Land Use & Cover - AP Human Geography

Deforestation is the destruction of forest or forested areas by human or natural means. Some notable human-based causes are slash and burn agriculture and production of forest products (i.e logging). Desertification can also lead to deforestation.

Solar energy production is not directly linked to deforestation, and is in fact a form of sustainable, renewable energy.

The term “swidden” is used to describe land that has been cleared for agricultural use using slash-and-burn techniques. By “slash-and-burn” we mean that the land has cleared through burning of existing plants and is then used for agricultural purposes by the local community for a few years before they move on to “slash-and-burn” another piece of land.

“Slash-and-burn” agriculture involves burning a portion of forest so that the soil there can be used for agricultural purposes. The community then uses this land for a short time, possibly a few years, and then moves on to a new area, which is, in turn, burned for agricultural use. This practice of agriculture is defined by a constant process of moving from one plot of land to another and is known as “shifting cultivation.”

Desertification is the process by which deserts expand or arise. Many phenomena can lead to increased risk of desertification including: drought, over farming, and deforestation.

Of the options, only one is not really directly related to desertification. Ocean acidification, although a very real and pressing problem, is not as directly related to desertification as the others.

The term “desertification” is used to describe the process by which previously fertile lands become arid and unusable for farming. This process has happened in many places throughout the world, famously in Ancient Greece and Ancient Mesopotamia. The primary cause of desertification is usually over farming.

“Salinization” occurs frequently in arid climates. People use water to “irrigate” a previously untenable plot of land and make it usable for agricultural purposes. This allows them to work new plots of land for a period of time, but the water in this newly irrigated land evaporates much quicker than elsewhere and soon the earth is covered in residues of “salt” that render the land infertile.

Although you might not have known when exactly the “American Drought Relief Service” was created you should be able to guess based on information that you do know. The Dust Bowl drought, which occurred in the first half of the 1930s was the most severe drought in American history and led to widespread famine and forced migration. The Drought Relief Service was created to try to alleviate this problem.

“Degraded agricultural land” is l_and that was once fertile but has been made infertile by mismanagement and human intervention_. It is most common in densely populated areas of the world where large-scale farming has been common for a long period of time. For this reason, densely populated Western Europe is the correct answer. While all of these answers may contain some amount of degraded agricultural land, Western Europe contains the highest percentage of such land.

“Desertification” is the name given to the process by which previously fertile agricultural lands are made infertile made by human practices. “Salinization,” which refers to the buildup of salt deposits through irrigation and evaporation, is an example of desertification.

“Salinization” occurs when soil in an arid climate has been made available for agricultural production using irrigation. The water evaporates quickly off the newly irrigated land, leaving residues of salt lying in the earth. Over time this causes the land to become infertile. This process is known as “salinization.”

Even though North America is a developed region, it is not safe from desertification. Nearly 74% of North America's drylands are affected by desertification. The increasing rate and intensity of wildfires in the western part of North America is due to how climate change is affecting this region.

Africa does struggle with the affects of desertification and is just behind North America with 73% of drylands affected. Though there is less land affected, the economic toll for some countries in Africa is much greater.

Certain parts of Asia are also very affected by desertification. However, it is on a much smaller scale in the vast expanse of this region.

Europe and South America are the least affected by desertification.

The term used to describe a man-made system whereby water is spread from its natural source (such as a lake or river) over a much larger geographic range to aid in agricultural production is “irrigation.” The invention of “irrigation” has been fundamental the growth of human societies by ensuring that a community can farm enough food to support an ever-growing population. It was first developed roughly six thousand years ago in China and Mesopotamia.

A “sawah” is an irrigated, or flooded, field used to grow rice. Sawahs are commonly found in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Rice is instrumental to sustaining the massive population of east and south Asia and much of it is grown in flooded fields in countries like Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia.

“Crop rotation” is a system developed during the Second Agricultural Revolution in order to preserve the mineral health of soil used in agriculture and prevents patches of land from being exhausted. The idea is that by growing different crops, in the same soil, in the different seasons the soil can be preserved for a much longer period of time than it otherwise might be. The reasons for this are numerous and complicated, but the simplest explanation is that different crops drain the soil of different minerals and, additionally, replenish the soil with different nutrients.

A “feedlot” is a place where a large quantity of livestock is raised in extremely cramped and inhumane, but cost effective, conditions. The factory farms where chickens are often produced in the United States are examples of “feedlots.”

“Spring wheat” is an extremely important collection of crops that provides a great deal of the nutrition that is consumed by the planet. “Spring wheat” is planted in early spring and usually harvested in the late summer. In the United States “spring wheat” is generally harvested between mid-August and late-September.

“Polders” have long been associated with the Netherlands. A “polder” is a piece of farming land that has been reclaimed from water, either from the sea or from flooded plains and marshes. It was particularly crucial in Dutch history due to the fact that the Netherlands is an extremely low-lying country with almost no elevated terrain above sea level.

“Winter wheat” is a type of wheat crop that is planted in the late fall that stops growing during the winter before resuming growing in the spring. It is generally harvested in the early summer.

“Sharecropping” refers to a system of agriculture whereby a landowner allows an individual or a family to rent a portion of land in exchange for a share of the crops they harvest. “Serfdom” and “plantation” may seem like correct choices; however, “serfdom” refers to the status of many peasants under feudalistic rules that were considered to be part of the land that they farmed. “Plantation” refers to a large piece of land used to commercially produce a single crop.