The Desert Biome

1. The Desert Biome By Antoun Keirouz

2. Desert Biomes in the World This is a map showing an example of where the desert biomes in the world. As you can see, the desert biomes are mostly located in Africa and Asia. "Desert Biomes." Blue Planet Biomes. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. <http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/desert.htm>.

3. Living Things in the Desert • Even though the desert is dry and hot, there are many different animals and plants that are adapted to the desert such as: • The Texas Horned Lizard. This desert is located in the southwest of the United States in Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, Arizona and Oklahoma. The Texas Horned Lizard mostly eats Harvester Ants. It will also eat other insects such as grasshoppers. These desert lizards are will be found any place where Harvester Ants are located. The desert is a suitable place for because it feeds on harvester ants which are located around the desert. http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/images/reptiles/horned_lizardlarge.jpg

4. Living Things in the Desert • The Armadillo Lizard. The nostrils of the Armadillo Lizards are formed into little tubes which help the lizard smell for food and predators. A lizard which crawls on the ground is active during daytime and feeds on insects. This desert creature is good for living in the desert because it feeds on other desert creatures and is built for sand and rough places. • The Kangaroo Rat. This little critter is a tiny desert rat that looks like a kangaroo. The kangaroo rat lives in the Mojave and Sonoran desert in Arizona and California. It moves like an actual kangaroo but it is not a kangaroo, it is a rodent. It’s predators include the coyotes, foxes, snakes and owls. "Desert Animals." Blue Planet Biomes. Web. 25 Jan. 2012. <http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/desert_animal_page.htm>.

5. Plants in the Desert • The Barrel Cactus. The barrel cactus can be found in the Mojave, Sonora and the Chihuahua desert. Native Americans first discovered this pant and found many different uses to this plant. The first use of this plant is food. They stewed this plant to make a cabbage-like food. They got water to drink from the pulp, and used the spines as fishhooks. I think this desert plant is adapted to the desert because it doesn’t really run out of water easily. "Desert Plants." Blue Planet Biomes. Web. 25 Jan. 2012. <http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/desert_plant_page.htm>.

6. Plants in the Desert • The Hedgehog Plant. The crimson Hedgehog plant is a small barrel-shaped cactus that grows in clumps from a few to a hundred stems. Some natives used to collect these stems, burn off the spines and then mashed them up. After that, they added some sugar and turned a desert plant into a sweet cake. "Desert Plants." Blue Planet Biomes. Web. 25 Jan. 2012. <http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/desert_plant_page.htm>.

7. Plants in the Desert • The Jumping Cholla. From a distance the “Jumping” cholla may look like a little fuzzy plant with fuzzy little branches. But the closer you get, the more you recognize that it isn’t actually fuzz that covers this plant, but it is actually tiny silver spines. If your lucky enough not to touch this dangerous plant, you can just admire it’s beauty. But if you do touch the plant, you will find your self in pain thanks to the small spines “jumping” onto you. That is how this plant got it’s name. "Desert Plants." Blue Planet Biomes. Web. 25 Jan. 2012. <http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/desert_plant_page.htm>.

8. The Desert’s Abiotic Factors • The abiotic factors of the desert includes sand, warm and dry weather, sunlight and sometimes, water. The wind, shortage of water, and heat makes this habitat suitable for the animals and plants that are adapted to it. "Kaneva - Imagine What You Can Do." Kaneva. Imagine What You Can Do. Web. 27 Jan. 2012. <http://www.kaneva.com/mykaneva/PictureDetail.aspx?assetId=6017192>. http://www.piersonplaza.com/about_the_area/index.html

9. Desert Resources • In deserts, there are some water basins. When the water evaporates in closed basin that may form salt, gypsum and borates. The way science has helped discover these resources, is that they discovered salt. This is a resource that we can use. Deserts are also great at sourcing solar energy. Many solar power plants have been built in the Mojave Desert. Science has helped discover this by inventing machines that turn light and heat from the sun into energy that we can use. "Primer on Space Weather." NOAA / NWS Space Weather Prediction Center. Web. 28 Jan. 2012. <http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/primer/primer.html>. "Desert." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 28 Jan. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert>.

10. Human Activities that affect the Desert • The desert is actually a very fragile biome because of its scarcity of water and plants. Some plants in the desert like the Saguaro Cactus can take up to 2 centuries to grow. Off-Roadings is one of the most harmful human activities that affect the desert, because it can kill many plants and that might corrupt the food chain. http://library.thinkquest.org/C0113340/text/impact/impact.desert.html

11. How does the use of natural resources affect the desert? • The use of natural resources like solar power can affect the desert in many different ways. For example, that energy from solar power can be used for factories and that causes a lot of pollution not only to the desert but all other biomes as well.