DesertsToday you will investigate how the ecosystems of a

desert biome is related to climate and soil.

Where are deserts?What is the climate like?

What adaptations have the plants made?

The distribution of the world’s Deserts

1. Hot deserts tend to be dry (arid) places. Why are the deserts shown on the map arid?

2. Between what latitudes are the hot deserts located?

3. What factor does the map show that seems to be the main reason for the Hot Deserts being in these locations?

1. Hot air rises at the equator and makes clouds and rain.

2. Moist air from over the oceans blows from the SE over the land.

3. By the time that the wind has blown across the continent it is dry.

4. Cold and dry winds blow from the NE and so there are clear skies in the Sahara and Arabia.

This is a climate graph of a typical desert.

The red line shows the average temperature each month.

The blue bars show the average rainfall each month.

By comparison Lower Norton Farm has 751mm of rainfall each year.

4. In which months does the temperature reach its peak?

5. In which months is there no rainfall?

6. In which months is there less than 5mm of rainfall?

Sahara Desert

hot summers cold winters

dry

7. Use the information from the tables to draw and complete the mind map.

8. Plant Adaptions

List all the adaptions that plants have made that are on this diagram.

9. Why do the desert plants need to use the rain immediately?

10.What actions will the desert plants take, when it rains?

11.Why do desert plants want to lose less water than other plants, through evapotranspiration?

12.What other benefits do the spines give all plants?

13. List the names of the five Hot Deserts.

14. On a world map mark the locations and names of the five Hot Deserts. Stick it into your exercise book.

DesertsToday you have investigated how the ecosystems of a

desert biome is related to climate and soil.

Where are deserts?What is the climate like?

What adaptations have the plants made?