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5.4.6: Desert

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    34098

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    Learning Objective

    Recognize distinguishing characteristics of Deserts & plant adaptations of the biome.

    Subtropical deserts exist between 15o and 30o north and south latitude and are centered on the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. Deserts are frequently located on the downwind or lee side of mountain ranges, which create a rain shadow after prevailing winds drop their water content on the mountains Figure dd This is typical of the North American deserts, such as the Mohave and Sonoran deserts. Deserts in other regions, such as the Sahara Desert in northern Africa or the Namib Desert in southwestern Africa are dry because of the high-pressure, dry air descending at those latitudes. Subtropical deserts are very dry; evaporation typically exceeds precipitation. Subtropical hot deserts can have daytime soil surface temperatures above 60oC (140oF) and nighttime temperatures approaching 0oC (32oF). The temperature drops so far because there is little water vapor in the air to prevent radiative cooling of the land surface. Subtropical deserts are characterized by low annual precipitation of fewer than 30 cm (12 in) with little monthly variation and lack of predictability in rainfall. Some years may receive tiny amounts of rainfall, while others receive more. In some cases, the annual rainfall can be as low as 2 cm (0.8 in) in subtropical deserts located in central Australia (“the Outback”) and northern Africa.

    A rain shadow showing windward side and leeward side.
    Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Effect of a rain shadow. Credit Meg Stewart. (CC BY-SA)

    Adaptations

    The low species diversity of this biome is closely related to its low and unpredictable precipitation. Despite the relatively low diversity, desert species exhibit fascinating adaptations to the harshness of their environment. Very dry deserts lack perennial vegetation that lives from one year to the next; instead, many plants are annuals that grow quickly and reproduce when rainfall does occur, then they die within the year. Perennial plants in deserts are characterized by adaptations that conserve water: deep roots to tap groundwater., reduced foliage to reduce water loss, and large, fleshy, water-storing stems (Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\)). Seed plants in the desert produce seeds that can lie dormant for extended periods between rains. The Namib Desert is the oldest on the planet, and has probably been dry for more than 55 million years. It supports a number of endemic species (species found only there) because of this great age. For example, the unusual gymnosperm Welwitschia mirabilis is the only extant species of an entire order of plants.

    In addition to subtropical deserts there are cold deserts that experience freezing temperatures during the winter and any precipitation is in the form of snowfall. The largest of these deserts are the Gobi Desert in northern China and southern Mongolia, the Taklimakan Desert in western China, the Turkestan Desert, and the Great Basin Desert of the United States.

    A sandy desert with scrubby bushes where ocotillo plant dominates. A second plant has no leaves.
    Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): Many desert plants have tiny leaves or no leaves at all to reduce water loss. The leaves of ocotillo, shown here in the Chihuahuan Desert in Big Bend National Park, Texas, appear only after rainfall and then are shed. (credit “bare ocotillo”: "Leaflet"/Wikimedia Commons)

    Attributions

    Curated and authored by Kammy Algiers using Terrestrial Biomes from Biology 2e by OpenStax (CC-BY). Access for free at openstax.org.

    This page titled 5.4.6: Desert is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Melissa Ha, Maria Morrow, & Kammy Algiers (ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative) .