The goal of this study was to gain insight into the diversity of culturable actinobacteria in desert soil crusts and to determine the physiological characteristics of the predominant actinobacterial group in these crusts. Culture-dependent method was employed to obtain actinobacterial strains from desert soil samples collected from Shapotou National Desert Ecological Reserve (NDER) located in T...

Evaporation is linearly and inversely related to absolute humidity at 26 degrees to 27 degrees C. The relative rate of loss in desert reptiles, rodents, and anurans is about 1:10:40. The maximum rate of water loss is about 2.5 and 5 times the basal rate, respectively, in pocket mice and sand lizards. The ratio of loss from lung to loss from skin is about 84:16 in kangaroo rats and 70:30 in ratt...

The habitats of the genus Altererythrobacter are various, including marine sediment, seawater, rhizosphere of wild rice, desert sand, etc. The genome of the type strain of Altererythrobacter troitsensis JCM 17037, isolated from sea urchin, was sequenced. This study would not only facilitate the understanding of the physiology, adaptation, and evolution of the Altererythrobacter species, but als...

Context Our research contributes to the knowledge of using soil algae combat degradation. Aims We tested green (Klebsormidium flaccidum) and a field community in 3-month greenhouse experiment studied their performance on two substrates: (1) sand from Ordos Desert; (2) artificial desert (washed sand). Methods A rapid fluorescence microscopy-Image J method was developed estimate abundance algae. ...

Deserts are one of the major landforms on the Earth. While deserts occupy about one-fifth of Earth’s land surface, they have been studied to a much lesser extent. All over the world, desert landforms are expanding ever rapidly and more and more human settlements are finding place in desert regions for habitation. Thus, quantifying and monitoring dunes becomes more relevant from a managerial per...

This study aims to identify favorable oil–gas reservoir facies in the Chishan group of the Wubao fault zone (Gaoyou sag, Subei basin, China) using the methods of outcrops and cores observation, granularity analysis, scanning electron microscope, log data, etc. The results suggest that the Chishan group in the studied area mainly develops desert sedimentary system, and contains five kinds of fac...

Phlebotomine sand flies transmit Leishmania, phlebo-viruses and Bartonella to humans. A prominent gap in our knowledge of sand fly biology remains the ecology of their immature stages. Sand flies, unlike mosquitoes do not breed in water and only small numbers of larvae have been recovered from diverse habitats that provide stable temperatures, high humidity and decaying organic matter. We descr...

Asian dust events transport the airborne bacteria in Chinese desert regions as well as mineral particles and influence downwind area varying biological ecosystems and climate changes. However, the airborne bacterial dynamics were rarely investigated in the Gobi desert area, where dust events are highly frequent. In this study, air samplings were sequentially performed at a 2-m high above the gr...

Afforestation is an important and effective way to curb wind-sand hazards in the Alxa Desert. However, over-afforestation makes soil drying occur frequently. The formation of a layer seriously restricting effectiveness vegetation construction regional ecological stability. To clarify process desiccation Haloxylon ammodendron plantations determine suitable planting years, typical H. plantation t...