Latest Palearctic 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...
The Bechstein’s bat or Myotis bechsteinii lives in deciduous forests. It used to be very common in the Holocene era, but today there are only a few dispersed groups, despite the fact that a colony can be found almost anywhere in Europe. It has been rendered vulnerable by human interference and forest destruction. And this has even led to confusion about its origin, as the biologist María Napal has shown. In fact, the natural habitat of the Bechstein’s bat is said to be Central Europe,...
[ 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...
In a new study, researchers have found what they believe to be a new pathway that allowed modern humans to spread beyond their ancestral homeland about 120,000 years ago.Rivers once flowed from the central Saharan watershed all the way to the Mediterranean, the team of researchers from the Universities of Bristol, Southampton, Oxford, Hull and Tripoli in Libya explain in the journal PNAS. These rivers could have made up a "wet corridor" through Libya for ancient human migrations out of Africa...
On an almost daily basis, Jeff Peterson, MD, would be informed that there were "beaucoup de malades nomads" --many sick people--who had come by camel in search of medical assistance. Most of them had never received any medical care before. Peterson, who was the physician in Running the Sahara, a documentary film that chronicles the incredible journey of three runners' ultra-endurance expedition through Africa's Sahara Desert, had anticipated that such a need might arise. What he...
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...
Sahara Energy, engaged in oil and gas exploration and development, has sold its 30% operated working interest in one gas well located at Gold Creek, Alberta, for proceeds of approximately C$180,035. Proceeds from the sale will be used to pay down Sahara's existing bank debt. Subsequent to the application of the proceeds from the sale, Sahara's current bank indebtedness will be approximately C$20,000. Sahara will reportedly continue to focus on developing its lands in its core area of...
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...
LONDON - Sahara the Arctic seal keeps turning up in warmer waters. The young seal was rescued off the coast of North Africa last year, far from his native habitat in the Arctic. He was brought to Britain, nursed back to health and freed into the wild "” only to paddle in the wrong direction again.Animal rights activists now hope to give Sahara one more chance to avoid life in captivity."We're disappointed that he headed south and not back up north," said Tamara Cooper, an animal...
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...
Latest Palearctic Reference Libraries
The Kazakh Steppe, alternatively called Kirghiz Steppe, ecoregion located in the Palearctic Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands Biome, is a wide region of open grassland in the northern part of Kazakhstan and adjacent portions of Russia, stretching eastwards to the Pontic steppe and to the west of the Emin Valley steppe, with which it creates part of the Eurasian steppe. The steppe stretches out more than 2,200 kilometers from the area east of the Caspian Depression and north of...
The Kazakh Uplands, known also as the Kazakh Hummocks, is a large peneplain formation that stretches throughout the central and eastern regions of Kazakhstan. It’s made up of low mountain oases and elevated plains, and contains large deposits of coal within the north and copper within the south. Rare species, such as the Asiatic Cheetah, may still reside in this region. Several notable cities, including the country’s capital, Astana, are located there. A portion of the Kazakh Uplands...
The Mongolian-Manchurian grassland ecoregion, known also as the Mongolian-Manchurian Steppe, located in the temperate grassland Biome, is found in Mongolia, the Chinese Autonomous region of Inner Mongolia and northeastern China. The grassland covers an area of 342,600 square miles. This Palearctic temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregion of the Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands Biome, creates a large crescent around the Gobi Desert, stretching across central...
The Pontic-Caspian Steppe is the massive steppeland that stretches from the northern shores of the Black Sea as far east as the Caspian Sea, from western Ukraine across the Southern Federal District and the Volga Federal District of Russia to western Kazakhstan, creating part of the larger Eurasian steppe, adjacent to the Kazakh steppe towards the east. It’s a portion of the Palearctic temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregion of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and...
As the world’s second-largest and second most populous continent, Africa is about 11.7 sq. miles including adjacent islands. It covers 6 percent of the Earth’s total surface area and 20.4 percent of the total land area. With 1 billion people, it accounts for about 15 percent of the world’s human population. It is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, both the Suez Canal and the Red Sea along the Sinai Peninsula to the northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the Indian...
