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A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the land surface of the Earth is arid or semi-arid.
If desert communities use groundwater faster than it is replenished, water shortages can occur. The Mojave Desert, in southern California and Nevada, for instance, is sinking due to aquifer depletion. The booming desert communities of Las Vegas, Nevada, and California’s “ Inland Empire ” are using water faster than the aquifer is
Desert, any large, extremely dry area of land with sparse vegetation. It is one of Earth’s major types of ecosystems, supporting a community of plants and animals specially adapted to the harsh environment. In deserts, trees are usually absent, and shrubs or herbaceous plants provide only very incomplete ground cover.
DESERT definition: 1. an area, often covered with sand or rocks, where there is very little rain and not many plants…. Learn more.
A place that receives less than 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain per year is considered a desert. Deserts are part of a wider class of regions called drylands. These areas exist under a ...
Oct 19, 2023 · Vocabulary. The desert biome covers about one-fifth of Earth’s surface. This biome has a layer of soil that can either be sandy, gravelly, or stony, depending on the type of desert. Deserts usually get at most 50 centimeters (20 inches) of rainfall a year, and the organisms that live in deserts are adapted to this extremely dry climate.
Oct 19, 2023 · Many desert animals, such as the fennec fox (Vulpes zerda), are nocturnal, coming out to hunt only when the brutal sun has descended. Some animals, like the desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizzi) in the southwestern United States, spend much of their time underground. Most desert birds are nomadic, crisscrossing the skies in search of food.
Desert - Climate, Ecosystems, Adaptations: Deserts are varied and variable environments, and it is impossible to arrive at a concise definition that satisfies every case. However, their most fundamental characteristic is a shortage of available moisture for plants, resulting from an imbalance between precipitation and evapotranspiration. This situation is exacerbated by considerable ...
Desert. A desert is an arid (dry) biome. They get less than 25 cm (9.8 inches) of rainfall a year. It is "any region that can have a moisture deficit over the course of a year". In other words, they can have less rainfall in a year than they give up through evaporation ". [ 5][ 6]
Aug 15, 2024 · The highest point in the desert is the 11,204-foot (3,415-metre) summit of Mount Koussi in the Tibesti Mountains in Chad. The lowest, 436 feet (133 metres) below sea level, is in the Qattara Depression of Egypt. The name Sahara derives from the Arabic noun ṣaḥrāʾ, meaning desert, and its plural, ṣaḥārāʾ. It is also related to the ...
