International borders and range ecology: The case of Bedouin transborder grazing

Monitoring sand dune stabilization along the coastal dunes of Ashdod-Nizanim, Israel, 1945–1999

“…Among the human impacts affecting sand dunes activity are livestock grazing and cutting of vegetation by nomadic populations (Meir and Tsoar, 1996;Barth, 1998), planting of vegetation to stabilize dunes (Liphschitz and Biger, 1997), and disruption caused by military maneuvers (Al-Dabi et al, 1997) and recreational activities, such as off-road vehicles (ORVs) and hikers (Curr et al, 2000). Fig.…”

The effect of sand grain size on the development of cyanobacterial biocrusts

“…Some of these functions include carbon and nitrogen fixation (Belnap, 2002;Burgheimer et al, 2006a,b;Shields, 1957;Wu et al, 2009;Zaady et al, 1998Zaady et al, , 2000 and profound effects on plant germination (Boeken et al, 2004;Serpe et al, 2006;Zaady et al, 1997). Biocrusts also play a crucial role in geomorphological processes, such as aeolian (Maman et al, 2011;Meir and Tsoar, 1996;Tsoar, 1990), hydrological (Akuja et al, 2003;Eldridge et al, 2002;Ram and Aaron, 2007;Zaady et al, 2014;Zaady, 2005) and pedological processes (Eldridge and Leys, 2003;Zhang et al, 2006). Biocrusts may effectively impede wind and water erosion and water flow; however due to hydrophobic properties and extracellular polysaccharides that act to clog the surface, some biocrusts may also trigger runoff resulting in nutrient and sediment translocation (Belnap, 2006;Zaady et al, 2013).…”

Sand dune mobility under climate change in the Kalahari and Australian deserts

“…Additional supporting evidence that precipitation plays a secondary role in dune activity comes from the northwest Negev desert in Israel. Here, the dunes are stable, despite a very low precipitation rate (between 70 and 170 mm/year) (Karnieli and Tsoar 1995;Meir and Tsoar 1996;Tsoar 2008;Tsoar et al 2008) because the low wind-drift potential (DP<100) allows the growth of vegetation and biogenic-crust that provide stability (Neuman and Maxwell 1999;Argaman et al 2006). However, although wind power is the main factor which affects dune mobility, long droughts and drastic decreases in precipitation can lead to dune reactivation or to enhanced dune activity (Lancaster 1997).…”