Sand dams, a rainwater harvesting technique, are small dams constructed across ephemeral streams. During the rainy season, water is stored in sand that accumulates behind dam. provide communities drylands with during dry season via scoop holes, pools, and shallow wells. Whilst many studies portray as positive solution to growing threat of dryland insecurity, others highlight their challenges, i...

In drylands, scientific research shows that mobile livestock systems derive the maximum social, environmental and economic benefits from these areas. These ensure both short-term security in case of shocks and, right conditions, investment capacity. However, it is difficult to develop indicators understand assess their contribution territorial development, as they sit at intersection between se...

in order to investigate the effects of single irrigation amounts at different stages of rapeseed growth on yield and the improvement of water use efficiency and water productivity indices, this experiment was conducted as split plot arranged in a randomized complete block design (rcbd) with three replications during 2002-2003 for rainfed spring rapeseed variety (pf.7015.91= sarigol) at maragheh...

continuing agricultural expansion and urban development in saudi arabia, (located in an arid climate), together with an increased demands for more water supplies, calls for more efficient irrigation practices, and an increase in crop water productivity (cwp). throughout the present study, a deficit irrigation system was investigated for its impact on soil salinity, crop response factor (ky), cw...

Abstract Water withdrawals for irrigated crop production constitute the largest source of freshwater consumption on Earth. Monitoring dynamics cultivation is crucial tracking water consumption, particularly in water-scarce areas. We analyzed changes water-dependent 650 000 km 2 Central Asian drylands, including entire basin Amu Darya river, once tributary to Aral Sea before large-scale irrigati...

Plant-plant interactions are driven by environmental conditions, evolutionary relationships (ER) and the functional traits of the plants involved. However, studies addressing the relative importance of these drivers are rare, but crucial to improve our predictions of the effects of plant-plant interactions on plant communities and of how they respond to differing environmental conditions. To an...

Varnish microlamination (VML) dating is a correlative age determination technique that can be used to date and correlate various geomorphic features in deserts. In this study, we establish a generalized late Quaternary (i.e., 0–300 ka) varnish layering sequence for the drylands of western USA and tentatively correlate it with the SPECMAP oxygen isotope record. We then use this climatically corr...

1 Department of Forest and Soil Sciences, Forest Ecology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU), Vienna, Austria 2 Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel 3 Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Dr...

Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus, 84990 Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel Ramon Science Center, PO Box 194, 80600 Mizpe Ramon, Israel Wyler Department of Dryland Agriculture, French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Researc...

Drylands occupy 6 15 billion hectares (Bha) or 47 2% of the world's land area Of this, 3 5 to 4 0 Bha (57%65%) are e~ther deserl~fied or prone to deserlificat~on Desp~te the low soil organic carbon (SOC) concentratlon, total SOC pool of soils of the drylands IS 241 Pg (1 Pg = petagram = 10" g = I billion metrlc ton) or 15 5% of rhe world's rota1 of 1550 Pg to 1 -meter depth Desertification has ...