Desert Biome
By : LANCE KELLY
Mojave Desert
• The Mojave Desert receives less than 10 inches of rain a year
and is generally between 3,000 and 6,000 feet in elevation.
• While the Mojave Desert itself is sparsely populated, it has
increasingly become urbanized in recent years. Las Vegas,
Nevada is the largest city in the Mojave, with a metropolitan
population of around 1.9 million in 2006.
Sahara Desert
• The Sahara is the world’s largest hot desert. It covers over
3,500,000 square miles. The Sahara's boundaries are the
Atlantic Ocean on the west, the Atlas Mountains and the
Mediterranean Sea on the north, the Red Sea and Egypt on
the east, and the Sudan and the valley of the Niger River on
the south. The climate of the Sahara has undergone
enormous variation between wet and dry over the last few
hundred thousand years. During the last glacial period, the
Sahara was even bigger than it is today, extending south
beyond its current boundaries.
Desert biome
• Hot and Dry Deserts temperature ranges from 20 to 25° C. The extreme
maximum temperature for Hot Desert ranges from 43.5 to 49° C. Cold
Deserts temperature in winter ranges from -2 to 4° C and in the summer
21 to 26° C a year
• The precipitation in Hot and Dry Deserts and the precipitation in Cold
Deserts is different. Hot and Dry Deserts usually have very little rainfall
and/or concentrated rainfall in short periods between long rainless
periods. This averages out to under 15 cm a year. Cold Deserts usually
have lots of snow. They also have rain around spring. This averages out to
15 - 26 cm a year
Semiarid Desert
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The major deserts of this type include the sagebrush of Utah, Montana and Great Basin. They also
include the Nearctic realm (North America, Newfoundland, Greenland, Russia, Europe and northern
Asia).
The summers are moderately long and dry, and like hot deserts, the winters normally bring low
concentrations of rainfall. Summer temperatures usually average between 21-27° C. It normally
does not go above 38° C and evening temperatures are cool, at around 10° C. Cool nights help both
plants and animals by reducing moisture loss from transpiration, sweating and breathing.
Furthermore, condensation of dew caused by night cooling may equal or exceed the rainfall
received by some deserts. As in the hot desert, rainfall is often very low and/or concentrated. The
average rainfall ranges from 2-4 cm annually.
The major deserts of this type include the sagebrush of Utah, Montana and Great Basin. They also
include the Nearctic realm (North America, Newfoundland, Greenland, Russia, Europe and northern
Asia).
The summers are moderately long and dry, and like hot deserts, the winters normally bring low
concentrations of rainfall. Summer temperatures usually average between 21-27° C. It normally
does not go above 38° C and evening temperatures are cool, at around 10° C. Cool nights help both
plants and animals by reducing moisture loss from transpiration, sweating and breathing.
Furthermore, condensation of dew caused by night cooling may equal or exceed the rainfall
received by some deserts. As in the hot desert, rainfall is often very low and/or concentrated. The
average rainfall ranges from 2-4 cm annually.
Coastal Desert
These deserts occur in moderately cool to warm areas such as the
Nearctic and Neotropical realm. A good example is the Atacama of
Chile.
• The cool winters of coastal deserts are followed by moderately
long, warm summers. The average summer temperature ranges
from 13-24° C; winter temperatures are 5° C or below. The
maximum annual temperature is about 35° C and the minimum is
about -4° C. In Chile, the temperature ranges from -2 to 5° C in July
and 21-25° C in January.
• The average rainfall measures 8-13 cm in many areas. The
maximum annual precipitation over a long period of years has been
37 cm with a minimum of 5 cm.
Cold desert
• These deserts are characterized by cold winters with snowfall
and high overall rainfall throughout the winter and
occasionally over the summer. They occur in the Antarctic,
Greenland and the Nearctic realm. They have short, moist,
and moderately warm summers with fairly long, cold winters.
The mean winter temperature is between -2 to 4° C and the
mean summer temperature is between 21-26° C.
Animals in the Desert
• When most people think of the desert, they think of camels,
snakes and lizards as being the only animals that live in the
desert. Really, there are many more animals living in the
desert. There are coyotes, foxes, peccaries, tarantulas,
scorpions, ring tailed cats, antelope, skunks, mule deer, boars,
and in some places, lions and elephants. There is an
abundance of small animals that support the deserts
population of hawks, falcons, owls, roadrunners, buzzards,
and eagles. Wood peckers make their homes in the large
cactuses.