The Sahara Desert is one of the hottest and driest places on our planet, where it may not rain for several years. It is precisely for this reason that it is a question of one of the most inhospitable places on Earth. However, contrary to what one might think, the Sahara is not just a vast ocean of sand and dunes that extends seamlessly from the shores of the Red Sea to the Atlantic Ocean.
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The landscapes of the Sahara Desert are constantly changing, ranging from sandy deserts such as the deserts of Algeria, Mali and Libya, to areas characterized by hard rocks and gravels, such as in southern Algeria or Morocco, to regions characterized by d imposing mountain ranges, often the remains of ancient volcanic systems, now extinct, whose peaks reach more than 3,000 meters above sea level.
An inhospitable place for trees and vegetation
In recent years, a series of studies and research carried out by a team of international scientists have shown how the Sahara Desert, despite the advance of climate change, managed to reserve some surprises for the researchers themselves.
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Extremely high temperatures, extremely dry climate, constant and intense solar radiation make this place inhospitable for all forms of life, especially for plants.
However, recent studies using satellite images have shown that there are more trees and shrubs growing in the Sahara than previously thought.
Vegetation growth is evident even in the desert, in areas where, until a few years ago, there was no trace of trees or thorny bushes, between the sand dunes and the vast expanses of rocks.
The discovery that surprised scientists
Thanks to the development of new technologies and the help of satellite images, we know much more about the Sahara Desert. In what is the largest desert on the planet, it was observed that there were more trees than expected.
Especially, In the Sahel region, on the southern edge of the Sahara, there are more than 1.8 billion solitary trees. Some of them were discovered in very remote areas, difficult to access even for humans.
This discovery was made thanks to a total of 11,000 images provided by NASA which were combined and made it possible to detect these trees. Similarly, artificial intelligence has been used to detect and count trees in the Sahara Desert.
Technology has thus made it possible to better understand the real conditions of this largely unexplored area. The study was carried out by Martin Brandt, an academic at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
Solitary trees adapted to the extreme climate of the Sahara
The tree species that have been detected in the Sahara have been called solitary trees. These trees have achieved what was thought impossible: for a tree to adapt to the extreme conditions of the Sahara Desert. Depending on the area where the tree is located, the extent of its foliage is more or less large, between approximately 3m² and 12m².
It should be noted that the trees considered in this study are those whose crown size is greater than or equal to 3 m². Other trees or small shrubs were not taken into account.
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However, academics say that, despite the pleasant surprise, this does not end the problem of global deforestation. However, it highlights important considerations that could improve the future of the planet.
The results of the study
Thanks to the results of these studies, it is clear that we do not yet fully understand nature. In this sense, this discovery represents a revolution in thinking about ecosystems.
Thanks to a better knowledge of the planet’s trees and ecosystems, it may be possible to find a solution to a number of environmental problems and guarantee a better future for the environment and human beings.
