Hypotheses about the origin of vegetation pattern formation in semi-arid areas around the world almost all include a common feature of semi-arid areas: the presence of a positive feedback between plant density and water infiltration. We investigate whether this positive feedback and the spatial redistribution of runoff water are sufficient to explain vegetation pattern formation. For this purpo...

Arid and semi-arid areas occupy one third of the total area of the world. This vast region is rich in natural resources. In recent times, desertification has become a world-wide phenomenon, due to human activities. China also suffers from this problem. Desertification is especially severe in the southeastern part of the arid and semi-arid region of the country. In this paper, the use of remote ...

Goji (fruits of Lycium barbarum L. and L. chinense Mill.) has been used in China as food and medicine for millennia, and globally has been consumed increasingly as a healthy food. Ningxia, with a semi-arid climate, always had the reputation of producing best goji quality (daodi area). Recently, the increasing market demand pushed the cultivation into new regions with different climates. We ther...

Reclamation of Arid LandsIt is our pleasure to inform you that Springer International Publisher (2017) has published a book entitled "Reclamation of Arid Lands" in English.This book is the result of joint collaboration between the University of Tehran, University of Kashan and Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, whose authors are as follows:Mohammad Jafari: Professor, Faculty of Natur...

Water resources globally face unprecedented challenges, but these are at their greatest in the world’s arid and semi-arid regions. Recent IPCC estimates (Kundzewicz et al., 2007) state that between 1.4 and 2.1 billion people live in areas of water stress; those numbers are expected to increase significantly under the pressures of population growth and climate change. By definition, arid and sem...

New vegetation in barren areas offers possibilities for sequestering carbon in the soil. Arid and semi-arid areas (ASAs) are candidates for new vegetation. The possibility of agriculture in ASAs is reviewed, revealing the potential for cultivation by covering the surface with a layer of organic fibres. This layer collects more water from humidity in the air than does the uncovered mineral surfa...

     Roads have an important role in plants dispersal on different scales. Various plant species settle on roadsides, but some of them can enter the natural environments and threaten their biodiversity. Worldwide knowledge of roadside flora is necessary for local and global management of natural areas. Accordingly, the roadside flora of Northern Khorasan rangelands was studied along the 600 km ...

Hydrological processes and their spatial distribution directly are relevant to climate, topography, geology, and land use in the watershed. Therefore, use of a model whit integrity and high performance for simulating the process in deferent watersheds is very important. In this study was assessment performance of semi-distributed SWAT model in simulating hydrology processes in three watersheds ...

Abstract. From the perspectives of many environmental and conservative policy makers, improving and diversifying the livelihoods have been found as a mechanism to promote the livelihoods and persuade people to avoid the overexploitation and degradation of natural resources. Due to the fragility of the environment and inconsistency of incomes, the alternative income sources may be promised to wa...