TY - JOUR
T1 - Revegetation of native desert plants enhances food security and water sustainability in arid regions
T2 - Integrated modeling assessment
AU - Abdullah, Meshal M.
AU - Assi, Amjad
AU - Zubari, Waleed K.
AU - Mohtar, Rabi
AU - Eidan, Hamed
AU - Al Ali, Zahraa
AU - Al Anzi, Bader
AU - Sharma, Virender K.
AU - Ma, Xingmao
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2022/2/1
Y1 - 2022/2/1
N2 - Food security and water sustainability in arid and semiarid regions are threatened by rapid population growth, declining natural resources, and global climate change. Countries in the arid regions compensate meat import by raising domestic livestock with cultivated green fodder, which diminishes lands for other crops and depletes precious water resources. This study presents for the first time an in-depth integrated food water ecosystem (FWEco) nexus modeling on the feasibility of restoring 10% of Kuwait's desert as grazing rangeland to alleviate water consumption from fodder production. Our results showed that revegetating 10% of the country's land with native species could support up to 23% of domestic livestock through natural grazing at optimal coverage (70%) and high productivity, and decrease water consumption by up to 90%. However, depending solely on natural rainfall is unlikely to achieve the optimal coverage. Strategic supplemental irrigation in the fall season (e.g., October and November) is required to maximize vegetation coverage and enhance food security and water sustainability. Significantly, strategic irrigation results in much lower net water consumption because irrigating native species requires much less water than green fodder cultivation. Therefore, revegetating desert lands with native species to restore their natural grazing service can be a sustainable approach to simultaneously improve food security and water sustainability in arid landscapes.
AB - Food security and water sustainability in arid and semiarid regions are threatened by rapid population growth, declining natural resources, and global climate change. Countries in the arid regions compensate meat import by raising domestic livestock with cultivated green fodder, which diminishes lands for other crops and depletes precious water resources. This study presents for the first time an in-depth integrated food water ecosystem (FWEco) nexus modeling on the feasibility of restoring 10% of Kuwait's desert as grazing rangeland to alleviate water consumption from fodder production. Our results showed that revegetating 10% of the country's land with native species could support up to 23% of domestic livestock through natural grazing at optimal coverage (70%) and high productivity, and decrease water consumption by up to 90%. However, depending solely on natural rainfall is unlikely to achieve the optimal coverage. Strategic supplemental irrigation in the fall season (e.g., October and November) is required to maximize vegetation coverage and enhance food security and water sustainability. Significantly, strategic irrigation results in much lower net water consumption because irrigating native species requires much less water than green fodder cultivation. Therefore, revegetating desert lands with native species to restore their natural grazing service can be a sustainable approach to simultaneously improve food security and water sustainability in arid landscapes.
KW - Arid ecosystems
KW - Ecosystem service
KW - Food security
KW - Water sustainability
KW - Water-food-ecosystem nexus
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85118322242&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151295
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151295
M3 - Article
C2 - 34736754
AN - SCOPUS:85118322242
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 806
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
M1 - 151295
ER -