Paper Title
Soil Profile Temperature As An Indicator For Potential Effects Of Climate Change Under Arid Ecosystems Of Kuwait

Abstract
Globally, one-third of the total land area is classified as arid land. Aridity is usually expressed as a function of rainfall and temperature. An arid index of 0.03 comprises dryland areas without vegetation, with the exception of a few scattered shrubs, and no farming except with irrigation. Annual rainfall is low, rarely exceeding 100 millimeters, with huge temporal variability. All these descriptions fit well climatic conditions of Kuwait and the larger Middle East region. Soil temperature change plays an important role in many processes which take place in the soil, and is regulated by multiple factors such as: heat capacity, albedo, leaf coverage, soil moisture and texture. Daytime temperatures can typically reach 45 oC during the "hot" dry season and drop to 15 oC during the night. High temperatures in the surface layer of the soil result in rapid loss of soil moisture due to the high levels of evapotranspiration. Deserts ecosystems are sensitive to changes in environmental conditions to the extent that land use pressure has become so serious that dry land agriculture and natural habitats may be threatened in the long term. Two way analysis of variance (ANOVA) comparing the soil temperatures from 2007 to 2009 did not show significant change in temperature across the years. The findings from this study represent original contribution to our understanding of the impacts of land use intensity soil, and soils are also subject to indirect impacts arising from human activity as it sheds some light on whether or not soil temperature changes can be used as a reliable indicator of global climate change. Keywords- Dessert, Soil, Surface layer, Temperature.