 Shade provided by trees planted in the desert also reduces evaporation of the sparse rainfall.Yatir forest is also a part of the NASA project FLUXNET, a global network of micrometeorological tower sites used to measure the exchanges of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and energy between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere.The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies conducts research at Yatir forest that focuses on crops such as dates and grapes grown in the vicinity of Yatir forest.