Desert Locust Swarms impact on the local vegetation along India-Pakistan border and their possible development trends

Abstract

The Desert Locust(Schistocercagregaria) has been an important agricultural pest at least since biblical times. Desert Locust Swarms in Northeast Africa and the India-Pakistan border swept through many countries at the end of 2019 and in early 2020. Large areas of farmland and natural vegetation were eaten, threatening local agricultural and animal husbandry production. The occurrence and development of Desert Locusts of African is closely related to climatic factors such as local precipitation(soil moisture), temperature, wind speed and wind direction. So what climatic conditions contributed to this Desert Locust Swarms? And the Locust Swarms near the IndiaPakistan border where is the closest Locust Swarms to China has become a hot spot for research and Chinese media. How did the Locust Swarms near the India-Pakistan border effect on the local vegetation? What is its development trend? Is it possible to fly into China? The impact of Desert locusts of the Indian-Pakistani border on local plants was analyzed by using time series satellite remote sensing data. The climatic factors connection with takeoff and migration of the Desert Locust Swarms were summarized based on past literatures, and the expansion trend of the Desert Locust Swarms and its possibility of entering China were analyzed based on the climatic characteristics such as precipitation and temperature in Africa and West Asia. It was concluded that:(1) due to the vegetation gnawing by the Desert Locust Swarms, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index(NDVI) of the large-scale area decreased obviously compared with normal years in January and February 2020 in Indian-Pakistani border area, and the area of NDVI decreased was enlarged in February compared to January;(2) Several rare cyclones(two in 2018,one in 2019) that brought strong precipitation to eastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula played an important role for this Africa horn-West Asia locust plague;(3) After analyzing the swarms takeoff temperature and Desert Locusts suitable breeding moisture( precipitation conditions), it suggested that the Locust Swarms had rare chance to migrate to eastern India, and it is even less likely to enter China.