Question

Give an account of the desert biome with the help of the following points:

1.  location
2. plant life
3. animal life
4. human life

Answer 1

1. Location: The Tropical Desert biome has a latitudinal extent of 20° to 30° N and S.
2. Plant Life: The vegetal life is dispersed. It includes date palms, and thorny trees such as khejari, acacia, and bushes like the century plant, cactus, etc. There is hardly any vegetal cover due to the dry climatic conditions.

Characteristics of forests:

• Thick leaves with the capacity to store water.
• Thorny nature reduces the speed of evaporation, safety from animals.
• Trunk like leaves carries out photosynthesis.

 Animal life :

• As the vegetation is sparse, bio-diversity is also limited.
• There are relatively few large animals in the desert.
• The animals are small and tend to burrow or stay in hideaways till dusk to avoid the heat. They are adapted to survive in a hot climate with very little water.
• They are mainly small carnivores, camels, many species of snakes, types of lizards, desert turtles, rats, mongoose along with goats, sheep, donkeys, etc.

Birds:  Ostriches, various raptors; guinea fowl and bustards; desert eagle owls and barn owls; sand larks and pale crag martins; and brown-necked and fan-tailed ravens.

Insects: Houseflies, beetles, moths, types of termites, etc.

Human life :

• The extreme temperatures make human life very difficult here.
• Depending on the availability of water, animal husbandry or agriculture might be followed.
• Human settlements are found only near oases, in a dispersed pattern. Nomadic life is found in some areas. In the earlier times, Bedouin tribes used to trade by traveling on camels.