Hot Deserts Flashcards
(11 cards)
What is the climate of a hot desert?
Little rainfall - less than 250mm per year
Extreme temperatures because of lack of cloud cover - it can each 45 degrees in the day and below 0 in the night
What is the soil like in hot deserts
Lack of leaf fall limits the soils fertility
Little rainfall means the soil often dries out
Soil is often shallow with gravelly texture
What are the plants like in a hot desert?
Due to low rainfall, plant growth is sparse - the plants that do grow, such as cacti or thorn bushes, don’t need much water
Plants are usually short
People in hot deserts?
People living in deserts grow a few crops near natural water sources, usually in the desert fringes
Indigenous people are often nomadic - they keep travelling to find food and water for their livestock
Hot deserts - interdependent
Plants take up nutrients from the soil and provide nutrients and water to animals that eat them in turn, animals spread seeds through their dung helping plants to reproduce.
The hot and dry climate affects the soil in deserts
Hot desert- animal adaptation
Camels use there triple eyelids , long eyelashes and ability to close there nostrils to keep sand out of their eyes and nose during sandstorms. They also have large flat feet, so they don’t sink into sand.
Long ears giving them a larger surface area to loose heat from fennec foxes
Hot desert - plant adaptation
Prickly pear roots spread out very wide near the surface to avoiding as much water as possible when it rains
Cacti are succulents; thick waxy skin to reduce transpiration
Where in a desert is biodiversity at its highest?
Small areas around ephemeral (temporary) ponds and rivers or along the desert margins.
How can people threaten biodiversity in a hot desert?
Areas with water have high density of humans, people threaten biodiversity by increasing desertification and by over using or contaminating water supplies
How can development of roads in hot deserts pose a threat to biodiversity?
It means habitats will be divided up by roads. This is threatening animals that migrate over large distances to find food and water e.g. desert big horn sheep
How is global warming affecting biodiversity?
Making hot deserts hotter and drier. Forcing some species to move to cooler areas. However species that are already at the limits of their environment and don’t have anywhere else to go, so are at risk of decline or extinction
