Aeolian processes are tightly linked to soil and vegetation change in arid and semi-arid systems at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Wind influences patterns of vegetation and soil within the landscape, and these patterns control wind erosion at patch to landscape scales. Aggregated at larger scales, patterns in soil and vegetation distributions influence global distributions of dust and i...

Increased water scarcity implies that residents of arid, heavily populated regions of the U.S. will have to increase water conservation or else face the consequence of water shortfalls. Voluntarily conserved water is an impure public good since it is non-excludable and rival in consumption. This means that water conservation benefits are subject to free-riding behavior. This paper considers a d...

There has been much discussion in recent years of the question of the future wheat supply of the world, and in some quarters fears have been expressed that by the end of the next thirty years we may experience a universal wheat famine, provided that the present rate of increase of the bread-eating population and the present yield of wheat per acre shall continue.^ It is not the purpose to enter...

During the summer months, wet (hyporheic) soils associated with ephemeral streams and lake edges in the Antarctic Dry Valleys (DVs) become hotspots of biological activity and are hypothesized to be an important source of carbon and nitrogen for arid DV soils. Recent research in the DV has focused on the geochemistry and microbial ecology of lakes and arid soils, with substantially less informat...

The grain size composition of topsoil characterizes the soil texture and other physical properties. The coarsening of topsoil grain size is a visible symbol of land degradation; thereby the change in topsoil grain size can be potentially used to monitor desertification using remote sensing. This study proposes a new index for detecting topsoil grain size composition through ground in situ soil ...

Livestock production by transhumance rearing systems is the major land use and a source of livelihood in most areas of the arid, semiarid, and arid temperate agro-ecological zones of Asia. It is perhaps the best way of exploiting these pastures economically. Lack of feed is the major constraint to improving livestock production during winter and early spring, as the temperatures are extremely l...

Water scarcity is one of the factors limiting plant growth and development. More than onethird of the global terrestrial ecosystems is located in arid and semi-arid regions. The mostimportant limiting factor for plant growth is water shortage. Drought could significantlychange the natural vegetation cover. Rainfall reduction in Iraq, Turkey and Syria hasreduced vegetation cover so that dust sto...

We assembled a molecular phylogeny for the arid-zone members of the Egernia whitii species group to test Pianka's [Zoogeography and speciation of Australian desert lizards: an ecological perspective, Copeia (1972) 127-145] hypothesis that habitat specificity to the three major arid-zone vegetation communities is the primary cause of lizard speciation within the arid interior of Australia. This ...

The Siberian elm (Ulmus pumila L.) is one of the most commonly found tree species in arid areas of northeast Asia. To understand the morphological and physiological characteristics of Siberian elms in arid regions, we analyzed leaves from seven study sites (five arid or semi-arid and two mesic) in China, Mongolia and the Republic of Korea, which covered a wide range of average annual precipitat...