08/11/2013 GEOGRAPHY AND SOIL • Locations : Africa, Asia, Middle East, USA, Mexico, South America, and Australia. • Soil Conditions: Rich in minerals; Lack of organic materials. BIOTIC FACTORS DOMINANT ORGANISMS • • • Plants with a short growth cycle. • Pronghorn and sheep compete for food. Animals: • Herbivores: Mule deer, pronghorn antelope, and desert bighorn sheep • Predators: Mountain lions, grey foxes, and bobcats. • Reptiles: Tortoises, rattle snakes, and lizards. • Birds: Owls, hawks, roadrunners • • OTHER INTERACTIONS Plants: Cacti, creosote Bush, and other Insects: Ants, beetles, butterflies, flies, Competition: Predation • Mountain lions eat mule deer. • Symbiosis: • Mutualism: Mutualism Cacti flowers are pollinated by butterflies and moths. • Parasitism: Parasitism Fleas on a Kangaroo rat. • Commensalism Commensalism: Cactus wren builds its nest on a cactus and the cactus does no harm. wasps, moths CLIMATOGRAM • Sunlight: 10 - 12hrs a day • Precipitation: annual - less than 25cm/year • Temperature: ranges from -3.8°C to 38°C • Sand Storms: Measure between 12 - 65 feet. WHAT IS UNIQUE ABOUT OUR BIOME? • Most dry out of all biomes • Around one third of the Earth's surface is covered in deserts. • Deserts have very low humidity. • Our Biome contains large mineral deposits • Temperatures can drop from 43° 43°C to 10° 10°C just in a couple of hours • Deserts have hardly any rain, roughly 25 centimeters yearly. 1 08/11/2013 WORK CITED HUMAN IMPACT Miller, Kenneth R., and Joseph S. Levine. <i <i>Prentice Hall biology</i biology</i>. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, • OffOff-roading leaves tracks, which will “scar the land for decades” • Tracks kill off vegetation (harmed vegetation = harmed animals) • Desert soils held by plant roots, so destroying plants = destroying soils. • The global warming we are causing is drying up the many of the few waterholes 2002. Print. "How Much Sunlight Does the Desert Biome Get?." <i <i>- Ask.com</i Ask.com</i>. Wikipedia, n.d. n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. & lt;http:// lt;http://www.ask.com ://www.ask.com/question/how www.ask.com/question/how/question/how-muchmuch-sunlightsunlight-doesdoes-thethe-desertdesert-biomebiome-get>. get>. • Global warming is predicted to increase size of deserts Przyborski, Przyborski, Paul . "Desert : Mission: Biomes." Desert : Mission: Biomes. NASA, n.d. n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. <http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Experiments/Biome/biodesert.php>. Parks, Natasha. "Weather in the Deserts | eHow." eHow." eHow. eHow. Demand Media, 7 Apr. 2011. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. <http://www.ehow.com/info_8179796_weather<http://www.ehow.com/info_8179796_weather-deserts.html#page=4>. "What are examples of parasitism in a desert biome?." WikiAnswers. WikiAnswers. Answers, n.d. n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. <http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_examples_of_parasitism_in_a_desert_biome>. Feller, Walter . "Mountain Lion." Desert Wildlife. Wildlife. N.p., N.p., n.d. n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. <http://digital<http://digitaldesert.com/wildlife/mountaindesert.com/wildlife/mountain-lion.html>. Krejci, Krejci, Kandace . "Animal Diversity Web." ADW: Antilocapra americana: americana: INFORMATION. INFORMATION. N.p., N.p., n.d. n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. <http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Antilocapra_americana/>. WORK CITED Lee, Jonathan . "What do pronghorn eat?." WikiAnswers. WikiAnswers. Answers, n.d. n.d . Web. 30 Oct. 2013. <http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_do_pronghorn_eat>. "Mule Deer." - DesertUSA. DesertUSA. Digital West Media, n.d. n.d . Web. 30 Oct. 2013. <http://www.desertusa.com/animals/mule<http://www.desertusa.com/animals/muledeer.html>. http://www.wallpea.com/wphttp://www.wallpea.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Desertcontent/uploads/2013/06/Desert-WallpapersWallpapers-HDHD-4.jpg http://static.environmentalgraffiti.com/sites/default/files/images/httphttp://static.environmentalgraffiti.com/sites/default/files/images/http-inlinethumb59.webshots.cominlinethumb59.webshots.com1881018810-2949926850103830173S600x600Q85.jpg http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=climatogram+for+desert&ei=UTF-http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=climatogram+for+desert&ei=UTF 8&fr=w3i&type=W3i_DS,202,0_0,Search,20131043,18946,0,76,0 http://desertbiomepro.weebly.com/human--impact.html http://desertbiomepro.weebly.com/human http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media--live/photos/000/063/cache/map live/photos/000/063/cache/map--world world-http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media desert_6364_600x450.jpg 2