By: Erica Berardi , Frank Orfe , Tornike Tusuriashvili , & David Cunane

1. Desert Biome By: Erica Berardi, Frank Orfe, TornikeTusuriashvili, & David Cunane

2. Geological Features • Arid region with sparse to almost nonexistent plant life • Usually gets less than 25 cm of precipitation annually • Vegetation varies greatly

3. Temperature • Deserts have dry climates • Are formed by high pressure zones, cold air descends then descending air becomes warm • Instead of releasing rain heat from the ground evaporates the water before it can come down as rain in result they have very arid climates

4. Types Of Plants • Driest deserts are drifting sand dunes they produce plants such as creosote bush • Creosote bushes adapt to variouse climates • Cacti has leaves reduced to spines, photosynthetic stems and a thick waxy coating • Some leaves of desert plants curl up or even drop off to reduce water loss in dry spells • Areas that recive more rain fall have shrub cummunity that include drought resistant trees • Areas with less rain fall have scatterd plant life and has large bare areas

5. Types of animals • Diamond black rattle snake they are major predators • Desert tortures feed on plant life • Many desert animals are small herbavors • Many deserts have • Armadillo lizards • Bobcats • Scorpians • Snakes

6. Human impact Human impact • one of the biggest threats to deserts is developments  Before the widespread introduction of air conditioning in the latter part of the 20th century, few people would think to voluntarily live in a desert • Global warming is also a potential threat; it's hard to imagine that a slightly warmer desert would be any worse than some of the hot deserts now.  However, even small changes in temperature or precipitation may have extensive impacts on desert communities.  In some cases, global warming is predicted to increase the area of deserts, but it is not clear if desert plants and animals will be able to take advantage of this.  Also, it should be noted that human activities such as fire wood gatering and grazing are converting fragile grasslands into deserts, a process called desertification • Off road driving also hurts the desert

7. Commercial value of biome • In a desert you can find copper, aloe vera, uranium, mineral zinc, and rocks. • All of these things are harvested and obtained in different ways • aloe vera is harvested from the leaves of the aloe plant, where as uraniu, and copper can be found in various rocks above and below the ground

8. Bibliography • http://www.marietta.edu/~biol/biomes/desert.htm • http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_peo • ple_obtain_these_valuable_resources_found_in_the_desert • http://www.bugbog.com/gallery/namibia_pictures/namib_desert_pictures.html • http://ed101.bu.edu/StudentDoc/current/ED101fa10/alapa117/Images/desert_location_map001.gif • http://farm1.static.flickr.com/37/104131522_8348d36b59.jpg • http://www.us-parks.com/images/death-valley-national-park/desert-plants-of-death-valley-p-1489-m.jpg • http://www.macwallpapers.eu/wallpaper/Desert-snakes-Wildlife-Animals-Desktop/