A Glance on the Fauna of Nizzana

Desert ecosystems are inhabited by a highly specialised fauna adapted to extremely low water availability, high UV radiation, and temperature extremes. Soil-inhabiting mammals, particularly rodents, constitute large and diverse communities in most desert ecosystems (e.g. Kelt et al. 1996; Whitford and Kay 1999). Besides these and larger mammals, the most obvious animal groups in deserts are reptiles, birds, tenebrionid beetles and ants; yet, the fauna in most arid ecosystems is indeed far more complex (e.g. Wallwork 1982; Cloudsley-Thompson 1996). A review on small mammals revealed a very high habitat diversity of the Negev, compared to other deserts (Kelt et al. 1996). Since Nizzana only partly overlaps with other parts of the Negev, a characteristic and partly endemic fauna can be expected also here.

Most zoological studies have been conducted in the rocky parts of the Negev, or at other sites such as arid shrubland (e.g. Wilby et al. 2001). Darkling beetles and granivorous mammals and birds in sandy areas were investigated by Ayal and Merkl (1994), Garb et al. (2000) and Lortie et al. (2000). Thus far, almost nothing has been published on the fauna of Nizzana, with two exceptions: Mahn (1994) surveyed darkling beetles, and Henschel (1998) sand-burrowing spiders. Due to this large deficit in knowledge, we would like to provide some preliminary information on the fauna in Nizzana, with special emphasis on diversity, ecosystem engineering and spatial variability of invertebrates. We present observations of larger animals (vertebrates and invertebrates) made during many years of research activities by Rüdiger Prasse, and invertebrate surveys during two short visits by Juliane Filser. From these data, we derive research needs at Nizzana.