Ref #1: ‘With this work, the authors demonstrate that annual soil respiration can be estimated by measuring soil respiration at mean annual temperature at sites which are not water limited. At seasonally arid sites, a correction factor based on the ratio between precipitation and potential evapotranspiration needs to be used. This work is, thus, extremely useful in that it proposes a feasible m...

The engineering interest about dune fields is dictated by the their interaction with a number of human infrastructures in arid environments. Sand dunes dynamics is dictated by wind and its ability to induce sand erosion, transport and deposition. A deep understanding of dune aerodynamics serves then to ground effective strategies for the protection of human infrastructures from sand, the so-cal...

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This paper reviews the main methodologies and techniques that have been used to characterize gypsum in soils, especially in gypsiferous soils of semiarid and arid regions and range from the identification of gypsum in soil surveys in the field to the study of gypsum in the laboratory. Many methods of gypsum identification and determination have been developed, each one with its own limitations....

Few studies have investigated the influence of water availability on plant population spatial patterns. We studied changes in the spatial patterns of Caragana stenophylla along a climatic drought gradient within the Inner Mongolian Plateau, China. We examined spatial patterns, seed density, "nurse effects" of shrubs on seedlings, transpiration rates and water use efficiency (WUE) of C. stenophy...

Chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) living in an arid environment in Namibia were heavily infested with ticks of the genus Rhipicephalus. A survey to assess tick numbers and identity was undertaken in the baboons' habitat. It appears that there is a strong correlation between the number of ticks and the amount of time the baboons spend in an area. It is speculated that tick infestations were respons...

Culturable bacteria in Himalayan ice in response to atmospheric circulation S. Zhang, S. Hou, X. Ma, D. Qin, and T. Chen Laboratory of Cryosphere and Environment, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China School of Life Science, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China Received: 7 March 2006 – Accepted: 1 April 20...

Globally, grassland biomes form one of the largest terrestrial covers and present critical social–ecological benefits. In Kenya, Arid Semi-arid Lands (ASAL) occupy 80% landscape are for livelihoods millions pastoralists. However, they have been invaded by Invasive Plant Species (IPS) thereby compromising their ecosystem functionality. Opuntia stricta, a well-known IPS, has ASAL in Kenya poses t...

This study presents preliminary results of the validation of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) daily LST products (MOD/MYD11A1, Version 5) using longwave radiation ground measurements obtained at 12 stations in the North Arid and Semi-Arid Area Cooperative Experimental Observation Integrated Research program. In this evaluation process, the broadband emissivity at each s...