Law enforcement and massive media awareness, limiting anthropogenic disturbance, are the way to implement successful desert native vegetation recovery plans. A lesson learned on the resiliency of desert ecosystems throughout studying the native vegetation coverage in the Wadi Al-Batin desert ecosystem during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research investigated an indirect impact of lockdown during COVID-19 on native desert vegetation in arid rangelands from 2017 to 2020 using remote sensing. The results revealed that despite receiving the least amount of rain of the three years (≤ 93 mm), the COVID-19 year (2020) had the highest native vegetation coverage at 28.5% compared with 6% in 2017 and 2% in 2018. The lockdown minimized the anthropogenic activities' (overgrazing and destructive camping), resulting in an obvious recovery of native desert plants. These findings provide a clear message of the importance of enforcing the environmental rules to support natural rangelands for livestock grazing.

Assess the impact of lockdown during COVID-19 on natural rangelands in the arid regions using remote sensing technologies

ACS Fall 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.