Mongolia is situated in an arid/semi-arid zone in Northeast Asia. The southern part of the territory has a desert type climate. The thermal effect of the Tibetan Plateau is the principle reason for the desert climate, remotely suppressing convective systems in the arid region (Sato and Kimura, 2005a). On the other hand, Taiga forest covers the northern part of Mongolia, extending to Siberia in ...

This paper presents a modeling application of surface runoff using the Hydrologic Modelling System (HEC-HMS). A case study was carried out for the Jianghe watershed, a typical semi-arid and sub-humid geo-climatic region in northern China. Two modeling schemes using different descriptive sub-mechanism models provided by HEC-HMS for runoff volume, direct runoff and routing (channel flow) were inv...

Kogan and Trahtman [2003. The moisture from the air as water resource in arid region: hopes, doubts and facts. Journal of Arid Environments 53, 231–240] analysed the functioning of a passive dew condenser built by F.I. Zibold in 1912 in Feodosia, and proposed a model to explain how thousands of litres of condensed water might be generated per day based on Zibold’s design. In a previous publicat...

Global climate change has a significant effect on extreme environments and a profound influence on species survival. However, little is known of the genome-wide pattern of livestock adaptations to extreme environments over a short time frame following domestication. Sheep (Ovis aries) have become well adapted to a diverse range of agroecological zones, including certain extreme environments (e....

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...

Infection by Trypanosoma vivax and other African trypanosomes plays an important role in reproductive disorders in male and female livestock. Outbreaks of T. vivax in the semi-arid region of northeastern Brazil are characterized by wasting disease in cattle, sheep and goats with hematological, cardiac and nervous compromises in addition to reproductive failures. Similar to reports from Africa, ...

The exceptionally high plant diversity of the Greater Cape Floristic Region (GCFR) comprises a combination of ancient lineages and young radiations. A previous phylogenetic study of Aizoaceae subfamily Ruschioideae dated the radiation of this clade of > 1500 species in the GCFR to 3.8-8.7 Mya, establishing it as a flagship example of a diversification event triggered by the onset of a summer-ar...

Soil salinization has been known as a world wide problem. It is a chemical process that causes soil degradation particularly in arid and semi-arid agriculture region. There both advantages and disadvantages of optical and microwave remote sensing in the recognition of salinization soil. In order to retrieve both soil salinity and moisture, an empirical method is presented in this paper which is...

The large-scale reuse of untreated domestic sewage for irrigation is commonplace in many arid and semiarid zones of Latin America, as a result of increasing population pressures, water shortages, and protein shortfalls. Twenty per cent of the land is arid or semiarid, having only 5% of the water resources of the Region; but this land supports 60% of the population (367 million people in 1983-I)...

There is no single agreed definition of the term drylands. Two of the most widely accepted definitions are those of FAO and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD, 2000). FAO has defined drylands as those areas with a length of growing period (LGP) of 1–179 days (FAO, 2000a); this includes regions classified climatically as arid (Plate 1), semi-arid and dry subhumid. The...