Desert ecosystem: characteristics, flora and fauna

The desert is one of the drier biomes that exist on our planet, due to high temperatures and few rainfall. These climatic characteristics, added to the aridity of its soilwhich is mainly covered by desert sand, give rise to naked and lonely landscapes, in which species barely inhabit.

So, Both the fauna and the flora of these biomes is scarce And, in fact, the few species that we can find show great features of adaptation in order to survive in one of the most hostile biomes on Earth.

Warm desert climate

Deserts are distributed in zones:

• Steparia or semi -arid areas: Precipitation lick of 250 to 500 mm per year. They are usually located within the limits of these biomes.
• Arid areas: Its annual rainfall is between 25 and 250 mm.
• Hyperáridas areas: They are so dry or arid that they can spend years without it raining. The temperatures of these areas can have a very wide variation, in fact they can vary by more than 20 degrees Celsius.

Cold Desert Climate

The temperatures mentioned before are the most frequent in the warm, but in the cold ones, where there are really areas where there are no rainfall, these are also very extreme.

For example, Antarctica, the largest desert in the world, has an average temperature of about -20ºC.

Hydrography

As we have indicated before, Precipitation in the bioma of the desert are irregular and very scarce. The main reason why this is so, is that there are Tropical anticyclones constantly. The desert areas that suffer less this shortage of water are semi -arid or steppe for being at the edges or boundaries of bioma, already close to other types with less presence of tropical anticyclones. Thus, in one of these areas an average amount between 150 mm and 170 mm per year can rain. Even so, the months with greater drought are usually more than half a year. In the rest of the interior areas, rainfall does not reach 150 mm per year and the whole year is dry or arid, being a climate more extreme than that of the edges.

There are areas in the deserts in which sometimes a year rivers circulate and are called uadisbut they only carry just water after the few rainfall, which usually fall in a short time in the form of a downpour, and they immediately dry again, leaving the path of the river marked in the sand and remaining dry the rest of the year. In fact, the Uadis rarely lead to the seas because their water is absorbed, evaporated or stagnant very quickly.

Although in principle it may seem that it is not so, there are various types of deserts:

• Deserts in regions of sealing or tropical winds.
• Deserts of middle latitudes.
• Deserts due to wet airs.
• Monzón deserts.
• Coastal deserts.
• Cold deserts or cold desert areas.
• Indlandsis, polar desert or polar desert areas.

As we have mentioned above the Desert vegetation and flora It is scarce. This is due to low rainfall and the little humidity of the terrain, since water is a vital and indispensable element for the growth of species and their development and without it, many plants are unable to make photosynthesis.

Therefore, the plant species That we can find show adaptations to replace the lack of this resource, such as physiological structures that hinder perspiration, thus presenting a short stature and very homogeneous forms. In addition its walls are usually fleshy, Craras and succulent In order to store water as a supply and thus use it in short conditions.

Another adaptation of desert plants is found in their leaves, these being, on many occasions, small and hard, that is, skewers and thornsin order to avoid the loss of water that occurs due to evaporation. On the contrary, Its roots are large and elongatedcovering most of the possible surface to obtain the water and nutrients it needs.

Can you think of species that present these characteristics? We present some lists with some of them and images.

Although, at first glance, as in the case of vegetation the desert fauna It is quite poor, in reality there are several species of animals that have developed their habitat in this bioma, being able to adapt and get used to their peculiar characteristics.

Reptilesfor example, they are some of the easiest animals to find, since they are cold blood animals, which allows them to fight the extreme temperatures of the desert, although it is common to find them buried in burrows or under the sand, to protect themselves from the sun’s rays. We can also find numerous insectsbeetles, ants, scorpions and spiders that use the same techniques.

On the other hand, we can find small mammals As foxes or rodents, which have clear furs, to camouflage themselves in the desert sand and nocturnal habits, so that they sleep during the hottest hours and take advantage of the hours of the lowest temperature to search for food. In contrast to these, we can find Large mammalssuch as dromedaries and camels, capable of storing a large amount of water in the body to survive high temperatures. This is something that they can achieve thanks to humps and other parts of the body, although it is not water that most stored camels and dromedaries in their humps, but mostly contain fat, as a reserve for survival in an extreme ecosystem.

Finally, we can find some Birdsboth small and mochuelos and turtled, even higher sizes such as vultures. The latter feed on both carrion (dead animals), and small mammals and have one of the most surprising characteristics in terms of desert adaptation, which is the absence of sweat glands.

Finally, we offer a World Desert Listmentioning some of the best known:

• Antarctica
• Arctic
• Sahara
• Gobi
• Sonora
• Kalahari
• Namib
• Great sandy desert
• Great Victoria Desert
• Atacama
• Karakum
• Néguev
• Taklamakán
• Arabic desert
• Rub al-ár
• Syrian desert
• Judea desert
• Desert and Xerophilic Monte from Arabia and Sinai

If you want to read more articles similar to Desert ecosystem: characteristics, flora and faunawe recommend that you enter our category of ecosystems.