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HOT DESERTS - ECOSYSTEM (Biodiversity Examples: (Plants gain their…
HOT DESERTS - ECOSYSTEM
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Plants
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Some grow → cacti, thornbushes
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People
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Grow a few crops
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Supply water, ususally in the desert fringes #
Indigenous people
Often nomadic
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For their herds, which are amostly goats and sheep #
Animals
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e.g. lizards, snakes, insects and scorpions
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Biodiversity
Fragile, Interdependent Ecosystems
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Biodiversity Examples:
Plants gain their nutrients from the soil, and provide nutrients and water to the animals that eat them. In turn, animals spread seeds through their dung, helping the plants to reproduce.
The hot and dry climate affects the soil in deserts. Soils are salty due to high evaporation and relatively low in nutrients because there is little decomposition of dead plant material by fungi and bacteria. This means that plants struggle to grow
The sparse vegetation limits the amount of food available, so the desert can only support low-density populations of animals
Water supplies in deserts can be extremely scarce. Rainfall is very low, and the coarse desert soil means that any rain that does fall quickly drains away. Animals and people have to find ways of coping, e.g. by constantly moving to new places, or digging deep wells
People have to irrigate (artificially water) the land in order to be able to grow crops. Drawing unsustainable amounts of water from wells lowers the level of water underground - reducing the amount available to other plants. Some plant species and the animals that depend on them can struggle to survive as a result