ORIGINAL PAPER Effects of climate on the productivity of desert truffles beneath hyper-arid conditions Lyès Bradai & Samia Bissati & Haroun Chenchouni & Khaled Amrani Received: 4 April 2014 /Revised: 14 July 2014 /Accepted: 14 August 2014 # ISB 2014 Abstract Desert truffles are edible hypogenous fungi that are very well adapted to conditions of aridity in arid and semi-arid regions. This study aims to highlight the influence of climatic factors on the productivity of desert truffles under hyper-arid climatic conditions of the Sahara Desert in Algeria, with assumptions that the more varying climatic factors, mainly rainfall, are more crucial for the development and production of desert truffles. At seven separate sites, desert truffles were collected by systematic sampling between 2006 and 2012. The effects of climate parameters of each site on the produc- tivities (g/ha/year) of desert truffle species were tested using generalized linear models (GLMs). The annual mean of the total production recorded for all three harvested species (Terfezia arenaria, Terfezia claveryi, and Tirmania nivea) was 785.43±743.39 g/ha. Tirmania nivea was commonly present over the sampled sites with an occurrence of 70± 10.1 %. GLMs revealed that total and specific productivities were closely positively related to autumnal precipitations oc- curring during October–December, which is the critical pre- breeding period for both desert truffles and host plant species. The other climatic parameters have statistically no effect on the annual variation of desert truffle productivity. Keywords Desert truffle . Productivity . Climate variability . Precipitation timing . Sahara Desert . Drylands Introduction Drylands are characterized by water scarcity and extreme seasonal weather conditions with unpredictable rainfall. Desert areas cover about 6.5 % of the Earth’ s surface, the equivalent of a fifth of the land surface, which is about 33 million km 2 (Goudie 2002; Laity 2009). In general, the prevailing ecological conditions over these regions are very restrictive to the spontaneous survival of living beings (Chenchouni 2012). Under such conditions, the Sahara Desert in North Africa is characterized by a specific vocation that involves desert truffles which are very much appreciated by the local population. Known locally as terfez in the north- ern Sahara of Algeria, the desert truffles grow and spread over habitats that provide favorable ecological conditions, princi- pally climate (Bradai et al. 2013). Since ecosystem productivity is very low in arid regions (Laity 2009) and therefore natural nutrient sources are, too (Harris and Mohammed 2003), desert truffles have great popularity, especially for their nutritional value and specific delicious taste. Indeed, these edible wild ascomycetes add remarkable flavor to the staple food and they are also a rich source of proteins, amino acids, fatty acids, minerals, and carbohydrates (Al-Naama et al. 1988; Bokhary and Parvez 1988; Bokhary et al. 1989). In addition, the desert truffles have been used in traditional medicine for more than two millennia without known harmful or toxic effects on their users (Al-Rahmah 2001). Due to their wide distribution in arid and semi-arid regions of the world, desert truffles are considered edible and an excellent source of nutrition since about 3,000 years (Chang 1980; Morte et al. 2008), not only because of their particular biochemical composition (Trappe L. Bradai : S. Bissati Lab. Bio-ressources Sahariennes: Préservation et Valorisation, Fac. des sciences de la nature et de la vie, Univ Ouargla, Ouargla 30000, Algeria H. Chenchouni (*) Department of Natural and Life Sciences, FSESNV, University of Tebessa, 12002 Tebessa, Algeria e-mail: chenchouni@gmail.com K. Amrani Institut Agronomique Méditerranéen de Montpellier, 34090 Montpellier, France Int J Biometeorol DOI 10.1007/s00484-014-0891-8