BLOG OF iECYCLE

Have you noticed that not all animals and plants can be found everywhere? For example, polar bears can not be found in Texas. Elephants can not be found in Canada (except of course in the zoo). The reason for that is; each living organism needs suitable living environment. Certain animals and plants need lots of water to survive, while others can only handle certain temperament conditions.

Plants and animals live together as an interdependent group that is often referred as an ecological community based on their adaptability of the local conditions.

The term biome was defined to describe and differentiate such areas with similar ecologically climatic conditions such as plants, animal organism, and soil organism on the earth.

The biomes have various classifications and each classification can have different types of biomes. The dessert biome is an example of terrestrial (land) biomes.

Climate Characteristics of desert biomes

Sahara Desert

Climate varies in desert biomes depending upon the type of desert biome. Tropical desert biomes are hot and dry most of the year. Average temperature in the tropical desert biome is between 69° F and 93 ° F.

Daytime temperatures are high in summer and low in winter in temperate desert biomes. The average temperature range in temperate desert biomes is between 30 ° F and 70 ° F.

In polar desert biomes, summers are warm or hot and winters are usually cold. The average temperature in polar desert biome is between 23 ° F and 80 ° F.
Desert biomes get low rainfall compared to other biomes.

Physical Characteristics of desert biomes

Large deserts are found in the interiors of the continent. Deserts have dry areas. There is a very low to no vegetation in the deserts. Vegetation in desert varies greatly depending upon the amount of rainfall. Five inches per year produces deserts like the one exist in southern California with cactus, yucca, and Joshua trees. Zero to less than five inches per year with no rainfall in some years produces deserts like the Sahara where there is little or no vegetation at all.

The water content in the environment is low in the deserts that lead to temperature extremes of hot and cold in one day, up to 100° F in one day.
The desert consists of shrub covered land where the plants are spatially quite dispersed.

Types of living organism

Surviving in the deserts requires two special qualities in organisms; (a) ability to handle the heat and (b) the effective use of available water.

The organisms living in deserts must be able to conserve water during the sunlight and be able to release appropriate amount of heat. There are only certain types of organisms that can survive in deserts such as small rodents, desert plants, insects, and spiders.

Desert plants utilize their deep roots to access water from the ground. Small animals try to hide during the day to avoid heat. Insects and reptiles have thick outer covering that to help them minimize water loss through evaporation.
That’s why; large trees or large animals like mammals are not found in the deserts as they do not have such qualities to survive in this environment.

Some examples of living organism

Kangaroo rats are adapted for survival in a desert environment. Kangaroo rats have the ability to convert the dry seeds they eat into water. Kangaroo rats have specialized kidneys which allow them to dispose of waste materials with very little output of water.

Collared lizards live amongst the rocks and shrubs of the desert. They have thick skin that helps them survive in the heat. During the cold times, collared lizards dig the whole to live in them.

Diamondback rattlesnakes survive by eating small rodents in the deserts.

Prickly pear cactus has widely spread shallow roots to collect water after the brief rainfall and store it in its spongy tissue.

Yuccas hail from a family of Agave and are found in different types. They are very adaptive to the desert environment.