the term degradation is used to specify the status of the environment. it is often associated with ‘improper use’. ‘use’ also implies environmental aspects other than physical ones and implies that the more intensive the use, the more susceptible the environment is to degradation, particularly if proper care for the environment is lacking. the question is, and has always been, how to map someth...

Decomposition processes are extremely important in biological soil crusts (BSCs). Although the effects of temperature and moisture on such processes have been widely studied, little is known about the influence of the readily metabolizable substrate (labile C) and how this substrate varies in different types of BSCs. In the present study, BSCs formed by cyanobacteria (CYANO) and by lichens (DIP...

Bioturbation can influence petrophysical properties (e.g., porosity, permeability) of sedimentary rocks and, in consequence, reservoir quality. The impact be positive, negative, or neutral, requiring detailed ichnological analysis. Ophiomorpha , a branched cylindrical burrow with diagnostic peloidal wall, may present bioturbated reservoirs that exhibit both super-permeability and reduced porosi...

ABSTRACT Excavation of the Roman tilery at Little London, Pamber, Hampshire, has prompted a reassessment dating relief-patterned tile, assigning bulk production to Claudio-Neronian period rather than late first mid-/late second century. This material been privileged for retention in excavation archives but can now be seen as proxy manufacture much wider range ceramic building material, typicall...

Abstract The runoff coefficient (RC) is widely used despite requiring to know the effective contributing area, which cannot be known a priori . In previous work, we defined length (RL), difficult measure. This work aimed define minimum RL (mRL), quantitative and easy proxy of RL, for use in pilot study on biocrusts Tabernas Desert, Spain. We show that RC decreases according hyperbola when area ...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the efficacy of the solar water disinfection (SODIS) method for inactivating Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts in turbid waters using 1.5 l polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles under natural sunlight. METHODS All experiments were performed at the Plataforma Solar de Almería, located in the Tabernas Desert (Southern Spain) in July and October 2007. Turbid water sample...

In arid and semi-arid regions, pioneer organisms form complex communities that penetrate the upper millimetres of the bare substrate, creating biological soil crusts (BSC). These thin crusts play a vital role in whole ecosystem functioning because they enrich bare surfaces with organic matter, initiate biogeochemical cycling of elements, modify hydrological cycles, etc., thus enabling the groun...