Latest Deserts and xeric shrublands Stories

This Envisat image shows part of central Morocco from the Atlantic Ocean to the west, over the Atlas mountains and into arid parts of Algeria further inland. The snow-capped High Atlas mountain range divides Morocco from the Sahara desert’s climatic influences in Algeria. Northwest of the mountains, the area experiences a more Mediterranean-like climate, with dry and hot summers and moderate winters with a fair amount of rain. Several peaks in the mountain range exceed 4000 m and...

  [ View the Video ] A NASA-led team has used radar sounding technology developed to explore the subsurface of Mars to create high-resolution maps of freshwater aquifers buried deep beneath an Earth desert, in the first use of airborne sounding radar for aquifer mapping. The research may help scientists better locate and map Earth's desert aquifers, understand current and past hydrological conditions in Earth's deserts and assess how climate change is impacting them. Deserts cover...

Australians can learn much from their deserts and from desert people about how to cope with climate change and scarce resources.That's one of the messages of a new book launched in the Federal Parliament by Senator Trish Crossin today for the Desert Knowledge CRC and CSIRO Publishing."Dry Times: Blueprint for a Red Land" argues that desert plants, animals and people have been surviving and thriving for thousands of years on scarce resources and uncertain climates "“ and they have the...

Global warming is giving a boost to Sonoran Desert plants that have an edge during cold weather, according to new research.Although the overall numbers of winter annuals have declined since 1982, species that germinate and grow better at low temperatures are becoming more common."It's an unexpected result -- that global warming has led to an increase in cold-adapted species," said lead author Sarah Kimball, a research associate at the University of Arizona in Tucson. "Because...

Australians can learn much from their deserts and from desert people about how to cope with climate change and scarce resources.That's the message of a new book released today by the Desert Knowledge CRC and CSIRO Publishing."Dry Times: Blueprint for a Red Land" argues that desert plants, animals and people have been surviving and thriving for thousands of years on scarce resources and uncertain climates "“ and they have the systems to cope with uncertainty which urban society lacks.Written...

On Thursday, one of the world's wealthiest men, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, launched a joint $100 million project with the Mexican government and the World Wildlife Fund to protect Mexico's environment."I believe that looking after the environment will be one of the big generators of jobs in the future," Slim told the AFP while on a beach on Mexico's Caribbean island of Cozumel."Whether there's a crisis or not, the cost of looking after the environment and reducing risks...

Reconstructing the climate of the past is an important tool for scientists to better understand and predict future climate changes that are the result of the present-day global warming. Although there is still little known about the Earth's tropical and subtropical regions, these regions are thought to play an important role in both the evolution of prehistoric man and global climate changes. New North African climate reconstructions reveal three "˜green Sahara' episodes during which the...

A recent study on the future of climate changes suggests that the once-green Sahara turned to desert over thousands of years rather than in an abrupt shift as previously believed. The study's lead author said that parts of the Sahara now show signs of a tiny shift back towards greener conditions, apparently due to global warming.The researchers looked at ancient pollen, spores and aquatic organisms in sediments in Lake Yoa in northern Chad that show that the region gradually shifted from...

By Antoaneta Bezlova - Asia Water Wire* HOTAN, Oct. 30, 2006 (IPS/GIN) -- It takes two people to keep watch on the desert road which emerges from the sands and disappears back into the sands. The roadside cabin where they live -- the sole dwelling visible -- is a well station, identified only as 'No. 27.' "Life in the desert is too lonely for a single man," explains Gong Kailong, who despite his weather-beaten looks is not a desert native but hails from Gansu in inland China. He is posted...

By Jeremy LovellLONDON (Reuters) - Far from being barren wastelands, the deserts that occupy one quarter of the earth's land surface could be key sources of food and power, the United Nations said on Monday.But these vast open spaces, home to rare and useful plants and animals, are at risk from climate change and human exploitation, the UN's Environment Program said in a report published on World Environment Day.Deserts are prime potential locations for solar power generators that do not...