The grassland ecosystem in the Northern-Tibet Plateau (NTP) of China is verysensitive to weather and climate conditions of the region. In this study, we investigate thespatial and temporal variations of the grassland ecosystem in the NTP using theNOAA/AVHRR ten-day maximum NDVI composite data of 1981-2001. The relationshipsamong Vegetation Peak-Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (VP-NDVI) a...

1) Department of Biological Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, 845 W. Taylor St., Chicago, IL 60607, USA (e-mail: [email protected]) 2) Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Blaustein Institute for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus, 84 990, Israel (e-mail: [email protected]) 3) Department of Live Sciences and Mitrani Department of Desert Ecol...

Heterothermy plays an important role in lowering the costs of thermoregulation in endotherms by reducing water and energy requirements. We tested predictions that birds in arid habitats should express fine-scale variation in their thermoregulatory patterns as a function of prevailing climatic conditions. We assessed effects of air temperature (Tair) and water vapor pressure deficit (D) on body ...