Stockholm university

Central Asia risks becoming a hyperarid desert in the near future

Around 34 million years ago, sudden climate change caused ecological breakdown in Central Asia. Large areas of Mongolia, Tibet and north-western China suddenly became hyperarid deserts with little vegetation cover – and stayed that way for almost 20 million years, writes Natasha Barbolini in a new article in The Conversation.

Jakub Czajkowski / shutterstock /The Conversation
Credit to:Jakub Czajkowski / Shutterstock /The Conversation


The article is published in The Conversation on October 29 and is written by Natasha Barbolini, Senior postdoctoral fellow in palaeoecology at the Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences, Stockholm University.

Together with colleagues from across Europe and China, Natasha Barbolini has reconstructed the past 43 million years of evolutionary history for the steppe, semi-desert and desert ecosystems of Central Asia.

She writes:
 “This finding is particularly relevant today, because atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and climate are again changing rapidly. Given what we now know about the Asian steppe-desert’s climatic and ecological history, it is unlikely that these ecosystems will ever recover their present biological diversity if forced into a new state.”

Read the article published in The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/central-asia-risks-becoming-a-hyperarid-desert-in-the-near-future-148703

Read more about the collaboration between Stockholm University and The Conversation and how to pitch an article idea.

More articles in The Conversation by researchers at Stockholm University.
 

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