1 The Affect of Spatial Resolution on Measurement of Vegetation Cover in Three Mojave Desert Shrub Communities Thomas D. Frank and Scott A. Tweddale Abstract Coarse resolution remotely sensed imagery (20-30m) has lacked sufficient spatial resolution to accurately measure total vegetative cover in arid environments where vegetation cover is relatively low. New and emerging satellite and airborne...

Geckos of the genus Rhoptropus are small diurnal lizards occurring in arid regions of Namibia and Angola, and are not well studied relative to other desert lizards. Rhoptropus afer has a field metabolic rate significantly lower than that of other desert lizards, but comparable studies have not been carried out in any other Rhoptropus species. We examined the field metabolic rate, water turnover...

Transcriptomics via RNA-seq has rapidly emerged as a powerful tool for ecological and evolutionary studies, enabling genome-scale studies of adaptation via regulation of global gene expression. Here we present a de novo transcriptome for the desert rainbowfish (Melanotaenia splendida tatei) based on individuals sampled in the Lake Eyre Basin, Australia's arid zone river system. Recently develop...

In open, arid environments with limited shelter there may be strong selection on small prey species to develop behaviors that facilitate predator avoidance. Here, we predicted that rodents should avoid predator odor and open habitats to reduce their probability of encounter with potential predators, and tested our predictions using a native Australian desert rodent, the spinifex hopping-mouse (...

Treating perimeters of vegetation with residual insecticides for protection from mosquito vectors has potential for U.S. military force health protection. However, for current U.S. military operations in hot-arid environments with little or no vegetation, residual applications on portable artificial materials may be a viable alternative. We evaluated bifenthrin residual treatments of U.S. milit...

We have performed preliminary mapping of the manganese and iron present in a cross-section of a rock varnish from the Cima volcanic flows in the Mojave Desert, California. Rock varnish is a nanostratigraphic deposit found on typically fine-grained rocks in hyper-arid to semi-arid deserts (Figure 1a) [1]. Rock varnish is defined as consisting of about 70% clay particles held together by about 30...

Recent studies of soil carbon cycle in arid and semi-arid ecosystems demonstrated that there exists an abiotic CO2 absorption by saline-alkali soils (Aa) at desert ecosystems and suggested potential contributions of CO2 dissolution beneath deserts to the terrestrial ecosystems carbon balance. However, the overall importance of such soil CO2 uptake is still undetermined and its implications to t...

1. introduction dust storm is a natural phenomenon that occurs frequently in the arid and semi-arid regions all over the world (alijani, 1997). dust can affect soil fertility, forests, rivers, lakes, and marine ecosystems around the world (mctainsh et al., 2007). therefore, soil erosion can lead to the loss of the minerals and organic matter of topsoil. some elements of dust have also an indire...

Arid and semiarid climates comprise roughly 40% of the earth's terrestrial surface. Deserts are predicted to be extremely responsive to global change because they are stressful environments where small absolute changes in water availability or use represent large proportional changes. Water and carbon dioxide ̄uxes are inherently coupled in plant growth. No documented global change has been mor...