The response of soils to simulated rainfall along a climatological gradient in an arid and semi-arid region

A number of soil properties or "responses', related to runoff generation and erosion, have been studied along an altitudinal transect of the Judean Desert. Precipitation along the transect ranges from about 550mm in the west to about 80mm in the east. The sites studied are located on the same geological (Menuha) formation and at similar geomorphological positions. All of the sites had a high stone cover, and a vegetation cover dominated by Gramminaea. It was found that infiltration rates decreased and soil erodibility rates increased towards the Dead Sea with increasing annual temperatures and decreasing annual amounts of precipitation. -from Authors