Arid and semi-arid zones account for one third of the earth's surface land area and cover most parts of the developing nations in the world including Latin America, Africa, and parts of India and South East Asia. Nevertheless, these ecosystems are not exclusive of developing countries because they also exist in developed nations such as United States of America, Spain, Australia, and Israel, am...

Recent regional climate-change models indicated significant changes in the temporal and spatial distribution of rainfall in the Mediterranean-Basin region. Understanding the consequences of rainfall alterations for soil respiration and carbon processing in these regions is essential, considering their crucial functions for soil fertility and ecosystem functioning. Our aim was to evaluate the ef...

Semi-arid ecosystems are key contributors to the global carbon cycle and may even dominate the inter-annual variability (IAV) and trends of the land carbon sink, driven largely by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The linkages between dynamics of semi-arid ecosystems and climate at the hemispheric scale however are not well known. Here, we use satellite data and climate observations from...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the species-environment relationships in arid and semi-arid rangelandsof Nodushan, Yazd. The plant species cover and the environmental variables were measured at 9 sites. Soil sampleswere taken for measurement of 12 attributes in 0-10 cm and 10-80 cm layers. Vegetation was classified using twowayindicator species analysis (TWINSPAN). Data was analyzed u...

Quantitative study of species diversity across different land use units and districts is important to document status of local plant biodiversity, to evaluate impact of management and for planning future management. This study aimed at determining impacts of land use units on species diversity and spatial distribution of species in two districts of Borana zone, Oromia, Ethiopia. Stratification ...