Arid Land Ecology

The desert and arid steppes of Mongolia and northern China were geographically central to the spread of pastoralism and the rise of pastoralist states, but research on the organizational strategies of pre-pastoralist hunter-gatherers and the spread of herding has been extremely limited. Until recently, catalogues of sites collected by Westerners in the 1920s and 1930s comprised the body of English-language publications on Gobi Desert prehistory. This article introduces a wealth of new site-specific and interpretive data, drawing on English-language sources as well as Russian-and Mongolian-language publications to create a synthesis for the prehistory of the Gobi Desert from the end of the Last Glacial Maximum to the adoption of herding. Special emphasis is placed on the relationship between a major shift in desert ecosystems, comparable to the 'greening of the Sahara', the establishment of an oasis-based broad-spectrum foraging strategy, and progressive desertification and deforestation after 2000 BC. We conclude that an oasis-based adaptation was contemporaneous with the expansion of forests and wetlands and persisted throughout the early stages of herding. A major decline in these economies occurs after 1000 BC, in conjunction with continuing trends towards heightened aridity and major societal changes across Northeast Asia. The persistent coexistence of Bronze Age burials and microblade-based habitation sites around oases, as well as similarities in material culture, suggest that these groups overlapped geographically or were the same entity.

Товчлол: Монгол болон Умард Хятадын говь, говь хээрийн бүс нутаг нь газарзүйн хувьд мал аж ахуй болон түүнд суурилсан нүүдэлчдийн төрт улсууд бүрэлдэн бий болоход нөлөөлсөн чухал бүс нутаг юм. Гэвч эдгээрийн суурь болсон эртний анчин, түүвэрлэгч нарын нийгмийн бүтэц, мал аж ахуйн тархалтын талаарх судалгаа туйлын бага хийгджээ. Саяхныг хүртэл 1920-1930-аад оны үед барууны судлаачдын говьд хийсэн түүхийн өмнөх үеийн судалгааны бүтээлүүд хожмын англи хэлээр бичигдсэн цөөн хэдэн эрдэм шинжилгээний ажлуудын  гол хэрэглэгдэхүүн болсоор иржээ. Харин энэхүү өгүүлэл нь сүүлийн жилүүдэд тухайн бүс нутагт хийгдсэн монгол, англи, орос хэл дээрх археологийн судалгааны эх хэрэглэгдэхүүнд тулгуурлан мөстлөгийн сүүл үеэс мал аж ахуйн үүсэл хүртэлх үеийн говь нутгийн түүхийн өмнөх үеийн асуудлуудыг нэгтгэн дүгнэсэн юм.

Мөн зохиогчид өнөөгийн “Сахаарын цөлийн ногоорол” хэмээх үзэгдэлтэй жишиж болохуйц эртний экосистемийн томоохон өөрчлөлт, хүмүүсийн “Баянбүрд” түшиглэсэн амьдралын хэв маяг болон НТӨ 2000 оноос хурдацтайгаар явагдаж эхэлсэн цөлжилт гэх зэрэгт онцгой анхаарал хандуулан тэдгээрийн хоорондын уялдаа холбоог судалсан байна.

Эртний хүмүүсийн баянбүрд түшиглэсэн амьдралын хэв маяг нь ойн болон чийглэг хөрст бүс тэлэн өргөжсөнтэй нэг цаг хугацаанд явагдаж мал аж ахуйн хөгжлийн эхний үе шат хүртэл үргэлжилсэн хэмээн зохиогчид үзжээ. Харин энэхүү амьдралын хэв маяг нь Зүүн хойд Азийг хамарсан хэт хуурайшилт болон тухайн үеийн нийгмийн бүтцэд томоохон өөрчлөлт гарч эхэлсэн зэрэг шалтгааны улмаас НТӨ 1000 оноос хойш аажмаар хумигдаж эхэлсэн байна. Зохиогчид говь хээрийн бүсэд өргөн тархсан баянбүрдүүдийн ойр орчимд хүрлийн үеийн булш оршуулга болон ижил хэлбэрийн бичил ялтас бүхий бууц суурингууд олноор тохиолдож байгаа нь эдгээр дурсгалуудыг үлдээсэн бүлгүүд нэг дор эсвэл хоорондоо холгүй амьдарч байсныг харуулахаас гадна нэг угсааны хүмүүс байх магадлалтайг цохон тэмдэглэжээ.

Using respective strengths of the biological, physical, and social sciences, we are developing an online decision support tool, the Santa Cruz Watershed Ecosystem Portfolio Model (SCWEPM), to help promote the use of information relevant to water allocation and land management in a binational watershed along the U.S.-Mexico border. The SCWEPM will include an ES valuation system within a suite of linked regional driver-response models and will use a multicriteria scenario-evaluation framework that builds on GIS analysis and spatially-explicit models that characterize important ecological, economic, and societal endpoints and consequences that are sensitive to climate patterns, regional water budgets, and regional LULC change in the SCW. OPEN ACCESS Sustainability 2010, 2 2045

It is commonly accepted that, following the end of the Pleistocene, semi-arid deciduous oak woodlands did not spread in the Irano-Anatolian region of Southwest Asia as quickly as they did in the Levantine Mediterranean littoral, despite the fact that climatic improvement occurred broadly at the same time in both regions. Prehistoric impacts on woodland vegetation (such as woodcutting, burning and clearance for cultivation), the harsh continental climate of inland Southwest Asia and its distance from late Pleistocene arboreal refugia have all been discussed in the literature as likely causes of the delay. In this paper we argue that semi-arid deciduous oak woodlands should not be viewed as part of the “natural” vegetation of the Irano-Anatolian region that has been progressively destroyed by millennia of human activities since the Neolithic. They represent instead one of the earliest anthropogenic vegetation types in Southwest Asia, one that owes its very existence to prehistoric landscape practices other scholars commonly label as “destructive”. Drawing on anthracological, pollen and modern vegetation data from central Anatolia we describe how the post-Pleistocene species-rich and structurally diverse temperate semi-arid savanna grasslands were gradually substituted by low-diversity, even-aged Quercus-dominated parklands and wood pastures in the course of the early Holocene. Economic strategies that encouraged the establishment and spread of deciduous oaks included sheep herding that impacted on grass and forb vegetation, the controlling of competing arboreal vegetation through woodcutting, and woodland management practices such as coppicing, pollarding and shredding that enhanced Quercus vegetative propagation, crown and stem growth. Understanding the origin and evolution of the Irano-Anatolian semi-arid oak woodlands of Southwest Asia is of critical importance for reconstructing the changing ecologies and geographical distributions of the progenitors of domesticated crop species, and the nature and scale of early agricultural impacts on the landscape.

Palynological archives dating from the Pleistocene–Holocene transition are scarce in the arid zone of the southern Levant. Anthracological remains (the carbonized residues of wood fuel use found in archaeological habitation sites) provide an alternative source of information about past vegetation. This paper discusses new and previously available anthracological datasets retrieved from excavated habitation sites in the southern Levant dating to the Pre- Pottery Neolithic (PPN) period. The available evidence indicates the existence of distinct arboreal floras growing in different ecological niches, which occupied areas that today are either treeless or very sparsely wooded. The anthracological data provide independent confirmation of the hypothesis that early Holocene climate in the southern Levant was significantly moister than at present. Clear North–South and East–West precipitation and associated woodland composition gradients are evidenced. Far from deducing widespread anthropogenic degradation of the regional vegetation, it is suggested that woodland expansion in the semi-arid interiors of the Levant may be attributed to the intensive management of Pistacia woodlands for food, fuel and pasture.

Cette recherche expose les diverses techniques traditionnelles et contemporaines de l'éclairage naturel en architecture. Elle relate aussi les apports des nouveaux produits de l'éclairage artificiel et qui peuvent fortement contribuer à une stratégie d'éclairage mixte (naturel et artificiel). Elle présente également une revue critique non exhaustive des différents outils de prédiction et d'évaluation de l'éclairage naturel dans le bâtiment avec une référence aux milieux arides à climat chaud et sec. En conclusion, cette étude introduit les conditions de faisabilité de l'éclairage naturel (et mixte) en tant que stratégie de réduction de la consommation énergétique ainsi que les opportunités propres au cas de l'Algérie.

Statement of the Problem
Arid rangelands throughout the Middle East / North Africa (MENA) region are currently managed without clear information of long term trends in vegetation, stocking rates, or ecological health.  It is often stated that rangelands suffer from overgrazing and excess water extraction, but there is a lack of reliable historical data to support these claims.  Data exists in well managed reserves such as the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve (DDCR), but it is labor intensive and expensive to maintain a routine system of monitoring.
Recent years have seen the rapid emergence of low-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles (micro-UAVs) for civilian use.  Dramatic developments in the platforms (drones) have been accompanied by the development of lightweight specialty sensors (e.g.; infra-red and multispectral cameras) and orthomosaic software.  These new platform / sensor combinations present a dramatic new tool for the management of conservation zones as well as agricultural areas.  Micro-UAVs have clear potential use for spatial ecology studies (Anderson and Gaston 2013) and for biodiversity assessments (Getzin, Wiegand, and Schöning 2012).  They offer the potential of providing far more detailed information than previous technologies (from satellite and manned aircraft platforms) at a much lower cost (Walton et al. 2013), and with greater flexibility to gather information at specific times or frequencies.  Aerial monitoring is now feasible at pixel resolutions that range from meters to millimeters, which brings imagery to a scale that is relevant to many ecological processes (Anderson and Gaston 2013).
This presentation will review how this emerging technology can be applied to better manage rangelands in the Middle East, and will draw on preliminary results from the author.
Significance and relevance of the work
The long-term aims of this project are to (1) reduce the cost of rangeland monitoring for organizations that are already doing this work manually, and (2) to provide a tool that non-specialists in the region can use, thus encouraging the gathering of much better information for land management decisions.
Applications of the technology for the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve (DDCR) have been identified as follows:
• Habitat classification
• Animal population monitoring via aggregated sites (water / feeding sites) dispersed areas (open rangeland) and indirect methods (e.g.; lizard holes, carcasses)
• Animal condition monitoring.  Mammalian body width is indicative of good health and/or pregnancy
• Plant monitoring, including estimations of biodiversity and biomass.
• Anthropogenic monitoring; evaluation of whether safari companies are compliant with regulations for operation within the DDCR.
Tools that are developed for the DDCR will be directly applicable to rangelands throughout the MENA region.  The region is highly suited to aerial monitoring, since success of classifying individual plants to species level is inversely proportional to biodiversity within a size class (Féret and Asner 2012), and is improved when individuals are discretely separated by bare ground.  Larger herbivores are rarely obstructed by trees.  Privacy and safety regulations are of less concern in rangelands due to their remoteness and low human population densities (Laliberte 2012).
Description of research method
Preliminary research has been conducted using a DJI s1000 octocopter equipped with a 24MP RGB and a 3.2 MP multispectral camera, and a SenseFly eBee fixed-wing drone equipped with 12 MP RGB and multispectral cameras.  Preliminary trials were conducted to identify the maximum ground sampling distance (related to drone altitude and camera resolution) required to be able to identify individual species with reasonable accuracy.  Images were collected at 10 m intervals from 10 to 300m above animal and plant species.  From this, trials will be conducted at selected altitudes, and species observation from resulting images will be checked for accuracy against ground-based data.
Results
At time of writing, observational data of known species taken from different altitudes has been collected, illustrating the viability of the technology.  By the time of the conference presentation, results should include at least one structured study evaluating the reliability of the technology at a specific ground sampling distance.
Conclusions
Micro-UAVs have an enormous potential for improving rangeland management in the MENA region.  However, much work still needs to be done to streamline processes and evaluate the enormous amount of data produced.

In two arid/semiarid regions, we studied diversity of algae in lakes and pools with salinity ranging from 0.1‰ up to
39‰. In plankton and periphyton of 34 lakes in northern Kazakhstan, we found 252 species belonging to 113 genera of 8 algal
divisions. In 24 pools with experimental salinity ranges in the Negev desert of Israel, we recorded 86 species from 47 genera
of 6 algal divisions. The dominant groups of both arid regions are represented by widespread species of diatoms, green algae,
and cyanobacteria in similar proportions. Alkaliphiles among the indicators of acidification and betamesosaprobionts among
the indicators of saprobity prominently prevail in both regions. The indices of saprobity in lakes (1.48-2.7) and in pools
(0.75-2.18) reflect a low-trophic loading. Oligohalobes-indifferents are most common in both arid regions. Cluster analysis
based on data containing 420 species revealed 9 clusters, of which the highly diverse communities of low mineralized lakes
and pools and the low diversity communities of highly-mineralized lakes and pools are separated at the highest dissimilarity
level. CCA analysis revealed correlation of the algal species diversity preferences with salinity level in lakes in Kazakhstan
and in pools of Israel, which are more impacted by arid factors. These results point to mineralization being the most important
variable defining the diversity levels irrespective of the type and location of reservoirs in the arid regions.

The dry forest of the Peruvian south coast has undergone an almost total process of deforestation. Populations here have increased exponentially through immigration supplying labour to urban coastal development, and demonstrably unsustainable agro-industrial expansion for export markets. Society has become dislocated from local traditions of environmental and resource management whilst still retaining a wealth of Andean agricultural expertise. Indigenous communities still hold on to vestiges of traditional knowledge. Relicts of natural vegetation, traditional agriculture and agrobiodiversity continue to sustain ecosystem services. Moreover, offer livelihood options and resources for restoration. These aspects reflect a long cultural trajectory, including famous extinct cultures such as Nasca, that evolved within an ever-changing riparian and agricultural landscape influenced by external forces and which incorporated important processes of plant domestication and adaptation to climatic oscillation.

Here, we present an ecosystem approach to vegetation restoration and sustainable resource management in Ica, Peru, based on wide interdisciplinary biodiversity inventory and study, where school, community and agro-industry engagement is seen as a prerequisite for success. The approach demonstrated significant plant establishment in this hyperarid region using appropriate low-technology techniques of planting and irrigation with minimum watering. Restoration of a highly degraded environment built upon vegetation relicts followed a strategy of cultural capacity building and environmental engagement, including the development of sustainable forest products, festivals, schools programmes, didactic publications for local use, and collaboration with local communities, landowners, agribusiness and governmental authorities. Plant conservation must re-engage people with their natural heritage by dissemination of information for vegetation restoration and management integrated to dynamics of ecosystem function within its wide local cultural and historical context.

Keywords: agriculture; archaeology; desert; huarango; Ica; local communities; Nasca culture; Prosopis