Deserts are lands of opposites They are tough, but also fragile. They are places of drought, Though rains can bring floods. Many deserts are very hot, And they can also get very cold. The sun scorches the land above ground. It is cool and quiet below ground. Animals hide and rest during the day They emerge to hunt at night. Deserts often look empty, Yet they are full of life. Let’s go exploring!
Good day fellow explorers! We’re off to visit an incredible biome! Pack a sun hat. And sunscreen. And definitely bring along a full water bottle.
Because today we’re exploring . . .
A biome is a community of plants and animals that live together in a certain climate.
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. . . deserts!
These places are very, very dry. Some are so dry that when rain does fall, it evaporates before it hits the ground!
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Deserts are harsh environments. But each type of desert has special plants and animals that are experts at survival.
Some desert plants have long roots stretch deep underground or sideways to seek out water. Others store their own! 3
There are deserts all over the world, on every continent. On our trek, we’ll see towering, barren sand dunes in a hot, dry desert. We’ll spot sagebrush and sandstone in a semi-arid desert.
We’ll visit a desert by the sea. And, we might see snow in a cold desert!
Let’s start in the Sahara, the worl largest hot, dry desert.
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Antarctica is considered a desert because it gets so little precipitation.
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This arid desert gets less than 3 inches of rain per year. And, phew, it sure is hot! In fact, there are only two seasons in the Sahara—hot and hotter. We want to avoid the daytime temperatures, which can be more than 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Let’s do what many desert animals do and wait until the sun goes down to explore.
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The Sahara has mountains, plateaus, basins, and an extinct volcano.
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Much better. Now, watch the desert come to life. But keep an eye on that hole—you never know what small animal might scurry or slither out of that burrow now that it’s cooler. Surviving in the Sahara is all about beating the heat. It’s also about conserving water. That monitor lizard is good at this—its scaly skin holds moisture in!
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Dromedary camels can survive weeks without water! Humans can only survive a few days.
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Next stop: a semi-arid desert in the United States. It looks very different, doesn’t it?
There are more plants and trees, but most are still shorter than you. These plants can grow because this desert get a little more rain than hot, dry deserts. It’s also not quite as hot here in the summer and it’s cooler in the winter.
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There are wildflowers in the desert! They escape the drought by blooming only after early spring rains.
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Even though it’s a bit cooler than in the Sahara, many animals here are still nocturnal. But during the day, if we sit quietly, we might see a lizard scurrying across a rock. We might spot a hawk soaring above us.
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And watch for the flash of a cottontail darting away to hide under a juniper bush!
Nocturnal animals in this desert include several species of bats.
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Now let’s head south to Chile’s Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on Earth. Parts of it are so dry and barren, even bacteria struggle to survive. But here along the coast, what do you see?
Cacti! And guanacos eating the flowers off the cacti!
How can they survive here?
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There are some parts of this desert that don’t get any rain for decades.
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Imagine getting all your drinking water from fog! Plants and animals survive in fog oases, also called lomas, along the coast. The fog drifts inland from over the ocean. When it condenses on the cactus spines, dew collects.
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Wildflowers in the Atacama only bloom every five to seven years, after a rare rainfall.
Animals can lap the dew off the plants and eat the parts of the plant that aren’t prickly.
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Our last stop is the Gobi Desert in Asia. It’s a cold desert—super cold in the winter. But in the summer, it gets hot. With that climate and the dry landscape of rocky, hard soil, it seems impossible that plants could grow.
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The Gobi is dry because the Himalaya Mountains keep moisture from reaching it.
But some do! Grasses and shrubs and herb meadows with wild onion are all able to survive.
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Those hardy Bactrian camels are masters at surviving, too. All the animals here are. Keep your eyes open for gazelles and ibex, and smaller jerboas and polecats. Winter snow in the Gobi Desert is a water source for the desert animals.
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This desert is home to the extremely rare Gobi bear, which lives near desert oases.
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Another thing desert creatures need to watch out for: dust storms! They can be fierce and frightening!
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But desert dust storms aren’t all bad. In fact, they have very important jobs. They bring minerals to faraway rain forests. They also bring iron to the ocean, which feeds ocean plankton!
Dust from the Sahara blows across the Atlantic to fertilize the Amazon rain forest.
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Deserts are extremely valuable, but they are growing. We don’t want too much of a good thing! Can you imagine more and more places becoming deserts? That’s called desertification, and it happens because climate change is causing longer droughts in many places. Plus, more areas are being converted to farming and ranching. That means there’s more soil erosion and less biodiversity.
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About 1 billion people live in desert regions. Many are being forced to move away because of desertification. 25
People are working on ways to slow desertification, including planting drought-resistant plants, reducing grazing, and managing deserts more sustainably. Others are working to slow and stop climate change.
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Everyone wants deserts to still be full of life when you come back to explore again!
A group in Africa is building a Great Green Wall by planting trees and plants in order to slow and stop desertification. 27
Activity Time! Saguaro Cactus One desert we didn’t visit on our exploration is the hot and dry Sonoran Desert in the United States. This desert is home to the saguaro cactus. These cacti are part hotel, part restaurant, and part water storage tank. WHAT YOU NEED: paper, pen or pencil, colored pencils or markers Research the saguaro cactus. How does this plant survive in the hot and dry Sonoran Desert? Next, investigate the animals in the Sonoran Desert. How do they use the saguaro cacti for food and shelter? Create a poster of the saguaro cactus that shows what you learned. Be sure to label all the plants and animals.
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Glossary arid: very dry. bacteria: single-celled organisms found in soil, water, plants, and animals barren: bare land with poor soil and few plants. biodiversity: the range of living things in an area. biome: a community of plants and animals that live together in a certain climate. burrow: an underground hole or tunnel. climate: weather patterns during a long period of time. condense: to change from a gas to a liquid. conserve: to protect something. desert: the hottest biome that gets very little rain. desertification: when non-desert areas become desert. environment: a natural area with animals, plants, rocks, soil, and water. erosion: when land is worn away. evaporate: when a liquid heats up and changes into a gas. lomas: areas of fog-watered vegetation in the coastal desert. mineral: a solid, nonliving substance found in the earth and in water. nocturnal: active at night. oasis: a green area with water in a dry region or desert. semi-arid: an area that is dry.
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