Stipa tenacissima steppes cover 70,000 km2 in the Mediterranean basin. In these habitats, resprouting shrubs form woody patches that were removed in the past to promote fiber and forage production. Patches are recovering after decades of abandonment. Patches enhance plant richness and affect ecosystem functioning. Yet, they have been commonly considered as a single entity, paying scarce attention to

Anthropogenic disturbances, particularly in deserts where resources and biodiversity are limited, may affect the delicate balance that enables an organism to exist in its environment. In this study, we investigated the impacts of human disturbance and the resulting changes in vegetation composition on activity, thermal biology, and body condition index of the Egyptian spiny-tailed burrowing lizard

Vitellaria paradoxa, the shea tree, an economically important fruit-tree species native to savanna regions is threatened in Burkina Faso due to overexploitation and changing land-use. Furthermore, it remains unclear how climate change will influence its frequency and distribution. We investigated the impact of climate change on the projected spatial distribution of favorable habitats for V. paradoxa

Despite occupying small land areas, riparian systems provision a large number of vertebrates, including amphibians, one of the most threatened vertebrate taxa. We associated capture rates of a fossorial desert anuran (Scaphiopus couchii) to non-native plant invasion and shrub encroachment via soil traits and habitat physiognomy in native, invaded, and shrub-encroached riparian habitats in the Sonoran

Recent reports from Isfahan, Iran, have proclaimed cases of land subsidence arising from persistence of drought events and groundwater overexploitation. In this light, the present study attempts to conduct an PS-InSAR analysis of subsidence events using the Sentinel–1A Synthetic Aperture Radar imagery technique, in order to develop a subsidence map of the target study region, covering the period from

The objective of this study is to evaluate the bromatological composition, carbohydrate fractionation, in vitro digestibility and gas production of varieties of forage cactus of the genus Opuntia, associated with different phenological phases. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design in a 5 × 3 factorial arrangement consisting of five forage cactus varieties of the genus Opuntia

Uluru is the more famous of the two namesake inselbergs found in Uluru Kata-Tjuta National Park (UKTNP). Uluru is roughly 10 km around its base, stands nearly 350 m tall, and can cast a shadow more than a kilometre long during the early morning and late afternoon hours. Additionally, there are many areas near the base of Uluru that receive nearly continuous shade throughout the day, which may also

Ephemeral rivers are key features of desert ecosystems, providing shallow groundwater and occasional surface flow, but compared to perennial systems, the structure of riparian forests in ephemeral rivers and their interactions with the hydrologic regime are poorly understood. This study examines the distribution of riparian woody species in the ephemeral Kuiseb River in central Namibia. Unmanned aerial

Globally, invasive species in grasslands and shrublands have substantially altered trophic interactions and ecosystem processes. In North America, cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) has invaded much of the western sage-steppe, leading to substantial shifts in plant communities and fire regimes. The effects of this cheatgrass invasion on small mammals are inconsistent among species and regions, and the mechanisms

Forest thinning is an important management strategy for altering the hydrological function of forests by redistributing of incident rainfall, and improving the capacity to store water on forest floor and in the soil. A study to analyze the water conservation functions of the forest canopy and forest floor was conducted on a 36-year-old Larix principis-rupprechtii plantation with different thinning

Parental provisioning and breeding success of Eurasian Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) has been widely studied in some continental populations but not in their island-dwelling counterparts. We studied breeding success of kestrels nesting in natural rocky cavities in southern xerophytic scrub of the oceanic island of Tenerife during eight breeding seasons and its relationships with the endemic Gallot's

Availability of organic amendment for improving crop yields under rehabilitated degraded soils is a challenge in the Sahelian regions. There is, therefore, a need to develop an innovative manure management strategy for optimizing the use of available manure to increase crop yields in these regions. A 2-year field and litterbag experiments were conducted to determine the optimal manure application option

Chemical and phytolith analyses of well-preserved goat faecal pellets from different strata of the Ramon I Rock Shelter, in the Makhtesh Ramon (Crater) in the Central Negev, Israel, show patterns of seasonal stabling and grazing among nomads from three different periods, the Late Neolithic, the Early Bronze Age, and recent times (ca. 1800 AD to date). Low faecal lignin and high protein in the ancient

Desertification is an issue of environmental concern in Nigeria, particularly the northern part of the country. This study examines land cover changes related to the process of desertification in the states along the northern boundary of Nigeria (Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Jigawa, Yobe, and Borno) and the implications on the Lake Chad Basin. A time series of Landsat imagery at a spatial resolution of

One of the challenges of working with rare or elusive species is knowing their current distribution. Species distribution modeling (SDM) is a robust approach to estimate the distribution of a species where this information is unknown. The Andean cat (Leopardus jacobita) is an extremely rare and endangered carnivore living in the central Andes of South America. This study sought to determine priority

Leopards (Panthera pardus) are the only free-ranging large predators to still occur naturally throughout much of Africa, but are vulnerable to habitat loss, ecosystem degradation and persecution. We used a systematic camera trap survey covering an area of ∼3100 km2 in the Little Karoo, a semi-arid biodiversity hotspot in South Africa, to assess the impacts of land use and habitat type on leopard density

We investigated food preferences, growth and survival of the caddisfly shredder Phylloicus angustior while exposed to leaves of Eucalyptus camaldulensis and three native tree species (Myrcia guianensis, Miconia chartacea, and Protium brasiliense) of the Brazilian Cerrado. Because of the low quality of native leaves, we hypothesized that E. camaldulensis would be preferred and would promote higher growth

The purpose of this paper is to examine the beef value chain and identify climate change adaptation and investment options in the semi-arid areas of northern Kenya. The research uses an innovative approach to value chain analysis, namely the three-step Value Chain Analysis for Resilience in Drylands (VC-ARID) that considers the specific characteristics of semi-arid systems. All the respondents interviewed

Few comprehensive studies have clearly addressed climate change impacts on agricultural land use change in developing countries. Also, land use studies have rarely reflected the perception of farmers concerning the drivers and consequences of land use change. This study aimed to evaluate agricultural land use changes using the case of Eij County, Iran, and determine the perceived drivers and consequences

Forage productivity of degraded rangelands is low and can be increased through development of small structures across the land slope which capture overland flow and store it in the soil profile for subsequent plant use. Establishment of forage shrubs in micro-catchment structures is commonly practiced to boost forage production on degraded rangelands but its impact on natural vegetation is usually

Animals living in desert environments have to be adaptable to significant temperature shifts in their surroundings. Ungulates have behavioral adaptations to adjust to thermoregulation problems and use the landscape features to lessen the effects of thermal fluctuations. In this paper, I investigated the usage of the local landscape by goitered gazelles (Gazella subgutturosa) in natural conditions to

A lot of studies have been devoted to understanding the underlying mechanism of woody plant encroachment in savanna ecosystems for informed management strategy. However, many of them take their study area as a whole and do not consider the encompassed environmental gradient, which may modulate the role of different factors in the encroachment. This study aims to test the hypothesis that the role of

The dominant effect of climate change in Africa will be in altered water balances. The objectives of this study were: 1) to assess the impact of climate change on soil water balance and maize production, 2) to evaluate the effect of tied-ridges and increased fertilizer use as potential adaptation options during 2021–2050 & 2066–2095 periods. The MarkSimGCM daily weather generator was used to generate

Bare soil is an idiosyncratic and important feature of arid ecosystems that can be affected by human land use such as domestic grazing intensification. Here we focused on the study of individual bare soil areas (BSA) and their long-term dynamics using DINVEG (spatially-explicit simulation model). In Patagonian rangelands we photographed BSA in grazed and ungrazed stands (n = 50). Compared with exclosure

Ungulates are famous for large-scale movements in response to local and regional changes in plant productivity. However, it is poorly understood how non-migratory ungulates respond towards shortages in plant availability. In the arid Kunene Region of Namibia, we studied the variation of home ranges and habitat use of gemsbok during a period of severe drought that led to a critical food shortage. We

Despite decades of research, controversy has emerged as to whether positive and negative interactions predictably shift with increasing environmental stress. We used projection matrices, to determine growth rate and elasticity and a LTR experiment to quantify the contribution of each matrix elements to the differences in λ observed between sympatric and syntopic sub-populations of globular cactus species

Boswellia papyrifera (Del.) Hochst is a threatened tropical dryland tree species. It is the source of frankincense, valued for its industrial, religious and traditional uses. This tree species is reported as under threat due to mortality from wound and inappropriate frankincense harvesting techniques. Two experiments were conducted simultaneously in the lowlands of North Western Gonder Zone, Ethiopia

In the absence of top-down regulation by predators, herbivore populations irrupt. In irrupting populations of large herbivores deaths are frequent and availability of carrion from carcasses is high, potentially subsidising facultative scavengers such as crows and ravens. Increases in facultative scavengers could amplify perceived and real predation risk for small prey. We provisioned large-herbivore

Knowledge of pre-germination seed treatments is critical for ecological restoration practices such as outplantings or direct seeding. However, in drylands, there is a lack of this kind of information about some species with high potential value for ecological restoration. This is the case of Larrea divaricata Cav., a native species that is dominant and can grow in degraded environments to the Monte

Functional traits have been linked to relevant vital rates across co-occurring species, such as growth and survival. However, the relationship between plant traits and germination has been much less studied, despite that germination can be a key transition for plants. Building on evolutionary theory, we propose that variation in germination fraction across co-occurring desert annual plants may result

Global warming may increase the danger of local extinction for plant species with low tolerance to high temperatures. Tillandsia recurvata is a bromeliad epiphyte native to semiarid ecosystems of America. In North-Central Mexico, Prosopis laevigata (mesquite) is the main phorophyte of T. recurvata. Climate change models indicate that temperature will rise between 1 and 2 °C by the end of 2030, and

Physaria lesicii (Rollins) O'Kane & Al-Shehbaz is a globally rare plant known from only three populations in the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range in Montana, USA, an area subjected to grazing by feral horses for at least 100 years. The purpose of this study was to determine effects of trampling by feral horses on this rare plant. I measured density of P. lesicii plants in 33 paired on- and off-trail

The oases of Morocco, located between the Mediterranean and the Sahara ecoregions, constitute the main defence system of the temperate region against desert encroachment. This study aims to determine species richness and distribution of native and non-native ants in the oases of southern Morocco. Survey campaigns were conducted in 11 oases between March and May 2017. Thirty-four ant species belonging

Stream channels in the American Southwest are misunderstood because they have been understudied and overgeneralized. This misunderstanding has serious consequences for environmental policy, particularly in defining the scope of jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act. While the current status of regulations defining the scope of jurisdictional waters is in flux, the currently-codified regulations require

Of critical importance to plants is the ability to secure adequate photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) for functioning, growth and reproduction. The Opuntia genus represents plants that produce new cladodes (=pads, the primary photosynthetic surface) annually and whose orientation is a response to PAR. Because of the great variability in orientation, I assess pad orientation and tilt at highly

The present study assessed the accuracy of twenty-three available globally and regionally gridded precipitation products over Iran. The datasets were classified into five different categories based on the data sources used: gauge-only, gauge-satellite, gauge-reanalysis, reanalysis-only, and gauge-satellite-reanalysis. By considering monthly rain gauge observation data as reference, the above precipitation

Sub-Saharan floodplains are sensitive to climatic changes in their upstream drainage basin, a major concern is given the dependency of millions of people for their daily subsistence. Understanding hydroclimatic trends and variability is critical for developing integrated coupled human and natural system models to evaluate future scenarios of vulnerability. Here we describe the historical climatic changes

In the present work, we studied the fragmentation effect of the habitat of the desert terrestrial Isopod Hemilepistus reaumurii on the sex ratio, body size, fecundity, and sexual dimorphism of two populations located at two stations in the region of Gabes, namely Tmoula (fragmented and anthropic habitat) and Akarit Wadi (natural habitat). At both stations, specimens of H. reaumurii were collected monthly

The introduction of exotic buffelgrass (Pennisetum ciliare) to the Sonoran Desert has modified the structure and fuel loads of desert scrub, creating a continuous fuel bed and altering fire frequencies and intensities. The damage to native vegetation has been widely acknowledged, but the mechanisms underlying the response have been little studied. Considering bark as one of the important characteristics

Archaeological surveys and excavations in the Jebel Oraf palaeolake basin, north-western Saudi Arabia, have identified a well-preserved early- to mid-Holocene landscape. Two types of occupation site can be distinguished: nine small and ephemeral scatters from single occupation phases on the slopes of sand dunes and three hearth sites indicative of repeated occupation on palaeolake shorelines. In addition

Climate change has compromised global cereal production, particularly in semiarid regions where small changes in rainfall and temperature or excessive heat can have large effects on crop productivity. Central Asia is particularly vulnerable to climate change, but the understanding of the impacts of climate change on yields is incomplete for this region. We used fixed-effect panel regressions to quantify

Forest belts play an important role in soil wind erosion control and the prevention of aeolian sand movement in arid and semiarid regions. In order to reveal the effect of plant spacing, number of rows, and arrangement on airflow of forest belt, the airflow fields were measured in a wind tunnel for artificial single-row forest belts with different plant spacings, forest belts with different numbers

Carbon fluxes and contents are integral components of the global carbon cycle. The photosynthetic and respiratory rates were measured at the levels of leaves and canopies for different community types in a typical steppe ecoregion in Xilin Gol, Inner Mongolia, Northern China. Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) content and density and above-biomass were surveyed in each community type. The results show: 1) thicketized

In the Great Basin, changes in climate and associated fire regimes may alter the density and distribution of shrubs, changing the structure and diet quality of plants in burned areas. We evaluated how the structural and phytochemical characteristics of three-tip sagebrush (Artemisia tripartita) relative to Wyoming big sagebrush (A. tridentata wyomingensis) influence the winter foraging ecology of Greater

Some of the most arid environments inhabited by the Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) are the river systems draining the southern slopes of the High Atlas Mountains into the Sahara Desert, where we have studied otter distribution, habitat use and feeding ecology. We found signs of otter presence in 61% of 80 sampled sites. The species was widespread at intermediate elevations within the study area, being

Accounts of land degradation and desertification in Namibian communal rangelands have seldom illustrated the broader historical context and structural frameworks within which these social-ecological processes have emerged. This paper aims to address this gap, and argues that it is necessary to take into account past state interventions and policies so as to thoroughly understand the drivers of land

Species distribution modelling is a powerful tool that can gives us ecological insights about species distributions, and potential effects of environmental factors, in poorly known habitats. For the first time the distribution of terrestrial reptiles in Saudi Arabia was modelled, and environmental factors that affect their current distribution and richness investigated. Reptiles are a major vertebrate

The Tankwa Karoo National Park (TKNP) is part of a renowned arid biome with unrivaled diversity in succulents. The park has been subject to anthropogenic pressures such as heavy grazing with climate change a recent threat. This study investigated changes in vegetation productivity between 2000 and 2014 across six vegetation types using rainfall and satellite data. The park is broadly divided into a

This paper presents the first shallow groundwater geochemical data from the Lut Desert (Dasht-e-Lut), one of the hottest places on the planet. The waters are Na–Cl brines that have undergone extensive evaporation, but they are unlike seawater derived brines in that the K+ is low and the Ca2+ > Mg2+ and HCO3− > SO42−. In addition to evapo-concentration, the most saline samples indicate that the dissolution

Several solute-source models have been proposed to elucidate the origin of the solutes in the Gulf coastal sabkhas. The Ascending Brine hydrogeologic model has been shown to be a viable explanation for the origin of solutes in the Arabian (Persian) Gulf coastal sabkha in the UAE (United Arab Emirates). A coastal sabkha approximately 500 km northwest of the UAE sabkha and 40 km northwest of Dhahran

Core sediments from Keluke Lake in transitional zone between arid central Asia and monsoon Asia, provide insights into the advance-retreat history of the summer monsoon and the Westerlies. Sediment grain size and δ13C of authigenic carbonate reveal paleoclimatic evolution since 9.32 cal ka BP: a dry-cold climate in the early Holocene, a wet-cold climate in the early stage of mid-Holocene, a relatively

The authors explore a new approach to monitoring patches of ground with accentuated desert conditions, here called “parcels of desertification”, resulting from the relation between albedo and surface temperature values. The territory of the El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve in northwestern Sonora, Mexico serves as the example to substantiate the procedure. The region is a UNESCO

Sheep depredation by puma (Puma concolor) is a socio-environmental problem that has intensified in recent decades in Patagonia. A bounty system to control this carnivore is implemented in Chubut province (central Patagonia), whereas alternative measures to mitigate the conflict are still in progress. A common recommendation to limit livestock depredation by large carnivores is to maintain suitable