Desert 

3. Go to http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/exhibits/biomes/deserts.php   &   http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/desert.htm

a. What are the general characteristics of deserts?

b. What percentage of the Earth is desert?

c. Explain the differences between a hot and dry desert and a cold desert.

d. What adaptations are found in plants and animals that lives in a hot desert?

e. What adaptations are found in plants and animals that live in a cold desert?

f. Go to: http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/desert-threats.html

• What are some threats to deserts?
• What are some solutions?

g. Color your  map to show the major desert areas (you don't need to name them).

Arabian - covering most of the Arabian peninsula. Atacama - running down the western coast of South America (in Chile). Australian - hot deserts covering much of western and central Australia. Iranian - northeast of the Arabian peninsula and west of the Thar desert. Kalahari - covering much of the southeastern tip of Africa. Namib - running down the southwestern coast Africa. North American - rain shadow deserts in southwestern North America, in the USA and Mexico. Patagonian - in southeastern South America. Saharan - a huge desert covering much of northern Africa - the biggest desert in the world. Takla Makan-Gobi - a continental desert in central Asia. Thar - in northwest India. Turkestan - in southern Russia .

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