New Zealand Journal of Ecology (1998) 22(2): 121-140 ©New Zealand Ecological Society primarily for wool production, the c. 1 million ha of montane-subalpine short-tussock (Festuca novae-zelandiae) grassland in the subhumid and humid zones have proved particularly susceptible. By 1990 Hieracium species were dominant in about 50% of these grasslands (Hunter, 1991). H. pilosella is well adapted to...

Tick-borne relapsing fever (TBRF) is caused by Borrelia species transmitted to humans by infected Ornithodoros sp. ticks. The disease has been rarely described in North Africa, and in Tunisia the local transmission of TBRF seems to have disappeared or is undiagnosed. A longitudinal study was conducted in 14 sites located in four different bioclimatic zones of Tunisia to assess both the distribu...

Abstract Climate zones fundamentally shape the patterns of terrestrial environment and human habitation. How global warming alters their current distribution is an important question that has yet to be properly addressed. Using root-layer soil moisture as indicator, this study investigates potential future changes in climate with perturbed parameter ensemble projections by HadGEM3-GC3.05 model ...

Rainfed agriculture is practised on 80% of the world’s agricultural area and generates 60–70% of the world’s staple food1 (FAOSTAT, 2005). In semi-arid and dry subhumid zones, rainfed agriculture dominates food production systems, and water is a key limiting factor to crop growth (SEI, 2005). Since approximately 70% of the world’s poor are women, the importance of rainfed sources of food weighs...

Vegetation change, whether it be of anthropogenic or climatic origin, can have dramatic effects on landscape form, processes and sediment yield. General conceptual models for relationships between climate, vegetation and sediment yield exist for whole landscapes, but no rigorous analysis of the effects of vegetation change on sediment transport, in the absence of overland flow, has been done fr...