xerify

English

Etymology

xer- +‎ -ify

Verb

xerify (third-person singular simple present xerifies, present participle xerifying, simple past and past participle xerified)

1. To make xeric (dry).
   • 1991, Fire and the Environment: Ecological and Cultural Perspectives : Proceedings of an International Symposium, Knoxville, Tennessee, March 20-24, 1990, page 17:

     Severe fires xerify forest sites by consuming much of the forest floor and perhaps even organic matter in the mineral soil , as well as by exposing the site to greater solar radiation through canopy reduction. Conversion of mesic sites to xeric conditions […]

   • 1992, William Aaron Nierenberg, Encyclopedia of Earth System Science, volume 4, →ISBN, page 180:

     This band of denser vegetation prevents water and sediment from moving father down the slope. This effectively xerifies (dries out) and distrophicates (depletes nutrients in) the intervening spaces. Dominating chenopod shrubs can, because of salt pumping and alteration of wind and water erosion and infiltration, interact with shrink-swell physical processes associated with clay particles to form a unique microrelief.

   • 1996, Biodiversity and Coarse Woody Debris in Southern Forests: Proceedings of the Workshop on Coarse Woody Debris in Southern Forests: Effects on Biodiversity, Athens, GA, October 18-20, 1993, page 14:

     […] while fire tends to xerify microsites, at least in the short run, by oxidizing humus from the forest floor and exposing the soil surface to greater insolation.