Fog desert

The desert between Lima and Trujillo, Peru. The Andes Mountains, obscured by fog, can be seen in the background.

A fog desert is a type of desert where fog drip supplies the majority of moisture needed by animal and plant life.[1]

Examples of fog deserts include the Atacama Desert of coastal Chile and Peru, the Baja California Desert of Mexico, the Namib Desert in Namibia,[1] the Arabian Peninsula coastal fog desert,[2] and Biosphere 2, an artificial closed ecosphere in Arizona.

The Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world, is still able to maintain a sufficient level of plant and animal species biodiversity because of its status as a fog desert.[3]

Drastic changes in elevation such as mountain ranges allow for maritime winds to settle in specific geographic areas, which is a common theme in fog deserts.[4] The Andes Mountain range is the land form that divides Chile and Peru into inland and coastal regions and allows for the fog desert to form along the Pacific coast. In the Atacama Desert, plant coverage can be as high as 50% in the center fog zone to as low as no life whatsoever above the fog line.[5]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Norte, Federico (1999). "Fog desert". In Michael A. Mares. Encyclopedia of Deserts. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 224. ISBN 978-0-8061-3146-7.
  2. ↑ World Wildlife Fund (2001). "Arabian Peninsula coastal fog desert". WildWorld Ecoregion Profile. National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on 2010-03-08. Retrieved 2011-07-02.
  3. ↑ "Yungay - the driest place in the world | Wondermondo". www.wondermondo.com. Retrieved 2017-05-06.
  4. ↑ Rundel, Philip W.; Mahu, Manuel (1976-01-01). "Community Structure and Diversity in a Coastal Fog Desert in Northern Chile". Flora. 165 (6): 493–505. doi:10.1016/S0367-2530(17)31888-1.
  5. ↑ Rundel, Philip W.; Mahu, Manuel (1976-01-01). "Community Structure and Diversity in a Coastal Fog Desert in Northern Chile". Flora. 165 (6): 493–505. doi:10.1016/S0367-2530(17)31888-1.


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