Cynara cardunculus.L exhibits an important adaptability to arid and semi-arid regions where high salinity is frequently present. Aiming to introduce its cultivation in the Mediterranean environment especially in Tunisia, it seemed interesting to study seed germination of eight populations of cardoon in four concentrations of NaCl: 0g/L, 2g/L, 4g/L, and 8g/L. Our results showed a good variabilit...

Small−holder farming in semi−arid areas is being forced to change to compensate for the needs of more people living under conditions of increasingly variable rainfall. As more land is used for agriculture, rangeland areas are reduced, so limiting the availability of animal fodder. The length of fallow periods where soil fertility may be restored is also reduced. This has forced herders and farm...

isfahan province is located in the center of iran and has arid and semi-arid climate. in recent years, water shortage has increased in this region and has affected crop production. wheat is one of the most important crops of the province. in the present research, an index (dei) has been developed for drought evaluation using long term climatic data through application of principle components an...

Arid and semi-arid areas occupy one third of the total area of the world. This vast region is rich in natural resources. In recent times, desertification has become a world-wide phenomenon, due to human activities. China also suffers from this problem. Desertification is especially severe in the southeastern part of the arid and semi-arid region of the country. In this paper, the use of remote ...

Following a predicted decline in water resources in the Mediterranean Basin, we used reaction-diffusion equations to gain a better understanding of expected changes in properties of vegetation patterns that evolve along the rainfall transition between semi-arid and arid rainfall regions. Two types of scenarios were investigated: the first, a discrete scenario, where the potential consequences o...

Rainfall interception losses from an agroforestry system in semi-arid Kenya comprising Grevillea robusta and maize were measured over a period of 33 months. These measurements showed that interception was slightly higher (10.2%) under trees with no maize understorey, than in the intercropped treatment (9.8%), and was directly related to the degree of tree canopy cover. Interception estimates us...