Desert Landscapes as Systems

What is a System?

• It is where a set of components or variables operate together. They interact with one another. These are the processes.
• Patterns and landforms result from the interactions and can be observed and classified. These are the outputs.
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The Systems Approach

• A systems approach subdivides a complex system into a series of interrelated component parts that are linked via transfers of mass and/or energy.
• A change in any part of the system, for example in the operation of a particular process, can lead to changes in the whole system.
• Negative Feedback: If one element changes because of some outside influence, this upsets the internal equilibrium and affects other components of the system
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• Positive Feedback: By a process of feedback, the system adjusts to the change and regains equilibrium

Desert Landscape Systems

• Landscape systems lie at the heart of physical geography, linking landforms to the processes that create them, and linking those processes to the global environmental system that controls them. Desert landscapes provide a good example of how landscape systems work because they demonstrate clearly the links between landforms, processes and environmental controls.
• The system can be observed at a range of timescales: processes can be measured in action at scales from seconds to days in deserts.
• Deserts are part of a broader environmental system and are associated with clear inputs and outputs. The difference between these inputs and outputs determines how everything in the desert behaves.

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The Desert System

• The balance between erosion, entrainment, transport and deposition of debris determines how deserts transform the landscape.
• Changes in the broader environmental system, such as climate change, can induce a change in the state of a desert by influencing the balances between inputs, throughputs and outputs.
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