Ecology and Natural Resources
Some resources are oil, natural gas, phosphates, and sulfur.
The Rub'al-Khali has very limited floristic diversity. There are only 37 species, 20 recorded in the main body of the sands and 17 around the outer margins. Among these 37 species, only one or two are endemic. Vegetation is very diffuse but fairly evenly distributed, with some interruptions of near sterile dunes.
Some typical plants are
- Calligonum crinitum on dune slopes
- Cornulaca arabica (saltbush)
- Cyperus conglomeratus.
Other widespread species are
- Dipterygium glaucum
- Limeum arabicum
- Zygophyllum mandavillei (Mandaville 1986).
Very little trees may be found except at the outer margin (typically Acacia ehrenbergiana and Prosopis cineraria).
Other species are a woody perennial Calligonum comosum and annual herbs such as Danthonia forskallii
Read more about this topic: Arabian Desert
Famous quotes containing the words ecology, natural and/or resources:
“... the fundamental principles of ecology govern our lives wherever we live, and ... we must wake up to this fact or be lost.”
—Karin Sheldon (b. c. 1945)
“Men nowhere, east or west, live yet a natural life, round which the vine clings, and which the elm willingly shadows. Man would desecrate it by his touch, and so the beauty of the world remains veiled to him. He needs not only to be spiritualized, but naturalized, on the soil of earth.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Nor is any evidence to be found, either in History or Human Nature, that nations are to be bribed out of a spirit of encroachment and aggression, by humiliations which nourish their pride, or by concessions that extend their resources and power.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)