Desert Ecosystems

 Desert Ecosystem

By: Lorenzo

Table Of Contents

1. Introduction - 

2. General Desert Animals - 

3. Weather And Temperature - 

4. Desert Food - 

5. What A Desert Looks Like -

6. Terrestrial, Freshwater, Marine -

7. Types Of Deserts -

8. Desert Seasons - 

9. Worlds Famous Deserts - 

10. Deserts Are Endangered - 

11. Protecting Deserts - 

12. All About Deserts -

13. References - 

Introduction

Do you know what an ecosystem is? An ecosystem is the home of plants, animals, and nature. There are many different types of ecosystems. For example a freshwater ecosystem, a desert ecosystem, or a woodland ecosystem. You might think every ecosystem is green and full of trees with a lot of water and beautiful sights. But a desert barely ever rains. The ground is cracked, there are dead bushes and no trees! In a desert, there can be miles of sand and cracked rocks but sometimes the ground is dirt. In a desert you also tend to find mice everywhere!

One question that might come to mind is what makes a place a desert? A desert is a place where there is more water evaporating than falling from the sky. Now let's learn more about desert ecosystems!

General Desert Animals

In a normal ecosystem, you might find squirrels, deer, birds, and fish. A desert ecosystem is different. You can find rats, mice, ants, and very rarely birds. Rats and mice cannot stay above ground their whole life so they stay underground so that the dirt keeps them cool. In the desert, there is a type of rat called a kangaroo rat. These rats are perfectly adapted to the desert. They can survive without any water and can stay above ground their whole life without getting so hot that they die!

Pocket mice live in the desert and are also perfectly adapted. They can live a long time without water. Pocket mice are nocturnal and spend most of their day in their burrows and then feed and peek out from their burrows at night. A pocket mouse has fur completely matching the sand so that it is hard for owls to see them.

Desert ants are completely camouflaged in the sand and always stay above ground. Their silver bodies touch their bottom reflecting heat that comes up from the sand.

You know about the most common animals, but what about a camel? This is the most well-known animal to live in a desert. All the humans use them to ride around in the desert, but the humans bring the camels into the deserts. Camels are not desert animals except a few in the Gobi desert. Camels store water in a thing called a hump. Camels have 2 humps. The most common breed is the Bagri Camel. 

Now we know the animals and the desert along with their adaptations, so let's learn about weather you get and how that helps the plants.

Weather And Temperature!

In the desert you rarely have rain. Most deserts get fewer than ten inches of rain per year. Most animals in the desert do not need much water. In a desert, you very rarely have snow (except in polar deserts). The average temperature in the Sahara desert is 122 Fahrenheit! Coastal deserts can get very hot. When it’s the morning in a hot and dry desert it can get up to above 140 degrees! At night it gets cold. I mean 40 degrees. The temperature can change by almost 100 degrees in a whole day. 

Desert Food

Deserts have food but not much. Deserts have animals like eagles and snakes. Eagles eat snakes and ants eat grass. Every animal in a desert has food, but just a little shortage of water. Every ecosystem has its food chain. Even in the desert. At the bottom of the food chain, there are grass and other plants. Then come the rats and mice, for example, pocket mice. Then there are snakes followed by coyotes and eagles. A food chain is a way to show what animals eat from smallest to largest.

Now you know what a food chain is but do you know what a food web is?

A food web would have ants in the middle and snakes, rats, mice, and coyotes eating them. Every food web applies to every different ecosystem. A food web is another way to show what animals eat.

What a desert looks like

You step into the desert you feel the hot sand but this sand is about two times as hot as the sand at the beach. You may have watched desert movies and there might have been this word, “mirage”. A mirage is where you think you see water. They happen when light passes through two layers of air with different temperatures. The desert sun heats the sand, which in turn heats the air just above it. The hot air bends and light rays and reflects the sky. Deserts can be cracked or completely sand. Deserts can also be covered in a mix of rocks, sand, and weird dirt. Desserts also have a thing called an oasis. This is a pond. But what makes it different from a pond? Because it’s in the desert! Desserts also have dunes. This is where the sand gets moved or most likely blown into a pile. These piles create mountains. But they are made of sand, not solid rock.

Terrestrial, Freshwater, Marine

Have you ever wondered how to categorize ecosystems? A marine ecosystem is an ecosystem under the water. A terrestrial ecosystem is on land and a freshwater ecosystem is lakes and ponds. There is one main question. What is the difference between a freshwater ecosystem and a marine ecosystem? A marine ecosystem has saltwater, and a freshwater ecosystem has freshwater. Also, a freshwater ecosystem is not all water. Land too. Have you ever wondered how you categorize a beach? It's not an ecosystem but it could be marine or freshwater. The beach where the sand is is freshwater but the ocean has salt inside so that part is marine. And obviously, a desert is a terrestrial ecosystem.

Types Of Deserts

What are the types of deserts? There are deserts on all seven continents. Every continent has its desert, for example, the Sahara desert of Death Valley. Hot and deserts get a lot of sunlight and are very hot. Semiarid deserts are hot but have all the seasons. Coastal deserts have more rain with lots of shadows. Lastly, there are polar deserts which are completely deserts, just with snow and ice! Polar deserts are in the arctic and can get to really cold temperatures. Once the temperature in a polar desert went down to less than -30!

Desert Seasons

Every place in the world that does not take place in a desert has seasons. The four seasons are summer, winter, autumn, and spring. Weather and temperature change all the time but in deserts, it is hot or freezing the whole time. This means that it is so hot, dry, and cold that there are no seasons. A cause of why deserts don’t have seasons is because there are barely any live plants. Another reason why there are rarely any plants is that it doesn’t rain enough.

Worlds Famous Deserts

First, you must know that one-third of the earth is desert. Deserts are all over the world. You may have heard of the Sahara, Mojave, Death Valley, and even the Gobi desert. These are some of the most famous deserts. The Sahara is the most famous desert. Maybe because it’s in so many movies or that it’s the biggest desert. You may have also heard about Death Valley. If you live in the United States then you probably know what Death Valley is, it’s in the Mojave desert. Another desert is the Gobi which you might have already heard of. This you probably hear after you have done a bit of research.

Deserts Are Endangered

Deserts are endangered by HUMANS! We are causing this by global warming, off-highway transportation, and pillaging natural resources. Global warming is heating the desert and year by year it is getting hotter. This is because this energy has gas that pollutes. This is causing the desert to be so hot. The result is animals need to abandon and leave their homes which will be inhospitable! I bet in 50 years you’d be dead if you went into a desert. Only, if humans do nothing.

Humans are also riding off highways and this is destroying plants. This might not seem like much but you’re wrong. If you pollute and pillage natural resources for highways then you are harming and mistreating the desert for nothing!

Humans are pillaging natural resources for buildings and roads. This is using the natural and nice resources the desert has when you don’t even need them. You need to treat the desert respectfully. The result of pillaging natural resources from deserts is that there will be no trees.

These are all horrible things, but all of them are combined. Now you understand how endangered the desert is!

Protecting Deserts

Deserts are hard to protect but one of the most important things you can do is adopt an animal that needs help. You may also send money to charities that help the desert, for example, WWF. You may also support charities and send a letter to government officials. Also, stop off-highway transportation, and the landowners? Well, don’t pillage natural resources to use in deserts. Don’t cut down the last of the trees, that is crazy! We need to protect the desert and fast but the best way is to donate money to charities and treat it respectfully.

All About Deserts

In conclusion, now you know what a desert ecosystem is, what makes a desert a desert, the animals that live in deserts, and the temperature and weather. You also learned about food chains and food webs in a desert. Then you learned about how to categorize deserts, what are the types of deserts, what seasons there are in a desert, how to protect a desert and what are the most famous deserts. Now you know so much about deserts that you can tell everyone the coolest facts!