ABORIGINES - Native peoples of a given region.
BEDOUIN - Nomadic Arabic tribes of Middle East and North African deserts.
BERBER - Caucasoid people of northern Africa, from Libya westward.
BUSHMEN - Race of nomadic hunter/gatherers in southern Africa. (Khoikhoi / San / !Kung)
DESERTIFICATION - This is a process whereby areas bordering desert regions are themselves turned into desert. Thus the desert appears to expand into the bordering terrain. In human terms, the land, once usable, has now become unusable. In fact, the climate, which is the formal driver for defining what regions are considered desert, has not actually changed. Although this is possible, a more likely scenario is that the region in transition is changing due to some human impact, and in the long term is likely to recover if left alone.
GRAZING (Overgrazing) - Grazing, and in particular overgrazing, is one example of how a terrain can become barren and "desert-like." Through unrestrained grazing by livestock, in conjunction with the wildlife already trying to eck out a living there, the area is gradually rendered lifeless through removing plantlife more rapidly than it can be replenished.
GULLYING - Deserts do receive some rainfall. And some areas are irrigated. Thus water comes to the desert. This water often comes all at once, and any time this water is channelled, or falls down steep inclines, it gathers speed. When water does this, it starts to be a very effective erosional agent. Cubic yards of soil can be removed in the space of hours forming small canyon-like features called gullies. Gullies can form almost anywhere, but are evident in areas where there is not much in the way of vegetative ground cover to hold the soil in place. Thus arid and semi-arid regions are particularly prone to gullying. Poor farming and irrigation practices can enhance this effect still further. Irrigation usually requires channelling of water, which is fine for the amounts of water used for irrigation. But when massive rains strike these fields, gullying will occur if the channels can't hold the water. If not resolved through erosion control measures, gullying can in some cases render entire farms barren in a single season.
IRRIGATION - The act of bringing water into an area that normally has little water, for the purpose of growing crops.
NATIVE AMERICANS of the American Southwest - Any of several modern or ancient peoples that have inhabited the desert during the past 11,000 years (or more?) From the ancient cliff-dwelling Anasazi to the current "reservations" of the Navajo and other peoples. (Including the Pueblo, Pima, Yuma, Dene, Shoshone, and their subgroups.)
NOMAD (Nomadic) - A wandering people, following a seasonal route through a well-defined region, in search of water, food, or other natural resources.
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PETROGLYPHS - Rock images specifically carved by native artists. These can be found in many deserts. This one comes from the Barstow area of southeastern California. Petroglyphs differ from rock painting in that they are chipped into the rock rather than painted on them. |
POLLUTION - This is a general term used to describe any foreign substances or abuses that have been heaped upon the desert landscape. The desert has a strike against it in that people think the land is worthless, and so it doesn't matter what else is done to it. The kinds of pollution that particularly result in the desert are things such as mine wastes, junk heaps, smog from coal-burning power plants, illegal dumping of chemical wastes, scarring of the landscape by recreational vehicles driving "offroad," and even the disposal of radioactive waste materials. There is the mindset that the desert is a "forsaken" place, and these effects are better off in the desert than in some other more "useful" place.
RECLAMATION - Another mindset that comes to play in the desert is that the desert is a region that can be gradually taken back, (ie. “Reclaimed”), into the lush, temperate, productive regions through the use of such tactics as irrigated farming. The change in this paradigm is coming gradually, as people learn that the desert is truly a different place, and activites intended to make it "better" often result in just the opposite effect. For instance, the influx of water into desert soils, and the resulting evaporation, is causing the soils to become increasingly saline, because salt builds up in the soils as it comes into the resion with the irrigation water, but stays behind as that water evaporates or is otherwise used up. This makes the soil less usable even by native plants. Finding hardier crop plants is only a temporary solution.
RECREATIONAL VEHICLES - Motorized vehicles intended to be used under rugged conditions - ie "Offroad." There they tend to tear up the landscape, and change erosional patterns that have been stable for centuries prior.
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