Desert
Climate, Animals, Plants, & Types
desert, any large, extremely dry area of land with sparse vegetation. It is one of Earth’s major types of ecosystems, supporting a community of distinctive plants and animals specially adapted to the harsh environment. For a list of selected deserts of the world, see below.
Simpson Desert
Desert environments are so dry that they support only extremely sparse vegetation; trees are usually absent and, under normal climatic conditions, shrubs or herbaceous plants provide only very incomplete ground cover. Extreme aridity renders some deserts virtually devoid of plants; however, this barrenness is believed to be due in part to the effects of human disturbance, such as heavy grazing of cattle, on an already stressed environment.
distribution of hot and temperate deserts
According to some definitions, any environment that is almost completely free of plants is considered desert, including regions too cold to support vegetation—i.e., “frigid deserts.” Other definitions use the term to apply only to hot and temperate deserts, a restriction followed in this account.
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