What is a Desert

What is a Biome and What is a Desert?

Before an in-depth study of the Desert Biome, we need to clarify what exactly a biome is and then what exactly defines a desert.

Biome (pronounced BY-ohm) is defined by the World Book Encyclopedia as a community of plants and animals that live in a large geographical area having a similar climate.

A Desert, again according to the World Book Encyclopedia is generally thought of as a hot, barren region that receives little rainfall. Although scientists do not agree completely on a single definition for deserts, they generally classify a desert as any region that receives an average of less than 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain annually and has a certain type of dry soil that, due to the insufficient rainfall, can support very little of certain types of vegetation. Because the climate of most deserts is extremely dry, very distinct types of vegetation, such as cacti and other fleshy plants, sparse grasses, and small-leaved shrubs typically grow there. The most typical animals found in deserts include many types of reptiles, such as lizards and snakes, small rodents, and hardy birds and insects. Some of the most famous deserts in the world include the Sahara in Northern Africa, the Kalahari in Southern Africa, the Gobi and the Takla Makan in Central Asia, the Thar and the Kara Kum in Southwestern Asia, the Arabian Desert of the Arabian Peninsula, the Australian Desert of Southwestern Australia, the Sechura and Atacama of Western South America, the Patagonian Desert of Southern Argentina, and several deserts of the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico, that comprise the Great Basin, including the Colorado, Great Salt Lake, Mojave, and Sonoran.

Here are some key terms to keep in mind when studying the various biomes throughout the world, and not just the desert:

Glossary of Biome Terms

Air	is a mixture of gases containing about 78 percent nitrogen; 21 percent oxygen; less than 1 percent of carbon dioxide argon, and other gases; and varying amounts of water vapor.
Adaptability	refers to the degree to which adjustments are possible within the environment or actual changes of climate. Adaptation can be spontaneous or planned, be carried out in response to or in anticipation of changes in conditions
Atmosphere	is the gaseous mass or envelope of air surrounding the Earth.
Biomass	is the living material (wood, vegetation, etc.) grown or produced expressly for use as fuel
Biome	a major community of plants and animals with similar life forms and environmental conditions. It includes various communities and developmental stages of communities and is named for the dominant type of vegetation, such as grassland or coniferous forest.
Biome - 2	is a large natural area that is the home to a certain type of plant. The animals, climate, soil and even the amount of water in the regions, also help distinguish a biome. There are more than 30 kinds of biomes in the world
Biome - 3	Major Life Zone, the largest geographic biotic unit
Biota	is the flora and fauna of an area
Biotic	are the resources which are considered biotic and therefore renewable. The rainforests and tigers are examples of biotic resources.
Carnivore	are the flesh eating species
Climate	is the prevalent long term weather conditions in a particular area. Climate elements include precipitation, temperature, humidity, sunshine and wind velocity and phenomena such as fog, frost and hail storms.
Climate change	can be caused by an increase in the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases which inhibit the transmission of some of the sun's energy from the earth's surface to out space.
Community	is a group of organisms living in a common environment and interdependent.
Conservation	is the planning and management of resources to secure their long term use and continuity and better their quality, value and diversity. It is the use of less energy, either by using more efficient technologies or by changing wasteful habits
Deforestation	is the practice or process that result in the long-term change in land-use to non-forest uses. This is often cited as one of the major causes of the enhanced greenhouse effect for two reasons: the burning or decomposition of the wood releases carbon dioxide; and trees that once removed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the process of photosynthesis are lost.
Diversity	is the number of species in an area i.e.. A community has a high degree of diversity if it contains many species of equal abundance.
Ecology	is the study of the interrelationships between and among organisms and environment
El Niño	is a climatic phenomenon occurring every 5 to 7 years during Christmas (El Niño means Christ child) in the surface oceans of the SE Pacific. The phenomenon involves seasonal changes in the direction of Pacific winds and abnormally warm surface ocean temperatures. The changes normally only effect the Pacific region, but major events can disrupt weather patterns over much of the globe. The relationship between these events and global weather patterns are poorly understood and are currently the subject of much research
Endangered species	are the plant and animal species in danger of extinction
Endemic species	are the species which are native, restricted or peculiar to an area.
Environment	is the surroundings in which an organization operates, including air, water, land, natural resources, flora, fauna, humans, and their interrelations. This definition extends the view from a company focus to the global system
Fauna	the total animal if in an area
Flora	the total plant life in an area
Food chain	a sequence of organisms through which energy is transferred from its ultimate source in a green plant; the predator-prey pathway n which organism eats the next linked below and is eaten by the link above.
Food web	is a group of interconnecting food chains
Fossil fuels	are the fuels formed eons ago from decayed plants and animals. Oil, coal and natural gas are such fuels.
Greenhouse effect	is the progressive, gradual warming of the earth's atmospheric temperature, caused by the insulating effect of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that have proportionately increased in the atmosphere. The greenhouse effect disturbs the way the Earth’s climate maintains the balance between incoming and outgoing energy by allowing short-wave radiation from the sun to penetrate through to warm the earth, but preventing the resulting long-wave radiation from escaping back into the atmosphere. The heat energy is then trapped by the atmosphere, creating a situation similar to that which occurs in a car with its windows rolled up.
Habitat	the natural area in which a species or organism is found
Herbivore	is an animal that eats plants or parts of plants
Insulation	is the solar radiant energy received by the earth
Migration	the regular movements of animals, often between breeding places and winter feeding grounds
Mudflats	an area of mud that do not support any vegetation and are often covered by water
Natural resources	include renewable (forest, water, soil, wildlife, etc) and nonrenewable (oil, coal, iron ore, etc.) resources that are natural assets.
Organisms	are living thing, animal or plant, that is capable of carrying out life processes.
Parasite	an organism that lives upon and at the expense of another organism
Population	a group of closely related and interbreeding organisms
Precipitation	is any or all form of liquid or solid water particles that fall from the atmosphere and reach the earth’s surface. It includes drizzle, rain, snow and hail.
Predator	an animal that feeds on other animals.
Prey	an animal that is eaten by another animal.
Protected area	is any area of land that has legal measures limiting human use of the plants and animals within that area; it includes national parks, game reserves, biosphere reserves, etc
Range	is the portion of the earth in which a given species is found
Resources	are the material found in the environment that can be extracted from the environment in an economic process.
Salinity	the degree of salt in the water or soil
Surface water	is all water naturally open to the atmosphere
Swamp	an area that is saturated with water for much of the time but in which soil surface is not deeply submerged.
Symbiosis	the living together in more or less close association of two dissimilar organisms, in which one or both derive benefit from the relationship
Terrestrial	is that which is of, or related to the land.
Tidal marsh	is a low, flat, marshland traversed by inter laced channels and subject to tidal inundation. The only vegetation present is hal-tolerant bushes and grasses.
Vapor	is the gaseous phase of liquids or solids at atmospheric temperature and pressure.
Wetland	is temporarily or permanently inundated terrestrial systems which border aquatic systems. It also includes the shallow systems such as estuaries, swamps, salt marshes, flood plains and the lagoon and coastal lakes
Weathering	is the physical and chemical breakdown of rocks due to natural process
Water table	is the level of ground water
Weather	is the result of unequal heating of the earth's atmosphere, as a function of terrain, latitude, time-of-year and other secondary factors.

Key Features of Biomes: A Comparison (How Does the Desert Stack Up Against Other Biomes?)


Biome	Water	Temperature	Soil	Plants	Animals
Desert	Almost none	hot or cold	poor	sparse- succulents like cactus, sage brush	sparse- insects, arachnids, reptiles and birds (often nocturnal)
Tundra	dry	cold	permafrost (frozen soil	lichens and mosses	migrating animals
Taiga	adequate	cool year-round	poor, rocky soil	conifers	many mammals, birds, insects, arachnids, etc.
Deciduous Forest	adequate	cool season and warm season	fertile soil	deciduous trees	many mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, arachnids, etc.
Grassland	wet season, dry season	warm to hot (often with a cold season	fertile soil	grasses (few or no trees)	many mammals, birds, insects, arachnids, etc.
Rainforest	very wet	always warm	poor, thin soil	many plants	many animals

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