BACKGROUND To convert deserts into arable, green landscapes is a global vision, and desert farming is a strong growing area of agriculture world-wide. However, its effect on diversity of soil microbial communities, which are responsible for important ecosystem services like plant health, is still not known. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We studied the impact of long-term agriculture on deser...

In Northwest China, aridification and desert expansion play significant roles in promoting desert plant diversification and speciation. However, to date, little is known about the effects of the desert barrier on the population structure of montane, non-desert species in the area. In this study, we sequenced chloroplast DNA regions (trnL-trnF and trnS-trnG) and a nuclear gene (rpb2) to investig...

Desert pavement is a distinctive feature widespread across arid lands of the world. It plays a dynamic role in geomorphic, hydrologic, and ecologic processes. Where desert pavement predominates, infiltration is limited and rainfall is delivered as runoff to nearby bare ground areas where shrubs cluster. Desert pavement surfaces may appear monotonously flat and barren, but we have found, instead...

today, climate change is one of the most important scientific and even the political – social issues. the causes of climate change can be divided into natural and human - made. natural factors have the long-term performance and long history, such as the cycle of solar activity, dusts and gases of volcanic eruptions, geodetic and static agents and etc. human-made factors was mainly formed and ac...

Indigenous knowledge of wild and cultivated plant use is linked to local culture and history. It should be regarded as a body of knowledge that has continually developed over time without the outside assistance of formal science. Pakistan has 18 different types of ecological zones with a variety of habitat types like the coastal Mangrove forests, the desert subtropical foothills dry and moist a...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Rajasthan is one of the dengue endemic states of India. Very few studies have been published on entomological aspects of dengue in this state. Owing to water scarcity, inhabitants in desert areas overstore domestic water which leads to the persistence of dengue vectors within the domestic premises. Area specific knowledge on breeding, key containers and seasonal rhythms ...

introduction the dust storms are one of the climatic hazards in the dry climates of the world. they cause many damages to the environment and humans. one of the aspects of a study to understand the origin of this phenomenon is the formation of foci in the recent years in the areas of research. it has been done in the central regions. the dust storms have gained global scale. this has demonstrat...