Introduction

Abstract

The exigencies of life in the desert environment have resulted in the selection of a diversity of adaptations, both morphological and physiological, in the flora and fauna. At the same time, many plants and most small animals are able not merely to exist but even to thrive under desert conditions — mainly by avoiding thermal extremes and by the refinement of pre-existing abilities to economise in water. In the same way, the biotic interactions of the flora and fauna of the desert do not involve many new principles. Nevertheless, conditions in arid regions frequently do invoke refinements of the complex interrelations between predators and their prey, parasites and their hosts, as well as between herbivores and the plants upon which they feed. In this book, I shall discuss not only such interactions and their feedback effects, but also community processes and population dynamics in the desert.