This paper reports the study of the effect of the length of the recorded data used for monthly rainfall forecasting. Monthly rainfall data for three periods of 5, 10, and 49 years were collected from Kermanshah, Mashhad, Ahvaz, and Babolsar stations and used for calibration time series models. Then, the accuracy of the forecasting models was investigated by the following year’s data. The follow...

In arid regions, C3 vegetation is assumed to be more sensitive to precipitation and CO2 fertilization than C4 vegetation. In this study, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is used to examine vegetation growth in the arid Lower Heihe River Basin, northwestern China, for the past three decades. The results indicate that maximum NDVI (MNDVI) of the area increases over the years and is s...

The International Arid Lands Consortium (IALC) was established in 1990 to promote research, education, and training activities related to the development, management, and reclamation of arid and semiarid lands in the Southwestern United States, the Middle East, and elsewhere in the world. The Consortium supports the ecological sustainability and environmentally sound stewardship of these lands ...

TUI)IES OF HEMOPHILIA have, ins the past-, helped greatly to solve the mansy intricacies of the blood coagulation mechanism. More recently, howeser, they have also altered our s-cry (‘onscept of the disease arid stnggested that, ins-stead of a svehl defined entity, hemophilia ins fact represents a syndrome siit.h many different pathogensetic mechanisms. The questions “ i’hat. is hemophihia?” is...

We evaluated the response of the Earth land biomes to drought by correlating a drought index with three global indicators of vegetation activity and growth: vegetation indices from satellite imagery, tree-ring growth series, and Aboveground Net Primary Production (ANPP) records. Arid and humid biomes are both affected by drought, and we suggest that the persistence of the water deficit (i.e., t...

Developing cultivars with traits that can enhance and sustain productivity under climate change will be an important climate smart adaptation option. The modified CSM-CERES-Pearl millet model was used to assess yield gains by modifying plant traits determining crop maturity duration, potential yield and tolerance to drought and heat in pearl millet cultivars grown at six locations in arid (Hisa...

Evapotranspiration (ET) plays a key role in water resource management. It is important to understand the ET spatio-temporal pattern of South Asia for understanding and anticipating serious water resource shortages. In this study, daily ET in 2008 was estimated over South Asia by using MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) products combined with field observations and Global Land...

Estimation of wind erosion rates of Mongolian Plateau by using 137Cs tracing technique. Wind erosion is one of the major environmental problems in semi-arid and arid regions. Here we established a transect from northwest (Tariat, Mongolia) to southeast (Xilingol, Inner Mongolia of China) across the Mongolian Plateau, and selected eight sampling sites along the transect. We then estimated the so...

In spite of considerable efforts to monitor global vegetation, biomass quantification in drylands is still a major challenge due to low spectral resolution and considerable background effects. Hence, this study examines the potential of the space-borne hyperspectral Hyperion sensor compared to the multispectral Landsat OLI sensor in predicting dwarf shrub biomass in an arid region characterized...