Multi-task of Weed Plants in Desert Environment

Abstract

Weeds are an important natural part in the desert ecosystem which plays substantial social-ecological roles and added many values to the desert environment. Weeds offer benefits and facilitate the life of desert settlers by growing in these localities. Some weeds can be used as indicators for soil types and properties. While others used in sand dunes fixation, protecting soil from degradation and erosion as well as limited the fast wind, preserving soil fertility by adding nitrogen or restore the missing nitrogen, organic materials to poor soils. Also, weeds can use as phytoremediation tools for the polluted soils with heavy metals and pesticides and other environmental synthetics. In industry, some weeds are involved in the manufacture of farmer tools (ropes and nets yarns…etc.) or as biofuel due to high biomass production. Some weeds used in human nutrition by eaten fresh or cooked or incorporated in human foods, where the content of these weeds included many essential elements and their importance increase in crisis times, used as fodder or grazing for domestic animals, feeding wild animals, source of energy (charcoal), in compost or green manure. Weeds considered as nontraditional resources for natural chemicals as medicines and biopesticides phytochemicals. Many weeds are used as repellents to keep insects away from home or crops. Weeds helps in the ecological maintenance and biodiversity conservation by supporting other plant, insect habitats, arthropods, microorganism’s diversity. These positive values of weed can improving land productivity and prevent many risks as well as combat desertification. Finally, besides these roles, still have several unknown beneficial roles of weeds need to reach large scale utilization, however, serious effort need to sustain weeds vegetation covers.