Where are the tropical deserts located and which ones are worth seeing? Desert is a natural zone characterized by a flat surface, sparseness or absence of flora and specific fauna. Where are tropical deserts and semi-deserts located.

Report “Deserts” for children on the subject the world will help you prepare for the lesson.

Message on the topic “Desert”

Desert is a natural zone characterized by a flat surface, sparseness or absence of flora and specific fauna.
Most often, in deserts, the annual precipitation is less than 200 mm, in extraordinary areas - less than 50 mm, and in some deserts there is no precipitation for decades.

Deserts can be found on all continents, with the exception of Europe. They extend across the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere and the subtropics and tropics of both hemispheres.

The largest deserts- these are the Sahara, Victoria, Karakum, Atacama, Nazca, and the Gobi Desert.

Deserts usually come in five types:

• sandy(vegetation is very rare, mostly thorny bushes, with roots going deep into the ground, this is necessary for water supply)
• clay,
• saline,
• rocky,
• snowy deserts(located beyond the polar circles and inhabited by animals resistant to cold).

The type of climate found in deserts is usually hot and arid. In this natural zone, daytime temperatures can rise to +50°C, while at night they can drop to 0°C. IN northern regions The thermometer can drop to minus 40 °C. For these reasons, the climate of deserts is considered continental.

Life in deserts is concentrated mainly near oases - places with dense vegetation and bodies of water, as well as in river valleys.

Desert flora

The peculiarity of desert plants is that they must evaporate moisture as little as possible and obtain water from great depth or have your own supply of water. The plants have small, hard leaves or spines instead of leaves. The roots penetrate deep into the ground. Plants in the desert do not form a continuous cover. They are solitary, often growing in small groups among sand or cracked clay.

Tree trunks are most often severely curved. The most common desert plant is saxaul bushes. They grow in groups, forming small groves. Instead of foliage, their branches are covered with small scales.
How does this shrub survive in such arid soils? Nature has provided them with powerful roots that go into the ground to a depth of 15 meters.

And another desert plant - camel-thorn its roots can reach moisture from a depth of up to 30 meters. The spines or very small leaves of desert plants allow them to use moisture very economically through evaporation.
Among the various cacti, growing in the desert, there is Echinocactus Gruzoni. The juice of this one and a half meter plant perfectly quenches thirst.

In the South African desert there is a very amazing flower - fenestraria. Only a few of its leaves are visible on the surface of the earth, but its roots are like a tiny laboratory. This is where the production takes place. nutrients, thanks to which this plant even blooms underground.
One can only be amazed at the adaptability of plants to extreme conditions deserts.

In the heat of the day, the desert seems uninhabited. Only occasionally do you see a lizard or some kind of bug. But as night falls, the desert comes to life. Animals crawl out of their hiding places to replenish their food supplies.

How do animals escape the heat? Some bury themselves in the sand. Already at a depth of 30 cm, the temperature is 40°C lower than on the ground. Kangaroo jumper, may not come out of its underground shelter for several days. Its burrows contain reserves of grains that absorb moisture from the air. They quench his hunger and thirst.

Jackals and coyotes Frequent breathing and sticking out your tongue save you from the heat.

African foxes, hares, hedgehogs Excess heat is emitted by large ears.

Long legs of ostriches and camels help to escape from the hot sand.
And the camel is more adapted to life in the desert than others. Thanks to its wide, calloused feet, it can walk on hot sand. Its thick and dense coat prevents moisture evaporation. The fat accumulated in the humps is converted into water if necessary. Although he can easily live without water for more than two weeks.
Desert insects “thought of” reflecting the scorching rays of the sun with the surface of their bodies.
Some animals ( turtles, jerboas, toads, frogs) can spend the entire hot summer in hibernation.
In the summer, to avoid getting burned, desert snakes crawl sideways on the sand, and lizards run so fast that their paws do not have time to warm up.
To find food in the desert, animals must move quickly, have good hearing and vision, and be able to camouflage themselves.
Desert snakes lie in wait for their prey, completely buried in the sand, only their head with closely spaced ears and eyes peeks out.

You can write a report on deserts using this information.

In the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, between latitudes 15 and 30, there is a zone of tropical deserts. Some deserts are located inside continents, while others stretch along the western coasts of continents. These are very hot and dry areas globe with sparse flora and fauna. There are no permanent rivers here, and vast areas are occupied only by blowing sands, piles of stones and clay surfaces cracked by the heat.

Tropical deserts

Tropical or trade wind deserts, as they are also called, include the deserts of Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan; the exceptionally distinctive Atacama Desert in Chile; Thar Desert in northwestern India; the vast deserts of Australia; Kalahari in South Africa; and finally, greatest desert world - Sahara in North Africa.

Tropical Asian deserts

The tropical Asian deserts, together with the Sahara, form a continuous arid belt stretching 7,200 km from Atlantic coast Africa to the east, with an axis approximately coinciding with the Tropic of the North; in some areas within this belt it almost never rains. The patterns of general atmospheric circulation lead to the fact that downward movements predominate in these places air masses, which explains the exceptional aridity of the climate. Unlike the deserts of America, the Asian deserts and the Sahara have long been inhabited by people who have adapted to these conditions, but the population density here is very low.

The most beautiful deserts in the world

Atacama, Chile

Supposedly the oldest and driest desert in the world (only 3–15 mm of precipitation per year) consists of salt lakes, sand and hardened lava. The composition of its soil is as close as possible to that of Mars. By the way, “A Space Odyssey” was filmed here. In autumn, when the rains fall, the desert is covered with flowers.

Great Sandy Desert, Australia

In the Uluru-Kata Tjuta Nature Reserve, home to the wild dog dingo, stands the 8.6 km² red rock of Uluru, sacred to the Anangu Aboriginal people. The climb takes about an hour, and it is better to do it at dawn or at night to admire the stars.

Gobi, Mongolia

The largest and coldest (up to –40 °C) desert in Asia is famous for its fossils: it was here that paleontologists found dinosaur eggs. Park Gurvansaikhan is famous for the Hongoryn-Els sand massif stretching for 180 km, which means “singing sands”.

Namib, Namibia

Tall sand dunes come close to the ocean, where the cold Benguela Current creates fog, creating obstacles for shipping. South of the Kunene River is the Skeleton Coast - a cemetery lost ships, which is increasingly covered with sand every year.

Today we will continue our acquaintance with the natural areas of our planet. The theme of our excursion will be the places where camels slowly walk, and the wind and the scorching sun are the undivided masters. We'll talk about deserts.

Here, among the sands and heat, there is its own plant and animal world, people live and work. What are the distinctive features of this zone?

Where are the deserts

Deserts are areas with continental climate and sparse vegetation. Such places can be found on all continents, with the exception of Europe. They extend across the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere and the subtropics and tropics of both hemispheres.

The largest deserts are the Sahara, Victoria, Karakum, Atacama, Nazca, and the Gobi Desert.

Russian deserts are located in the east of Kalmykia and in the south of the Astrakhan region.

Climate Features

The main features of the climate of this zone are high daytime temperatures and extreme dry air. During the day, the water vapor content in the atmosphere is 5–20%, which is several times lower than normal. Deserts are the driest South America. The main reason - almost complete absence of rain. In some places they occur no more than once every few months or even every few years. Sometimes heavy rainfall falls on the dried, heated ground, but instantly evaporates without having time to saturate the soil.

It is often observed in these places "dry rain" Ordinary raindrops fall from the forming rain clouds, but when they collide with heated air, they evaporate without ever reaching the ground. Precipitation in the form of snow is very rare here. Only in some cases does the snow cover reach a thickness of more than 10 cm.

In this natural zone, daytime temperatures can rise to +50°C, while at night they can drop to 0°C. In the northern regions, the thermometer can drop to minus 40 °C. For these reasons, the climate of deserts is considered continental.

Often residents and tourists witness amazing optical phenomena- mirages. At the same time, tired travelers see in the distance oases with life-giving moisture, wells with drinking water…. But all this is an optical illusion caused by the refraction of sunlight in the heated layers of the atmosphere. As these objects approach, they move away from the observer. You can get rid of these optical illusions by starting a fire. The smoke creeping along the ground quickly dispels this obsessive vision.

Relief features

Most of the desert surface is covered with sand and the strong wind becomes the “culprit” sandstorms. At the same time, they rise above the surface of the earth huge masses of sand. The sandy curtain erases the horizon line, eclipses the bright sunlight. Hot air mixed with dust makes breathing difficult.

After 2-3 days the sand settles. And the renewed surface of the desert appears before the eyes of those around you. In some places, rocky areas are exposed, or, conversely, new dunes appear against the backdrop of frozen sand waves. The relief of deserts contains small hills, alternating with plains, ancient river valleys and depressions from once existing lakes.

Characteristic of deserts light soil color, thanks to the lime accumulated in it. Soil surface areas containing an excess amount of iron oxides have a reddish color. The fertile layer of soil - humus is almost absent. In addition to sandy deserts, there are zones with rocky, clayey and saline soil.

Vegetable world

In most deserts precipitation occurs in spring and winter. Moistened soil is literally transformed. Within a few days it becomes colored with a wide variety of colors. The duration of flowering depends on the amount of precipitation and the soil of the area. Local residents and tourists come to admire the bright, beautiful flower carpet.

The heat and lack of moisture soon return the desert to its normal appearance, where only the most resilient plants can grow.

Tree trunks are most often severely curved. The most common plant in this area is saxaul bushes. They grow in groups, forming small groves. However, do not look for shade under their crowns. Instead of the usual foliage, the branches are covered with small scales.

How does this shrub survive in such arid soils? Nature has provided them with powerful roots that go into the ground to a depth of 15 meters. And another desert plant - camel-thorn its roots can reach moisture from a depth of up to 30 meters. The spines or very small leaves of desert plants allow them to use moisture very economically through evaporation.

Among the various cacti that grow in the desert is Echinocactus Gruzoni. The juice of this one and a half meter plant perfectly quenches thirst.

In the South African desert there is a very amazing flower - fenestraria. Only a few of its leaves are visible on the surface of the earth, but its roots are like a tiny laboratory. This is where the nutrients are produced, thanks to which this plant even blooms underground.

One can only be amazed at the adaptability of plants to extreme desert conditions.

Animal world

In the heat of the day, the desert truly seems devoid of all life. Only occasionally do we see a nimble lizard, and some bug hurries about its business. But With the onset of cool night, the desert comes to life. Small and fairly large animals crawl out of their hiding places to replenish food supplies.

How do animals escape the heat? Some bury themselves in the sand. Already at a depth of 30 cm, the temperature is 40°C lower than on the ground. This is exactly how the kangaroo jumper behaves, which manages not to crawl out of its underground shelter for several days. Its burrows contain reserves of grains that absorb moisture from the air. They quench his hunger and thirst.

Close “canine relatives” of jackals and coyotes from the heat Frequent breathing and sticking out your tongue saves you.

The saliva evaporating from the tongue cools these curious animals quite well. African foxes and hedgehogs emit excess heat with their large ears.

Long legs Ostriches and camels help escape from the hot sand, since they are high enough above the ground, and there the temperature is lower.

In general, the camel is more adapted to life in the desert than other animals. Thanks to its wide, calloused feet, it can walk on hot sand without getting burned or falling through. And its thick and dense coat prevents moisture evaporation. The fat accumulated in the humps is converted into water if necessary. Although he can easily live without water for more than two weeks. And these giants are not picky when it comes to food - they chew camel thorn, and twigs of saxaul or acacia are already a luxury in a camel’s diet.

Desert insects “thought of” reflecting the scorching rays of the sun the surface of your body.

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Deserts are a specific geographical phenomenon, a landscape that lives its own special life, has its own patterns, has features and forms of change that are unique to it.

Deserts - regions earth's surface where, due to the too dry and hot climate, evaporation exceeds precipitation by many times, and therefore there is only a very sparse flora and fauna; These are usually areas of low population density, and sometimes even unpopulated. This term also refers to areas unfavorable for life due to a cold climate (so-called cold deserts).

What are the causes of deserts? Deserts are located in places where moisture does not reach. Many are either located far from the seas and oceans and are protected from them by mountains; or are close to the equator. The spiers of the mountains prevent rain clouds from reaching these lands and watering them with moisture. Near the equator, the climate is very dry due to the constant heat, which burns everything and requires much more moisture than usual.

It is drought that is a sign of desert or semi-desert lands. And such lands are called arid, that is, dry, zone. It does not include all areas of land where droughts occur, but only those where the life of humans, plants and animals is under their influence and depends on them. This is a geographical area of ​​the earth where the features of aridity (aridity) are expressed to the most extreme extent and reach such an extreme, beyond which the complete destruction of the biological life of the landscape begins. Almost one-third of the total land surface on our planet is arid. And this is 48 million km. sq. But less than 23% of the earth's surface is considered true deserts.

general characteristics

Deserts are common in the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere, subtropical and tropical zones of the Northern and Southern hemispheres. All of them are characterized by humidification conditions (annual precipitation is less than 200 mm, and in extra-arid areas - less than 50 mm; the humidification coefficient, reflecting the ratio of precipitation and evaporation, is 0-0.15). The relief of deserts is varied: there is a complex combination of highlands, small hills and island mountains with structural strata plains, ancient river valleys and closed lake depressions. The erosional type of relief formation is greatly weakened; aeolian landforms (landforms formed under the influence of wind) are widespread. For the most part, the territory of the deserts is drainless, sometimes they are crossed by transit rivers (Syr Darya, Amu Darya, Nile, Yellow River and others); There are many drying up lakes and rivers, often changing their shape and size (Lop Nor, Chad, Eyre), and periodically drying up watercourses are typical. Groundwater is often mineralized. The soils are poorly developed and are characterized by a predominance of water-soluble salts in the soil solution over organic substances, salt crusts are common. The vegetation cover is sparse (the distance between neighboring plants is from several tens of centimeters to several meters or more) and usually covers less than 50% of the soil surface; in extra-arid conditions it is practically absent.

Huge drainless depressions are found almost everywhere in deserts. Some of them have enormous depth, for example, the Turfan Basin - 154 m below the level of the World Ocean, Akchakaya in the north of the Karakum Desert - 81 m, Karagiye on Mangyshlak - 132 m.

Climate

The main difference between deserts and other places is the almost complete absence of water: rivers, streams, fresh lakes. Rain falls very rarely - once a month or once every few years, mainly in the form heavy downpours. Light rain due to high temperature does not reach the surface of the earth - the water evaporates on the way to it. Large intermountain depressions and basins are particularly dry. But the driest areas of the world are the deserts of South America.

Most of the world's deserts receive most of their rainfall in winter and spring, and only a few - the Gobi and big deserts Australia - maximum amount precipitation falls in summer time in the form of showers. In deserts, air temperatures can fluctuate greatly within wide limits. During the day up to +50°C in the shade, and at night - almost up to 0°C. In winter, the temperature in the northern deserts even drops to -40 °C. The air of deserts is extremely dry, and this is one of their most important features. During the day, humidity ranges from 5-20%, and at night - from 20 to 60%.

The soil heats up more than the air during the day, and then cools down more. The climate in deserts is continental: summers are very hot and winters are relatively cold.

Extratropical deserts are distinguished, first of all, by cold, very severe, but practically snowless winters, without thaws with frosts down to -40 ° C.

More favorable climate in the deserts along the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean, the Persian Gulf, where it softens somewhat, and in connection with this, humidity increases to 80-90%, and the range of daily fluctuations decreases. From time to time in such deserts there is dew and fog in the mornings.

Wind plays a big role in deserts. Desert winds have their own names, like this: in the Sahara - sirocco, in the Libyan and Arabian deserts - gabli and khamsin, in Australia - brickfielder, Afghan - in Central Asia. All winds are dry, hot, carrying sand or dust. They are distinguished by an enviable constancy of direction, its duration and frequency, which plays a positive role in the problems of orientation and maintaining the direction of movement.

The sandy desert is especially scary during a hurricane. Black clouds of sand rush through the air and obscure the light. Air vortices carry sharp grains of sand and hit all protruding objects with enormous force. The wind lifts huge masses of sand into the air, transporting them over long distances. The air temperature at this time rises to +50 °C, accompanied by a sharp drop in humidity.

It happens that the sand raised by the wind stands in the air in such a dense wall that the sun is not visible. And sometimes it twists into a spiral, rising to greater height in the form of a rotating funnel, expanding upward. There are terrible legends about Saharan sandstorms - “samum”, which means “poison”.

It is mortally dangerous for a person to get caught in sandy winds. Small hot grains of sand, raised by the wind, painfully cut the skin, get into all the cracks - into clothes, shoes, seep under the glasses of dust-proof glasses and watches. They grind your teeth, hurt your eyes, and clog your skin pores. People try to protect themselves in all sorts of ways. But they rarely return from sandstorms alive.

Another feature of deserts is mirages. As a rule, this happens in deserts of all types in the afternoon, when the soil is as hot as possible, and layers of air with different densities form in the surface atmosphere. The sun's rays, when refracted, create the most amazing pictures on the horizon. Mirages also occur in the early morning, before sunrise, when the air is saturated with fine dust. In the trembling, as if tangible, air, an image appears of either a lake, or a city, or the domes of minarets, or mountains, or alluring palm trees. Pictures of mirages can be so vivid and realistic that they can confuse even an experienced traveler and direct him in the other direction from the chosen direction of travel.

Desert types

Based on surface types, all deserts in the world can be divided into:

• sandy (erg);
• sandy-gravelly;
• crushed stone-gypsum (serir, reg);
• rocky (hamada, gobi);
• loess-clayey (takyr);
• salt marshes (dayi, sebkhi, shotty).

But each of the listed types of deserts is almost never found in its pure form. Most often, the desert is a combination of rocky and clayey plateaus, sand dunes, drainless basins, isolated table-shaped hills, salt marshes and takyrs (this is a landform formed when saline soils dry out). In some places, difficult-to-pass areas of fine, flour-like dust called powder form. And yet, each type of desert has its own unique characteristics.

Sandy deserts (ergs)

Many people imagine vast expanses of sand. Sandy deserts indeed - they have taken over more than half of all arid territories of the world. True, they are also diverse. Some of them are long dune chains devoid of any vegetation, others, on the contrary, are covered with rather dense herbaceous and shrub vegetation.

Each sandy desert has its own wind regime, which determines the construction features of the sand massifs that can receive various shapes. Where the direction of the winds is changeable and chaotic, the dunes take on bizarre shapes, terrifying travelers with their impassability.

Where winds prevail in one direction, the dunes are higher than in those areas where winds often change direction. The main type of such sandy relief in deserts is large parallel sand ridges several hundred meters long, 10 m to 1 km wide and an average height of 5 to 60 m. In some deserts, the height of the dunes exceeds 300 m. Sometimes the ridges are connected by bridges and , when viewed from above, resemble a honeycomb. But it happens that sand produces not ridges, but randomly located mounds.

Where there are no plants, sand, driven by the wind, sometimes moves over long distances. Loose sands are dangerous not only in motion, but also at rest. While moving in such sand, your feet get stuck, each step requires enormous effort, and literally after just half an hour, if you don’t have the habit and ability to walk on them, a person is not able to walk further. Cars also have difficulty making their way through the sand, and even then only with front and rear driving wheels and wide cylinders - they have a larger support area, and the car does not get stuck in the sand so much.

The largest sand desert in the world is Taklamakan in northwestern China, located between the Tien Shan and Tibet. Its length is 1200 km and its width is up to 400 km.

In other deserts of the world, sand does not occupy a dominant place. The sands of the Sahara occupy only 10% of its area, and the rest are rocky plateaus - hammads, separated by shallow valleys and depressions. Desert areas with fine rubble, often covered with so-called desert tan (black shiny crust), are called serir.

The Arabian deserts are only 25% covered with sand, and the rest of the territory is characterized by rocky areas and takyrs.

Clay deserts

Clay deserts are widespread on all continents. These are huge, lifeless spaces stretching for many tens of kilometers, covered with a smooth, table-like, hard clay layer, cracked into four- and hexagonal tiles and similar to a honeycomb.

They differ from sandy ones by much less mobility and worse water properties. Their surface greedily absorbs precipitation, however, the upper layers, when moistened, quickly swell and stop allowing water to pass through. Only the upper layer 2-5 cm. With the onset of drought, it dries quickly. But if clay deposits contain sand, then the water permeability of such soils increases and a larger supply of water is formed in them.

Such areas in Central Asia are called takyrs, and in the Gobi - toyrims. After rain falls or snow melts, the clay swells and becomes almost waterproof. At this time, the takyrs turn into shallow muddy lakes. On small takyrs in the spring you can often find small small puddles fresh water- "kakk". But with the onset of a hot period, the water becomes filled with various putrefactive bacteria and becomes unsuitable for drinking. With the onset of dry and hot weather, the water in them evaporates.

As a rule, large takyrs are surrounded by high dune ridges. And on the border of takyr and sand, small villages of shepherds appear; in Central Asia they are called “charva”.

Rocky deserts

Some of the most common types of deserts are stony, gravelly, rubble-pebble and gypsum deserts. They are united by roughness, hardness and surface density. The water permeability of rocky soils varies. The largest pebble and rubble fragments are located quite loosely. They easily allow water to pass through, and precipitation quickly seeps onto great depths, inaccessible to plants. But more common are surfaces where pebbles or crushed stone are cemented with sand or clay particles. In such deserts, rocky debris lies densely, forming the so-called desert pavement.

The relief of rocky deserts varies. Among them there are areas of smooth and flat plateaus, slightly sloping or flat plains, slopes, gentle hills and ridges (elongated hills with a flat, slightly convex or wavy top and gentle slopes). Gullies and gullies form on the slopes.

The rocky deserts of the Sahara (hamads), occupying up to 70% of its area, are often devoid of higher vegetation. Cushion-shaped freodolia and limonastrum bushes are established only on isolated stone screes. The more humid deserts of Central Asia, although sparsely, are evenly covered with wormwood and solyanka. On sand and pebble plains Central Asia Low-growing saxaul thickets are widespread.

In tropical deserts, succulents settle on rocky surfaces. In South Africa these are cissus with thick barrel-shaped trunks, milkweed, and “tree lily”; in the tropical part of America - a variety of cacti, yuccas and agaves. In rocky deserts there are many different lichens that cover stones and color them white, black, blood red or lemon yellow.

Scorpions, phalanges, and geckos live under the stones. The copperhead is found here more often than in other places.

Salt marshes

Almost all desert soils are saline to one degree or another. They are usually located along the shores and bottoms of salty, drying lakes or in places where groundwater emerges. Where the concentration of salts is especially high, a hard, sometimes cracked, crust of salt forms on the surface of the salt marsh. Its thickness reaches 10-15 cm.

Except table salt(sodium chloride) here you can find calcium and potassium salts, mirabilite and gypsum. The largest salt marshes of this type are common in the Dasht-Kevir desert in Iran (“kevir” is translated from Iranian as “salt marsh”). Here, salt layers form thick layers, split by cracks into polygons up to 50 m across, separated by salt hummocks and partitions up to 1 m high.

Depending on the concentration saline solution and the depths of its occurrence under the surface, the salt marshes are covered with a dense salty crust, cracked like takyrs, or they are a quagmire in which the legs get stuck deeply (it can completely suck in a person or animal). Such salt marshes are usually impassable at any time of the year. Cortical salt marshes become limp only during the rainy season, and in the dry season their surface is smooth and hard.

Flora and fauna

The vegetation is diverse, which is due to the structure of the desert surface, the diversity of soils, and frequently changing moisture conditions. In the nature of desert vegetation different continents a lot of common features, arising in plants under similar living conditions: high sparseness, poor species composition.

For inland deserts temperate zones typical plant species are of the xerophilic type (xerophiles are organisms that live in conditions of extremely low humidity and cannot tolerate high humidity), including leafless shrubs and subshrubs (saxaul, juzgun, ephedra, solyanka, wormwood, etc.). An important place in the phytocenoses of the southern subzone of deserts of this type is occupied by herbaceous plants - ephemerals ( environmental group herbaceous annual plants with a very short growing season (some complete their full development cycle in just a few weeks)) and ephemeroids (an ecological group of perennial herbaceous plants with a very short growing season, occurring during the most favorable time of the year).

The subtropical and tropical inland deserts of Africa and Arabia are also dominated by xerophilous shrubs and perennial herbs, but succulents also appear here. The massifs of dune sands and areas covered with a salt crust are completely devoid of vegetation.

The vegetation cover of subtropical deserts is richer North America and Australia (in terms of the abundance of plant matter they are closer to the deserts of Central Asia) - there are almost no areas devoid of vegetation here. The clayey depressions between the sand ridges are dominated by low-growing acacia and eucalyptus trees; The pebble-gravel desert is characterized by semi-shrub saltworts - quinoa, prutnyak, etc. In subtropical and tropical oceanic deserts (Western Sahara, Namib, Atacama, California, Mexico) succulent-type plants dominate.

There are many common species in the salt marshes of temperate, subtropical and tropical deserts. These are halophilic and succulent subshrubs and shrubs (tamarix, saltpeter, etc.) and annual saltworts (solyanka, sweda, etc.).

The phytocenoses of oases, tugai (a specific mini-ecosystem that arises along never-drying river banks), large river valleys and deltas differ significantly from the main vegetation of deserts. The valleys of the desert-temperate zone of Asia are characterized by thickets of deciduous trees - turango poplar, jida, willow, elm; for subtropical and river valleys tropical zones- evergreens - palm, oleander.

Deserts are inhabited mainly by specialized forms (with adaptations both morpho-physiological and in lifestyle and behavior).

Deserts are characterized by fast-moving animals, which is associated with the search for water and food, as well as protection from persecution. Due to the need for shelter from enemies and harsh climatic conditions A number of animals have highly developed devices for digging in the sand (brushes made of elongated elastic hair, spines and bristles on the legs, which serve for raking and throwing away sand; incisors, as well as sharp claws on the front paws - in rodents). They build underground shelters, or are able to quickly burrow into loose sand. Many animals are capable of running fast.

The fauna of deserts is characterized by “desert” colors - yellow, light brown and gray tones, which makes many animals unnoticeable. Most of the desert fauna is nocturnal in summer. Some hibernate, and in some species (for example, ground squirrels) it begins at the height of the heat (summer hibernation, directly turning into winter) and is associated with burning of plants and lack of moisture.

Lack of moisture, especially drinking water, is one of the main difficulties in the life of desert inhabitants. Some of them drink regularly and a lot and, therefore, move long distances in search of water (grouse) or move closer to the water during the dry season (ungulates). Others rarely use watering holes or do not drink at all, limiting themselves to moisture obtained from food. Metabolic water, formed during the metabolic process (large reserves of accumulated fat), plays a significant role in the water balance of many representatives of the desert fauna.

Desert fauna is characterized by relatively a large number species of mammals (mainly rodents, ungulates), reptiles (especially lizards, agamas and monitor lizards), insects (Diptera, Hymenoptera, Orthoptera) and arachnids.

Amazing deserts

Deserts are characterized by amazing phenomena:

• "dry fog"
• "sound of the sun"
• "singing sands"
• "dry rain"
• mirages, etc.

“Dry fog” occurs when the desert is calm and the air is filled with dust and visibility completely disappears.

“Dry rain” occurs when precipitation evaporates due to high temperatures before reaching the ground.

“Singing sands” occur when tons of moving sand emit enchanting sounds: high, melodious, with a strong metallic tint.

The “sound of the sun” occurs at 40 degrees Celsius, when rocks burst in the desert, making a special sound.

“Whisper of stars” occurs at 70-80 degrees below zero, when water vapor exhaled by a person instantly turns into ice crystals. Colliding with each other, they begin to rustle.

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