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Overgrazing by livestock can lead to land degradation. Land degradation is a process where land becomes less healthy and productive due to a combination of human activities or natural conditions. The causes for land degradation are numerous and complex. [1] Human activities are often the main cause, such as unsustainable land management practices.
A diagram of the typical drivers of ecosystem collapse. [1] ... overgrazing was found to cause land degradation, ... For example, there is a demonstrated correlation ...
Water and wind erosion are now the two primary causes of land degradation; combined, they are responsible for 84% of degraded acreage. [2] Each year, about 75 billion tons of soil is eroded from the land—a rate that is about 13–40 times as fast as the natural rate of erosion. [78]
According to Global Assessment of Land Degradation and Improvement (GLADA) a quarter of land area around the globe can now be marked as degraded. Land degradation is supposed to influence lives of 1.5 billion people and 15 billion tons of fertile soil is lost every year due to anthropogenic activities and climate change. [29]
Feedbacks are also possible between rates of erosion and the amount of eroded material that is already carried by, for example, a river or glacier. [5] [6] The transport of eroded materials from their original location is followed by deposition, which is arrival and emplacement of material at a new location. [1]
Soil erosion is the main factor for soil degradation and is due to several mechanisms: water erosion, wind erosion, chemical degradation and physical degradation. Erosion can be influenced by human activity. For example, roads which increase impermeable surfaces lead to streaming and ground loss.
[27]: 2321 For example, the decline of sea ice in the Arctic has been accelerating during the early twenty‐first century, with a decline rate of 4.7% per decade (it has declined over 50% since the first satellite records). [28] [29] [30] One well known example of a species affected is the polar bear, whose habitat in the Arctic is threatened ...
Overgrazing is used as an example in the economic concept now known as the Tragedy of the Commons devised in a 1968 paper by Garrett Hardin. [18] This cited the work of a Victorian economist who used as an example the over-grazing of common land. Hardin's example could only apply to unregulated use of land regarded as a common resource.