http://chalk.richmond.

edu/education/projects/webunits
/biomes/desert.html

The Desert Biome

Deserts are places on earth that are characterized by little vegetation and rain. They are made up of sand
or rocks and gravel. Deserts cover about one-fifth of all the land in the world. Most deserts lie along the
Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, imaginary lines that lie north and south of the equator.

Oases are parts of the desert where plants grow and water is almost always available. An oasis is formed
by a pool of water trapped between layers of rock beneath the desert floor. The regular water in an oasis
allows people to settle in the desert and even grow crops.

Some deserts are named and nicknamed things like Death Valley, "the Empty Quarter," and "the Place
from Where There is No Return" because of the lack of water there.

The desert is the hottest biome on earth. However, the desert is also a land of extremes. It can be over
100 degrees Fahrenheit during the day but below 32 degrees at night. This change is because deserts
are bare. There is little protection to keep them from heating up in the sun and cooling off when the sun
disappears at night.

The amount of rainfall also varies. Though there is little rain in a desert, and when it does rain, it pours.
Violent rainstorms can cause flash floods in the desert. After a storm, the desert may not see any rain for
weeks or months.

To learn some basic facts about deserts, follow the links below.

Here are some interesting desert facts:

  The Gobi Desert in Asia is cold for most of the year.
 Mountains on the edge of deserts prevent rain from entering. The rain stays on the
other side of the mountain creating rain forests next to many deserts. These deserts
are called rain shadows.
 The world's deserts are growing through desertification. This happens when
grasslands that border the desert become as dry as the desert. Desertification can
also be caused by intense farming.
 Deserts are second only to tropical rain forests in the variety of plants and animals
that live there.

Action of rain

   Rain rarely falls in desert. When it comes,

it comes in the form of thunderstorm.

   In sandy desert, the rain usually drains Rain Forest

away promptly and only change the Grassland
landscapecomparatively slightly. In contrast,
the torrential downpour in rocky deserts
drains into wadis (rocky watercourses that is
dry except after heavy rain). This deepen the What is a desert?         
dry valleys. Heavy downpour can build up The formation of deserts     
into flash flood, carrying sand, gravel and Effects of climate
then large rocks and boulders. Thus, at the Plants
end of most wadis, there is an enormous Mammals
bank of sand and stone( known as  "alluvial Birds
Amphibians and reptiles    
Invertebrates
Peoples in desert
Desert links
Special Thanks to...

Sandstorm

fan" ). The surplus sediment from the flash

flood forms muddy lakes of different size and
duration.  

The Wei River in the Loess Plateau, China (photo. by I-

Ming Chou) From USGS
   Between wadis, there are flat plateaux in different extent called
mesas. The mesas are isolated by the
continuously widened wadi. The isolated
mesas then become flat-topped, step-sided
island in the desert, know as a buttle. 

     These lakes are particular seen in

Australian desert. They lasts long enough to
breed creatures like shrimps, frogs and
wildfowl. Some of the lakes formed have high
salt content, which is thought to be derived
from salt in the atmosphere, brought from
oceanic spray.

   Shallow, low-bottom-gradient lakes can be

moved by wind stress over many square
kilometers. When they dry up, an area of
clay, silt, or sand encrusted with salt is
found, known as playa.

Left : Running water

created this canyon in
arid Big Bend National
Park, southwest Texas.
From USGS

Right : California
(photograph courtesy
of Kerr-McGee, Inc.)
From USGS

　
Action of wind

Wind dehydrates soils and living things. Sand

and dust particles are moved by desert winds.
Desert winds also remove organic debris that
makes the soil fertile. Since plants are scarce in
deserts, wind erosion occurs more easily. Take
Prairie States of North America as an example, a productive area was
reduced in the 1930s to desert by desert wind (devastating tornado winds
from desert), over-cropping and over-cultivating. The fine dust can be
carried to kilometers away and thousands of meters up. Large amount of
the fine duct rest in more temperate or moister regions and from the
basis of loess (a fertile soil).

Want to know more about wind action and deserts? Click here!

ripples on a dunes in Eureka Valley, California (photo. by Terrance Moore) From USGS

　
Impact of changes in temperature  
     Heat and cold produces the least observa
sandy desert. In contrast, their impact is mu
rocky deserts.

     In cold desert, rainfall is frozen at night

When water goes into the tiny cervices and
rocks are forced to split up.

     In hot deserts, the fragmenting force of

is slower. Rock surfaces reach 70
T cool down to freezing point at midnight. Exp
he sand rocks of China's Turpan Depression. the sun and contraction at night weaken the
layers and cause flaking.
From USGS