Global ETD Search
Search theses and dissertations gathered from participating repositories worldwide. Every result links back to the library that holds it. No account is needed.
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Showing 1 to 20 of 45 for “"drylands"”.
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Using ecological concepts to restore the drylands of Namaqualand, South Africa
This thesis investigated the impact of cultivation, and the efficiency of passive and active restoration of fallow fields, in Namaqualand's Hardeveld and Renosterveld vegetation communities. The core theory of this thesis lies in the ecology of semi-arid environments and the concept of patch …
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Land degradation in drylands : resettlement and borehole provision in Gam, Namibia
… main factors contributing to land degradation in drylands are human actions that ignore the resilience limits of drylands. The ecology of drylands requires land uses that allow flexibility and mobility rather than imposing stability. During the last century, technology and cultural changes have …
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Evaluating dry woodlands degradation and on-farm tee management in kenyan drylands
Tropical dry forests and woodlands are comprised of trees that are specially adapted to the harsh climatic and edaphic conditions, providing important ecosystem services for communities in an environment where other types of tropical tree species would not survive. Due to cyclic droughts which …
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Mapping desertification: towards an approach for mapping regional land degradation in drylands
Land degradation in drylands (desertification) is an issue that potentially impacts nearly half of the world's human population living on over a third of the Earth's land surface. Despite global concern of the impact of desertification on people and the environment, there is no universal method to …
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Opuntia ficus-indica: a climate-resilient biomass feedstock for low-input drylands agriculture
… traits compared to other species grown under drylands conditions. O. ficus-indica is currently used as a food crop, a forage and fodder for livestock under drought conditions, and as a source for a variety of medicinal and nutraceutical products. While Opuntia ficus-indica is not native to …
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Soil degradation and associated socio-ecological impacts in the drylands of Nakasongola district, Central Uganda
This study investigated the causes, magnitude and selected socio-ecologlcal effects of soil degradation, with the ultimate goal of explaining and mapping the spatial and temporal variations of degradation in the dryland area of central Uganda.
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Intervention model for sustainable food security in the drylands of Kenya : case study of Makueni district
… insecurity in Kenya is concentrated in the rural drylands constituting two-thirds of the country’s land mass. Drought is cited as the main culprit, aggravated by inappropriate policy, such as the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) of the 1990s, said to have created an institutional vacuum in …
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Land use influence on biodiversity and activity patterns of predators and prey in the semi-arid drylands of South Africa
… and predator-prey dynamics in the semi-arid drylands of South Africa. My study showed that semi-arid drylands of South Africa are important refugia for wildlife which is evident in the high species richness found in my study. I found that the temporal overlap for the same species living in …
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Terrestrial Water Storage Change Over Dryland Regions Using Observational Data and Model Simulations
Drylands occupy a large fraction of global terrestrial areas and are home to around 2.5 billion people. Dryland ecosystems are important constituents of global biodiversity and impact the global carbon cycle. However, drylands typically experience water shortages due to unbalanced atmospheric water …
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Projection of State Power: State-making in the Dryland Periphery of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda
… attention. Extension of state power in the drylands raises an important question: why, how, and with what consequences do states project their power? The region’s transformation also presents an empirical puzzle: while the political order has been altered throughout the drylands, its key …
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The development and application of a comprehensive land degradation assessment method in the Monduli District, Tanzania
Land degradation in drylands, remains a highly contentious issue. Broadly speaking, land degradation may be defined as undesirable changes in the state of land from productive to unproductive due to natural or human made factors
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Living on the margin?: The Iron Age communities of Mananzve Hill, Shashi region, South-western Zimbabwe
… of the Iron Age archaeology of southern Africa, drylands have long been viewed as marginal landscapes that did not host any significant agropastoral communities in the past. Against this background, this study explores the discourse of dryland marginality in southern Zambezia using the Shashi …
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Understanding Carbon Uptake Using Multi-Scale Novel Remote Sensing Techniques
Drylands cover 40% of the global terrestrial area and support roughly 2 billion people for grazing and cropping. With hotter, drier climate forecasts for dryland, in particular, there are new challenges in understanding dryland responses and vulnerability. This has emerged as a priority research …
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Climate Change Policy Narratives and Pastoralism in the Horn of Africa: New Concerns, Old Arguments?
… problems in local contexts. The pastoral drylands are no exception as claims to land and other resources remain contested by different actors. Through content and discourse analyses of national policies, supplemented by interviews with key informants, this research examines the discourses …
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Unraveling an uncertain future for the Great Basin: how climate, grass invasion, and wildfire interact to drive ecosystem function
Drylands are the earth's largest terrestrial biome and are rapidly experiencing change. In drylands of the western United States, three of the most influential global change processes are shifting precipitation regimes, annual grass invasion, and wildfire. Understanding how these drivers interact …
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Wildlife Utilization of Stock Ponds in Minnehaha County, South Dakota
… changed once valuable wildlife habitat into drylands which are of little value to waterfowl and furbearers. Waterfowl breeding grounds have been so greatly reduced that few natural breeding grounds remain in southeastern South Dakota. (See More in Text)
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An examination of facilitative interactions between shrubs and local desert organisms within the desert ecosystems of southern California
… those with foundational shrubs within drylands. However, little has been done to analyze how the density of shrubs influence the frequency of these interactions. Here, I aim to establish shrub density as a crucial measure in ecology and facilitative interactions. I begin with a …
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Living near permanent water in the upper Murray-Darling Basin Implications from the micromorphology of buried soils near artesian springs
… of early peoples living in Australia’s drylands? It is hypothesised that early peoples were able to adjust their behaviours to cope with episodic erosional events and successfully occupy drylands for millennia. This thesis implements a multi proxy approach to reveal evidence of …
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