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The desert is dying
February 14, 2007Researchers from University of Bergen have found that trees, which are a main resource for desert people and their flocks, are in significant decline in the hyper-arid Eastern Desert of Egypt.
In places more than 50% of the mature trees have disappeared between 1965 and 2003, while almost no new trees have been recruited. Despite extreme aridity the main cause of tree mortality seems not to be climate, but commercial charcoal production. This indicates that the traditional and sustainable indigenous resource management, which desert people have developed through millennia, is changing.
Desertification has been recurrently discussed and questioned since the 1970s. The focus has been on desert borderlands, while changes in sparse but important vegetation resources within the desert core have been neglected.
Public Library of Science
Public Library of Science
Desert Current Events and Desert News RSSPrioritizing low-cost, simple health measures would save 2.5 million child lives a year
Almost a third of the children under age five who die each year could be saved if governments rebalance health spending to ensure low-cost, simple interventions such as safe water and hygiene, bed nets and basic maternal and newborn care, leading aid agency World Vision said today. Currently, 8.8 million children a year die before age five, most of preventable causes.
Sponges recycle carbon to give life to coral reefs
Coral reefs support some of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet, yet they thrive in a marine desert. So how do reefs sustain their thriving populations?
A Lightning Strike in Africa Helps Take the Pulse of the Sun
Sunspots, which rotate around the sun's surface, tell us a great deal about our own planet. Scientists rely on them, for instance, to measure the sun's rotation or to prepare long-range forecasts of the Earth's health.
Climate studies to benefit from 12 years of satellite aerosol data
Aerosols, very small particles suspended in the air, play an important role in the global climate balance and in regulating climate change.
Well-traveled wasps provide hope for vanishing species
They may only be 1.5mm in size, but the tiny wasps that pollinate fig trees can travel over 160km in less than 48 hours, according to research from scientists at the University of Leeds. The fig wasps are transporting pollen ten times further than previously recorded for any insect.
Nitrogen loss threatens desert plant life, study shows
As the climate gets warmer, arid soils lose nitrogen as gas, reports a new Cornell study. That could lead to deserts with even less plant life than they sustain today, say the researchers.
Deep creep means milder, more frequent earthquakes along Southern California's San Jacinto fault
With an average of four mini-earthquakes per day, Southern California's San Jacinto fault constantly adjusts to make it a less likely candidate for a major earthquake than its quiet neighbor to the east, the Southern San Andreas fault, according to an article in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Iron controls patterns of nitrogen fixation in the Atlantic
Scientists including researchers from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton and the University of Essex have discovered that interactions between iron supply, transported through the atmosphere from deserts, and large-scale oceanic circulation control the availability of a crucial nutrient, nitrogen, in the Atlantic.
African Desert Rift Confirmed as New Ocean in the Making
In 2005, a gigantic, 35-mile-long rift broke open the desert ground in Ethiopia. At the time, some geologists believed the rift was the beginning of a new ocean as two parts of the African continent pulled apart, but the claim was controversial.
Popping the cork on biofuel agriculture
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified a novel enzyme responsible for the formation of suberin - the woody, waxy, cell-wall substance found in cork.
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Desert (Verba Mundi) by J. M. G. Le Clezio (Author), C. Dickson (Author) The Swedish Academy, in awarding J.M.G. Le Clezio the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature, praised Desert as Le Clezio's definitive breakthrough as a novelist. Published in France in 1980, Desert received the Grand Prix Paul Morand from the Academie Francaise, was translated into twenty-three languages, and quickly proved to be a best-selling novel in many countries around the world. Available for the first time in English translation, Desert is a novel composed of two alternating narratives, set in counterpoint. The first takes place in the desert between 1909 and 1912 and evokes the migration of a young adolescent boy, Nour, and his people, the Blue Men, notorious warriors of the desert. Driven from their lands by French colonial soldiers, Nour's tribe has come to the valley of the... |
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Desert (Nobel Prize Literature 2008) (French Edition) by J.M.G. Le Clezio (Author) |
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Perry Ellis Men's Long Sleeve Wrinkle Free Shirt,Desert Sage,14H 32/33 by Perry Ellis |
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Way Out in the Desert by T.J. Marsh (Author) A counting book in rhyme presents various desert animals and their children, from a mother horned toad and her little toadie one to a mom tarantula and her little spiders ten. Numerals are hidden in each illustration. |
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SoftAir Desert Eagle High Impact Spring Powered Airsoft Pistol Kit with Holster (Black) by Soft Air Desert Eagle High Impact Kit//Holster |
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Creatures of the Desert World by National Geographic Society (Author) Describes the activities of various animals in Arizona's Sonoran Desert. |
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Deserts by Gail Gibbons (Author) An introduction to the characteristics of deserts and the plants and animals that inhabit them. |
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Chadwicks Bow-Tie Sweater (DESERT HEATHER,M) by Chadwicks You'll love the unbelievable softness of our luxe cashmere-like cotton sweater. Imported. Pullover styleWide scoop neckline detailed with braided ribbon trimLong sleevesCotton; Hand washMisses 23' long |
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Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Revised Edition by Marc Reisner (Author) Newly updated, this timely history of the struggle to discover and control water in the American West is a tale of rivers diverted and damned, political corruption and intrigue, billion-dollar battles over water rights, and economic and ecological disaster. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. |
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Reliance Products Desert Patrol 6 Gallon Traditional Jeep Style Rigid Water Container by Reliance Products Desert Patrol 6 gallon (23 liter) traditional "Jeep" style rigid water container with angled handle for two-handed gripping which makes the container easier to lift and pour. |
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