Showing papers in "Journal of Arid Environments in 2009"

TL;DR: In this paper, the concepts of vulnerability, adaptation, and mitigation in the context of climate change in Central Asia are examined, and three major aspects of human vulnerability are explored: food security, water stress and human health.

TL;DR: In this paper, spatial patterns and environmental controls of aboveground biomass (AGB) in alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau were investigated by integrating AGB data collected from 135 sites during 2001-2004 and concurrent enhanced vegetation index derived from MODIS data sets.

TL;DR: The role of the succulent stem in the water economy of Jatropha was confined to balancing the small water losses of the leaves during drought, and the tree could be characterized as a stem-succulent tree.

TL;DR: In this paper, a review of published results on the geography of the Monte Desert biome of Argentina is presented, and a case study in the province of Mendoza is presented about the ecological-economic issues and sustainable investment policies in rangelands of the Patagonian Monte.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compared the net primary production of natural and anthropogenic land covers in the Phoenix metropolitan region of USA using MODIS NDVI data and a simplified parametric NPP model and showed that urbanization may not only increase regional NPP and disrupt the coupling between vegetation and precipitation, but also increase spatial heterogeneity of NPP in this arid region.

TL;DR: In this paper, the effectiveness of exclosures that have been protected from livestock from 5 to 15 years in restoring vegetation in northern Ethiopia was assessed, showing that degraded semi-arid vegetation is able to recover in a relatively short time when protected.

TL;DR: In this article, the main features of climate and climate variability across the Monte Desert for the Last Glacial Maximum, the Glacial Interglacial transition, and the Holocene on the basis of proxy records and for the 20th century using instrumental observations are described.

TL;DR: In this article, the relationship between interannual variation of annual and seasonal Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), as a surrogate for ANPP, and precipitation in the steppes of Northern Patagonia in 11 sites encompassing a wide range of conditions and vegetation physiognomies was studied.

TL;DR: Junent et al. as mentioned in this paper presented the work of the Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Aridas (IIDA) in Mendoza, Argentina.

TL;DR: Results suggest that M. ruthenica (L) Sojak cv.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors evaluated the effects of the changes on disturbance regimes produced by different forms of land transformation on the structure and function of ecosystems of the Monte Biogeographical Province, in Argentinean arid west.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors reviewed the current state of research on vegetation heterogeneity in the Monte Desert at scales varying from landscape to intra-patch and found evidence of cross-scale interactions, feedbacks, and non-linear effects such as those induced by grazing disturbance.

TL;DR: Rural communities living in the Monte region have been undergoing extreme changes in both social and ecological scenarios, and resilience is referred to as the capacity to cope with disturbances and changes, prevalent features in populations inhabiting this arid region.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the modeling process and accuracy of these two methods in assessing their relative advantages and disadvantages based on Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE), and coefficient of efficiency (CE).

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors detail the impact of abandoned traditional settlements (or bomas) on plant and nutrient succession in the Amboseli ecosystem, southern Kenya, over the course of a century, concluding that perturbation caused by shifting nomadic settlements creates localized nutrient and plant diversity hotspots in savanna ecosystems that remain distinct from the surrounding savanna for decades, possibly centuries.

TL;DR: The difference between exclosures and enclosures using recent ecological and environmental literature and guidance for their proper use is discussed in this paper. But the distinction may lead to confusion and misunderstanding, especially when these are used as synonyms.

TL;DR: In this paper, the effects of grazing on vegetation composition on the Arabian Peninsula were investigated for 62 samples using a nested plot design and a Canonical Variate Analysis (CVA) was used to define vegetation types and identify underlying environmental gradients.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors measured 48 undefoliated grassland sites on a 1900-km transect in Inner Mongolia and classified the sites into five grassland types: grassland, desert, aridity, grassland and desert grassland.

TL;DR: Based on a regional input-output model, the authors developed a method to identify the relationships between production activities and the related water consumption, as well as the relationships established between different sectors concerning water resources.

TL;DR: Assessment of the carrying capacity for most of the areas and nutrient content of the components of livestock diet, the livestock intake values, the economic feasibility of the use of complementary feeds and the development of seeding technology for valuable forage resources as Trichloris crinita are included.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors focused on the effect of abandonment on above-ground biomass and net primary productivity (ANPP) in a Montado in Southern Portugal and found that the change in life form dominance would affect both biomass and productivity, but while the total biomass was expected to increase, the effects on ANPP were less clear.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined aeolian transport of sediment for 1 year following fire in semi-arid shrub steppe on loess soils in southern Idaho, USA.

TL;DR: In this article, the potential nitrogen-fixing activity (NA) of different types of biological soil crusts in the Gurbantunggut Desert in northwestern China was quantified.

TL;DR: This study investigated seed characteristics and germination of 18 common species required for rehabilitation of disturbed areas at Shark Bay Salt in the Shark Bay World Heritage Area, Western Australia, finding that most species germinated equally well at 26/13 °C and 33/18 °C, however seven species had improved performance at 26 or 13 °C.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors characterized BSC morphotypes and their influence on soil stability under grazed/non-grazed conditions during a dry and wet season, and found that light and dark-colored cyanobacteria were dominant at the plant tussock and community level.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compared seed banks between two contrasting anthropogenic surface disturbances (compacted, trenched) and adjacent undisturbed controls to determine whether site condition influences viable seed densities of perennial and annual Mojave Desert species.

TL;DR: It is concluded that plant functional traits affect ecosystem processes in the Monte Phytogeographical Province since the chemistry of senesced leaves and root biomass exerts an important control on organic matter decomposition and N availability in soil.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined post-fire recovery of perennial vegetation in the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts, and analyzed data systematically synthesized from the literature, finding that cover had returned to within 10% cover of unburned areas within approximately 40 years.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the resource hypothesis by assessing assemblage structure of birds in relation to landscape-scale environmental variation in the Finke bioregion of arid inland Australia, during an exceptionally high and extended rainfall period.

TL;DR: In this paper, the changes in percent cover of plant functional types (i.e., life forms and growth forms) along a grazing gradient reflect the livestock number, which would reinforce the reliability of using a GAs design and improve the management of rangeland.