Arid and semi-arid areas occupy one third of the total area of the world. This vast region is rich in natural resources. In recent times, desertification has become a world-wide phenomenon, due to human activities. China also suffers from this problem. Desertification is especially severe in the southeastern part of the arid and semi-arid region of the country. In this paper, the use of remote ...

Current global changes are putting both biodiversity and the processes that depend on it at risk. This is especially true for semi-arid regions and the flagship groups that inhabit them, such as amphibians and reptiles. Semi-arid regions are often thought to have lower biodiversity and thus have been overlooked, resulting in the underestimation of their biological richness. Therefore, the aim o...

Interactive Digital Television (iDTV) has facilitated and expanded the communication and interaction in activities of knowledge acquisitions, entertainment, and recreation in the distance learning field. This new way of teaching and learning has been called t-Learning. In this context, the Learning Objects (LOs) have an important role in assisting in the electronic courses’ development. Due the...

BACKGROUND Agrobiodiversity is said to contribute to the sustainability of agricultural systems and food security. However, how this is achieved especially in smallholder farming systems in arid and semi-arid areas is rarely documented. In this study, we explored two contrasting regions in Benin to investigate how agroecological and socioeconomic contexts shape the diversity and utilization of ...

Citation: Niu X, Song L, Xiao Y and Ge W (2018) Drought-Tolerant Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria Associated with Foxtail Millet in a Semi-arid Agroecosystem and Their Potential in Alleviating Drought Stress. Front. Microbiol. 8:2580. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2017.02580 Drought-Tolerant Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria Associated with Foxtail Millet in a Semi-arid Agroecosystem and Their Pote...

Goji (fruits of Lycium barbarum L. and L. chinense Mill.) has been used in China as food and medicine for millennia, and globally has been consumed increasingly as a healthy food. Ningxia, with a semi-arid climate, always had the reputation of producing best goji quality (daodi area). Recently, the increasing market demand pushed the cultivation into new regions with different climates. We ther...

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...

One of the most important micro engineers of the terrestrial ecosystems, especially in the arid areas is the harvester ants due to their activity in the soil through nest building; they can make major changes while influencing the surface and subsurface in the rangeland soil. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of harvester ants (Messor spp.) on some soil properties in Rood...