Controls on plant functional surface cover types along a precipitation gradient in the Negev Desert of Israel

Shrub mound formation and stability on semi-arid slopes in the Northern Negev Desert of Israel: A field and simulation study

“…5). These model results are confirmed by vegetation pattern observations along a precipitation gradient in the Negev where both in the hyper-arid zones as in the wetter xeric Mediterranean zones no shrub mounds are found (Buis et al, 2009).…”

“…Slopes had a size of 20 by 20 m (400 m 2 ) and were divided into 25,600 grid cells of 0.125 × 0.125 m. Soil depth was assumed similar to the average soil depth in Sayeret Shaked i.e. 0.83 m (Buis et al, 2009). We equally distributed the shrubs over the slope (Fig.…”

“…We used a seedling density of 200 seedlings per 400 m 2 so that after 100 years the full grown shrubs would cover approximately 19% of the surface area, as they do nowadays in Sayeret Shaked (Buis et al, 2009). The seedlings grew during the simulation following an estimated growth curve adapted from Chew and Eastlake Chew (1965).…”

“…The bare intershrub space is often covered by physical and/or biological crusts. These crusts have a reduced infiltration capacity and stimulate runoff formation especially when formed in loessic or clayey sediments Eldridge et al, 2000;Belnap, 2003;Buis et al, 2009). The low infiltration capacity leads to runoff of water, sediments and nutrients from the crusted surface areas during rain events.…”

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

“…Biocrusts are dominated by cyanobacteria and may also include lichens, mosses, green algae, microfungi, and bacteria (Belnap and Lange, 2001). In natural drylands across the world, biocrusts cover vast regions and may amount to 70% of the ground cover (Buis et al, 2009;Eldridge and Greene, 1994;Karnieli et al, 2002;Qin et al, 2006).…”