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A desert biome is a collection of habitats that that develop in arid (dry) environments as a result of little rainfall or no rainfall at all. Desert biomes are classified into four, with each having their own unique features, but have great similarity regarding living and nonliving composition.
The world’s hot deserts are located between 15° and 30° north or south of the equator, where the air is subsiding or sinking air (find out why deserts are found along the tropics here). Air that rises due to the intense heat at the equator divides to flow north and south.
The desert biome is the characteristic community of animals and plants found in the world's deserts. Deserts are found on every continent and make up around 30 percent of the earth’s surface. The main characteristic of deserts is a shortage (or complete lack of) precipitation; some desert regions go for years on end without rain.
In terms of size, the desert biome is second only to the forest biome on land. The largest deserts are vast, harsh areas characterized by extremely dry conditions, sparse vegetation, and little or no precipitation. The majority of Earth’s hottest deserts are found on the western sides of continents.
Desert, any large, extremely dry area of land with sparse vegetation. It is one of Earth’s major types of ecosystems, supporting a community of plants and animals specially adapted to the harsh environment.
This biome has a layer of soil that can either be sandy, gravelly, or stony, depending on the type of desert. Deserts usually get at most 50 centimeters (20 inches) of rainfall a year, and the organisms that live in deserts are adapted to this extremely dry climate.
Location Between 15° and 35° latitude (North and South of the equator); examples are Mojave, Sonoran, Chihuahua, and Great Basin (North America); Sahara (Africa); Negev (Middle East); and Gobi (Asia)
Far from being barren wastelands, deserts are biologically rich habitats with a vast array of animals and plants that have adapted to the harsh conditions there. Some deserts are among the planet's last remaining areas of total wilderness.
Most deserts get less than 20 inches of precipitation per year. But some deserts, like the Atacama Desert of South America, get almost no rain at all. So how come some biomes, like tropical rainforests, get so much water, while deserts get very little water? Or to think of it another way, what locations and conditions can create a desert?
The desert biome has the lightest cover of plants of any biome. Lack of moisture prevents plants from establishing themselves in this harsh climate. Many unique adaptations to the extreme heat and lack of moisture enable some plants to survive. Plants adapted to drought are called xerophytes.