These ecosystems are characterized by extremely restricted water and nutrient availability, and high spatial variability of precipitation and temperature (An et al., 2013). [20] They usually feature BSh (hot steppe) or BSk (temperate steppe) in the Köppen climate classification. Many locations within this category have elevations exceeding 3,000 m (9,800 ft) and the thermal regime can be hemiboreal. Temperate Desert Plants. Average Annual Precipitation: 10-30 in. [115] Native Americans in the south western United States became agriculturalists around 600 AD when seeds and technologies became available from Mexico. The victors in a battle would advance and their supply chain would necessarily become longer, while the defeated army could retreat, regroup and resupply. The Sahara Desert also has the empty space totalling hundreds of square miles required to house fields of mirrors for solar plants. Area with mostly reptiles and cacti. [128], The desert is generally thought of as a barren and empty landscape. Tropical zone locatio… The cultivation of semi-arid regions encourages erosion of soil and is one of the causes of increased desertification. [17], Cold deserts, sometimes known as temperate deserts, occur at higher latitudes than hot deserts, and the aridity is caused by the dryness of the air. These deserts differ from those at lower latitudes chiefly in their far greater annual temperature range and much lower winter temperatures. [91], Being ectotherms, reptiles are unable to live in cold deserts but are well-suited to hot ones. For perennial plants, reproduction is more likely to be successful if the seed germinates in a shaded position, but not so close to the parent plant as to be in competition with it. When they reach the crest, they cascade down the far side. The necessary moisture may be present in the form of dew or mist. Most precipitation is in the winter when the snow melts. Subtropical deserts, which exist between 15° and 30° north and south latitude, are centered on the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. The six major biomes are tundra, taiga, temperate deciduous forest, tropical rain forest, grassland and savanna, and desert. The Hohokam tribe constructed over 500 miles (800 km) of large canals and maintained them for centuries, an impressive feat of engineering. [120] Large swaths of this desert are covered in mirrors. They developed skills in the manufacture and use of weapons, animal tracking, finding water, foraging for edible plants and using the things they found in their natural environment to supply their everyday needs. D) tropical savanna. [87] The camel is a superb example of a mammal adapted to desert life. The desert lark takes frequent dust baths which ensures that it matches its environment. The temperate deserts are further north in the Great Basin of Nevada and Utah. They are mostly found in subtropical high-pressure belts and major continental rain shadows. [5] Deserts generally receive less than 250 mm (10 in) of precipitation each year. When they land, they strike other particles which may be jerked into the air in their turn, starting a chain reaction. [137] Despite its low surface atmospheric pressure (only 1/100 of that of the Earth), the patterns of atmospheric circulation on Mars have formed a sea of circumpolar sand more than 5 million km2 (1.9 million sq mi) in the area, larger than most deserts on Earth. Lhasa, which is lower-lying, has a more subtropical climate with a warm, wet season during the summer, but despite this is classified as "semi-arid" by the Koppen classification system due to the extremely low precipitation during winter. This prospect has proved false as it disregarded the environmental damage caused elsewhere by the diversion of water for desert project irrigation. Deserts develop under four distinct geographic conditions: Under zones of high atmospheric pressure associated with the subtropics and centered near 30° latitude. In fact, the most important characteristic of a desert is that it receives very little rainfall. Potential evapotranspiration, then, is the amount of water that could evaporate in any given region. The largest desert regions of the world lie between 20° and 30° north and south of the equator, either where mountains intercept the paths of the trade winds or where atmospheric high-pressure areas cause descending air currents and a lack of precipitation. Some annual plants germinate, bloom and die in the course of a few weeks after rainfall, while other long-lived plants survive for years and have deep root systems able to tap underground moisture. [92], Amphibians might seem unlikely desert-dwellers, because of their need to keep their skins moist and their dependence on water for reproductive purposes. [21] In the Köppen climate classification system, deserts are classed as BWh (hot desert) or BWk (temperate desert). [129], There is an extensive literature on the subject of deserts. Most precipitation is in the winter when the snow melts. 1. Other areas are arid by virtue of being a very long way from the nearest available sources of moisture. Many, such as the Bushmen in the Kalahari, the Aborigines in Australia and various tribes of North American Indians, were originally hunter-gatherers. This includes much of the polar regions, where little precipitation occurs, and which are sometimes called polar deserts or "cold deserts". In the northern hemisphere, temperate deciduous forests can be found south of the taiga, in Europe, … C) desert. At depths of more than 50 cm (20 in), these remain at between 30 to 32 °C (86 to 90 °F) regardless of the external temperature. Option 3 was the correct answer. The semi-arid fringes of the desert have fragile soils which are at risk of erosion when exposed, as happened in the American Dust Bowl in the 1930s. [22] Mid-latitude deserts occur between 30° and 50° North and South. They are also unpleasant for humans and can cause headaches and nausea. In the winter the thermometer will not go above 41 degrees. They can move to areas of greater food availability as the desert blooms after local rainfall and can fly to faraway waterholes. The structure of the sheet consists of thin horizontal layers of coarse silt and very fine to medium grain sand, separated by layers of coarse sand and pea-gravel which are a single grain thick. The temperature also varies greatly depending on the location of the desert. With few inputs, they were at the mercy of the weather and may have lived at bare subsistence level. They are mostly in areas remote from the sea where most of the moisture has already precipitated from the prevailing winds. [26], Polar deserts such as McMurdo Dry Valleys remain ice-free because of the dry katabatic winds that flow downhill from the surrounding mountains. They tend to grow vertically; they can reach a height of 500 m (1,600 ft), making them the tallest type of dune. The usual image we have of a desert is of giant cacti, unremitting heat and warm winters.

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