The assembly of regional biotas and organismal responses to anthropogenic climate change both depend on the capacity of organisms to adapt to novel ecological conditions. Here we demonstrate the concept of evolutionary lag time, the time between when a climatic regime or habitat develops in a region and when it is colonized by a given clade. We analyzed the time of colonization of four clades (...

A new ‘growing’ maximum likelihood classification algorithm for small reservoir delineation has been developed and is tested with Radarsat-2 data for reservoirs in the semi-arid Upper East Region, Ghana. The delineation algorithm is able to find the land-water boundary from SAR imagery for different weather and environmental conditions. As such, the algorithm allows for remote sensed operationa...

Two new genera and two new species of Mythicomyiinae are described based on material collected in Parque Nacional Serra das Confusões, Piauí state, northeast Brazil, an arid region: Mitinha, gen. nov., type-species M. neri, sp. nov. and Tamanduamyia, gen. nov., type-species T. bandeira, sp. nov. An illustrated key is presented for world Mythicomyiinae genera. 

Understanding how the aboveground net primary production (ANPP) of arid and semiarid ecosystems of the world responds to variations in precipitation is crucial for assessing the impacts of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems. Rain-use efficiency (RUE) is an important measure for acquiring this understanding. However, little is known about the response pattern of RUE for the largest contigu...

Vegetation dynamics in arid and semi-arid regions have an important impact on carbon cycle, water energy exchange at local, regional, global scales. Therefore, it is of great significance for scientists to grasp the changes vegetation cover timely accurately. Based this, applicability ESTARFM model complex terrain area Xinjiang was explored using Landsat MODIS data fusion, overall change charac...

Higher fertilization on winter wheat increased the fluctuation of winter wheat yield in different rainfall years and impacted the sustainable development of winter wheat production on the Loess Plateau. Based on the long term field experimental data at Chagnwu Agricultural Station, this paper evaluated the EPIC model. And this paper also suggested a sustainable fertilizer level for winter wheat...

Few studies describe the primary drivers influencing soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and the distribution of carbon (C) fractions in agricultural systems from semi-arid regions; yet these soils comprise one fifth of the global land area. Here we identified the primary drivers for changes in total SOC and associated particulate (POC), humus (HOC) and resistant (ROC) organic C fractions for 1347...