Where are deserts located?
The yellow spots in this image show all the hot deserts in the
world! And as you can see some of the deserts are connected,
such as the Peruvian Desert and the Atacama Desert, the Sahara
Desert is connected to the Arabian Desert the Turkestan Desert
and the Great Indian Desert.
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It doesn’t rain a lot in deserts, and temperatures are very high
during the day and very low during the night… In June July and
August, when it is summer, it doesn’t rain at all and temperatures
are so high it is hard to find life when the sun is up.
Why is wind common in desert regions?
-­‐ It happens because hot air goes up, making the cold air go
down. After a while the air that was once hot cool and the air
that was once cold heat, making the air movement happen
as a cycle. During the winter the temperature of the air near
the soil is not as high as in the summer, so there is less wind
then in hot seasons.
Why is wind important in deserts?
-­‐ Wind cause soil erosion, which is the gradual destruction of
the soil.
Light in the desert:
Do you know why deserts are so hot and arid? Because they
receive 10 to 12 hour of sunlight per day! The sunlight hits
the sand in the soil and heats it, making the air that is close
to it hot as well, leading to winds, as was shown previously.
The food chain explained:
Since the desert is desolate, hot and isolated its food chain is not
that large nor expansive.
The producers of the desert are cacti, dry grass and some weeds
growing from the ground. Some plants in the desert can produce
fruit such as the prickly pear that is native to Mexican deserts.
Small animals such as insects, reptiles and rodents populate and
thrive off of producers
Some primary consumers can become secondary consumers and
feed on insects and other lower organisms.
Secondary consumers such as tarantulas and scorpions feed off
of insects and other lower life forms. They do not feed off lizards
or other secondary consumers. Snakes do not feed on insects
since it does not satiate their diet. They feed on rodents and
reptiles lower than them on the food chain
Tertiary consumers such as foxes and hawks have more mobility
and ferocity. They are unrivaled for desert predators. Some
consumers live in the desert that are not as abundant such as
armadillos, chinchillas and other small critters.
Abiotic factors:
Ironwood (tree): Ironwood is one of the largest and longest-lived
Sonoran Desert plants, it reaches 45 feet in height and living as
long as 1,500 years. Ironwood provides shade and protection for
vulnerable plants that inhabit the Sonoran Desert, as the
temperature may be up to 15 degrees cooler under an ironwood
tree than in the open desert. It also serves as food for animals
and insects and is a home for over 150 species of bird.
Plants: Seed eating ants will have colonies near plants so they
can sustain themselves.
Leaves: Butterflies and moths leave their eggs on the back of
leaves so they are able to grow and develop.
Scorpions, hopping mice, eagles, vultures, and ants. bees: They
eat the nectar of the desert wildflowers for energy and spread the
pollen of the plant so it may grow in more locations.
Coyotes: They scavenge the dead body of other animals so
waste does not build up and prevent carbon from being recycled
back into the ecosystem.
Javelina: Similar to a pig, the Javelina is an important a food
source for carnivores and consumes cacti and fruit. oil: The soil
commonly found is alkaline which allows the desert plants grow
and gain nutrients through the ground more effectively.
Temperature: Predators are able to hunt for longer stretches of
time in cooler temperatures and often rest in the shade
in preparation of hunting in warmer temperatures.
Sand Dunes: Prevents soil erosion by storing sand that replaces
the eroded sand below it so that the total amount of sand in an
area does not decrease.
http://savethesonora.weebly.com/biotic-and-abiotic-factors.htm
Abiotic factors:
Abiotic factors in biology are non-living chemical and physical
factor that influence environment, for example soil, pH, and
temperature.
There are many different abiotic factors for the desert and the
reason why is because there are different types of desert around
the the world such as hot and dry, semiarid desert, coastal desert,
and cold desert.
Hot and dry - Are and located in Chihuahua, Sonora, Mojave and
Great Basin in United States. In other counties are southern Asia
realm, Neotropical in South and Central America, Ethiopian in
Africa and lastly Australia. Hot and dry have seasons in general
warm throughout the year and very hot in the summer. For the
winter usually bring little rainfall. The temperatures exhibit daily
extremes because the atmosphere contains little humidity to block
the sun’s rays. In the annual temperatures ranges are from 20-25°
C and the extreme maximum range are from 43.5-49° C. Rainfall
is usually very low or concentrated in short bursts between long
rainless periods. At times the rain starts falling and
evaporates before reaching the ground. Soils are curse-textured,
shallow, rocky or gravely with a good drainage with no subsurface
water. The reason why they are coarse because is less chemical
weathering.
Semiarid desert are located in North America, New found,
Greenland, Russia, Europe, and northern Asia. In the summers
are moderately long and dry and are like hot desert, as for the
winter normally brings low concentrations of rainfall. In the
semiarid desert the temperature is an average between 21-27° C.
In the evening are cool around 10° C and in cool nights help both
plants and animals by reducing moisture loss from transpiration,
sweating and breathing. The soil is from sandy and fine-textured
to loose rock fragments, gravel or sand. Semiarid desert has a
fairly low salt concentration compared to desert which means this
certain desert receive low amounts of rain.
Coastal desert – is a desert that is moderately cool to warm areas
such as Atacama, Chile. Coastal desert winters are cool winters
that are followed by moderately long, warm summers. Summer
temperature ranges from 13-24° C and winter temperature are
5 °c below. The soil is fine-textured with a moderate salt content.
It has a fairly porous with good drainage and some plants have
extensive root system close to the surface where they can take
advantage of any rain showers.
Cold desert - are deserts that have cold winters with snowfall and
high overall rainfall throughout the winter and over the summer
occasionally. Cold desert have short, moist, and moderately warm
summers with fairly long, cold winters. The winter temperature is
between -2-4C and the summer’s temperature is between 21-26°
C.
http://cejkdesertbiome.weebly.com/abiotic-factor.html