The Negev: The Challenge of a DesertThe Negev, first published over a decade ago, told the story of some twenty years of study of southern Israel's desert. It synthesized the findings of botanists, geologists, soil scientists, agronomists, archaeologists, historians, and engineers and told how the applications of their work produced an agricultural surplus in this forbiddingly dry, hot region. Now Michael Evenari has amplified the book with data from another decade of work. He describes the efforts at a new farm at Wadi Mashash, extends the weather data another ten years, presents further work on the adaptations of plants and animals to desert conditions, and takes a much deeper look at the historical precedents for the method of runoff agriculture, which has made the desert bloom. |
Contents
In the beginning | 1 |
Desert challenges | 8 |
Man in the Negev | 11 |
The Negeva desert | 29 |
Landforms and landscapes | 39 |
The geological history of the Negev by Yehoshua Itzhaki | 76 |
Ancient runoff agriculture in the Negev | 95 |
The Nitzana papyri | 120 |
field crops vegetables medicinal and pasture plants | 191 |
fruit trees | 207 |
Microcatchments negarin | 220 |
Adaptation of plants to desert conditions I | 229 |
Adaptation of plants to desert conditions II | 275 |
Adaptation of animals to desert conditions by Amiram Shkolnik | 301 |
The farm at Wadi Mashash | 324 |
Recent developments | 338 |
Stone mounds and the mechanics of runoff | 127 |
Drinking water in the desert | 148 |
the chain of wells | 173 |
The reconstruction of the farms | 179 |
Epilogue | 413 |
418 | |
427 | |
Other editions - View all
The Negev: The Challenge of a Desert Michael Evenari,Leslie Shanan,Naphtali Tadmor Snippet view - 1971 |
The Negev: The Challenge of a Desert Michael Evenari,Leslie Shanan,Naphtali Tadmor No preview available - 2013 |