Hot Deserts

Exequiel Ezcurra, San Diego Natural History Museum, San Diego, California, USA
Eric Mellink, Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada, Ensenada, Mexico

Published online: January 2006

DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0003178

In spite of their apparent barrenness, the hot deserts of the world harbour unique and rare biotas with impressive biological adaptations. As a result of evolution in isolation from each other, the world's deserts have high levels of endemism and harbour rare and unique life forms, a fact that makes them ecologically fragile and highly vulnerable to biological extinction.

Keywords: adaptations; aridity; deserts; sky-islands; xerophytes

Figure 1. Satellite composite image of the Earth, showing the two hot desert belts north and south of the Equator. Taken from NASA's ‘Earth Observatory’ website (http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/).
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 Further Reading
    book Allan JA, Warren A, Tolba M and Allan T (1993) Deserts: The Encroaching Wilderness (A World Conservation Atlas). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    book Cloudsley-Thompson JL (1979) Man and the Biology of Arid Zones. London: Edward Arnold.
    book Cloudsley-Thompson JL (1996) Biotic Interactions in Arid Lands. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.
    book Davis W (1998) Shadows in the Sun. Travels to Landscapes of Spirit and Desire. Washington, DC: Island Press.
    book Dimmit MA (2000) "Biomes & communities of the Sonoran Desert Region". In:Phillips SJ and Comus PW (eds) A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert, pp. 3–18. Tucson AZ: Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and University of California Press
    book Goudie A and Wilkinson J (1977) The Warm Desert Environment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    book Louw GN and Seely MK (1982) Ecology of Desert Organisms. London: Longman.
    Mares MA (1980) Convergent evolution among desert rodents: a global perspective. Bulletin of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History 16: 1–51.
    book McGinnies WG, Goldman BJ and Paylore P (eds) (1977) Deserts of the World. Tucson AZ: University of Arizona Press.
    Morton RR (1979) Diversity of desert-dwelling mammals: a comparison of Australia and North America. Journal of Mammalogy 60: 253–264.
    book Pianka ER (1986) Ecology and Natural History of Desert Lizards. Analysis of the Ecological Niche and Community Structure. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
    book Pipes R (1998) Hot Deserts (World Habitats). New York: Raintree.
    book Ricciuti ER (1996) Desert (Biomes of the World). New York: Benchmark Books.
    book Robichaux RH (ed.) (1999) Ecology of Sonoran Desert Plants and Plant Communities. Tucson AZ: University of Arizona Press.
    book Schmidt-Nielsen K (1964) Desert Animals; Physiological Problems of Heat and Water. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Related Sub-Topics:

Biogeography and Macroecology | Biomes and Ecosystems | Organisms and the Physical Environment | Community Structure
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Article Title: Hot Deserts
 
How to Cite close
Ezcurra, Exequiel, and Mellink, Eric(Jan 2006) Hot Deserts. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1038/npg.els.0003178]