Desert Jungle

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Houérou, Henry N. (2008). Bioclimatology and Biogeography of Africa. Springer. p.82. ISBN 978-3-540-85192-9. Archived from the original on 30 July 2023 . Retrieved 15 November 2015. Rising temperatures can have huge effects on fragiledesertecosystems. Global warming is the most current instance of climate change. Human activities such as burning fossil fuels contribute to global warming. After our week in Dungeness, the experience stayed with me. It had been like falling into the clear light of another world, a place that was “altogether elsewhere”, like the line in that Auden poem that had always tugged at me. But it was not elsewhere, not far away at all. What was it about the thought of a desert – even a not-really desert – nestled in the south-east corner of England that was so exhilarating?

The vast central hyper-arid core of the desert is virtually never affected by northerly or southerly atmospheric disturbances and permanently remains under the influence of the strongest anticyclonic weather regime, and the annual average rainfall can drop to less than 1 millimetre (0.04in). In fact, most of the Sahara receives less than 20 millimetres (0.8in). Of the 9,000,000 square kilometres (3,500,000sqmi) of desert land in the Sahara, an area of about 2,800,000 square kilometres (1,100,000sqmi) (about 31% of the total area) receives an annual average rainfall amount of 10 millimetres (0.4in) or less, while some 1,500,000 square kilometres (580,000sqmi) (about 17% of the total area) receives an average of 5 millimetres (0.2in) or less. [25]During the last glacial period, the Sahara was much larger than it is today, extending south beyond its current boundaries. [33] The end of the glacial period brought more rain to the Sahara, from about 8000 BCE to 6000 BCE, perhaps because of low pressure areas over the collapsing ice sheets to the north. [34] Once the ice sheets were gone, the northern Sahara dried out. In the southern Sahara, the drying trend was initially counteracted by the monsoon, which brought rain further north than it does today. By around 4200 BCE, however, the monsoon retreated south to approximately where it is today, [35] leading to the gradual desertification of the Sahara. [36] The Sahara is now as dry as it was about 13,000 years ago. [29] Habitats that are found in the park include open grassland, thorny bushes, and dunes. 168 plant species have been recorded in the park. [2] Some species of trees that inhabit the park include Tecomella undulata, Moringa concanensis, Helitropium rariflorum, and Ammannie desertorum. [2] Attractions [ edit ] Gadsisar Lake, near Jaisalmer Human activities are more likely to affect the habitat in areas of permanent water (oases) or where water comes close to the surface. Here, the local pressure on natural resources can be intense. The remaining populations of large mammals have been greatly reduced by hunting for food and recreation. In recent years development projects have started in the deserts of Algeria and Tunisia using irrigated water pumped from underground aquifers. These schemes often lead to soil degradation and salinization. The deserts of Patagonia, the largest in South America, are expanding due to desertification. Patagonia is a major agricultural region where non-native species such as cattle and sheep graze on grassland. Sheep and cattle have reduced the native vegetation in Patagonia, causing loss of valuable topsoil. More than 30 percent of the grasslands of Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia are faced with desertification. The French took advantage of long-standing animosity between the Chaamba Arabs and the Tuareg. The newly raised Méhariste camel corps were originally recruited mainly from the Chaamba nomadic tribe. In 1902, the French penetrated the Hoggar mountains and defeated Ahaggar Tuareg in the battle of Tit.

Hot, moist air rises into the atmosphere near the Equator. As the air rises, it cools and drops its moisture as heavy tropical rains. The resulting cooler, drier air mass moves away from the Equator. As it approaches the tropics, the air descends and warms up again. The descending air hinders the formation of clouds, so very little rain falls on the land below.The permanent absence of clouds allows unhindered light and thermal radiation. The stability of the atmosphere above the desert prevents any convective overturning, thus making rainfall virtually non-existent. As a consequence, the weather tends to be sunny, dry and stable with a minimal chance of rainfall. Subsiding, diverging, dry air masses associated with subtropical high-pressure systems are extremely unfavorable for the development of convectional showers. The subtropical ridge is the predominant factor that explains the hot desert climate ( Köppen climate classification BWh) of this vast region. The descending airflow is the strongest and the most effective over the eastern part of the Great Desert, in the Libyan Desert: this is the sunniest, driest and the most nearly "rainless" place on the planet, rivaling the Atacama Desert, lying in Chile and Peru. One thing all deserts have in common is that they are arid, or dry. Most experts agree that a desert is an area of land that receives no more than 25 centimeters (10 inches) of precipitation a year. The amount of evaporation in a desert often greatly exceeds the annual rainfall. In all deserts, there is little water available for plants and other organisms. Bochow, Nils; Boers, Niklas (October 6, 2023). "The South American monsoon approaches a critical transition in response to deforestation". Science Advances. 9 (40): eadd9973. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.add9973. ISSN 2375-2548. PMC 10550231. PMID 37792950.

a b c Nicholson, Sharon E. (27 October 2011). Dryland Climatology. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-50024-1. Archived from the original on 30 July 2023 . Retrieved 20 November 2020. Sereno PC, Garcea EA, Jousse H, Stojanowski CM, Saliège JF, Maga A, etal. (2008). "Lakeside Cemeteries in the Sahara: 5000 Years of Holocene Population and Environmental Change". PLOS ONE. 3 (8): e2995. Bibcode: 2008PLoSO...3.2995S. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0002995. PMC 2515196. PMID 18701936.

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The name "Sahara" is derived from the Arabic word for "desert" in the feminine irregular form, the singular ṣaḥra' ( صحراء /ˈsˤaħra/), plural ṣaḥārā ( صَحَارَى /ˈsˤaħaːraː/), [4] [5] [6] [7] ṣaḥār ( صَحَار), ṣaḥrāwāt ( صَحْرَاوَات), ṣaḥāriy ( صَحَارِي). Besides animals like camels and goats, a variety of desertvegetation is found in oases and along the shores of rivers and lakes. Figs, olives, and oranges thrive in desert oases and have been harvested for centuries. Wind is the primary sculptor of a desert’s hills of sand, called dunes. Wind builds dunes that rise as high as 180 meters (590 feet). Dunes migrate constantly with the wind. They usually shift a few meters a year, but a particularly violent sandstorm can move a dune 20 meters (65 feet) in a single day. Brown, G.W. (17 September 2013). Desert Biology: Special Topics on the Physical and Biological Aspects of Arid Regions. Elsevier. ISBN 978-1-4832-1663-8. Archived from the original on 30 July 2023 . Retrieved 20 November 2020. Sand and ground temperatures are even more extreme. During daytime, the sand temperature is extremely high: it can easily reach 80°C (176°F) or more. [22] A sand temperature of 83.5°C (182.3°F) has been recorded in Port Sudan. [22] Ground temperatures of 72°C (161.6°F) have been recorded in the Adrar of Mauritania and a value of 75°C (167°F) has been measured in Borkou, northern Chad. [22]

Deserts can hold economically valuable resources that drive civilizations and economies. The most notabledesertresource in the world is the massive oil reserves in the Arabian Desert of the Middle East. More than half of the proven oil reserves in the world lie beneath the sands of the Arabian Desert, mostly in Saudi Arabia. The oil industry draws companies, migrant workers, engineers, geologists, and biologists to the Middle East.

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The Thar Desert, often called an 'ocean of sand', covers a large area of western Rajasthan. The fragile ecosystem of the Thar supports unique and varied wildlife. In this vast ocean of sands lies the famous Desert National Park, which provides an excellent example of the ecosystem of the Thar Desert and its diverse wildlife adventure.