The Upper Cretaceous (?Santonian) Aitym Formation in the central Kyzylkum Desert, Uzbekistan, produced remains of a cimolodontan multituberculate (Uzbekbaatar wardi), a spalacotheriid symmetrodont (cf. Shalbaatar sp.), a deltatheroidan (cf. Deltatherus sp.), possibly the asioryctithere aff. Daulestes sp., possibly two zalambdalestids (Kulbeckia sp. cf. K. kulbecke and aff. Kulbeckia sp.), two s...

The Late Neoproterozoic Egyptian Nubian Shield (ENS) has attracted increasing attention since the establishment of Geological Survey and Mining Authority (EGSMA (1896)), which conducted first mapping. In last three decades, rapid improvements in analytical techniques, along with field-oriented studies, have made it possible for interpretation ENS as an integral part juvenile Arabian–Nubian (ANS...

Hoplitis bees of the Palaearctic subgenus Stenosmia (Megachilidae) inhabit deserts and semideserts between southern Spain and eastern Asia. They nest in excavated burrows in the soil and collect pollen from plant taxa that typically grow in desert areas, such as Frankenia (Frankeniaceae), Peganum (Nitrariaceae), Tamarix (Tamaricaceae) or Zygophyllum (Zygophyllaceae). The taxonomic revision of t...

In arid and semi-arid grassland, many models hypothesize that desertification leads to the replacement of grassland by shrubland vegetation; however, the theoretical interpretations are open to debate. Therefore, a field study was conducted in the Guinan desertified grassland of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, North-west China, to test the hypotheses on a regional scale. We used four field sites to ...

We sampled 21 study plots for desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, California. Each plot was sampled once between 1997 and 2003 to obtain a snapshot of population attributes, status, and relationships between tortoise densities and human activities. Densities ranged from o1 to 28 tortoises km ; overall, tortoises were uncommon to rare at 16 of the 2...

The identification of migration routes, wintering grounds and stopover sites are crucial issues for the understanding of the Palearctic-African bird migration system as well as for the development of relevant conservation strategies for trans-Saharan migrants. Using miniaturized light-level geolocators we report a comprehensive and detailed year round track of a granivorous trans-Saharan migran...

As widespread deserts is located in west and southwest of Iran plateau, dust storms form due to west andsouthwest systems over Syria or Iraq as well as Arabian Peninsula. These systems severely affect west and southwestregions. Sometimes the fine dusts transmit to central, north east, and east regions. In this study for investigating dustysynoptical patterns, meteorological data at 5 synoptic s...

Satellite-based precipitation, Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD), Cloud Optical Depth (COD), and Aerosol Index (AI) data were used to characterize the linkages among landform and the intra-annual variability of aerosols, cloudiness and rainfall in the Himalayas using empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis. The first modes of AOD and AI show the presence of two branches of dust aerosol: over the...

The cacti are well-known desert plants, widely recognized by their specialized growth form and essentially leafless condition. Pereskia, a group of 17 species with regular leaf development and function, is generally viewed as representing the "ancestral cactus," although its placement within Cactaceae has remained uncertain. Here we present a new hypothesis of phylogenetic relationships at the ...