Desert

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Desert
http//www.maion.com/photography/morocco/dunes_p24
.html

• Alex Snell and Yaeji Park

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Desert Characteristics

• Hot and dry
• While seasons are generally warm, the summers are
  very hot and the winters will bring little
  rainfall
• Annual temperature range 20-25 C
• Annual rain fall 1.5-28 cm depending on location
• Semiarid
• Annual rain fall 250 to 500 mm or 10 to 20 in
• Generally scrub or short grass vegetation
• Coastal
• Annual rain fall 250 mm (10 inches)
• Winter fogs frequent due to cold currents from
  ocean
• Cold
• Daily freeze and thaw cycle
• Up to 20 C

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Landscape

• Dry, scarce water, droughts
• Arid
• Little vegetation
• Intense solar radiation
• Relatively poor soils
• Animals with special adaptations

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Climate

• Hotter deserts near equator
• Hottest biomes on Earth
• All deserts are dry but vary in temperatures
• Rainfall is too low to sustain vegetation
• Deserts form when there are barriers against the
  rain clouds
• Causes wind, mountains

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Part of the Sonoran desert upland region (about
1000 metres above sea level), USA.
Creosote bush in the Lower Sonoran desert of
Arizona, USA.
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Plant Life

• Plant life scarce
• Ocotillo
• Saguaro Cactus
• Adaptations when rain, sprout, bloom, ripen,
  wither, die quickly
• Roots reach underground water (80 ft)
• Waxy layer on stems and leaves help contain water
  and resist heat
• Rather than competing for light (in moist
  biomes), compete for water
• Wide spacing of plants for farther spread roots.

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Animal Life

• Goats, eat cactus
• Camels, snakes, lizards
• Coyotes, foxes, peccaries, tarantulas, scorpions,
  ring tailed cats, antelope, skunks, mule deer,
  boars, and in some places, lions and elephants
• hawks, falcons, owls, roadrunners, buzzards, and
  eagles. Wood peckers

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Animal Adaptations

• Camels- fat in humps
• Some organisms have special eyelids that allow
  them to see through sandstorms
• Long legs to keep sand heat away from body
• Long hair to keep warm on cold night time

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Deserts in the United States
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Human Impact
Las Vegas Gambling, Clubs, Shows, Luxurious
Hotels
DESTRUCTION of NATURE
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Did you know?

• Scientists estimate that about one-fifth of the
  earth's land surface is desert.
• Deserts can be found on every continent except
  Europe.

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Endangered Species

• Desert tortoise livestock grazing, road
  proliferation, mining, inappropriate off road
  vehicle use, and other desert abuses

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Bibliography

• http//helios.bto.ed.ac.uk/bto/desbiome/biome.htm
• http//www.wildnatureimages.com/ocotillo_pictures.
  htm
• http//www.deserttortoise.org/awards/photo2004win.
  html
• http//eebweb.arizona.edu/links/desert/EndangeredS
  pecies.htm
• http//www.aresearchguide.com/biomes.html