Sustainability

Ecosystems

Steppe

Agricultural exploitation

The agricultural exploitation of these areas has caused a series of inter-linked consequences: the animal and vegetal species of the steppe community are increasingly threatened. Hole diggers, such as moles, damage the crops; larger grazing animals compete with native species, and predators, such as wolves, threaten the survival of cattle. To defend human activities, plans for the extermination of “harmful” species, especially hole diggers, were put forward, but it was soon acknowledged that without the latter the structure of the soil would start deteriorating. In addition, the overexploitation of pastures by farm animals and the habit of leaving the soil without vegetation between one harvesting and the next resulted in the loss of the thin surface layer during storms. This destruction, which slowly leads to desertification, occurred both in the large plains of north-America and in the steppes of central Asia.