Water storage depletion is a worsening hydrological problem that limits agricultural production in especially arid/semi-arid regions across the globe. Quantifying water storage dynamics is critical for developing water resources management strategies that are sustainable and protective of the environment. This study uses GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment), GLDAS (Global Land Data A...

Current global changes are putting both biodiversity and the processes that depend on it at risk. This is especially true for semi-arid regions and the flagship groups that inhabit them, such as amphibians and reptiles. Semi-arid regions are often thought to have lower biodiversity and thus have been overlooked, resulting in the underestimation of their biological richness. Therefore, the aim o...

Two new species of Psychodinae, Psychodidae, from the semi-arid region of Brazil are described and illustrated: Arisemus rubeni sp. nov. and Lepidiella olgae sp. nov. Only nine psychodid species were previously known from that region.

The arid region is spread over 38.7 million hectares mainly in the states of Rajasthan. Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh besides cold arid region situated in Leh, Laddakh and Himachal Pradesh. The region is marked by extreme environmental constraints due to which the cultivation of traditional crops is not economical. In a situation such as this, arid horticulture has ample s...

In Brazil, most studies of the Culicidae family are concentrated in rainforest regions. As such, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the diversity of Culicidae in regions with different climatic and vegetational characteristics. The aim of this study was to compile an inventory of Culicidae in protected areas of the semi-arid region of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, in order to better un...

The Garole is the only known prolific sheep breed in India and is a native of Sunderban, the swampy delta region of West Bengal [1]. Malpura is a popular mutton-type breed of semi-arid tropical region of India. These sheep are known for their hardiness and adaptability to the local environment but prolificacy is low with ewes usually producing single lambs. Increasing prolificacy of the Malpura...

Understanding nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes from agricultural soils in semi-arid regions is required to better understand global terrestrial N2O losses. Nitrous oxide fluxes were measured from three rain-fed, cropped soils in a semi-arid region of south-western Australia on a sub-daily basis from 1995 to 2014 using automated chambers. Western Australia’s grain-belt includes 7 million hectares of a...