Drought events cause changes in ecosystem function and structure by reducing the shrub abundance and expanding the biological soil crusts (biocrusts). This change increases the leakage of nutrient resources and water into the river streams in semi-arid areas. A common management solution for decreasing this loss of resources is to create a runoff-harvesting system (RHS). The objective of the cu...

wild jujube, ziziphus lotus, is a multipurpose xerophytic shrub of the rhamnaceae family widely distributed in arid and semi-arid regions of tunisia, where it occupies most soil types. the fruit is the edible part of the plant by local population. the reintroduction of this shrub requires the control of its multiplication in response to water shortage. this study aims to evaluate growth and wat...

Gypsum is hydrated calcium sulfate (CaSO 4 • 2H 2 O), and is often marketed as a soil " conditioner " for improving soil " tilth. " Compared to most other calcium-rich soil amendments, such as limestone, gypsum is relatively soluble in water, dissolving up to 2 g per liter. The solu-bility of gypsum, when either incorporated or surface applied, permits a quick release of calcium (Ca 2+) and sul...

Urbanism directly affects the hydrological cycle. One of the ways to manage runoffs in urban areas that is considered nowadays is green roof creation. Green roof is mainly created in humid and semi-humid areas, and efficiency of green roofs in arid and semi-arid areas has attracted less attention. In the current study, to evaluate the effect of green roof in arid and semi-arid to reduce runoff,...

soil moisture is one of the critical parameters in climatic, ecological and hydrological modeling and vegetation growth. soil moisture is important for environmental studies but due to ground-based point measurement of soil moisture is expensive and impractical for watershed measurement, this parameter is not be used widely to simulate and predict models. overall and uniform view on different p...

Introduction If plants in a community were located in space independently of one another, and if each small part of the space had the same probability of being occupied,the community would have no spatial structure. Such randomness is unusual. Plants in mesic environments are commonly clustered together in groups of conspecifics, and the spatial pattern of plants in arid environments can someti...

In arid and semi-arid regions, soil surface warming is a considerable phenomenon causing a high thermal gradient which makes water flow intensely. The degree of soil temperature is effective on crop production, plant growth and soil microorganisms. In recent years, the ascending trend of temperature has been substantially noticed by researchers in the issues of pointwise climate change and at w...