Atacama Desert World Map – This map shows desert ecoregions around the world. To see their names and types, hover over the map. Zoom in on the map for a closer look! Scroll down for more details.
Ecozones are areas of land and water where ecosystems and environmental resources are similar. These include similar assemblies of natural communities.
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Deserts are dry environments with little or no rainfall. Most deserts receive less than 11.81 inches (300 mm) of precipitation per year. By comparison, tropical forests exceed 78.7 inches (2000 mm).
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The term xeric means “having little or no moisture” and is also used to describe plants or areas associated with deserts.
Desserts also take a lot of wind. In addition, the lack of vegetation promotes wind movement and dust transport.
Desert landscapes can have sand dunes, canyons, rock formations, or bare peaks. It is not uncommon for water and wind erosion to wear away soft rock to create the buttes and mesas found in deserts.
Soils in deserts are rocky and sandy with little organic matter. This is because plants have little to produce organic matter when they die.
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Light rain in deserts usually evaporates before reaching the ground. Desert skies are so humid that clouds cannot form.
Infrequent and sudden rains cause flash floods as there is no vegetation or organic matter to absorb the rainwater.
The underground water that comes to the surface as springs is known as an oasis surrounded by lush green areas. Oases are found in the Sahara.
Sometimes rivers and streams do not flow into a lake or ocean, but evaporate or are absorbed by the land. In such cases, water collects in large depressions called basins.
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An example of this is the Great Basin of Nevada. Some of the water that does not evaporate is absorbed by the soil. This water forms an underground spring, making Nevada the state with the hottest spring in the United States.
The deserts are also characterized by very high temperatures. Also, desert temperatures can vary greatly from day to night. This is because there are no clouds or moisture to trap the warm air.
Daytime temperatures in a hot desert can average 100°F (38°C) and nighttime temperatures can reach as low as 24°F (-4°C), according to NASA.
Scientists use different factors to classify desserts. These include location, circulation patterns, temperature, geology, rainfall, humidity, soil, soil composition, flora and fauna.
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Because different factors can be used, there are other ways to classify desserts. Berkley deserts are divided into hot, cold, semi-arid and coastal deserts. Here we focus on the national geographical classification.
These deserts are located along the Tropic of Cancer which is 30 degrees north and the Tropic of Capricorn which is 30 degrees south. These deserts are produced in air masses and circulation patterns.
As the moist and warm air rises from the equator, it cools and all the moisture falls in the form of tropical rain. As these dry air masses move further towards the equator, they reach the tropics.
Because they lose their moisture, they carry some clouds and do not rain when they reach the tropics.
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These desserts are hot most of the year and very hot in the summer! They receive little rain, and their soil is rocky and sandy.
Examples of these deserts include the Sahara Desert, the Tanami Desert in Northern Australia, and Kilimanjaro in South Africa.
Rain forests are the opposite of deserts. For more information, see World Rainforest Coastal Desert Map
Coastal deserts are a product of cold ocean currents. These currents bring fog but they also come with cold air that brings rain. These water droplets are very small and do not produce precipitation.
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These deserts have cool winters and long hot summers. Their annual maximum temperature is about 95 ° F (35 ° C) and the low temperature is about 24.8 ° F (-4 ° C).
Coastal deserts include the Atacama desert in Peru and Chile in South America. Another example is the Namib desert in South Africa.
These deserts are located on the slopes facing the prevailing winds. When moist air hits a mountain range, it rises. On windy slopes, the air cools and moisture falls in the form of precipitation.
An example of this type of desert is the Mojave desert in California. The Mojave Desert lies in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Inland deserts
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These deserts are located in the middle of the continents. They are dry areas because they have lost their moisture after the wind currents reach them.
An example of this type of desert is the Gobi desert in China and Mongolia. This desert is also in the rain shadow of the Himalayas.
Fossils are easy to find in desert areas due to erosion and the lack of organic matter. For more information, click here! Polar deserts
Large areas of the Antarctic and Arctic regions are classified as deserts. The polar regions have large amounts of water, but are held in place by glaciers and ice sheets. Therefore there is not much water for plants and animals.
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In the Caribbean, there is a desert that does not match the characteristics of the deserts mentioned above, on the north coast of Colombia (Gujira Desert) and Venezuela.
It is not a shady desert, it is surrounded by warm water and is close to the equator. However, this desert is a product of converging factors.
The trade winds in this area turn to the west due to changes in pressure. It makes it quite windy. The wind is so strong that the air above descends to replace it, instead of allowing convection for the rain.
There is upwelling on the coast. This movement of sea water at the bottom brings cooler water. Fresh air does not rise, so there is no convective precipitation, the source is random ground.
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Plants like cacti store water in their stems to survive in the harsh environment of deserts. They also use this stored water very slowly to make it last longer.
Found in the Sonoran desert of Arizona, the Saguaro cactus can expand like an accordion when it rains. This cactus can hold several liters of water.
Some desert plants have very short life cycles, with only enough rain to grow and reproduce. Examples of these are the red Atacama flower Garra de león and the pink Pata de guanaco.
Plants such as shrubs develop small leaves or waxy stems to reduce evaporation. They quickly absorb water and store it in the cells.
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Some plants, such as cacti, have shallow and wide roots. For this same reason, because they are far apart, they can absorb the most water.
Other plants, such as the mesquite tree, have deep roots to absorb ground water. Its roots can reach a depth of 100 feet (30 meters). Mesquite trees are found in North America.
To protect themselves from herbivores, plants like cacti have hairs or spines. They also help to reduce evaporation, source Lets Talk Science.
Animals that live in deserts are generally not very large because they cannot store as much water to support a large body.
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Desert animals avoid the heat by only coming out at night. During the day they rest in shady places. Some animals, such as rats, make burrows in the ground to avoid direct sunlight.
Reptiles are the main organisms in hot and dry deserts. For example, Australia’s spiny devil is a channel-coated lizard. These channels collect rain and dew that lead directly to its mouth.
Other examples of desert mammals include foxes, coyotes, rodents, ring-tailed cats, and rabbits. These are all nocturnal desert mammals.
Rabbits have long, thin ears that release heat from their bodies. The ears have many blood vessels that help in cooling the blood.
South American Coastal Deserts (nt8)
Camels survive in the desert thanks to their physiology. Camels store fat in their humps. When there is a lack of water or food, they use this fat along with oxygen to make water!
The shapes needed to create a map of the world’s ecoregions were obtained from the WWF. The shapes with the countries of the world were taken from the natural earth.
This map will be updated with new data! JOIN MY EMAIL LIST TO GET UPDATES ON THIS AND MORE NATURE MAPS!!!!!!The Atacama Desert is a 600 mile (1,000 km) long plateau in northern Chile, near the border of -Bolivia with Peru. and Argentina in South America.
The Atacama desert is the driest non-polar desert in the world and the only true desert with less rainfall than polar deserts. In fact, it is so dry that some weather stations in the desert have never recorded a single drop of rain. As a result of these harsh conditions, plant and animal life is almost non-existent, especially in the Lower Atacama Desert. However, northern coastal areas receive slightly more rain, resulting in less aridity.
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Species diversity is very restricted in the Atacama desert. Some parts of the desert are too dry to support any life forms. Scorpions, desert butterflies and wasps, Atacama toads, lava lizards, iguanas, etc. are some of the fauna of the Atacama desert. Birds that visit or live in the desert include sparrows, hummingbirds, Andean flamingos, Humboldt penguins, etc. Seals and sea lions can be seen on the beach.
The Atacama desert contains the largest supply of sodium nitrate in the world, a
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