CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- 1 Introduction -- 1.1 General introduction -- 1.2 What creates a desert? -- 1.3 Deserts have low precipitation and high variability in precipitation -- 1.4 How old are deserts? -- 1.5 Deserts are created by a lack of precipitation and not high temperatures -- 1.6 Aridity indices -- 1.7 What denies rainfall to deserts? -- 2 Abiotic factors -- 2.1 Precipitation -- 2.2 Temperature -- 2.3 Geology -- 2.4 Fire -- 3 Morphological and physiological adaptations of desert plants to the abiotic environment -- 3.1 Classifications of desert plants -- 3.2 Types of photosynthesis -- 3.3 Biological soil crusts -- 3.4 Annual plants -- 3.5 Grasses, forbs and shrubs/perennials -- 3.6 Geophytes -- 3.7 Stem and leaf succulents -- 3.8 Halophytes -- 3.9 Phreatophytes -- 4 Morphological, physiological, and behavioural adaptations of desert animals to the abiotic environment -- 4.1 Evaders and evaporators -- 4.2 Adaptations to handle unique situations -- 4.3 Endurers -- 4.4 Removing the effects of phylogeny -- 5 The role of competition and facilitation in structuring desert communities -- 5.1 Plant communities -- 5.2 Competition between animals -- 5.3 Indirect interactions: keystone species, apparent competition, and priority effects -- 6 The importance of predation and parasitism -- 6.1 Direct mortality -- 6.2 Predation risk -- 6.3 Isodars -- 6.4 Spiders -- 6.5 Scorpions -- 6.6 Visually hunting predators -- 6.7 Snakes, scent-hunting predators -- 6.8 Keystone predation -- 6.9 Animal parasites and parasitoids -- 7 Plant-animal interactions in deserts -- 7.1 Herbivory -- 7.2 Pollination -- 7.3 Seed dispersal and seed predation -- 7.4 Are these coevolved systems? -- 8 Desert food webs and ecosystem ecology -- 8.1 Do deserts have simple food webs? -- 8.2 The first supermodel-HSS -- 8.3 Interactions among habitats-donor-recipient habitat interactions.

8.4 Effects of precipitation, nutrients, disturbances and decomposition -- 9 Biodiversity and biogeography of deserts -- 9.1 Are deserts species-poor? α,β, and γ diversity patterns -- 9.2 Productivity-diversity relationships in deserts -- 9.3 Convergence and divergence of desert communities -- 9.4 Large-scale patterns in desert biogeography -- 10 Human impacts and desertification -- 10.1 The sensitive desert ecosystem: myth or reality? -- 10.2 Pastoralism is the most important use of desert lands -- 10.3 Military manoeuvres threaten some desert habitats and protect others -- 10.4 Pumping aquifers: a problem of less water and more salinity -- 10.5 An embarrassment of riches: oil extraction in desert environments -- 10.6 When is it desertification? The importance of reversibility -- 11 Conservation of deserts -- 11.1 Are deserts worth conserving? -- 11.2 Conservation of desert species or habitats -- 11.3 The 3 Rs: reintroduction, recolonization, and revegetation -- 11.4 The coalface of evolution-genotype by environment interactions -- 11.5 Who gets to pay for this conservation and how is it controlled? -- 11.6 Conclusions -- REFERENCES -- INDEX -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- X -- Y -- Z.