Qatar has launched an aggressive campaign to save its rawdas — fragile natural depressions that serve as lifelines for desert ...

Desert ecosystems are some of the most richly diverse in the world and yet they are one of the most threatened ecosystems on the planet. Deserts, which account for one-third of the earth’s land mass, ...

When most people think of deserts, the word that often comes to mind is sand—and a lot of it. Deserts cover almost a quarter of the earth, yet it's hard to imagine life thriving in such hostile ...

(CNN) — Inside a Mojave aster flower, a tiny bee is fast asleep. At night, the pale lavender petals close, providing a safe resting place. In the morning, as birdsong rings out across the desert, the ...

The understudied mycorrhizal fungi are vital to ecosystems and may prove critical to the survival of fragile deserts stressed by climate change. Though invisible on the surface of the desert, ...

On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor in northern Ukraine—then part of the Soviet Union—exploded, sending a massive plume of radiation into the sky. Nearly four decades later, the Chernobyl ...

This research is open-access, allowing scientists and conservationists to apply its framework to other desert ecosystems facing similar threats. "If we can remove invasives at the right time and focus ...

The animals are also vulnerable to a range of deadly diseases such as upper respiratory illnesses and the shell disease cutaneous dyskeratosis, which softens their shells. Finally, as climate change ...