Desert Biome
About one fifth of the Earth's surface is desert biome.

Deserts can be hot or cold. The Australian desert is one example of a hot desert, and the Gobi desert in Mongolia is an example of a cold desert.

Deserts are dry areas where less than 50 cm of rain falls each year. The Atacama desert of Chile and the Sahara desert in Africa receive less than 1.5 cm a year, if at all. Although rain doesn't fall very often in deserts, sometimes not for years, there can be sudden, heavy rains that cause flooding.

Deserts can be found along coastlines, such as the Atacama desert, or in the interior of continents, such as the Great Basin desert of North America. The location of the area and of mountain ranges help determine the type of desert. Coastal deserts are located on west coasts of continents.The winds blow in an easterly direction and prevent the moisture from moving onto the land. Some deserts, like the Gobi desert, are affected by high mountain ranges that produce a rainshadow effect, which means the mountains prevent moisture from reaching an area. The Himalaya Mountains prevent rainfall from reaching the Gobi desert .

Because they are dry, deserts have wide variations in temperature each day. In the daytime when there is little moisture in the air to block the sun's rays, it becomes very hot. When the sun goes down, the heat absorbed by the ground during the day quickly evaporates into the air and it becomes very cold. This variation of temperatures makes survival in the desert very difficult.

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Desert Biome (2002). [Online], Available: www.kidcyber.com.au

updated July 2006