Showing papers in "Journal of Arid Environments in 2013"

TL;DR: It is argued that soil salinity needs to be more broadly acknowledged as a driving factor in plant ecology in order to understand and make more accurate predictions for the impact of environmental change on biodiversity and vegetation patterns throughout the semi-arid world.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors reviewed the nature of moisture at Gobabeb, Namibia with emphasis on rainfall and fog, and examined nature and cause of the rainfall record from October 1st 1962 to May 30th 2011.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors compared the results of RDI for various reference periods using some popular empirical PET methods with minimum data requirements, including Hargreaves, Thornthwaite, Blaney-Criddle and FAO Penman-Monteith (only temperature).

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors surveyed 82 households of nomads living in the Dayan high valley of western Mongolia and found that two thirds of the monthly mean income of nomad households is either cash (ca. 55 USD) or non-cash income from livestock husbandry.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors evaluated four different satellite rainfall estimates (CMORPH, PERSIANN, adjusted PSI, and TRMM-3B42 V6) using a relatively dense IRIMO rain-gauge network as reference.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present the Pre/post print version of the work and the definitive version is published in Journal of Arid Environments, vol. 90, pp 103-113.

TL;DR: This research develops a method which would allow small amounts of biochar to provide significant protection for plants in their most vulnerable stage, the seedling, and demonstrates that, in sandy substrates, 30% biochar, concentrated in seedling root zones, significantly increases seedling resistance to wilting.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored local resident perspectives on ecosystem services (ES) in the hyper-arid Arava Valley/Wadi Araba, which spans across both Israel and Jordan.

TL;DR: The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) does not distinguish between natural and human drivers, and between active and inherited desertification Partly as a result of these ambiguities the UNCCD has attracted a low level of international attention.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the relationship between vegetation productivity and the annual integrated NDVI (iNDVI) and found that there are large differences between the NDVI- vegetation productivity relationships, and these differences can be linked to species composition.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined present livelihood adaptations among Afar pastoralists in north eastern Ethiopia through a household survey and found that most Afar households have become increasingly involved in farming and non-farming/non-pastoral activities, but do not display a total detachment from traditional mobile herding.

TL;DR: In this article, mean tree biomass and soil carbon (C) densities for 39 map sheet grids covering the Acacia woodland savannah region of Sudan (10−16° N; 21−36° E) are presented.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors compare single-household versus multi-householder management in terms of vegetation biomass, cover, and species richness in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors used Random Forests to map Reference Soil Groups according to the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) in the Xilin River catchment.

TL;DR: The data allow to conclude that J. curcas may survive to drought spells of moderate intensities but, at the same time pose serious concerns for its profitable cultivation in arid/semi-arid regions worldwide.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed the distribution, conservation status and restoration potential of cienegas in the Apache Highlands Ecoregion spanning the borderlands of Arizona, USA and Sonora, Mexico.

TL;DR: In this article, the root system of the preserved Caatinga biome was evaluated in the dry and rainy seasons, and the results showed that the effective depth of the caatinga roots range from 0.60 m to 0.78 m in non-restrictive deep soils, three times smaller than values commonly used in hydrological models.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the impact and the interplay of future (2050) climate and land use change on plant diversity in Burkina Faso, which covers the major bioclimatic gradient in West Africa.

TL;DR: In this arid rangeland, shrubs may facilitate establishment of understory plants under moderate drought stress, and for non-resource factors (light and temperature), but these positive effects are suppressed due to competition under severe drought conditions.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored how the drivers for land use and cover changes (LUCC) have changed over the last decades and which impact this has on ecological succession in the semi-arid Main Ethiopian Rift Valley.

TL;DR: For example, the authors in this paper found that the Namib Desert's ephemeral rivers are among the most hydrologically variable fluvial systems yet described, and the coefficient of variation for mean annual runoff (CVMAR) among 28 stations, representing 7 Namib rivers, averages 1.55, compared with a global mean of ∼0.45.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors used distance-sampling methods to quantify density of wind-dispersed trash in two protected areas of the Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona and found that wind can disperse substantial amounts of trash >2 km into protected natural areas and suggest that accumulation of trash poses a potential threat to desert ecosystems.

TL;DR: Investigation in a population of a major thickening species, Acacia mellifera, in an arid Namibian savanna over a nine year period found seed production is a recruitment bottleneck in this species, and recruitment requires at least two consecutive seasons of favourable rainfall, and is highly episodic in arid savannas.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate how basic soil properties respond to different management systems, including communal (continuous grazing), commercial (rotational grazing), and land reform (mixture of grazing systems) farming.

TL;DR: In this paper, the bioavailability and chemical composition of dissolved organic matter (DOM) leached from fresh leaves and litter aged on a seasonally dry floodplain for 2, 4, and 6 months was investigated.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used a meta-study approach to summarize knowledge of crop land change, the documented driving forces, and the perceived impacts, and pointed out the need to exercise caution with regard to simple narratives about crop land changes.

TL;DR: There is a need for site-based studies of rooting patterns in dryland riparian zones to more accurately document hydrogeomorphic niches and predict changes in plant distributions.

TL;DR: Seedling establishment is poor in response to infrequent rainfall and survival of seedlings and saplings, that do manage to persist, is further hampered by high livestock numbers, thus microsite limited in communal lands.

TL;DR: In this paper, the impact of spekboom thicket degradation on hydrological processes was investigated in South Africa's subtropical thicket biome, and the results showed clear trends in the impacts of degradation.