Delayed juvenile behavioural development and prolonged dependence are adaptations to desert life in the grey Falcon

Rapid learning in the young of most endothermic animals can be expected to be favoured by natural selection because early independence reduces the period of vulnerability. Cases of comparatively slow juvenile development continue, therefore, to attract scientific attention. In most species of birds, including raptors, the young depend on their parents for some time after fledging for the provisioning of food and for protection whilst they learn to become nutritionally and otherwise independent. Among raptors, post-fledging dependence periods that exceed six months are exclusive to the largest species and these have reproductive cycles that exceed 12 months. By contrast, young of the medium-sized grey falcon Falco hypoleucos have been reported in close company with their parents up to 12 months after fledging, i.e., at a time when the adults are expected to breed again. We investigated the occurrence and characteristics of prolonged adult-juvenile association relative to other falcons and similar-sized raptors. We found that the behavioural development of grey falcon young is extremely delayed, and that they even depend nutritionally on their parents for up to 12 months after fledging. We suggest that these two distinctive features are, ultimately, adaptations of the grey falcon to its extreme environment, Australia’s arid and semi-arid zone, one of the hottest environments in the world.

Time-Of-Flight monitoring reveals higher sediment redistribution rates related to burrowing animals than previously assumed

Burrowing animals influence surface microtopography and hillslope sediment redistribution, but changes often remain undetected due to a lack of autonomous high resolution field monitoring techniques. In this study we present a new approach to quantify microtopographic variations and surface changes caused by burrowing animals and rainfall-driven erosional processes applied to remote field plots in arid and mediterranean Chile. We compared the mass balance of redistributed sediment within plot areas affected and not affected by burrowing animals, quantified the cumulative sediment redistribution caused by animals and rainfall, and upscaled the results to the hillslope scale. The new instrument showed a very good detection accuracy. The cumulative sediment redistribution within areas affected by burrowing animals was higher (−10.44 cm3 cm−2 year−1) in the mediterranean than the arid climate zone ( −1.41 cm3 cm−2 year−1). Daily sediment redistribution during rainfall within areas affected by burrowing animals were up to 350 % / 40 % higher in the mediterranean / arid zone compared to the unaffected areas, and much higher than previously reported in studies not based on continuous microtopographic monitoring. Furthermore, 38 % of the sediment eroding from the burrows accumulated within the burrow entrance while 62 % was incorporated into overall hillslope sediment flux. The cumulative sediment excavation by the animals was 14.62 cm3 cm−2 year−1 in the mediterranean and 16.41 cm3 cm−2 year−1 in the arid climate zone. Our findings can be implemented into long-term soil erosion models that rely on soil processes but do not yet include animal-induced surface processes on microtopographical scales in their algorithms.

Strategic Communication for Sustainable Environmental Development in the Northern Nigerian Arid Zone

Nigeria is one of the world's most vulnerable countries to extreme weather conditions and natural disasters linked to climate change, the impacts of which are exacerbated by rapid population growth, a fragile economy, high dependence on rain-fed agribusiness, and the country's weak adaptive capacity. The lack of or poor application of environmental communication in a strategic approach is critical to all of these. Using a thematic conceptual review of existing literature, this chapter shows that strategic environmental communication can be applied more easily to mitigate the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation through the use of well-established communication strategies and instruments to save the environment for socio-economic development.

ANALYSIS OF GREEN CAMPUS POTENTIAL IN PARTS OF ARID ZONE USING HYDRO-LANDSCAPE TECHNIQUE

India is a massive country with wide range of climatic condition in terms of rainfall, temperature, depth of ground water level, soil cover etc. These variations may affect the ground cover such as in Tropical and sub-tropical zone - the scarcity of rainfall and the micro-climate becomes conducive for the growth of vegetation where as in arid zone such as Gujarat and Rajasthan- the soil and water are not very favorable, as a consequence scarcity of vegetation. The current view on climatic analysis of India clearly indicates that the development of Green Campus in arid climate zone will be a challenging issue especially in the field of landscape architecture. The basic issues related to arid climate is depletion in the depth of ground water level condition by virtue of which the vegetation in general is decreasing. In this way, the hydro-landscape technique will be useful for Green Campus development in part of arid zone with selective areas conducive to develop of soil moisture content. The present study is with the application of hydro-landscape technique to develop the green campus in arid climate in order to establish the area with conducive environment.

Santa Ana Winds: Fractal-Based Analysis in a Semi-Arid Zone of Northern Mexico

A fractal analysis based on the time series of precipitation, temperature, pressure, relative humidity, and wind speed was performed for 16 weather stations located in the hydrographic basin of the Guadalupe River in Baja California, Mexico. Days on which the phenomenon known as Santa Ana winds occurs were identified based on the corresponding criteria of wind speed (≥4.5 m/s) and wind direction (between 0° and 90°). Subsequently, the time series was formed with data representing the days on which this phenomenon occurs in each of the analyzed weather stations. A time series was additionally formed from the days in which the Santa Ana winds condition does not occur. Hurst exponents and fractal dimension were estimated applying the rescaled range method to characterize the established time series in terms of characteristics of persistence, anti-persistence, or randomness along with the calculation of the climate predictability Index. This enabled the behavior and correlation analysis of the meteorological variables associated with Santa Ana winds occurrence. Finally, this type of research study is instrumental in understanding the regional dynamics of the climate in the basin, and allows us to establish a basis for developing models that can forecast the days of occurrence of the Santa Ana winds, in such a way that actions or measures can be taken to mitigate the negative consequences generated when said phenomenon occurs, such as fires and droughts.

Annual and seasonal changes of the air temperature with altitude in the Upper Dades valley, High Atlas, Morocco

The purpose of this study is to determine the size of air temperature changes with altitude in the mountains of the arid zone, on the example of the Upper Dades valley (High Atlas, Morocco). The air temperature change with altitude was determined on the basis of 5 years data from three meteorological stations. The analysis was carried out on an annual and seasonal basis. The annual and daily variations of thermal gradients between pairs of stations were also determined. It was found that the average thermal gradient in the Upper Dades valley was -1.02°C per 100 m. The highest values of the thermal gradient occur in winter and the lowest in summer. In winter, the thermal gradient was characterized by the greatest variability. Minima of the daily variation of air temperature gradients were observed in early morning hours and maxima around midday. In the lower part of the valley, air temperature inversion frequently developed between 10 AM and 3 PM UTC. The obtained results show high thermal gradients in the mountains of the arid zone, with their annual amplitude increasing in the lower parts of the valley. The instantaneous values of the gradients were significantly modified by the supply of latent heat and the occurrence of dust storms. It has been shown that the advection factor plays an important role in shaping large gradient values. The study contains novel results of thermal gradient measurements in high mountains of arid zone.