High spatiotemporal resolution climate data are essential for climate-related impact studies. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is widely used to downscale different regions with regional-specific physics configurations. This study aimed identify robust configurations of the WRF model, especially cumulus parameterization schemes, climatic zones Sudan. We focused on wet season (Ju...

PREMISE OF THE STUDY Microsatellite markers were developed for the common arid Australian shrub Acacia ligulata (Fabaceae) and the threatened overstory trees A. melvillei and A. pendula. METHODS AND RESULTS DNA sequence data generated by 454 sequencing were used to identify microsatellite nucleotide repeat motifs. Including previously developed primer sets, we report on the development of 10 ...

The spatial pattern in Senegal of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) virus IgG antibody prevalence in human and sheep was determined as was the relative abundance of potential tick vectors. A systematic, country-wide serological survey of sheep demonstrated that 10.4% of sheep exhibited IgG to CCHF virus. Sexes were infected equally. Antibody prevalence increased with age from 2.1% during t...

A substantial reservoir (up to 1 kg ha(-1)) of natural perchlorate is present in diverse unsaturated zones of the arid and semi-arid southwestern United States. The perchlorate co-occurs with meteoric chloride that has accumulated in these soils throughout the Holocene [0 to 10-15 ka (thousand years ago)] and possibly longer periods. Previously, natural perchlorate widely believed to be limited...

In fishes, alterations to the natural flow regime are associated with divergence in body shape morphology compared with individuals from unaltered habitats. However, it is unclear whether this morphological divergence is attributable to evolutionary responses to modified flows, or is a result of phenotypic plasticity. Fishes inhabiting arid regions are ideal candidates for studying morphologica...

We compared physiological, demographic, and ecological variables of larks to gain insights into life history variation along an aridity gradient, incorporating phylogenetic relationships in analyses when appropriate. Quantifying field metabolic rate (FMR) and water influx rate (WIR) of parents feeding nestlings as measures of parental effort, we found that parental FMR and WIR of larks decrease...