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Dry desert |
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In this report you
will learn about Hot and Dry Deserts and Cold Deserts. I
hope you enjoy! A Hot and Dry Desert
is, as you can tell from the name, hot and dry. Most Hot and
Dry Deserts don't have very many plants. They do have some
low down plants though. The only animals they have that can
survive have the ability to burrow under ground. This is
because they would not be able to live in the hot sun and
heat. They only come out in the night when it is a little
cooler. A cold desert is a
desert that has snow in the winter instead of just dropping
a few degrees in temperature like they would in a Hot and
Dry Desert. It never gets warm enough for plants to grow.
Just maybe a few grasses and mosses. The animals in Cold
Deserts also have to burrow but in this case to keep warm,
not cool. That is why you might find some of the same
animals here as you would in the Hot and Dry
Deserts. Deserts cover about
one fifth of the Earth's land surface. Most Hot and Dry
Deserts are near the Tropic of Cancer or the Tropic of
Capricorn. Cold Deserts are near the Arctic part of the
world. Hot and Dry Deserts
temperature ranges from 20 to 25° C. The extreme
maximum temperature for Hot Desert ranges from 43.5 to
49° C. Cold Deserts temperature in winter ranges from
-2 to 4° C and in the summer 21 to 26° C a
year The precipitation in
Hot and Dry Deserts and the precipitation in Cold Deserts is
different. Hot and Dry Deserts usually have very little
rainfall and/or concentrated rainfall in short periods
between long rainless periods. This averages out to under 15
cm a year. Cold Deserts usually have lots of snow. They also
have rain around spring. This averages out to 15 - 26 cm a
year. Hot and Dry Deserts
are warm throughout the fall and spring seasons and very hot
during the summer. the winters usually have very little if
any rainfall. Cold Deserts have quite a bit of snow during
winter. The summer and the beginning of the spring are
barely warm enough for a few lichens, grasses and mosses to
grow. Hot and Dry Deserts
vegetation is very rare. Plants are almost all
ground-hugging shrubs and short woody trees. All of the
leaves are replete (packed with nutrients). Some examples of
these kinds of plant are Turpentine Bush, Prickly Pears, and
Brittle Bush. For all of these plants to survive they have
to have adaptations. Some of the adaptations in this case
are the ability to store water for long periods of time and
the ability to stand the hot weather. Cold Desert's plants
are scattered. In areas with little shade,about 10 percent
of the ground is covered with plants. In some areas of
sagebrush it reaches 85 percent. The height of scrub varies
from 15 cm to 122 cm. All plants are either deciduous and
more or less contain spiny leaves. Hot and Dry Deserts
animals include small nocturnal (only active at night)
carnivores. There are also insects, arachnids, reptiles, and
birds. Some examples of these animals are Borrowers,
Mourning Wheatears, and Horned Vipers. Cold Deserts have
animals like Antelope, Ground Squirrels, Jack Rabbits, and
Kangaroo Rats. Stetson N.
2000
bibliography: Lambert, Wayne,
"Deserts", The World Book Encyclopedia, 1994
ed. Critchfield, Howard
J., "Deserts", The New Book of Knowledge, 1998
ed. "Deserts".
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/glossary/gloss5/deserts.html,
(5/30/00)
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