Examines how deserts are formed and how they are constantly changing, what animals and plants live there, ways in which humans live in and change deserts.

Deserts - vast, empty places where time appears to stand still. The very word conjures images of endless seas of sand, blistering heat and a virtual absence of life. However, deserts encompass a large variety of landscapes and life beyond our stereotypes. As well as magnificent Saharan dunes under blazing sun, the desert concept encompasses the intensely cold winters of the Gobi, the snow- covered expanse of Antarctica and the rock- strewn drylands of Pakistan. Deserts are environments in perpetual flux and home to peoples as diverse as their surroundings, peoples who grapple with a broad spectrum of cultural, political and environmental issues as they wrest livelihoods from marginal lands. The cultures, environments and histories of deserts, while fundamentally entangled, are rarely studied as part of a network. To bring different disciplines together, the 1st Oxford Interdisciplinary Deserts Conference in March 2010 brought together a wide range of researchers from backgrounds as varied as physics, history, archaeology anthropology, geology and geography. This volume draws on the diversity of papers presented to give an overview of current research in deserts and drylands. Readers are invited to explore the wide range of desert environments and peoples and the ever-evolving challenges they face.

Hotter and dryer than most parts of the world, the Middle East could soon see climate change exacerbate food and water shortages, aggravate social inequalities, and drive displacement and political destabilization. And as renewable energy eclipses fossil fuels, oil rich countries in the Middle East will see their wealth diminish. Amidst these imminent risks is a call to action for regional leaders. Could countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates harness the region's immense potential for solar energy and emerge as vanguards of global climate action? The Power of Deserts surveys regional climate models and identifies the potential impact on socioeconomic disparities, population movement, and political instability. Offering more than warning and fear, however, the book highlights a potentially brighter future--a recent shift across the Middle East toward renewable energy. With his deep knowledge of the region and knack for presenting scientific data with clarity, Dan Rabinowitz makes a sober yet surprisingly optimistic investigation of opportunity arising from a looming crisis.

A synthesis of the environmental and climatic history of every major desert and desert margin, for researchers and advanced students.

These proceedings record the results of climate change in many areas which are hyper-arid deserts today but which, almost cyclically, at intervals of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years, have had a much more humid climate.

Many people have heard of Earth's largest deserts: the Sahara in northern Africa, the Gobi in east central Asia, and the Arabian in the Arabian Peninsula. However, some people may not know that these deserts weren't always so big. Desertification is the process by which natural or human causes turn previously productive land into desert areas. This book explores the different causes of desertification and the ways even longtime desert lands can change. Fact boxes and sidebars provide readers with additional information relating to the main text.

Reconstructing climatic changes in deserts and their margins at a variety of scales in space and time, this book draws upon evidence from land and sea, including desert dunes, wind-blown dust, river and lake sediments, glacial moraines, plant and animal fossils, isotope geochemistry, speleothems, soils, and prehistoric archaeology. The book summarises the Cenozoic evolution of the major deserts of the Americas, Eurasia, Africa and Australia, and the causes of historic floods and droughts. The book then considers the causes and consequences of desertification and proposes four key conditions for achieving ecologically sustainable use of natural resources in arid and semi-arid areas. Climate Change in Deserts is an invaluable reference for researchers and advanced students interested in the climate and geomorphology of deserts: geographers, geologists, ecologists, archaeologists, soil scientists, hydrologists, climatologists and natural resource managers.

"Building upon the rapidly-growing body of literature documenting how natural systems are responding to, and are at risk from, human-induced climate change, this book provides case-study examples of how a diverse range of species and ecological systems in California are changing with the climate. These case studies originate from multiple ecological fields (genetics, population biology, habitat studies, community ecology, landscape ecology, paleobiology) and are framed by chapters describing approaches and tools for climate-adaptation planning, reviewing climate impacts and biological responses, and encouraging the use of historical data. This framing emphasizes the need for partnerships between researchers and resource managers in addressing climate-related challenges, and highlights how communication strengthens these partnerships with 'conversations' between chapter authors and managers. Such connections help move advances in science from research reports to 'on the ground' changes that help protect species, and support all life"--Provided by publisher.

Part of an eight-volume set for students, this book examines the past, present, and future of Earth's climate.