BACKGROUND Agrobiodiversity is said to contribute to the sustainability of agricultural systems and food security. However, how this is achieved especially in smallholder farming systems in arid and semi-arid areas is rarely documented. In this study, we explored two contrasting regions in Benin to investigate how agroecological and socioeconomic contexts shape the diversity and utilization of ...

Objective: More than 75 percent of Iran is located in arid and semi-arid then land degradation and desertification are one of the crises ecological. We require a proper understanding of causes and processes of desertification to control the huge phenomenon on the global and regional situation. Because southeast of Iran located in arid land then assessment of desertification is very importance f...

Objective: More than 75 percent of Iran is located in arid and semi-arid then land degradation and desertification are one of the crises ecological. We require a proper understanding of causes and processes of desertification to control the huge phenomenon on the global and regional situation. Because southeast of Iran located in arid land then assessment of desertification is very importance f...

Agricultural drought, a common phenomenon in most parts of the world, is one of the most challenging natural hazards to monitor effectively. Land surface water index (LSWI), calculated as a normalized ratio between near infrared (NIR) and short-wave infrared (SWIR), is sensitive to vegetation and soil water content. This study examined the potential of a LSWI-based, drought-monitoring algorithm...

A detailed and well-dated proxy record of summer rainfall variation in arid Central Asia is lacking. Here, we report a long-term, high resolution record of summer rainfall extracted from a peat bog in arid eastern-Central Asia (AECA). The record indicates a slowly but steadily increasing trend of summer rainfall in the AECA over the past 8500 years. On this long-term trend are superimposed seve...

Reclamation of Arid LandsIt is our pleasure to inform you that Springer International Publisher (2017) has published a book entitled "Reclamation of Arid Lands" in English.This book is the result of joint collaboration between the University of Tehran, University of Kashan and Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, whose authors are as follows:Mohammad Jafari: Professor, Faculty of Natur...

The reproductive ecology of the freshwater fish Cichla monoculus Spix, 1831 (Osteichthyes: Cichlidae) was investigated in the Campo Grande Reservoir, Northeast Brazil. Rainfall, temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen and electrical conductivity of the water were recorded monthly. Fish collected on a monthly basis were measured, weighted, dissected, sexed and the stage of maturation of the gonads wer...

Effects of seed rates on grain, straw and oil yield of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) were studied for two years in the semi-arid central Bekaa Valley of Lebanon. Three trials, two under rainfed and one under supplementary irrigations, were conducted using seed rates of 6, 12, 24 and 48 kg ha -1 corresponding to intra-row spacing of 20, 10, 5, and 2.5 cm, respectively. There was significan...

     Roads have an important role in plants dispersal on different scales. Various plant species settle on roadsides, but some of them can enter the natural environments and threaten their biodiversity. Worldwide knowledge of roadside flora is necessary for local and global management of natural areas. Accordingly, the roadside flora of Northern Khorasan rangelands was studied along the 600 km ...

Severe range degradation was critically extended in many region of Iran and caused many rangelands were restricted and interwoven with croplands in a complex system. Therefore, rangeland planning and inventory as an isolated activity has become almost impossible. Current landscape planning involves contributions of different social organizations often with different interests and with different...