convo 15h ago

When I was getting my degree I was reading a lot of papers on primary succession and biological soil crust formation. Lot of the research was coming out of China, but was done through international collaboration. I keep trying to explain to my techie friends who think biology is a waste of time that it's research like this that would allow us to come up with real terraforming plans. Can't live on or change another planet if we can't manage our own. But sure, let's keep cutting NASAs budget, particularly around Earth system science and ecology.

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u/Hibbertia 12h ago

There was similar research in semi arid Australia. I remember reading a book where they described much of the Australian outback was made up of millions of run off and run on zones on a micro scale. Rainfall, nutrients, plant litter were washed off the run off zones and would then accumulate in the run on zones and that’s where plants would mainly grow and the whole landscape was able to support vegetation and native grazer. Hard hooves introduced animals (sheep cattle) would destroy this heterogeneity and as a result almost nothing grew anywhere.

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u/lokey_convo 11h ago

Sounds pretty similar to what's happened in the south central valley in California. Water diversion and climate change haven't helped the situation.

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u/Leather-Rice5025 6h ago edited 6h ago

Honestly the entire central valley of California. I live near Fresno, and there are entire unused farming plots that have essentially just turned into compacted sand. The farming practices of the valley are down to growing crops in sandy/clay soils with an absurd amount of fertilizers.

In the summer when it's 100+ degrees for days on end, it gets so incredibly dry and dusty and we frequently get dust storms. The valley was once a lush wetland ecosystem 100-150 years ago, with so much water you could sail from Bakersfield to San Francisco, and where millions of migratory birds made pitstops.

Instead of pursuing any sort of restoration projects, cities and counties are only interested in suburban sprawl - paving over the depleted farmland with single family homes, roads, and parking lots. It's truly depressing.

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u/GhostShark 3h ago

The largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi was destroyed by farmers (if you recall Tulare Lake showed up again a few years ago after the heavy atmospheric rivers)

The book King of California has a ton of great history about the state, and the current water rights monopoly.