The Asian interior arid zone is the largest desert landform system in the Northern Hemisphere, and has high biodiversity. Little is currently known about the evolutionary history of its biota. In this study, we used Zygophyllum, an important and characteristic component of the Asian interior arid zone, to provide new insights into the evolution of this biota. By greatly enlarged taxon sampling,...

This paper reports a practical application of digitally enhanced Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) data coupled with principal component analysis (PCA) and spectral angle mapping (SAM) techniques to assess changes in vegetation and land condition within the U.S. Army installation at Fort Bliss, Texas. Fort Bliss is located in a semi-arid desert environment wh...

The Atacama Desert of northern Chile is the oldest and most arid nonpolar environment on Earth. It is a coastal desert covering approximately 180,000 km(2), and together with the greater Atacama region it comprises a dramatically wide range of ecological niches. Long known and exploited for its mineral resources, the Atacama Desert harbors a rich microbial diversity that has only recently been ...

Abstract. From the perspectives of many environmental and conservative policy makers, improving and diversifying the livelihoods have been found as a mechanism to promote the livelihoods and persuade people to avoid the overexploitation and degradation of natural resources. Due to the fragility of the environment and inconsistency of incomes, the alternative income sources may be promised to wa...

     This research has attempted to measure the parameters of barchan dunes as one of the desert landforms. This has been conducted by a field survey using cartographic techniques. In the field, two barchan dunes have completely been surveyed by total station equipment. Using the sample points a novel method has been devised to measure the barchans parameters. The method is mainly based on geom...

ABSTRACT- Desert truffles are hypogeous ascomyceteous ectomycorrhizal fungi, occurring in arid and semi-arid ecosystems. A PCR-based method was developed for the identification of 3 major desert truffles of Iran: Terfezia claveryi, Tirmania pinoyi and Tirmania nivea based on internal transcribed spacers of rDNA. Two specific PCR primers were designed for T. claveryi, 4 for T. pinoyi, and 2 for ...

Modeling has played a crucial role in understanding the structural and functional dynamics of forest and grassland ecosystems in the past decades, but relatively few ecosystem models have been developed for deserts. Adapting an existing desert ecosystem model to new regions with different community components and environmental settings may testify to the generality of model applicability, furth...