Book of Abstracts

44
schools in Cyprus as a tool to study issues related to desertification and climate change while elaborating on an ideal
schoolyard model as an effective field approach in primary education.
Methods: The study was conducted in 15 primary schools in Cyprus, and the data collection included quantitative
and qualitative methods. Specifically, a questionnaire was administered to 100 teachers, while interviews were
conducted with 15 other teachers. Characteristics of elementary schoolyards were also recorded using observations.
Results: The analysis of the results revealed that the current schoolyards in primary schools of Cyprus are virtually
neglected sites and rather hostile to the students. The majority of teachers believe that the use of the schoolyard
depends entirely on the personal interest and initiative of individual teachers. Using the schoolyard as a learning tool
for environmental issues and sustainable development (desertification, land degradation, biodiversity, etc.) is of
secondary importance and of limited use in some courses, such as science, for conducting soil and climate change
experiments. Finally, as significant barriers to the utilization of the schoolyard, teachers emphasized the lack of
practical and experiential training and content knowledge of the above issues, the lack of time to transfer the
learning to the field and the extra burden on an already busy schedule. The results are discussed in relation to the
pedagogical frameworks of EE and the ESD, as well as in relation to the didactic and methodological framework for
examining issues related to desertification and soil degradation.
Evolution, Climate and Man as Factors Leading to Degradation and
Productivity Loss in Terrestrial Biomes
Hot deserts are found at the lower extreme of the terrestrial biomes productivity gradient where tropical
forests and temperate forest are found on the upper one. In order to understand the function of the desert
we need a general theory on the structure of terrestrial biomes and the relation between productivity and
biome’s structure. Currently, there are 3 non-exclusive models explaining this relation, namely (a) a fixed
structure (Hairston, Smith et al. 1960) HSS “The green world theory”), (b) an increase in the number of
trophic levels with productivity and desert having the lowest productivity has only one trophic level
((Oksanen and Oksanen 2000) and (c) a decreasing number of trophic levels with productivity and deserts
have four ((Ayal 2007; Ayal 2011).
These three different theories were developed by scientists working in different biomes, the first working
in temperate forest, the second working in grasslands and tundra whereas the third working in deserts.
The proposed session will bring representatives of the 3 groups to try to unify the theories and through it
understand how terrestrial biomes work and especially arid ones: hot deserts, dry grasslands and cold
deserts (tundra). This is essential for understanding how biomes structure will change due to climate
change, especially the expected increase in aridity, the way to preserve arid biomes.
From evolutionary to anthropomorphic habitat degradation: a lesson from past cycles of
“desertification” to the present crises
Yoram Ayal; Department of Ecology; Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel; ayal@bgu.ac.il
Desertification is the process of degradation of the landscape in drylands. It is often a consequence of human
activities and reduces the future economic use of the land. The main factor currently driving this process is the
increase in human population size. This leads to over-exploitation of the environment, which not only reduces
production per se, but also results in detrimental changes in the landscape that make it difficult, or even impossible,
to recover past production. These processes are expected to be further enhanced by anthropomorphic global climate
changes. However, these processes are not new and, in part, are rooted in past evolutionary changes of the
landscape resulting from animal, manly herbivore, population growth that lead to over-exploitation of their food
resources. This, with the aid of a changing climate, the landscape was degraded and the animals' food resources
reduced.