Deserts

Climate
Distribution and subtypes
Landscape-substrate-soils
Limiting factors
Adaptations to aridity
Adaptations to high temperatures
 Definitions
Boundary defined by absolute precipitation
(e.g. <4 inches or 100 mm mean annual
precipitation). Not an adequate definition.
Boundary defined by intensity of moisture
deficit (e.g. ratio of available precipitation
to evaporative demand; see, for example,
the Budyko-Lettau dryness ratio)
Budyko-Lettau dryness ratio
D = R / (L x P)

where D = dryness ratio;

R = mean ann. net radiation;
P = mean ann. precipitation;
L = latent heat of vaporization of water

Original definition:
D > 2.3 = semi-desert; D 3.4 = desert.

UNESCO: D 10 = extreme desert

 Dryness ratio

semiarid desert
(D2.3) (D10)
 Unpredictability:
areas with >30% variability in
precipitation
 Causes of regional aridity
Persistent atmospheric subsidence associated with
the presence of sub-tropical anticyclones
suppresses convectional activity (e.g. Sahara,
Kalahari, Australia)
Absence of humid airstreams (e.g. Gobi)
Localized subsidence in rain-shadow areas (e.g.
Great Basin)
Absence of cyclonic disturbances (e.g. Sonora)
Inhibition of convectional activity by cold coastal
currents (e.g. Atacama, Namib)
 Coastal fog deserts

E.g. Atacama desert Namib desert

 Temperature

Arid areas that are subject to sub-

freezing conditions (e.g. Gobi, Great
Basin) are cold deserts.

Areas where air temperatures seldom

or never fall below 0C are hot
deserts (e.g. Sonora, Sahara)
 cold desert
sagebrush steppe
(Idaho-eastern Oregon)
 Hot
desert:
saguaro -
ocotillo
community,
Arizona
Sonoran cacti:
saguaro
(Carnegiea
gigantea)
range
controlled by
exposure to
freezing
temperatures
Sonoran plant ranges
Thermal microclimates
 Desert landscape-substrate
elements

upland /
hillslope

pediment/bajada/reg dunefield/
deflation erg
erosion playa - sabkha
solutes
deposition
skeletal gravelly
sandy silts sands
soils soils
 Uplands of southern Baja
a wilderness of thorn and rock
Desert upland habitat:
skeletal soils
Uplands and bajada complex,
Death Valley, CA
Mesquite growing on gravelly
fan deposits, Arizona
Playa deposits
Mobile substrates:
Saharan dunes
 Limiting factors
Five interlinked stresses for biological community:
REGIONAL
1. permanent moisture deficit;
2. high surface temperatures during day; large diurnal
variation;
3. highly irregular and variable moisture supply;
LOCAL
4. mobile substrates; and
5. saline substrates
 Limitation of primary productivity in
arid ecosystems (data from Tunisia)
500
Mean ann. rainfall (mm)

400 skeletal soils of uplands

300

200

100 gravelly soils

of pediments and
0 alluvial fans

0.01 0.1 1.0 10

Net primary production (kg ha-1 yr-1)
 Forms of adaptation to
stresses in arid environments

Four strategies:
1. minimize heat intake or maximize heat
outflows;
2. maximize food reserves in times of plenty;
3. maximize water inflows; and
4. minimize water outflows
 Evasion tactics to minimize
exposure to heat and drought
1. Organism dormant for substantial part of life-cycle:
e.g. ephemeral plants, some reptiles, most insects
persist through extended droughts as seeds, eggs,
or larvae (only the reproductive forms remain).
2. Nocturnal or crepuscular foraging (hottest parts of
day spent in burrows or shade).
[Is crassulacean acid metabolism an equivalent tactic
for succulent plants? CAM - stomates open at night;
CO2 absorbed, assimilated during day when stomates
closed to minimize water loss]
 Desert ephemeral flora
Large seedbanks (esp. in sites protected from wind,
e.g. around base of bushes; 100,000 seeds m-2);
Long seed viability in dry soils;
Rapid germination if rainfall sufficient (signalled by
leaching of inhibitors in seed coats [e.g. only rains
>25mm in Arizona produce germination] or
scarification of thick seed coat in flash floods)
Short time [6-8 weeks] to seed-set;
Some species heteroblastic [produce seeds with
varying germination requirements].
Sonoran desert in bloom
Refuging tactics:
chuckwalla lizard
How much cooler
is it at a depth
of 20 cm?
Refuging behaviour:
camels in shade
 Refuging by desert aquatic species
e.g. pupfish in Death Valley

desert pupfish
winter summer winter

flow
salinity
water temp.

live lay eggs hatch Salt Creek, Death Valley

/die
 Reducing
heat load
Low surface-
area/volume ratio;
Reflective skin/bark
(colour changes in
lizards)
Vertical shoot-body
architecture

Fouquieria/Idria columnaris
(the cirio of central Baja)
Reducing heat
load:
a joshua tree
(Yucca
brevifolia)
in the Mojave
desert
 Maximise food reserves in
times of plenty
camels hump;
berber sheep
(fat reserves in tail
vary from 2-10 kg);
pack rats/gerbils
hoard seeds;
succulents store
water.
 Maximise water inflows
extensive lateral (cacti) or vertical
(mesquite) roots;
rapid root growth after rains
beetles in Namib desert stand on hind legs
to catch fog droplets on raised abdomen;
mice in Arizona often feed on low-protein
herbage with high water content
camels can drink 100 L of water in 10 min!
practice opportunistic migration to water
and food sources (desert locusts, nomadic
pastoralists)
 Shrub/tree root
patterns, Arizona

Plant spacing
determined
by moisture
availability
and rooting
niche

40
 Water conservation:
expandable storage organs and
palisade tissue in succulents
Tissue protection:
thorns and spines
 Minimize water loss
1. Transpiration reduced in desert plants by
microphylly, deciduousness, sunken stomata, waxy or
pubescent leaves.

2. Water loss in desert fauna reduced by dry faeces,

low urine prodcution, low dilution of uric acid,
adaptive hyperthermia (camels body temperature
can vary by 6C when animal is dehydrated).

3. Tolerate dessication: camel can withstand water

loss = 25% of body weight
 Reducing water loss:
microphylly, deciduousness,
photosynthetic bark and shoots

Pachycormus
discolor
Reducing water loss: microphylly in ocotillo
(Fouquieria splendens)
 Evidence of
climate
change:
lake levels in
the Great
Basin
 Evidence
of climate
change
from pack-
rat
middens
 QuickTime and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

Pink = desert; yellow=savanna grassland; brown=dry forest

NB Lake Mega-Chad (bigger than Caspian Sea at present,
and at least 40 m deep)

http://www.uni-mannheim.de/phygeo/8000B
Evidence for late
Holocene climate
change in the
Sahara
Lake sediments and pollen

Rock drawings, Tassili

 Desertification in progress?
Rainfall in the Sahel zone of W Africa

Cause: ?
Protracted drought Effect: desertification?
Desertification on savanna margins:
Rapps albedo hypothesis
Settlement Nomadism
+ -
Grazing Grazing
- +
Vegetation - + Vegetation
+ -
Albedo Albedo

-
Convectional +
Convectional
rainfall rainfall
The evidence
for Rapps
model
 The elements
of
anthropogenic
desertification