population’s exponential growth along with drought has increased water resources limitation, especially in arid and semi-arid area. therefore, the use of non-conventional water is an important tool for water resource management. if unconventional water has no negative impact on soil properties and water, it can be used for irrigation coupled with desertification projects. so, this paper tries t...

This study determined some spectral characteristics and relationship between Landsat spectral reflectance and soil surface color in the arid region of Iran (Kashan). The study carried out in the kashan area that covers 90000 ha. Consisting of mountain, hills and flood plain. Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) data collected on July 2002 were used for this research. The color composite images produ...

flood frequency analysis is faced with the problem of data and information limitation in arid and semi-arid regions. particularly in these regions, the length of records is usually too short to ensure reliable quantile estimates. more than 75% of iran is located in arid and semi-arid regions and despite the low annual precipitation, often large floods occur. one way to provide more information ...

Population’s exponential growth along with drought has increased water resources limitation, especially in arid and semi-arid area. Therefore, the use of non-conventional water is an important tool for water resource management. If unconventional water has no negative impact on soil properties and water, it can be used for irrigation coupled with desertification projects. So, this paper tries t...

Desertification leads to decrease in the ecosystem C pool and attendant reduction in Soil Organic Carbon (SOC). Reclamation of sandy land in arid and semi-arid has a high potential to increase carbon sequestration and improving soil quality. Our objective as to examine the changes in the soil carbon sequestration and soil properties of two soil layers (0–20 and 20-50 cm) under two types of recl...

Restriction-endonuclease-site variation of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was used to investigate patterns of geographic and phylogenetic divergence within the rodent genus Onychomys. Onychomys has occupied arid habitats in the western North American deserts, shrub-steppes, and grasslands since the late Tertiary. A phylogenetic analysis of the total mtDNA restriction-site variation throughout the ra...

Plant adaptations to the environment are limited, and therefore plants in similar environments may display similar functional and physiological traits, a pattern termed functional convergence. Evidence was examined for functional convergence among 28 evergreen woody shrubs from three plant communities of the semi-arid winter rainfall region of southern California. Both leaf and water relations ...

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...