The document discusses the characteristics of desert ecosystems, including their climate, plants, animals, seasons, and human impacts. Deserts have hot or cold climates, with hot deserts receiving less than 10 inches of rain annually. Many desert plants and animals have adaptations like water storage or nocturnal behavior to survive the dry, hot conditions. Seasons are warm year-round with little rainfall. Humans threaten desert ecosystems through activities like poaching, road building, and desertification.

1. BY-RUTA
SATOSKAR
&
SUMAN MUTHU

2. A Desert’s Characteristics
Climate
Animals
Plants
Seasons
 Adaptations
 Significance
to
humans

3. What is ECOSYSTEM?
An ecosystem is a community of living
organisms (plants, animals and microbes) in
conjunction with the nonliving components of
their environment (things like air, water and
mineral soil). The entire planet is an
ecosystem. In the desert ecosystem many
organisms have learned to adapt to the hot
climate and lack of supplements.

4. Believe it or not, deserts come in several varieties. The two
major classifications are hot and cold. the hot desert is a
land of extreme. extreme heat and extreme dryness sudden
flash floods and cold nights. At night the temperature drops
to 40 are 50 degrees
The main form of precipitation in a hot desert is rain. But the
hot desert only gets ten inches or less of rain per year. That’s a
little bit.
The main form of precipitation in a cold desert is either snow
or fog. Most deserts are found in the mountain areas.

5. Climate
The desert is very dry and warm. A very little
amount of rain rains a year. Some deserts can
be over 100 degrees F. That’s so hot.

7. Many of the features of desert plants are adaptations traits
that makes the plant survive in its harsh environment. Desert
plants have two main adaptations to survive and that is
 Ability to collect and store water
 Features that reduce water loss
There is a lot of plants in this biome and they are
Saguaro
Barrel Cactus
Old Man Cactus
Prickly Pear Cactus
Dragon Tree
Fish Hook Cactus
Desert Spoon
Aloe
Joshua Tree
Yucca

8. Saguaro cactus
 This plant stores lots of water in its stem.
photosynthesis occurs on top layer of the
stem instead of the leaves. They have an
adaptation that its roots extend far away
from its trunk the roots collects the water
after its rains and stores it in the stem the
water that’s in side the saguaro can keep it
alive till it rains again.

9. Picture of saguaro cactus

10. Barrel cactus
 The out side of the barrel cactus is spongy so it
could store water. When it gets very hot the
plant shrinks until it rains again.

11. Picture of barrel cactus

12. Chain Fruit Cholla
 The chain fruit cholla are mostly found in dry
areas like deserts . When there is a drought
animals depend on the chain fruit cholla for
water.

13. Picture of chain fruit cholla

14. Animals
Desert animals must survive a harsh and hostile
environment.
Many animals never drink water but can get
there water from seeds and plants.
Many of the animals are nocturnal.
 In some instances some animals wont come
out of the ground for their whole life.
An example of this is a Spadefoot toad which
spends nine months in the ground.

15. Great Jerboa
 The great jerboa is a very small mammal they
feed on seeds and small insects which makes
them omnivores.
 They are also nocturnal and they hibernate in
the winter.

16. Picture of Great Jerboa

17. Thorny devil
 The thorny devil is a reptile that eats termites
and ants which makes the thorny devil a
carnivore .
 The thorny devil moves in a slow pace that’s
why the thorny devil eats insects instead of
eating bird that move very fast.

18. Picture of thorny devil

19. Gila Monster
 The Gila monster eats eggs and other small
mammals which makes it a carnivore.
 They are primarily nocturnal but may emerge
in the spring.
 They are also very venomous.

20. Picture of a Gila monster

21. Armadillo lizard
 The armadillo lizard feeds on spiders and other
invertebrates and a wide variety of insects.
 It has tube like nostrils and uses them to hunt
and detect for predators.
 The lizards head is narrow.

22. Picture of armadillo lizard

24. Seasons
 The seasons are generally warm
throughout the year and very hot in
the summer.
 The winters usually bring little
rainfall. Temperatures exhibit daily
extremes because the atmosphere
contains little humidity to block the
Sun’s rays.

25. Adaptations
 Many of the animals in the desert have
become nocturnal because of the extreme
heat.
 Both plants and animals have learned to
store water, avoid heat by staying
underground, and taking water from
nearby plants.

26. Human impact
 Poachers are a main cause of dying animals.
Poachers catch animals of all kinds to make
money for usually just one part, like the elephant
tusk.
 With the growing popularity of transportation,
many roads are being built in not only the desert,
but all the other biomes.
 The main problem with these roads are the fact
that they destroy habitats and endanger animals.
Road kill is also a main factor in these dying
animals.
 These problems can be easily taken care of if other
means of transportation were encouraged.

27. Interesting facts
 There are cold deserts as well as hot deserts there
are many bizarre animals in the deserts.
 The plant has to adapt to the hot weather by
storing water in there stems.
 The Gobi Desert is cold almost all year round.
 Deserts spread through desertification. This
happens when grasslands surrounding deserts
become dry.
 Some deserts have gotten nicknames such as
Death Valley because of the lack of water

28. OASIS
 Oases are parts of the desert where plants
grow and water is almost always
available.
 An oasis is formed by a pool of water
trapped between layers of rock and the
desert floor.
 The water can allow people to settle and
even grow crops in the desert.

29. Conclusion
 The desert brings us interesting and
unusual animals such as the thorny devil.
 The desert can get extremely hot in the
day, but at night it can drop below
freezing.

30. THE END