Despite the recognition that some species might quickly adapt to new conditions under climate change, demonstrating and predicting such a fundamental response is challenging. Morphological variations in response to climate may be caused by evolutionary changes or phenotypic plasticity, or both, but teasing apart these processes is difficult. Here, we built on the number of thoracic vertebrae (N...

In the vast Algerian Sahara, the climate is typically desert, characterized by heat and dryness all year, which contributes to a very pronounced aridity. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of this arid environment on automotive paints. Four paint samples with different durations of use were tested. Initially, a visualization of the surface condition by optical microscopy and...

vetiver grass is known to survive under diverse soil and water conditions. in order to test its potential of salinity and aridity tolerance ability, the effect of salinity and aridity stress on the growth of the vetiveria zizanioides was studied by growing plants in arid soils that receiving salinity stress. the experiment was conducted in a greenhouse, arrangement in a completely randomized de...

Brazil has the most populous and biodiverse semi-arid region in world (Brazilian Semi-arid - SAB). However, recent decades, clusters of desertification have emerged, a problem that could intensify from climate change. The objective this study was to elaborate on spatial distribution areas susceptible climatic SAB, considering future change scenarios. Understanding dynamic is essential for SAB's...

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...

We use the oxygen isotopic composition of tooth enamel from multiple mammalian taxa across eastern Africa to present a proxy for aridity. Here we report tooth enamel delta(18)O values of 14 species from 18 locations and classify them according to their isotopic sensitivity to environmental aridity. The species are placed into two groups, evaporation sensitive (ES) and evaporation insensitive (E...

Ecogeographical rules help explain spatial and temporal patterns in intraspecific body size. However, many of these rules, when applied to ectothermic organisms such as reptiles, are controversial and require further investigation. To explore factors that influence body size in reptiles, we performed a heuristic study to examine body size variation in an Australian lizard, Boulenger's Skink Mor...