Some times when it rains in the desert the rain is evaporated before it even hits the ground. Animals and plants have found ways to adapt to the Earths driest and hottest deserts.

Plants Adaptation to the Desert Biome:

Different plants have different ways to adapt to the desert. They have their own way to preserve and get water. Some plants have developed tap roots. These tap roots can extend to thirty meters below the surface to draw water out of the water table. Other plants have shallow roots to catch water as soon as it lands. Desert sand is well drained and water doesn't sit around on top. This means water can soak into the ground very fast.

Some plants such as the spines or fur trees reduce the heat by facing leaves directly up or down to minimize surface area hit by the sun so less water is evaporated.

Other plants like the Joshua tree have small knife like leaves that have a very small surface area. The small surface area means that less water is evaporated. This tree also has a waxy resin that prevents much water from evaporating.

Another plant called the living stones exposes only a few of its leaves. Most of them are underground along with the main body. This is done so it doesn't loose all its precious water to the sun. The tree is also kept cooler.

The Mosquite tree has adapted to the desert by having roots that can extend 30m into the ground. This is so it can tap into the underground water supply.

Living Stones

Joshua Tree

In the desert many plants space out from each other because the water is scarce. If the plants were close together like the bush around Northam many wouldn't survive. The plants would be competing for water and only the hardiest would survive. Another adaptation is that some kinds of plants have chemicals or poisons in its roots to keep other plants from growing nearby.

A tree called the Creosote has adapted a taste and smell that wild life find unpleasant. It has leaves that closes in the day and stays close to the stem to reduce water evaporation, and that open at night to absorb moisture. This plant has also adapted duel root systems that tap deep in the underground water and radial roots that collect the surface water.

Some plants only open their stomata at night time for gas exchange this is because evaporation rates are lower than day time and there is less chance of water been lost.

Some plants that do this are the cactus and the agaves

Creosote Bush

The grasses in the desert have adapted strong roots to hold them in place so when the desert sand is moved in strong winds the plants are able to stay in place. Some plants can anchor a whole sand dune in place.

Desert Grass

Other plants also direct the shiny side of their leaves to the sun to reflect the suns rays so less water is evaporated.

Some plants also slow down their growth rate for the drier half of the year to conserve water.

Many large cacti like the barrel or organ pipe cacti can store huge amounts of water in their stems and pulpy interior. The saguaro cacti has adapted to grow in harsh rocky and gravel soils because of its roots only 2.5cm under the ground so it gets every chance to soak up the rain or dew before it evaporates. The saguaro also has a spongy inside layer so it can transport and hold water. It also has a stretchy skin that is able to expandable so it can hold more water if it is available.

The saguaro is a very slow growing plant it can take 80 years for it to reach six meters in height. By doing this it needs less energy, food, and water to survive. This makes it a very hardy plant in the desert biome. Cacti have adapted spines on them to shelter them for the sun, to keep animals away, and to collect dew and moisture. The cacti also have waxy skin to seal in the moisture and to prevent water loss through evaporation.

Barrel Cacti

Plants like the Acacia and the ocotillo have adapted to the desert climate to loose their leaves during long periods of dryness. The plants also drop seeds and then enter into dormancy. This works well because less water is lost through evaporation during the hotter drier months. During dormancy water is retained by the trees waxy skin which traps water inside.

Acacia

Bulb plants such as the desert lily or the Ajo have adapted well to the desert. The top leaves dry out and leave the bulb underground. The bulb stores enough nutrients and water for it to become dormant for prolonged periods in the rocky, alluvial soils. When the winter rains come they send forth new leaves again.

Desert Lily

Some plants such as the desert sand verbena, desert paintbrush, and the Mojave aster grow quickly and produce many seeds and scatter them on the desert floor before dying.

Desert Sand Verbena

Animals Adaptation to the Desert Biome:

All desert animals have found one way or another to adapt to the desert climate they live in. Some animals are nocturnal and only come out at night when the desert is cooler.

Others have developed huge ears to pass off heat quickly. One of these animals is the Fennec Fox. Some animals have the ability to store water or go without it for long periods of time. Other animals have adapted to the desert by storing body fat in their tails or in a hump like the camel. Heat from the desert sun is kept in the animal by body fat. This is why they store it in one part of their body.

Camels are probably one of the best know desert dwelling animals in the world. The camel is also one of the largest. It is usually thought that camels store water in their humps. This is actually wrong. Camels store fatty tissue in their hump/s while the water is stored in their blood. When the fatty tissue is metabolized water is gained from reaction with oxygen. The camel will gain 1111 g of water per 1000 g of fat converted. This process enables camels to go without water for about two weeks and up to one month without food.

Camels have very efficient kidneys like other desert rodents. Urine is thick syrup and their feces are that dry that a fire can be started with them. Camels can withstand high temperatures and only begin to sweat when the temperature rises above 41°C. Camels have thick coats reflect the sun light, much like some desert dwelling plants. The coat also insulates the camel from heat radiation from the ground. The long legs of the camel keep it cooler because the body is higher above the ground. Camels also have nostrils that are able to seal. This helps to keep desert sand out.

Camel

The fennec fox lives in the Sahara desert in Northern Africa.

The fennec fox is nocturnal and mostly comes out at night to hunt for food. Its large ears are used for hunting at night and for passing of heat. The Fennec Fox has fur on the bottom of its paws to protect them from the scorching desert sand.

Fennec Fox

The jack rabbit or Hare has adapted long ears to pass off heat quickly, and small bodies to reduce water absorbing by the sun. The jack rabbit also has adapted long big ears and lots of blood vessels that release heat when the animal is resting in a cool shady spot.

Jack Rabbit (Hare)

Some desert animals have evolved long appendages to lessen body heat. One of these animals is the camel.

The Antelope squirrel can tolerate very high temperatures that would be dangerous to humans. It can withstand temperatures of over 104 degrees F, 40C.

The Antelope Squirrel

Some animals have adapted body heat regulators. In the heat of the day their body temperature stays normal and in the cool of the night their body temperature is warm.

Water can be stored in fatty tissues in some animals like the Gila monster. This lizard stores water in its body fats in the tail.

Birds such as the Phainopepla and the Costa's Hummingbird breed during the cooler spring and leave the desert in the hot periods and heads for the pacific coast.

Some birds such as the Kingbird are active in the day but always stay in the shade to avoid the desert sun.

Some animals have adapted to be crepuscular, this means to be active only at dusk and dawn. These animals include the rattle snake and the Gila monster.

Gila Monster

Most desert animals are nocturnal. They come out at night to escape the dessert heat. These animals include bats, snakes, most rodents, foxes, and skunks.

Some animals have adapted to the desert by spending the hottest parts of the days in underground burrows. These include some reptiles, mammals, insects, and desert amphibians. The kangaroo rat blocks the entrance of its burrow to keep hot air from getting in.

The kangaroo rat has also adapted to manufacture its own water by doing it metabolically from the digestion of dry seeds.

Some animals like the round-tailed ground squirrel sleep burrows in the hottest parts of summer. They also hibernate in winter to avoid the winter cold.

The desert toad has adapted to the desert by going dormant in the mud of a dry underground pond in summer. Then when the rain comes and fills the pond the toad will emerge, breed, lay eggs, and replenish the body's reserve of water and food ready to go back into dormancy.

Desert Toad

Shrimp such as the fairy shrimp and the brine shrimp survive as eggs and hatch in little ponds when it rains and complete their life cycle.

Brine Shrimp

Certain lizards have adapted long legs when running over hot sand so it absorbs less heat from the ground. Like big ears, long legs pass off heat very quickly.

Owls, Poorwills and nighthawks, open their mouths wide while fluttering their throat region to evaporate water from their mouth cavities.

The world vulture and stalk pea urine on their legs cooling them and then circulate the cooled blood back through their body.

They have also adapted in high temperatures to soar up high into the sky where the temperature is cooler.

Many desert animals have pale fur or feathers. This is so the animals don't absorb too much heat. It also helps them to blend into the desert to escape from their predators.

The turkey and the vulture have adapted to obtain their entire moisture needs from the food they eat.

Rattle Snake

Some reptiles and bird in the desert use a process where they excrete metabolic wastes in the form of uric acid which wastes very little water in the process. Mammals however excrete urea that also uses very little water. Some animals and insects get most of their nutritional needs from the food they eat.

Some desert dwelling animals have specialized kidneys with extra small tubules to extract most of the water from their urine and return it to the bloodstream. They also can collect most of the water from the air they breathe out by using special organs in their naval cavities.

Vulture

The Desert Climate:

Deserts are usually located not far away from the equator. The only exception to this is the cold desert in Antarctica.

Most deserts are formed by hills or mountain ranges. The mountains stop the rain clouds from reaching the desert area. The rain clouds have to loose water to clear the mountains. By the time the clouds have cleared the mountains there is little or no water vapour left in the cloud. One great example is the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts created by the Himalayan Mountains.

These deserts are formed because the Himalayas make clouds loose their rain before they hit the mountains or on top of them. Some times when it rains in the desert the rain is evaporated by the sun before it even hits the ground.

Deserts are usually situated in the subtropical climate zone.

A night time in the desert the temperature can drop to freezing or even below that. Animals that are nocturnal have fur coats to keep them warm in the desert night. Animals like the Kangaroo have fur coats. During the day you will see kangaroos escaping the heat by lying under trees. Deserts are made of many different things. Deserts are made of sand, rock and mountains. Desert sands are usually rock that has weathered down over many years.

Himalayas

Some deserts are formed because they aren't near any large water bodies.

Others are too far away from the ocean to receive any rain and have a lack of moisture in the air. This is like most deserts in Australia.

The last way a desert is formed is by mountains. Mountains prevent rain clouds reaching the deserts. The Gobi desert is created by the Himalayas.

In the desert there is little or no cloud. This is why the deserts temperature is so extreme. At day time there is no cloud to reflect some of the suns rays. At night there is no cloud cover over the desert so no heat is kept in by clouds. Heat escapes back into the atmosphere. The land is very fast to heat up and to cool back down. The world's largest desert is Antarctica. The world's largest hot desert is the Sahara in North Africa. The Sahara Desert is huge 9 million square kilometers.

The Sahara Desert