DESERTS

By: Briana Sofia Silva

 Definition
What is a desert?

• A desert is an arid region characterized by extremely high or low

temperatures and has scarce vegetation.
Geographical issues

SOURCE: https://www.slideshare.net/nsrinivas_1971/life-in-deserts
Physical Causes
Social & Cultural issues
• Are areas that receive very little precipitation. People often use the adjectives “hot,” “dry,” and “empty” to
describe deserts, but these words do not tell the whole story. Although some deserts are very hot, with
daytime temperatures as high as 54°C (130°F), other deserts have cold winters or are cold year-round. And
most deserts, far from being empty and lifeless, are home to a variety of plants, animals, and
other organisms. People have adapted to life in the desert for thousands of years.
One thing all deserts have in common is that they are arid, or dry. Most experts agree that a desert is an
area of land that receives no more than 25 centimeters (10 inches) of precipitation a year. The amount
of evaporation in a desert often greatly exceeds the annual rainfall. In all deserts, there is little water
available for plants and other organisms.
Deserts are found on every continent and cover about one-fifth of Earth’s land area. They are home to
around 1 billion people—one-sixth of the Earth’s population.
Although the word “desert” may bring to mind a sea of shifting sand, dunes cover only about 10 percent of
the world’s deserts. Some deserts are mountainous. Others are dry expanses of rock, sand, or salt flats.

Kinds of Deserts
• The world’s deserts can be divided into five types—subtropical, coastal, rain shadow, interior, and polar.
Deserts are divided into these types according to the causes of their dryness.
Subtropical Deserts
• Subtropical deserts are caused by the circulation patterns of air masses. They are found along the Tropic of
Cancer, between 15 and 30 degrees north of the Equator, or along the Tropic of Capricorn, between 15 and
30 degrees south of the Equator.
Hot, moist air rises into the atmosphere near the Equator. As the air rises, it cools and drops its moisture as
heavy tropical rains. The resulting cooler, drier air mass moves away from the Equator. As it approaches the
tropics, the air descends and warms up again. The descending air hinders the formation of clouds, so very
little rain falls on the land below.
The world’s largest hot desert, the Sahara, is a subtropical desert in northern Africa. The Sahara Desert is
almost the size of the entire continental United States. Other subtropical deserts include the Kalahari Desert
in southern Africa and the Tanami Desert in northern Australia.

Coastal Deserts
• Cold ocean currents contribute to the formation of coastal deserts. Air blowing toward shore, chilled by
contact with cold water, produces a layer of fog. This heavy fog drifts onto land. Although humidity is high,
the atmospheric changes that normally cause rainfall are not present. A coastal desert may be almost totally
rainless, yet damp with fog.
The Atacama Desert, on the Pacific shores of Chile, is a coastal desert. Some areas of the Atacama are often
covered by fog. But the region can go decades without rainfall. In fact, the Atacama Desert is the driest place
on Earth. Some weather stations in the Atacama have never recorded a drop of rain.
Rain Shadow Deserts
• Rain shadow deserts exist near the leeward slopes of some mountain ranges. Leeward slopes face away
from prevailing winds.
When moisture-laden air hits a mountain range, it is forced to rise. The air then cools and forms clouds that
drop moisture on the windward (wind-facing) slopes. When the air moves over the mountaintop and begins
to descend the leeward slopes, there is little moisture left. The descending air warms up, making it difficult
for clouds to form.
Death Valley, in the U.S. states of California and Nevada, is a rain shadow desert. Death Valley, the lowest
and driest place in North America, is in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains.
•

Interior Deserts
• Which are found in the heart of continents, exist because no moisture-laden winds reach them. By the time
air masses from coastal areas reach the interior, they have lost all their moisture. Interior deserts are
sometimes called inland deserts.
The Gobi Desert, in China and Mongolia, lies hundreds of kilometers from the ocean. Winds that reach the
Gobi have long since lost their moisture. The Gobi is also in the rain shadow of the Himalaya mountains to
the south.
Polar Deserts
• Parts of the Arctic and the Antarctic are classified as deserts. These polar deserts contain great quantities of water, but
most of it is locked in glaciers and ice sheets year-round. So, despite the presence of millions of liters of water, there is
actually little available for plants and animals.
The largest desert in the world is also the coldest. Almost the entire continent of Antarctica is a polar desert, experiencing
little precipitation. Few organisms can withstand the freezing, dry climate of Antarctica.
Changing Deserts
The regions that are deserts today were not always so dry. Between 8000 and 3000 BCE, for example, the Sahara had a
much milder, moister climate. Climatologists identify this period as the “Green Sahara.”
Archaeological evidence of past settlements is abundant in the middle of what are arid, unproductive areas of the Sahara
today. This evidence includes rock paintings, graves, and tools. Fossils and artifacts show that lime and olive trees, oaks,
and oleanders once bloomed in the Sahara. Elephants, gazelles, rhinos, giraffes, and people used stream-fed pools and
lakes.
There were three or four other moist periods in the Sahara. Similar lushconditions existed as recently as 25,000 years ago.
Between the moist periods came periods of dryness much like today’s.
The Sahara is not the only desert to have dramatic climate change. The Ghaggar River, in what is now India and Pakistan,
was a major water source for Mohenjo-daro, an urban area of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization. Over time, the Ghaggar
changed course and now only flows during the rainy monsoon season. Mohenjo-daro is now a part of the vast Thar and
Cholistan deserts.
Most of Earth’s deserts will continue to undergo periods of climate change.
Desert Characteristics
• Humidity—water vapor in the air—is near zero in most deserts. Light rains often evaporate in the dry air,
never reaching the ground. Rainstorms sometimes come as violent cloudbursts. A cloudburst may bring as
much as 25 centimeters (10 inches) of rain in a single hour—the only rain the desert gets all year.
Desert humidity is usually so low that not enough water vapor exists to form clouds. The sun’s rays beat
down through cloudless skies and bake the land. The ground heats the air so much that air rises in waves
you can actually see. These shimmering waves confuse the eye, causing travelers to see distorted images
called mirages.
Temperature extremes are a characteristic of most deserts. In some deserts, temperatures rise so high that
people are at risk of dehydration and even death. At night, these areas cool quickly because they lack
the insulation provided by humidity and clouds. Temperatures can drop to 4°C (40°F) or lower.
In the Chihuahuan Desert, in the United States and Mexico, temperatures can vary by dozens of degrees in
one day. Daytime temperatures in the Chihuahua can climb beyond 37°C (100°F), while nighttime
temperatures can dip below freezing (0°C or 32°F).
Winds at speeds of about 100 kilometers per hour (60 miles per hour) sweep through some deserts. With
little vegetation to block it, the wind can carry sand and dust across entire continents and even oceans.
Windstorms in the Sahara hurl so much material into the air that African dust sometimes crosses the Atlantic
Ocean. Sunsets on the Atlantic coast of the U.S. state of Florida, for example, can be tinted yellow.
Water in the Desert
• Rivers sometimes provide water in a desert. The Colorado River, for instance, flows through three deserts in the American
Southwest: the Great Basin, the Sonoran, and the Mojave. Seven states—Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona,
and California—rely on the river for some of their water supply.

People often modify rivers to help distribute and store water in a desert. The Nile River ecosystem dominates the eastern part of
the Sahara Desert, for instance. The Nile provides the most reliable, plentiful source of freshwater in the region. Between 1958
and 1971, the government of Egypt constructed a massive dam on the Upper Nile (the southern part of the river, near Egypt’s
border with Sudan). The Aswan Dam harnesses the power of the Nile for hydroelectricity used in industry. It also stores water in a
manmade lake, Lake Nasser, to protect the country’s communities and agriculture against drought.

Construction of the Aswan High Dam was a huge engineering project. Local desert communities can divert rivers on a smaller
scale. Throughout the Middle East, communities have dug artificial wadis, where freshwater can flow during rainy seasons. In
countries like Yemen, artificial wadis can carry enough water for whitewater rafting trips during certain times of the year.

When deserts and water supplies cross state and national borders, people often fight over water rights. This has happened among
the states in the Colorado River Basin, which have negotiated for many years over the division of the river’s water. Rapidly
expanding populations in California, Nevada, and Arizona have compounded the problem. Agreements that were made in the early
20th century failed to account for Native American water rights. Mexican access to the Colorado, which has its delta in the
Mexican state of Baja California, was ignored. Desert agriculture, including cotton production, demanded a large portion of the
Colorado. The environmental impact of dams was not considered when the structures were built. States of the Colorado River
Basin continue to negotiate today to prepare for population growth, agricultural development, and the possibility of future
droughts.
Life in the Desert
Plants and animals adapt to desert habitats in many ways. Desert plants grow far apart, allowing them to
obtain as much water around them as possible. This spacing gives some desert regions a desolate appearance.
In some deserts, plants have unique leaves to capture sunlight for photosynthesis, the process plants use to
make food. Small pores in the leaves, called stomata, take in carbon dioxide. When they open, they also release
water vapor. In the desert, all these stomata would quickly dry out a plant. So desert plants typically have tiny,
waxy leaves. Cactuses have no leaves at all. They produce food in their green stems.
Some desert plants, such as cactuses, have shallow, wide-spreading root systems. The plants soak up water
quickly and store it in their cells. Saguaro cactuses, which live in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona and northern
Mexico, expand like accordions to store water in the cells of their trunks and branches. A large saguaro is a
living storage tower that can hold hundreds of liters of water.
Other desert plants have very deep roots. The roots of a mesquite tree, for example, can reach water more
than 30 meters (100 feet) underground.
Mesquites, saguaros, and many other desert plants also have thorns to protect them from grazing animals.
Many desert plants are annuals, which means they only live for one season. Their seeds may lie dormant for
years during long dry spells. When rain finally comes, the seeds sprout rapidly. Plants grow, bloom, produce
new seeds, and die, often in a short span of time. A soaking rain can change a desert into a wonderland of
flowers almost overnight.
Life in the Desert
• Animals that have adapted to a desert environment are called xerocoles. Xerocoles include species of insects, reptiles, birds, and
mammals. Some xerocoles avoid the sun by resting in scarce shade. Many escape the heat in cool burrows they dig in the ground.
The fennec fox, for example, is native to the Sahara Desert. Fennec fox communities work together to dig large burrows, some as
large as 93 square meters (1,000 square feet). Dew can collect in these burrows, providing the foxes with fresh water. However,
fennec foxes have adapted so they do not have to drink water at all: Their kidneys retain enough water from the food they eat.

Most xerocoles are nocturnal. They sleep through the hot days and do their hunting and foraging at night. Deserts that seem
desolate during the day are very active in the cool nighttime air. Foxes, coyotes, rats, and rabbits are all nocturnal desert mammals.
Snakes and lizards are familiar desert reptiles. Insects such as moths and flies are abundant in the desert. Most desert birds are
restricted to areas near water, such as river banks. However, some birds, such as the roadrunner, have adapted to life in the desert.
The roadrunner, native to the deserts of North America, obtains water from its food.

Some xerocoles have bodies that help them handle the heat. A desert tortoise’s thick shell insulates the animal and reduces water
loss. Sand lizards, native to the deserts of Europe and Asia, are nicknamed “dancing lizards” because of the way they quickly lift
one leg at a time off the hot desert sand. A jackrabbit’s long ears contain blood vessels that release heat. Some desert vultures
urinate on their own legs, cooling them by evaporation.

Many desert animals have developed ingenious ways of getting the water they need. The thorny devil, a lizard that lives in the
Australian Outback, has a system of tiny grooves and channels on its body that lead to its mouth. The lizard catches rain and dew in
these grooves and sucks them into its mouth by gulping.

Camels are very efficient water users. The animals do not store water in their humps, as people once believed. The humps store
fat. Hydrogen molecules in the fat combine with inhaled oxygen to form water. During a shortage of food or water, camels draw
upon this fat
People and the Desert
• Oases in desert climates have been popular spots for tourists for centuries. Spas ring the Dead Sea,
a saline lake in the Judean Desert of Israel and Jordan. The Dead Sea has had flourishing spas since the time
of King David.
Air transportation and the development of air conditioning have made the sunny climate of deserts even
more accessible and attractive to people from colder regions. Populations at resorts like Palm Springs,
California, and Las Vegas, Nevada, have boomed. Desert parks, such as Death Valley National Park, California,
attract thousands of visitors every year. People who migrateto the warm, dry desert for the winter and
return to more temperate climates in the spring are sometimes called “snowbirds.”
In rural areas, hot days turn into cool nights, providing welcome relief from the scorching sun. But in cities,
structures like buildings, roads, and parking lots hold on to daytime heat long after the sun sets. The
temperature stays high even at night, making the city an “island” of heat in the middle of the desert. This is
called the urban heat island effect. It is less pronounced in desert cities than cities built in heavily forested
areas. Cities like New York City, New York, and Atlanta, Georgia, can be 5 degrees warmer than the
surrounding area. New York was built on wetland habitat, and Atlanta was built in a wooded area. Cities like
Phoenix, Arizona, or Kuwait City, Kuwait, have a much smaller urban heat island effect. They may be only
slightly warmer than the surrounding desert.
Deserts can hold economically valuable resources that drive civilizations and economies. The most notable
desert resource in the world is the massive oil reserves in the Arabian Desert of the Middle East. More than
half of the proven oil reserves in the world lie beneath the sands of the Arabian Desert, mostly in Saudi
Arabia. The oil industry draws companies, migrant workers, engineers, geologists, and biologists to the
Middle East.
Desertification
• Many countries are working to reduce the rates of desertification. Trees and other vegetation are being
planted to break the force of the wind and to hold the soil. Windbreaks made of trees have been planted
throughout the Sahel, the southern border region of the Sahara Desert. These windbreaks anchor the soil
and prevent sand from invading populated areas.

In China’s Tengger Desert, researchers have developed another way to control wandering dunes. They
anchor the drifting sand with a gridlike network of straw fences. Straw is poked partway into the sand,
forming a pattern of small squares along the contours of the dunes. The resulting fences break the force of
the wind at ground level, stopping dune movement by confining the sand within the squares of the grid.

New technologies are also being developed to combat desertification. “Nanoclay” is a substance sprayed on
desert sands that acts as a binding agent.
• Nanoclay keeps the sand moist, clumping it together and preventing it from blowing away.
Deserts Get Hotter
Rising temperatures can have huge effects on fragile desert ecosystems. Global warming is the most current
instance of climate change. Human activities such as burning fossil fuels contribute to global warming.
In deserts, temperatures are rising even faster than the global average. This warming has effects beyond simply
making hot deserts hotter. For example, increasing temperatures lead to the loss of nitrogen, an important
nutrient, from the soil. Heat prevents microbes from converting nutrients to nitrates, which are necessary for
almost all living things. This can reduce the already limited plant life in deserts.
Climate change also affects rainfall patterns. Climate scientists predict that global warming will lead to more
rainfall in some regions, but less rainfall in other places. Areas facing reduced precipitation include areas with
some of the largest deserts in the world: North Africa (Sahara), the American Southwest (Sonoran and
Chihuahuan), the southern Andes (Patagonia), and western Australia (Great Victoria).
In literature and in legend, deserts are often described as hostile places to avoid. Today, people value desert
resources and biodiversity. Communities, governments, and organizations are working to preserve desert
habitats and increase desert productivity.
• source: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/desert/
Political & economical issues
• Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) needs additional affordable and reliable electricity to fuel its
social and economic development. Ideally, all of this new supply is carbon-neutral. The
potentials for renewables in SSA suffice for any conceivable demand, but the wind
power and photovoltaic resources are intermittent and difficult to integrate in the weak
electricity grids. Here, we investigate the potential for supplying SSA demand centers
with dispatchable electricity from concentrating solar power (CSP) stations equipped
with thermal storage. We show that, given anticipated cost reductions from
technological improvements, power from CSP could be competitive with coal power in
Southern Africa by 2025; but in most SSA countries, power from CSP may not be
competitive. We also show that variations in risk across countries influences the cost of
power from CSP more than variations in solar resources. If policies to de-risk CSP
investment to financing cost levels found in industrialized countries were successfully
implemented, power from CSP could become cheaper than coal power by 2025 in all SSA
countries. Policies to increase institutional capacity and cooperation among SSA
countries could reduce costs further. With dedicated policy measures, therefore, CSP
could become an economically attractive electricity option for all SSA countries.
• Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421516306644
Current state
Date: March 7, 2018
The East Asian summer monsoon and desertification in Eurasia is driven by
fluctuating Northern Hemisphere ice volume and global sea level during the
Ice Age, as shown in a new study. Today, two thirds of the world’s population
is dependent on agriculture sustained by rains of the East Asian summer
monsoon, and future climate change in this region can therefore have a
major impact on global food production.
Source:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180307100841.htm