The integration of phylogenetics, phylogeography and palaeoenvironmental studies is providing major insights into the historical forces that have shaped the Earth's biomes. Yet our present view is biased towards arctic and temperate/tropical forest regions, with very little focus on the extensive arid regions of the planet. The Australian arid zone is one of the largest desert landform systems ...

an experiment was conducted on eight weak and anaemic goats revealed pale conjunctivae, increased heart rate, rough hair coat, dullness and depression. the haematology showed significantly decreased haemoglobin (7.37±0.16 g %), packed cell volume (pcv)(23.37±0.56%),total erythrocyte count (tec)(8.12±0.18 million/cumm), mean corpuscular haemoglobin (mch) (9.10±0.30 pg) and mean corpuscular volum...

the micromorphology of pedogenic carbonate features in calcareous soils of arid and semiarid regions of kohgilouye province, southwestern iran, has been studied to determine their genesis and distribution in different climatic regions. eight representative pedons (from a total number of 24 pedons) were studied in aridic-ustic (minimum rainfall), ustic and xeric (maximum rainfall) soil moisture ...

This chapter surveys and assesses from an ecocentric perspective some representative literary portrayals of the Australian deserts. Generally, it contrasts works that portray the desert as an alien, hostile, and undifferentiated void with works that recognise and value the biological particularities of specific desert places. It explores the literature of three dominant cultural orientations to...

the invertebrate communities of the northern chilean rivers are characterised by their marked endemism andspecificity of their community structure in different basins. the river systems located in the atacama desert are endorheicand are affected by the rainy period of january-february commonly known as the “bolivian winter“. the present study isthe first report on the observations of arthropods...

Members of the genus Diporiphora are slender perching agamid lizards from Australasia, with a conservative morphology and some outstanding taxonomic issues. Here we assess morphological variation in the morphologically similar D. pindan, D. valens, and D. winneckei from the western deserts of Australia. A reassessment of morphological differences that included the presence or absence of a gular...

The arid zone encompasses land that has an imbalance between precipitation and losses through evaporation. Globally, arid zones comprise large part of many countries in the mid-latitudes in both the Northern and the Southern hemispheres. Both Australia and Iran are countries with a large arid zone. This negative water balance in the arid zone affects the type of land use in these countries. At ...

Different techniques for estimating seasonal water use from soil profile water depletion frequently do not account for flux below the root zone. Shallow water table contribution to supply crop water use may be important in arid and semi-arid regions. Development of predictive root uptake models, under influence of shallow water table makes it possible for planners to incorporate interaction bet...

Understanding of hydrological processes, including consideration of interactions between vegetation growth and water transfer in the root zone, underpins efficient use of water resources in arid-zone agriculture. Water transfers take place in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum, and include groundwater dynamics, unsaturated zone flow, evaporation/transpiration from vegetated/ bare soil and surf...