In coastal California, the invasive Argentine ant (Linepithema humile) displaces nearly all above ground foraging native ant species. The loss of native ants following invasion by Argentine ants homogenizes these faunas; natural habitats invaded by L. humile have lower beta diversity compared to comparable uninvaded areas. Argentine ant abundance in the seasonally dry mediterranean environments...

Evapotranspiration is a central process of the hydrological cycle, and various water saving measures are based on it. However, there is little research work on evapotranspiration in the world. In particular, there is rare hydrological cycle-based research on the impact of channel lining on evapotranspiration in arid and semi-arid regions. This paper applies a hydrological cycle model to examine...

This study explores the photosynthetic microbial colonization of rhyolitic ignimbrites in Lomas de Tilocalar, a hyper-arid region of the Atacama Desert, Chile. Colonization appeared in the form of a green layer a few millimeters beneath the ignimbrite surface. Some ignimbrite rocks revealed two distinct micromorphological areas of identical mineralogical and chemical composition but different t...

Water and nutrient availability for crop production are critical issues in (semi)arid regions. Unsaturated-zone Cl tracer data and nutrient (NO3 and PO4) concentrations were used to quantify recharge rates using the Cl mass balance approach and nutrient availability in the Thar Desert, Rajasthan, India. Soil cores were collected in dune/interdune settings in the arid Thar Desert (near Jaisalmer...

At a site in the northwestern Sonoran Desert the percent ground cover for the C $ subshrub Encelia farinosa was eighttimes higher on more arid 20° south-facing slopes than on 20° north-facing slopes at 820 m elevation, and was sixtimes higher on north-facing slopes at a 300-m-lower elevation, also the more arid condition. The ground cover of the C % bunchgrass Pleuraphis rigida decreased over 5...

Climatic fluctuations during the Pleistocene are usually considered as a significant factor in shaping intraspecific genetic variation and influencing demographic histories. To well-understand these processes in desert northwest China, we selected arid adapted Atraphaxis frutescens as the study species. Two cpDNA regions (psbK-psbI, psbB-psbH) were sequenced in 272 individuals from 33 natural p...

Biological soil crusts are key mediators of carbon and nitrogen inputs for arid land soils and often represent a dominant portion of the soil surface cover in arid lands. Free-living soil nematode communities reflect their environment and have been used as biological indicators of soil condition. In this study, we test the hypothesis that nematode communities are successionally more mature bene...

The hydraulic redistribution (HR) of deep-rooted plants significantly improves the survival of shallow-rooted shrubs and herbs in arid deserts, which subsequently maintain species diversity. This study was conducted in the Ebinur desert located in the western margin of the Gurbantonggut Desert. Isotope tracing, community investigation and comparison analysis were employed to validate the HR of ...

Current theories regarding colonization of South America by mammals are divided between those supported by fossil evidence, which suggest the original mammal fauna of the isolated continent was augmented by early immigrants (primates, caviomorph rodents, and later, procyonids) with a final large influx of northern mammals occurring with the formation of the Panama land bridge, and an opposing v...

in this study the land surface in western half of hyper-arid lut desert, in south east of iran, which is covered by yardangs, a worldwide typical landform for aeolian erosion, were classified by self organizing maps (som) method. in the first step by using digital elevation model with 10 m resolution and matlab software, 22 morphometric parameters were calculated based on derivative of the surf...