Download Desert

Desert
David Litts
Robert Bentler
Where are Deserts?
What are deserts?
 Precipitation
<10”
 Lithosols
 Caliche
 30
degrees N latitude
 30 degrees S latitude
How much desert is there
 20%
of land surface
 Desertification
 Most rapidly increasing biome
 More surface area than any other
biome
Climate
 Varies
greatly
 Can be farmed
 Not all hot
 Not all as dry as others
 Yuma, Arizona
very dry
 Dzamiin Uuded, Mongolia rain X2
Plant life
 Mostly
C.A.M. plants
 Cover is sparse
Wildlife
 Abundance
low, diversity high
 Most nocturnal in summer
Anthropogenic influences
 Invading
plant species
 Water harvesting
 Destruction of soil
stabilizers
 Military exercises
Preserve the deserts
 50-300
years for natural biomass
recovery
 3000 years for complete
ecosystem recovery
 Limit impacting factors
We hope you learned something
 What
they are
 Where they are
 What is there
 How we influence them
 How to save them
 And their climate