Studying The Ecosystem In A Desert

An ecosystem is a community of organism and their environment that is studied as a system of interacting and interdependent relationships. This includes all the animals and the environment in which they live. The ecosystem in a desert consists of a wide variety of desert animals and plant life that are specially designed to be able to live in the harsh and unforgiving desert climate.

The ecosystem in a desert is an interesting study. It is hard to imagine how anything can survive in such an arid and dry area. A desert is defined as an area that receives less than ten inches of water a year. There are desserts on every continent except Europe and Antarctica and they all are different in some way.

Deserts receive very little rain because there is a small amount of cloud coverage in the desert areas. Clouds carry water for rain and block out the sun. One reason that the desert regions are very hot and dry is due to the lack of cloud coverage. The ecosystem in a desert is very different to an ecosystem in other parts of the world where plants must compete for sunlight. In the desert plants are designed to minimize the amount of sun that they get. The flowering season is shorter due to the harsh environment and the plants are able to withstand long periods of time with little to no moisture.

When most people think of what the ecosystem in a desert is they generally think about large sand deserts such as the Sahara Desert, but there are a lot of other types of deserts as well. The ecosystem in a desert may also consist of fine red sand, sand mixed with pebbles, or hard dirt with small plants and shrubs.

Animals that are part of the ecosystem in a desert are very adept at surviving in the extreme conditions of the dessert. Most desert animals are nocturnal, which means that they sleep during the day when the desert is the hottest and come out in the cool of the night. Many of the desert animals will burrow deep into the ground where it is substantially cooler. Some animals that are part of the ecosystem in a desert are diurnal, which means that they are active during the day. Beetles, hawks, lizards and snakes are a few examples of diurnal animals that belong to the ecosystem in the desert. You will also find herbivores such as jack rabbits and chuckwalla, and carnivores like the coyote and the great horned owl thriving in the ecosystem in a desert.