Annual plants in semi-arid and arid areas are often closely associated with shrubs. The degree of association largely depends on the balance of negative and positive effects between these contrasting plant life-forms, ranging from interference to facilitation. Since positive interactions are predicted to become less important with increasing rainfall, the interaction balance is expected to shif...

differentiation among populations of the iranian teucrium polium l.was analyzed on the basis of morphological and phytochemical variability, to evaluate the level and distribution of diversity among four distant populations from arid, semi-arid, and sub-humid regions of fars province. morphological analysis included 11 characters related to the plant, leaf, and stem morphology. analyses of vari...

Biological soil crusts (BSCs), composed of lichens, cyanobacteria, mosses, liverworts and microorganisms, are key biotic components of arid and semi-arid ecosystems worldwide. Despite they are widespread in Spain, these organisms have been historically understudied in this country. This trend is beginning to change as a recent wave of research has been identifying BSCs as a model ecological sys...

studies of rainfall variation generally focus on large areas. for example, in india, the area average monsoon rainfall series of the whole country or meteorological subdivisions are used. this would be of no use for local agriculture, particularly in places where rainfall is very high or very low, especially for crops like small cardamom and vanilla which are very sensitive to soil moisture and...

Extensive livestock grazing even in unsuitable land has increasingly grown in most parts of semi-arid rangeland. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to identify suitable land for livestock grazing for optimum utilization while causing minimum impact to the environment. This paper adapted the schematic model based on the concepts presented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of suitabi...