Talk:Desert

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[edit] Old comments

Aren't certain glaciated areas also deserts? Parts of Antarctica, etc? -- Zork

Yes. The Gobi in China is also very cold, so temperature is not a requirement for being a desert, only precipitation.--BlackGriffen

The Gobi is in Mongolia. -- Ortchel

  • In Antartica there are "dry valleys" that have no snow and are almost permanently frozen, I believe that they are some of the driest places on earth. I also understood that almost all of Antartica was a desert because there is very little precipitation as the air is too cold to hold moisture and there is no free water because it is all frozen as snow and ice. The only reason there is a lot of snow and ice there is because none of it melts. Can anyone confirm this? -- kiwiinapanic 13:27 23 May 2003 (UTC)

Perhaps we should make limitations on the persistantcy of h20 not 2 exist, while it may not percipitate in antartica, there is certantly a considerable amount of ice ~ Xzilalnx2

Another type of desert not listed occurs when the soil is too acidic or otherwise incapable of growing plants. The small Rangipo Desert in New Zealand is one example, where the presence of three active ash volcanos has made the soil incapable of producing any vegetation other than thin scrub. Does this type of desert have a name, and shouldn't it be listed here? Grutness talk 12:47, 6 Dec 2004 (UTC)

There are other places where soils deter plant growth where a desert climate doesn't prevail; ultramafic soils can create low shrublands or heathlands, as can thin acidic peat soils, as can lava beds and rock outcrops. I don't know that, as defined here, these areas are really deserts.Tom Radulovich 06:02, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

It would be nice with some more explanations of the wildlife in the desert. Specialy in the hot deserts. ~ Eirik

We are discussing hydrological deserts.

1. Deserts that result from some cause other than climate -- let us say chemical poisoning (should pollution get that bad), volcanic activity, or some reverse-oasis effect (a place in an otherwise lush area except for a near-surface limestone formation or a sandstone escarpment) aren't true deserts.

I have seen areas in Dallas, Texas (not quite in a dry belt) in which the combination of pollution and a near-surface limestone escarpment that prevents tree growth create a desert-like terrain.

2. Polar areas should not be considered hydrological deserts unless they have stereotypical phenomena of deserts of lower latitudes. Such places may get little precipitation, but they also have evaporation low enough to allow water-logged soils.

Note that the dry valleys of Antarctica are not only free of glacial ice but have the salt lakes that one might expect in a classic desert -- except that the salt lakes are iced over. Those dry valleys are hydrological deserts as well as places of extreme cold.

3. Temperature ranges are often severe because of the low humidity (and hence low dew points) that allow a low "floor" for night-time cooling. This does not apply in coastal deserts in which humidity is high but precipitation events are rare enough to create deserts (the Atacama). But it applies in the Gobi and the Sahara. Some inland areas at the same latitude as Havana in the Sahara get frosts even at low altitudes. The Gobi of course gets severe cold by mid-latitude standards.

An aside: the Romans learned to make ice by exploiting the night-time cooling within what is now Libya. Water or some other liquid (cream also works, hence ice cream) is covered by day, but exposed at night. The liquid freezes over several days as the liquid gets little of the warmth of the sun but is exposed to the full cooling of a cloudless night of low humidity. The ice could then be shipped to Rome for an Imperial treat. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Paul from Michigan (talk • contribs) 08:07, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Canadian deserts

Any such "deserts" are simply steppes. Should some small biome in British Columbia "qualify" as BWk or especially BWh, then that biome is best considered the result of a microclimate.--Paul from Michigan 07:45, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] landforms

I would like to know shut up bitch deserts are importent. What is their relationship to other environments near by, and how , if at all, do they benifit these other environments.

Sand storms that pick up sediment from deserts can be a significant source of nutrients for other, more vegetated areas. The Amazon is quite nutrient-poor and benefits from sand storms from the Sahara. Daniel Collins 02:46, 15 March 2006 (UTC).

[edit] question

I would like to know some biotic and abiotic factors of a dry/ hot desert, and some ecological concerns and issues---Mac

I don't know about ecological concerns and issues, but I know that animals such as camels, lizards, etc. are biotic factors, and things like rocks, sand , and water are abiotic factors. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Man united321 (talk • contribs)

Correct ~ Eirik

[edit] arid

Currently, arid redirects to this page. However, the term is not defined anywhere. This should be either defined here or on the arid page. Common Man 01:29, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

I even didn't notice. Arid should have its own page. Aridity is a measure of the relative amount of annual precipitation to evaporative demand, whereas a desert is merely designated based on the amount of precipitation. Antarctica, while a desert, is not arid. Daniel Collins 02:50, 15 March 2006 (UTC).
Click on over to arid and give it a downpouring of content, if y'all feel so inclined. Daniel Collins 23:15, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Percentage of earth covered by deserts

This should be covered in the article. --Liface 08:02, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

Why are deserts where they are? - it has something to do with cold water, but what is it?

[edit] Link needed in desert paragraph

In the first section called Desert, there is a bit where it talks about the terrain (Para 2 or 3 I think). It is missing a link for Reg, and I think this would help if I were a reader (which I am). Something should be done, don't you think?

[edit] Trivia

I think the trivia section is too small, and just looks tacky. Should it be removed?

Yes

[edit] Vandalism

I removed the anime references I found in this article. I would have reverted it but it had been edited since the vandalism. I wish people would read an article before adding to it. Maybe someone more qualified can go over the article more thoroughly. 翔太 「Shouta:talk」 07:09, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Temperature

500 degrees celsius temperatures? Please tell me someone did that on purpose.

[edit] Etymology

I deleted the reference to ancient Egyptian origins for the Latin word "desertum" (not "deserta"), which according to dictionary etymologies is the past participle of the Latin verb "deserere", to abandon or desert. This in turn is related to the word "serere", which has deep roots in Latin. This etymology is much more plausible than the ancient Egyptian derivation previously given, which lacked references, so I have replaced it with an explanation of the Latin word. Marco polo 21:22, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

Yet there remains a claim that the Latin word is derived from the Egyptian, which I find deeply problematic. Any such claim would require substantial evidence, because that's something that, as a rule, doesn't happen. Tsunomaru (talk) 00:25, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Vandalism

I removed some slang and obscene references to inappropriate material from the first paragraph and the third or fourth. Duran7 23:52, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] High desert?

Currently high desert redirects to this article, while High Desert is a disambiguation page. (I plan to move "High Desert" to "high desert"). In Oregon we have the High Desert Museum and it is definitely treated like a separate type of desert. Anyone have enough knowledge to add a section on high desert to the desert types section? Katr67 17:47, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Russian/polish

I removed the following phrase as this is English wikipedia; having the etymology for the word in other languages seems a bit iffy, but I could possibly see this fitting into the article somewhere if it was worded a bit differently. Thoughts?:

This word originally meant "abandoned place". Polish (pustynia) and Russian (пустыня) meaning of the word is similar and refers to emptyness, void.

WLU 18:40, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Where section went wrong

I found out where the types of desert section went wrong (here), I'll try to correct it. WLU 22:07, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

A user pasted a large amount of plagiarized text from this page, including a word from the previous section accidentally. Since the text does not actually refer to deserts at all, I'm removing it completely. It's AGF gone awry! WLU 22:13, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

OK, I think I've removed all of the vandalism, info dumps, while keeping the useful text that was put in in between. WLU 22:32, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 12 Consecutive Months Without Rain

That's what it says for Extremely Arid. That can't be right. I know it's statistically possible, but I don't think it's correct (And I haven't got the book in front of me, naturally).Elijahmeeks 16:23, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

That's what the reference says. 199.125.109.35 04:39, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Template:Deserts

I'm working on a re-write of the desert template here. I'd appreciate some assistance. Just fix it yourself or leave a comment on the page below the template. Thanks. :) vıdıoman (talk • contribs) 03:33, 9 December 2007 (UTC)