For certain remote areas like Mongolia, field-based precipitation, surface and ground water isotopic data are scarce. So far no such data exist for the Mongolian Gobi desert, which hinders the understanding of isotopic fractionation processes in this extreme, arid region. We collected 26 event-based precipitation samples, 39 Bij river samples, and 75 samples from other water bodies in the Dzung...

Although, it is occupying quantitavely a marginal place among the domestic herbivorous (0.4% only of the world domestic herbivorous), the large camelids (dromedary and Bactrian) are present in almost all the arid lands of the old world (except in Southern Africa), being wide spreading over 35 million km2. They are overall remarkable valorizators of these spaces by their productive potential and...

The terrestrial age, or the terrestrial residence time of a meteorite, together with its exposure history provides us with useful insight into the history of the meteorite. It is easy to observe that stony meteorites can weather quickly in humid environments. However, we find that large numbers of meteorites found in semi-arid and arid environments can survive for much longer times. Meteorites ...

Chromosome studies along with heterochromatin distribution pattern analysis have been carried out in two domesticated species of Vigna Savi, 1824 which grow in contrasting geo-climatic conditions of India: Vignaumbellata Thunberg, 1969, a legume well acclimatized to subtropical hilly regions of North-east India and Vignaaconitifolia Jacquin, 1969, a species of arid and semi-arid regions in dese...

Loss of species richness and reduced abundance have been the main responses to perturbations of smalland medium-sized mammals in arid and semi-arid areas. Nonetheless, some mammal species whose habitat requirements are met in disturbed patches may benefit from structural changes in the environment brought about by perturbations. In desert areas of Argentina different mammal responses are attrib...

[1] In most climates on Earth, biological processes control soil N. In the Atacama Desert of Chile, aridity severely limits biology, and soils accumulate atmospheric NO3 . We examined this apparent transformation of the soil N cycle using a series of ancient Atacama Desert soils (>2 My) that vary in rainfall (21 to <2 mm yr ). With decreasing rainfall, soil organic C decreases to 0.3 kg C m 2 a...

Archaeological evidence from dry cave deposits in the northern Chihuahuan Desert reveal intensive utilisation of desert plants that store prebiotic inulin-type fructans as the primary carbohydrate. In this semi-arid region limited rainfall and poor soil conditions prevented the adoption of agriculture and thus provides a unique glimpse into a pure hunter-forager economy spanning over 10 000 yea...

Eritrea is situated on the east coast of Africa, bordering Sudan, Djibouti and Ethiopia. It is hot and dry in the desert strip along the Red Sea coast, cooler and wetter in the central highlands, and semi-arid in the western hills and lowlands, with the heaviest rainfall during June to September, except in the coastal desert. Since settlement of the conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia in 2000...