Desert

=Desert= All deserts are dry and there are few plants and animals. The rainfall is less than 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain each year. The deserts are so hot but some of them might be ice deserts. However, the most of them are hot. The temperature is high. It is rising as high as 55'C. The surface of deserts are rocky and full of sand. There isn't enough water.Desert areas cover around one-quarter of Earth's land. The largest desert regions of the world lie between 20° and 30° north and south of the equator. In every continent, there are deserts except Europe. There are some seasonal changes. At the daytime is hotter at the summer, and colder at the winter. At night deserts get colder. There are some threats in deserts, too. Threats to desert are drought, wild fires, irrigation and urbanization.

There are few animals in deserts. For example, there are camels, scorpions, lizards, snakes, spiders, gerbils and jerboas of Africa; grasshopper mice, kangaroo rats of America deserts and the spiny. Spiders and scorpions usually live under the stones. Rats, mice and lizards live in burrows to protect theirselves from hot. They get water from their food, like succulent plants, seeds, or the blood and body tissues of their prey. The other animals like camels, some spiders and some scorpions have bodies designed to save water. They don't lose water. Camels can drink large amounts of water at one time. So they can survive as long as 2 weeks without water. Also, there are some endangered like kangaroo rats, ocelots, gila monsters, prairie dogs, peregrine falcons.

Deserts have some flowers but not a large group.For example; cactuses,colletia armata,lamb's tail,butcher's broom,long-spined horsebrush,maihunia poeppigii, algae, fungi, lichens, desert sunflower... Plants are not very resistant by living in deserts because of few water,hot sun etc.The most plant in the desert is cactus, because they are resistant for water. There are endangered plants, too. Endangered plants are arizona cypress, ash meadow milvetch, fishhook cactus and bearpoppy.

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1﻿) library.thinkquest.org/5788/ 2) http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/ecoregions/about/habitat_types/habitats/deserts/animal_life/ 3) [] 4) [] 5) http://www.ehow.com/list_7379354_endangered-plants-desert-biome.html
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Naz GÖZEGİR 193 Lal BLANCHET 621 Balca BÜYÜKMETE 611 Nazlı İris ÖZEN 612 7/A 23/01/2011