Mark goes to a big town and finds a dearth (8)
I believe the answer is:
scarcity
'a dearth' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'mark goes to a big town' is the wordplay.
'mark' becomes 'scar' (mark left by an injury).
'goes to' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'a big town' becomes 'city' (I've seen this before).
'scar'+'city'='SCARCITY'
'and finds' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for scarcity that I've seen before include "Shortness of supply" , "Shortage" , "Thinness" , "Something uncommon" , "Want" .)