A major shortcoming of these studies based on vegetation datasets derived from satellite sensors is that they do not account for changes in vegetation composition, thus leading to inaccuracies in the estimation of the extent of degraded areas in drylands. For example, drylands of eastern Africa currently face growing encroachment of invasive plant species, such as Prosopis juliflora (Ayanu et al. 2015267), which constitutes land degradation since it leads to losses in economic productivity of affected areas but appears as a greening in the satellite data. Another case study in central Senegal found degradation manifested through a reduction in species richness despite satellite observed greening (Herrmann and Tappan 2013268). A number of efforts to identify changes in vegetation composition from satellites have been made (Brandt et al. 2016a269, b270; Evans and Geerken 2006271; Geerken 2009272; Geerken et al. 2005273; Verbesselt et al. 2010a274, b275). These depend on well-identified reference NDVI time series for particular vegetation groupings, can only differentiate vegetation types that have distinct spectral phenology signatures, and require extensive ground observations for validation. A recent alternative approach to differentiating woody from herbaceous vegetation involves the combined use of optical/infrared-based vegetation indices, indicating greenness, with microwave based Vegetation Optical Depth (VOD) which is sensitive to both woody and leafy vegetation components (Andela et al. 2013276; Tian et al. 2017277).
In India and elsewhere, tree species including Prosopis juliflora, Dalbergia sissoo, and Eucalyptus tereticornis have been used to re-vegetate saline land. Certain biofuel crops in the form of Ricinus communis (Abideen et al. 20141134), Euphorbia antisyphilitica (Dagar et al. 20141135), Karelinia caspia (Akinshina et al. 20161797) and Salicornia spp. (Sanandiya and Siddhanta 20141136) are grown in saline areas, and Panicum turgidum (Koyro et al. 20131137) and Leptochloa fusca (Akhter et al. 20031138) have been grown as fodder crop on degraded soils with brackish water. In China, intense efforts are being made on the use of halophytes (Sakai et al. 20121139; Wang et al. 20181140). These examples reveal that there is great scope for saline areas to be used in a productive manner through the utilisation of halophytes. The most productive species often have yields equivalent to conventional crops, at salinity levels matching even that of seawater.
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The alien plants invading local vegetation in Pakistan include Brossentia papyrifera (found in Islamabad Capital territory), Parthenium hysterophorus (found in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces), Prosopis juliflora (found all over Pakistan), Eucalyptus camaldulensis (found in Punjab and Sindh provinces), Salvinia (aquatic plant widely distributed in water bodies in Sindh), Cannabis sativa (found in Islamabad Capital Territory), Lantana camara and Xanthium strumarium (found in upper Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces) (Khan et al. 20101665; Qureshi et al. 20141666). Most of these plants were introduced by the Forest Department decades ago for filling the gap between demand and supply of timber, fuelwood and fodder. These non-native plants have some uses but their disadvantages outweigh their benefits (Marwat et al. 20101667; Rashid et al. 20141668). 2ff7e9595c
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