On the Egyptian side of the Israeli border in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip speed armed soldiers together barbed wire fences, are three layers of Dick in some places, while Israeli soldiers of their own towers on the other hand look.
The goal of this high is border keep away intruders. But the barriers have started an accidental experiment on the ability of ancient desert survival difficult political times. And so far, things look not good for the desert and his creatures.
Thanks to an any line in the sand dunes Israel start crust with green algae on the hard sand and make crispy. Egypt's dunes, on the other hand remain soft, yellow and rippled-- especially because nomadic Bedouin still may graze their sheep and goats there.
The contrast is so strong that in satellite images, the sharp yellow green line of the most visible border in the world from above, said Yaron Ziv, a landscape ecologist at Israel's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Now that the crust is slowly Israeli Negev desert, Ziv start colleagues and a surprising diversity of life in the area to document. You have put together a list of the gerbils, snakes, beetles and other animals, that lives only in this corner of the world, of which are some new to science. And they find that the crusts biodiversity are a major threat to the region.
Since their work further, apply their results behind this dusty Middle Eastern border. Deserts in the world faced threats. And although these landscapes barren untried eye a wide range of habitats, the species see tend to desert port depend, have developed.
"You go to the western Negev, and you see that the most falls it under the sand," said Ziv. "You look at and say this is very boring, such as kindergarten sand boxes." But one thing that we have found that these environments are very heterogeneous. "There are many Sands from different eras, and there are very different and unique habitats."
Ziv's research is complicated by a strong military presence and much bureaucracy in Israel. On a recent visit to his study site in a newly declared protected area he stood up on a stormy sand dunes as the Sun disappeared, and described the challenges. Overhead flew military jets. Army trucks tailed jeep on a single-track stretch of sand below.
He said "We in a nature reserve, which is also a firing zone". "It is a very complex situation." See you this gray hair? We as ecologists have a hard time. "It is almost an impossible mission."
Negev, which covers 60 percent of the Israel, gets on average between 20 millimeters (less than an inch) and (11 inch) 280 mm of rain per year, depending on the location. The desert border occurs where a this amount of precipitation is greater than. And the eastern boundary of the dead sea fault which begins also the Jordan is defined.
But in the West, the Negev, it shares same sand and same atmosphere with Egypt. And up to before recently Bedouin roamed free in both countries. Because trudging herds through the sand and plants willow, hold soft dunes. Winds further and new design.
This is still at Egyptian sand. But a raid against the grazing in Israel, enabled drought, along with more than a decade the plant-killing to the algae take about 7% of the Negev in the last 30 years. Crusts stabilize dunes and, according to growing evidence that threaten the region of nine species, 15 snake species, and much other creatures, including Gazelles, wild asses, and insects.
While document crusting on biodiversity in the Negev are Ziv's group races to the effects of the dune drying it strategies for the sands active again make, including ATVs, the dunes to test.
This type of management approaches said the only way, the Negev, along with many other endangered environments around the world can Professor of ecology and environmental biology at the University of Arizona in Tucson Michael Rosenzweig.
"We as a civilization, which has expressed for 2,000 years, the trend is to homogenize the country and it", said he, as an example, where American perennial a perennial lawn. "We pay no attention to the needs of other species." "We welcome the fact, that looks good to us necessarily suitable for all kinds of appearance not."
Rosenzweig, reminds himself touring Negev 1978 looking to research plots. One night, he went to sleep with a plan to go to Gaza the next morning. But when he awoke, the street under five feet of shifting sand had disappeared. He had to turn around and go the other way. With Israel's current crust formation problems, this is a scenario which would now never happen.
And similar types of rapid environment shift in places far beyond the Middle East.
"The crusts are a small part of the whole story", Rosenzweig said. "It's like the trigger of a gun." "Use of this lever to get to the big problems."
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