Showing papers in "Journal of Arid Environments in 2004"

TL;DR: In this paper, a technique to discriminate between climate or human-induced dryland degradation, based on evaluations of AVHRR NDVI data and rainfall data, is presented, where linear regression calculations between different periods of accumulated precipitation and the annual NDVImax are performed to identify the rainfall period that is best related to the NDVimax and by this the proportion of biomass triggered by rainfall.

TL;DR: Wang et al. as mentioned in this paper discussed the sources, spatial distribution, frequency and trend of dust storms in China and found that most dust storms originate from one of three geographic areas: the Hexi (River West) Corridor and western Inner Mongolia Plateau, the Taklimakan Desert, and the central Inner Mongol Plateau.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed the time series (annual period and dry and wet-season) of eight climatic variables to ascertain the existence of climate variability in Northeast of Brazil.

TL;DR: The mucilage content found in the cactus cladodes is influenced not only by the management of the crop but is also dependent on the temperature, irrigation and the rain.

TL;DR: A 60-year chronosequence study of semi-arid old-fields indicates that abandonment age, litter depth, organic carbon soil content, carbonate content and soil moisture are related to vegetation ordination as discussed by the authors.

TL;DR: Wang et al. as mentioned in this paper used remote sensing data and synoptic ecological indices to assess the spatial extent and severity of steppe degradation in the Xilin River Basin, Inner Mongolia using a landscape-scale approach.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors monitor and quantify land use and land cover changes occurring across Senegal using nearly 40 years of satellite imagery, aerial surveys, and fieldwork, showing moderate change, with a modest decrease in savannas from 74 to 70 percent from 1965 to 2000, and an expansion of cropland from 17 to 21 percent.

TL;DR: In this article, a time-series of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is used to capture essential features of seasonal and inter-annual vegetation variability at six nearby yet distinct vegetation communities in semi-arid New Mexico, USA NDVI values tend to follow a uniform order across communities, related directly to local vegetation.

TL;DR: In this paper, the effects of changes on soil organic carbon (SOC) content and other physical soil properties over a 12-year period in three adjacent ecosystems in a Mediterranean plateau were investigated.

TL;DR: A review of recent research on complex hunter-gatherers in North America suggests that age-old tensions between evolutionary and historical epistemologies continue to cultivate progress in anthropological understanding of sociocultural variation as mentioned in this paper.

TL;DR: In this paper, a landscape-scale study investigating the responses of small mammals and lizards to fire in a central Australian hummock grassland was conducted, showing that lizard and small mammal assemblages showed markedly different responses to each other with respect to post-fire vegetation succession.

TL;DR: In this paper, daily precipitation records of 30-gauge stations from May to September during 1956-2000 are analyzed in a semi-arid area in northern China, and significant change is observed in the number of days when there is light rain (o10 mm day 1 ).

TL;DR: B. tectorum competition acting on seedling-stage E. elymoides plants greatly reduced first-year relative growth rates and biomass which, in turn, reduced second-year survival, biomass, and flowering, which may help to explain why intact perennial-plant communities are resistant to B. tctorum invasion.

TL;DR: The data suggest that Na+ accumulation rather than exclusion may be one of the most effective strategies for adaptation of succulent xerophytes to and environments.

TL;DR: Wang et al. as discussed by the authors focused mainly on the quality of rainwater harvested from different catchment systems and stored for different periods of time, and found that rainwater quality could be improved significantly by self-purification during the storage.

TL;DR: Gross precipitation, throughfall, and stemflow were measured in a representative matorral subinerme study plot within a small montane basin of the Sierra Madre Oriental throughout three wet season periods.

TL;DR: A survey was conducted in the homegardens of San Rafael Coxcatlan, a rural village in the semi-arid valley of Tehuacan-Cuicatlan, Mexico.

TL;DR: The results clearly demonstrated that Prosopis is equipped with a number of biological characteristics that foster its rapid invasion of new areas and is a powerful noxious invader as can be evidenced from its rampant invasion in the study site and elsewhere in the tropics.

TL;DR: Seed germination was strongly inhibited by NaCl, although seed viability and germination capacity were not affected by salt pre-treatments, suggesting a protective role against high salinity stress for this amino acid.

TL;DR: This article investigated the effect of commercial stock grazing practices on vegetation cover in an eastern Karoo study site in South Africa and found that some grazing strategies lead to consistently lower vegetation cover measures than do others, once rainfall is accounted for.

TL;DR: Wang et al. as discussed by the authors determined the effect of vegetative water utilization on soil water content and monitored the long-term vegetative response to the change of soil water contents after establishing the revegetation of sand dunes of the Shapotou Region in the Tengger Desert, Northern China.

TL;DR: In this paper, replied runoff-erosion microplots (less than 1m2) have been set up in eleven environments representative of the land uses in the catchment, in order to measure and evaluate their rates after each rainfall event, during dry and wet soil conditions (summer and winter, respectively).

TL;DR: Effective bacterial strains isolated from soil of the root zone of different agricultural crops were analysed for plant growth-promoting effects and improvement of nutrient uptake on cotton and pea in a semi-arid region of Uzbekistan and were characterized as salt tolerant and temperature resistant.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated how both droughts and dzuds (severe winter weather) control livestock mortality in a non-equilibrium steppe ecosystem of Mongolia, Gobi Three Beauty National Park.

TL;DR: In this article, soil morphology and organic matter under cheatgrass-dominated and native shrub-steppe vegetation were compared by standard soil analysis procedures at seven paired sites in Idaho and Utah, and the results suggest that, following conversion to cheatgrass dominance, increased porosity and labile organic inputs enhance microbial decomposition in near-surface horizons beneath cheatgrass compared to adjacent soils under native vegetation.

TL;DR: In this article, the relationship between environmental factors and vegetation in order to find the most effective factors in the separation of the vegetation types in Poshtkou rangelands of Yazd province was studied.

TL;DR: In this article, a strong relationship exists between annual rainfall and season-integrated normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) for all of Senegal (r=0.74 to 0.90).

TL;DR: The results suggest that holm oak regeneration in dehesas is controlled by physiognomic features and long-term human impacts rather than directly by current grazing levels.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors compared two alternative strategies of the Negev's future development: agricultural expansion vs. urbanization path, and found that urbanization is preferable to agricultural expansion.

TL;DR: In this article, a series of 23 aerial photographs taken over the period 1944-1999 were assessed using a specially developed method for the calculation of sand dune movement and by the calibration of the grayscale images into vegetation cover maps.