What is barren land found on all continents except Europe?

Answer 1

Definition: Those ecosystems in which less than one third of the area has vegetation or other cover. In general, Barren Land has thin soil, sand, or rocks. Barren lands include deserts, dry salt flats, beaches, sand dunes, exposed rock, strip mines, quaries, and gravel pits.

Definition Source: A Land Use and Land Cover Classification System for Use with Remote Sensing Data

Barren Land Categories:

Bare Exposed Rock: Those ecosystems characterized by areas of bedrock exposure, desert pavement, scarps, talus, slides, volcanic material, rock glaciers, and other accumulations of rock without vegetative cover. This does not include rock exposures in tundra regions. (Definition Source: A Land Use and Land Cover Classification System for Use with Remote Sensing Data)

Beaches: Those ecosystems along shorelines characterized by smooth sloping accumulations of sand and gravel. The surface is stable inland, but the shoreward part is subject to erosion by wind and water and to deposition in protected areas. (Definition Source: A Land Use and Land Cover Classification System for Use with Remote Sensing Data)

Dry Salt Flats: Those ecosystems occurring on the flat-floored bottoms of interior desert basins that do not qualify as wetlands. (Definition Source: A Land Use and Land Cover Classification System for Use with Remote Sensing Data)

Mixed Barren Land: Those regions in which a mixture of barren land features occurs and the dominant land use occupies less than two-thirds of the area. This includes, for example, a desert region where combinations of salt flats, sandy areas, bare rock, surface extraction, and transitional activities could occur in close proximity. (Definition Source: A Land Use and Land Cover Classification System for Use with Remote Sensing Data)

Sandy Areas Other Than Beaches: Those ecosystems composed primarily of dunes -- accumulations of sand transported by wind. These accumulations most commonly are found in deserts although they also occur on coastal plains, river flood plains, and deltas and in periglacial environments. This does not include sand accumulations in tundra areas. (Definition Source: A Land Use and Land Cover Classification System for Use with Remote Sensing Data)

Strip Mines, Quaries, and Gravel Pits: Those regions where vegetative cover and overburden are removed to expose such deposits as coal, iron ore, limestone, and copper. This includes inactive, unreclaimed, and active strip mines, quarries, borrow pits, and gravel pits until other cover or use has been established. This does not include unused pits or quarries that have been flooded. (Definition Source: A Land Use and Land Cover Classification System for Use with Remote Sensing Data)

Transitional Areas: Those regions that are in transition from one land use activity to another. This transitional phase occurs when, for example, forest lands are cleared for agriculture, wetlands are drained for development, or when any type of land use ceases as areas become temporarily bare as con- struction is planned for such future uses as residences, shopping centers, industrial sites, or subur- ban and rural residential subdivisions. This also includes land being altered by filling, such as occurs in spoil dumps or sanitary landfills. (Definition Source: A Land Use and Land Cover Classification System for Use with Remote Sensing Data)

J.Balaji M.Sc (Microbiology)

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