The main subject of this book is the interaction between diggings created by porcupines when consuming geophytes, and their influences on annual and perennial vegetation in a desert biome. The accumulation of run-off water in diggings and depressions made by animals increases the carrying capacity of these microhabitats in the desert biome.
The accumulation of run-off water does not only benefit the natural vegetation; a system of human-made depressions can be evolved to increase the catchment of the run-off water that is typical to many desert habitats, and can lead to run-off...

Unrelated annual desert plant species in the Negev Desert of Israel have developed complementary sets of adaptations and survival strategies as ecological equivalents with physiological, morphological and anatomical resemblances, providing insights into desert ecology.

The main subject of this book is the interaction between diggings created by porcupines when consuming geophytes, and their influences on annual and perennial vegetation in a desert biome. The accumulation of run-off water in diggings and depressions made by animals increases the carrying capacity of these microhabitats in the desert biome.
The accumulation of run-off water does not only benefit the natural vegetation; a system of human-made depressions can be evolved to increase the catchment of the run-off water that is typical to many desert habitats, and can lead to run-off...

During germination, the most resistant stage of the life cycle - the seed - changes to the most sensitive stage, namely the seedling. Therefore, in desert plant species seed dispersal and subsequent germination in the optimum time an place place are particularly critical parameters. Discussed here are the ways and means by which desert plants have adapted through the course of evolution to their extreme environment. Two such strategies which have evolved are a) plants with relatively large and protected seeds which germinate when the chance of seedling survival is high and the risk relatively...

Annual desert plant species of unrelated taxa in the Negev Desert of Israel have developed complementary sets of adaptations and survival strategies as ecological equivalents with physiological, morphological and anatomical resemblances, in the various stages of their life cycles. After 40 years of research in hot deserts Yitzchak Gutterman provides a comprehensive treatise of such adaptations and strategies. In doing so he covers the following topics: post-maturation primary seed dormancy, which prevents germination of maturing seeds before the summer; seed dispersal mechanisms with escape...