Negev Desert

In the remote Negev desert region of Israel, oil shale is being burned in a duidized-bed combustor to supply process heat and produce electric power. Unlike the Estonian kukersite, this oil shale is lean, about 63 L/1, but is being mined to access an undedying phosphate deposit (26). 

Lange, O.L. (1969). Ecophysiological investigation of lichens of the Negev desert. I. CO2 gas exchange of Ramalina maciformis (Del.) Borg under controlled conditions of the laboratory. Flora, 158, 324-59. 

Danin A., Ganor E. Trapping of airborne dust by mosses in the Negev Desert, Israel. Earth SurfProcLandf 1991 16 153-162. 

Kidron G., Barzilay E., Sachs E. Microclimate control upon sand microbiotic crusts, western Negev Desert, Israel. Geomorphology 2000 36 1-18. 

Both Israel and China are building large solar power plants at investments of about 2,500/m2 of collector area. The initial capacity of the solar thermal power plant in the Negev Desert in Israel is planned to be 150 mW, and it is estimated to cost 350 million. The plant is planned to expand to 500 mW at a cost of 1 billion. 

Krumbein, W. E. Jens, K. (1981) Biogenic rock varnish of the Negev desert (Israel) an ecological study of iron and manganese transfer by cyanobacteria and fungi. Oecologia, 50, 25-38. 

Kappen, L., Lange, O.L., Schulze, E.-D., Evenari, M., and Buschbom, U. 1979. Ecophysiological investigations on lichens of the Negev Desert. VI. Annual course of the photosynthetic production of Ramalina maciformis (Del.) Bory. Flora 168 85-108. 

Figure 23 Comparison of reconstructed irrigation water tritium input (left panel), immobile vadose-zone water tritium (center panel), and measured tritium (right panel), all as a function of depth. Study site is an irrigated vineyard in the Negev Desert, Israel (source Gvirtzman and Magaritz, 1986).

Dembitsky V. M., Dor I., Shkrob I., and AM M. (2001) Branched alkanes and other apolar compounds produced by the cyanobacterium Microcoleus vaginatus from the Negev Desert. Russian J. Bioorg. Chem. 27, 110—119. 

Nativ R., Adar E., Dahan O., and Nissim I. (1997) Water salinization in arid regions—observation from the Negev desert, Israel. J. Hydrol. 196, 271-296. 

Goodfriend, G. A., 1991, Holocene trends in in land snail shells from the Negev Desert and their implications for changes in rainfall source areas, Quat. Res., 35 417-426. 

Hungate, B., Danin, A., Pellerin, N.B., Stemmier, J., Kjellander, P., Adams, J.B. Staley, J.T. (1987) Characterization of manganese-oxidizing (Mnll —> MnlV) bacteria from Negev Desert rock varnish implications in desert varnish formation. Canadian Journal of Microbiology 33, 939-943. 

Algae are found in nearly aU cultivated soils but they are found also in hot deserts as dry as the Negev desert (see also Section 8.1.3) and cold deserts of Antarctica. They are there represented by the coccoid Chlorophyta. The soil floras have been shown to be extensive and the algal biomass on surface soil must be considerable since it is frequently visible to the naked eye. 

Figure 8. The Ramat Hovav industrial region in the Negev Desert, Israel. Thalli of Ramalina maciformis transplanted in this region were found to contain higher Pb and Cu contents than thalli located 10-15 km away (Garty and Tamir, unpublished).

Figure 9. Sheep grazing in the Negev Desert Highlands. Sheep and goats graze on Ramalina maciformis, especially in summer, when no other plants are available. The food-chain which leads from lichens to animals and humans is endangered by the presence of heavy metals of industrial origin.

Garty, J., 1985. The amount of heavy metals in some lichens of the Negev Desert. Environ. Pollut. (Series B) 10, 287-300. 

Garty, J., Harel, Y., Steinberger, Y., 1995. The role of lichens in the cycling of metals in the Negev Desert. Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 29, 247-253. 

Jacobs, A. F. G, B. G. Heusinkveldand and S. M. Berkowicz (2000) Dew measurements along a longitudinal sand dnne transect, Negev Desert, Israel. International Journal of... 

The cysts of the microalga Haematococcus pluvialis occasionally cause a spectacular blood-red appearance to drIed-out lakes, ponds, river beds or even the stoups in churches, and can be associated with the natural phenomenon described as "blood rain" (left). - Algae production plant in the kibbutz Ketura in the Negev desert In Israel (right). 

Gntterman Y (1997) Spring and snmmer daily snbsnrface temperatnres in three microhabitats in a flat natnral loess area in the Negev desert, Israel. J Arid Environ 36 225-235... 

The above examples of CAM performance under field conditions came from species growing in arid habitats in California and Australia. In the deserts of the New World, CAM plants are abundant and frequently the dominant species present. In certain other deserts, however, where precipitation is also low and irregular, CAM plants are considerably less abundant and restricted to specific habitats. Caralluma negevensis, such an example, was studied by Lange et al. (1975) in its natural habitat of the Negev desert (Israel). 

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