Weather variations have clear associations with the epidemiology of dengue fever and populations of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Data on humidity associations, however, lags with respect to its effect on host-biting, nectar-seeking and survival. This experimental study on Ae. aegypti, sourced from the arid tropics, investigated the effect of low and high relative humidity and diet in relation to h...

drought is a complex natural phenomenon that can occur in any climate. hydrologic drought in the river flow of arid and semi-arid areas causes serious shortages, threatens the quality of life, and impacts on the economy. understanding this feature is then essential for the management of water resources. hydrologic drought in the sense of deficient river flow is defined as the periods that river...

Annual plants in semi-arid and arid areas are often closely associated with shrubs. The degree of association largely depends on the balance of negative and positive effects between these contrasting plant life-forms, ranging from interference to facilitation. Since positive interactions are predicted to become less important with increasing rainfall, the interaction balance is expected to shif...

Global consciousness of food safety, health and environmental issues has stimulated interest in alternative agricultural systems like organic farming. Since information on organic farming of tuber crops is meagre, a field experiment was conducted in split plot design over a five-year period at Central Tuber Crops Research Institute, India. The aims were to evaluate the impact of organic, c...

The spatial distribution of crops and farming systems in Africa is determined by the duration of the period during which crop and livestock water requirements are met. The length of growing period (LGP) is normally assessed from weather station data—scarce in large parts of Africa—or coarse-resolution rainfall estimates derived from weather satellites. In this study, we analyzed LGP and its var...