The filamentous cyanobacterium Microcoleus vaginatusis found in arid land soils worldwide. The genome of M. vaginatus strain FGP-2 allows exploration of genes involved in photosynthesis, desiccation tolerance, alkane production, and other features contributing to this organism's ability to function as a major component of biological soil crusts in arid lands.

Lichen Endocarpon pusillum is a highly desiccation-tolerant and dominant species in biological soil crusts in arid and semi-arid regions. We report the draft genome sequence of a lichen-forming fungus, E. pusillum strain KoLRILF000583. The draft genome assembly has a size of 37,173,200 bp with a GC content of 49.71%, consisting of 40 scaffolds.

Citation: Garrido M, Silva H, Franck N, Arenas J and Acevedo E (2018) Evaluation of Morpho-Physiological Traits Adjustment of Prosopis tamarugo Under Long-Term Groundwater Depletion in the Hyper-Arid Atacama Desert. Front. Plant Sci. 9:453. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2018.00453 Evaluation of Morpho-Physiological Traits Adjustment of Prosopis tamarugo Under Long-Term Groundwater Depletion in the Hyper-Ar...

a MOE Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems, Research School of Arid Environment and Climate Change, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China b MOE Key Laboratory of Arid and Grassland Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China c Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA d Department of Ecology, College of Urban and Environ...

Laysa Mabel de O. Fontes, Francisco Milton Mendes Neto, Alexandre A. A. Pontes Postgraduate Program in Computer Science, University of State of Rio Grande do Norte, Federal University of Semi-Arid, Mossoró, Brazil; Superintendent of Information Technology and Communication, Federal University of Semi-Arid, Mossoró, Brazil. Email: {laysa, miltonmendes, alexandreadames}@ufersa.edu.br Received Oct...

It has been suggested that white colour is beneficial for snails living in arid environments. In this work, shell coloration in the arid-dwelling land snail Sphincterochila (Albea) candidissima was manipulated during aestivation. Snails painted black lost more body weight than did control ones, presumably as a consequence of higher heat absorption. This suggests that light colour is advantageou...

We construct a state-and-transition model for mammals in tropical savannas in northern Australia to synthesize ecological knowledge and understand mammalian declines. We aimed to validate the existence of alternative mammal assemblage states similar to those in arid Australian grasslands, and to speculate on transition triggers. Based on the arid grassland model, we hypothesized that assemblage...

Knowledge about the long-term influences of climate change on the amount of potential carbon (C) sequestration in forest ecosystems, including age-related dynamics, remains unclear. This study used two similar age-sequences of black locust forests (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) in the semi-arid and semi-humid zones of China's Loess Plateau to assess the variation in C stocks and age-related dynamics...

Contamination of soil and water due to the release of light non-aqueous phase liquids (LNAPLs) is a ubiquitous problem. The problem is more severe in arid and semi-arid coastal regions where most of the petroleum production and related refinery industries are located. Biological treatment of these organic contaminated resources is receiving increasing interests and where applicable, can serve a...