Download Free Tree Species For The Arid Zone Of The Sudan Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Tree Species For The Arid Zone Of The Sudan and write the review.

This book provides a quantitative analysis of the role of woody plants in semi-arid regions, for the aSSessment of their benefits in agrosylvopastoralland-use systems with productive and sus tainability objectives. The insights presented and conclusions drawn allow the additional benefits of woody plants for specific climatic and physical site conditions and land-use systems to be estimated. The Sahel and Sudan zones in West Africa, on which the book focusses, represent resource-poor conditions, whose ecological dynamics have been relatively well studied. The role of woody plants in this region, as assessed in this book, is extrapolated to other semi-arid regions, leading to general conclusions on agroforestry's potential as an option for sustainable land use in semi-arid regions. The origins of this book go back to 1982, when the Club du Sahel requested that available data on woody plants in the Sahel region be synthesised, to provide basic information to enable better attention to be given to woody plants in rural development programmes. We are grateful to the Club du Sahel for this challenge. Various people contributed to studies used in this book. The preliminary inventory of the data available was made by Frits Ohler; later his work was continued by Franciska Dekker.
The increasing world population is already causing intensive pressure on the most productive areas of the earth's surface. Hopes of improved living standards, if realised, will increase the pressure still further. The need to make better use of less productive areas thus becomes an urgent priority for human endeavour. In this respect, the arid and semi-arid regions of the world, occupying about 11,000 million acres or 4,500 million hectares, roughly one third of the tota11and surface, pose a constant challenge to man's technological skill. Though the possibilities of economic use of the real deserts are inherently limited, there remain vast areas with less extreme conditions where sustained research is capable of yielding substantial gains in pro ductivity. The problem is so large that it can be solved only by the coordinated efforts of workers in many countries and many disciplines. Forestry has a special part to play, not only for its potential value for wood production but still more for the beneficial effects of shelter from desiccating winds which so commonly accompany arid conditions. Mr. KA UL is to be congratulated on his initiative to pool the results of research on afforestation in arid zones in many parts of the world, and to present them in a single volume in the form of separate monographs.
Economic plants have been defined by SEPASAT as those plants that are utilised either directly or indirectly for the benefit of Man. Indirect usage includes the needs of Man's livestock and the maintenance of the environment; the benefits may be domestic, commercial or aesthetic. Economic plants constitute a large and so far uncalculated percentage of the quarter of a million higher plants in the World today. However, it has been calculated that 10% (25 000) of these species are now on the verge of extinction and extinction means that a genetic resource that could be of benefit to Man will be lost for ever. Furthermore, for every species lost an estimated 10-30 other dependent organisms are also doomed. Fewer than 1 per cent of the World's plants have been sufficiently well studied for a true evaluation of the potential floral wealth awaiting discovery, not only in the rain forests, which man is now actively destroying at a rate of 20 ha a minute, but also in the very much neglected dry areas of the World.
A compendium of current information on arid soils. Provides a comprehensive background of the various soils and biota of arid regions, as well as a detailed account of the current understanding of degradation processes, and includes methodologies for arid land maintenance and rehabilitation and for
In 1951 UNESCO launched an Arid Zone Programme with the object of promoting research into arid regions from every relevant scientific point of view. This book, originally published in 1966, represents the range of research undertaken and gives a general conspectus of arid zone geography. 17 authors from 8 countries contributed and the book deals comprehensively with all the main areas, with specific examples used to illustrate arguments. There are chapters on meteorology, geology, geomorphology, botany and zoology and almost 50% of the book is devoted to man’s activities: irrigation and agriculture; industry; animal breeding and human survival in the desert
Extensive regions of the world have a climate which, whilst permitting development of a continuous vegetative cover, is too dry for successful annual cropping. These are the semi-arid areas where land use is based on the natural vegetation. Easily degraded and difficult to maintain, they are under increasing pressure as expanding human populations move in and endeavour to force a living from them. As a result they contain some of the worst examples of resource degradation. This book examines the problems and opportunities involved in man's use of semi-arid areas. The authors are all actively involved in research and land management in the areas discussed. Each chapter begins with a detailed, up-to-date account of the ecology of the region (its climate, soils, vegetation, fauna and main ecological characteristics). This is followed by a history of land use, problems involved in its management, a review of current research and recommended land use practices. The common features of semi-arid ecosystems are brought together in a final section.
This book focuses on regions for which until now the geomorphology was very poorly studied and relatively unknown. Nevertheless, the landforms and landscapes of the Horn of Africa are highly attractive, diverse and in a few cases unique, since they span very different environments, from highland plateaus and mountains to lowlands (even below sea level) and coastlines with a high degree of diversity and from monsoon to arid climate conditions. The main topics addressed in the book include the links between the geological evolution and the current large scale geomorphology of the Horn of Africa; the large differences between the highlands and lowlands climate, river hydrology and their variation through time within a climate change perspective. This part of the world was home of the very first hominids. The landscape in which they lived and evolved throughout the Pleistocene is described in comparison with the arid and inhospitable, though immensely scenic, environment of today. Perennial and ephemeral rivers with very different morphology, processes, and hydrology drain the area, and, in combination with the past and recent uplift, substantially contributed to provide the region with peculiar landscapes and landforms. Long lasting weathering and erosion processes result in a typical inselberg landscape such as the Bur region, or the currently exposed flatland of old peneplain surfaces. Their changes through time, induced by both natural and anthropogenic factors, are addressed by a couple of case studies. Though the region has few inhabitants, they had to struggle to find their livelihood in a land that offers poor resources. This resulted in landscape change and land degradation. Examples of human impact on the landscape are presented at different scales. This book provides readers interested in geography and geomorphology with essential scientific and educational information on the Landscapes and Landforms of Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia through simple, though scientifically, rigorous texts illustrated with several color maps and photos. One main prerogative of this book is therefore to give an insight into a region of the world where, for geographical and historical constraints, geomorphological investigation was very limited, thus enriching its intrinsic informative value.