Why are deserts barren places?

Answer 1

The vegetation of deserts is scarce because of the harsh conditions. Deserts are very dry and the lack of good soil and hydration makes it hard for many plants to adapt to the conditions. Of course, some plants - such as the cactus - grow well in hot, dry conditions, but as mentioned before, it's not a majority of the plant species.

Answer 2

Deserts cover about one fifth (20 percent) of the earth's land area. The desert is a harsh environment with very little rainfall and extreme temperatures; a desert is defined as a region that gets less than ten inches of precipitation per year. Because of these dry conditions, there is limited plant and animal life in deserts. Desert plants (like cacti) are not abundant; neither is animal life.

Some deserts get both very hot (during the day) and very cold (during the night, when temperatures can drop well below freezing). Some deserts, however, are always cold (for example, the Gobi Desert in Asia, and the desert on the continent of Antarctica).

Different animals live in the different types of deserts. Animals that live in the desert have adaptations to cope with the lack of water, the extreme temperatures, and the shortage of food. To avoid daytime heat, many desert animals are nocturnal; they burrow beneath the surface or hide in the shade during the day, emerging at night to eat. Many desert animals do not have to drink at all; they get all the water they need from their food. Most desert animals are small.

Desert Extremes: The biggest desert is northern Africa's Sahara Desert; it covers roughly 3,500,000 square miles (9,065,000 square kilometers). The driest deserts are the Atacama desert of northern Chile, South America, and the Lut Desert in eastern Iran; these extreme deserts get less than half an inch (about 1 centimeter) of precipitation each year - and it is from condensed fog, and not from rain.

Answer 3

The reason why deserts support limited plant life is because the sun in deserts is too severe to allow many different plants to grow.

Answer 4

yet in other parts of the world, little or no rain falls, making the land barren

Answer 5

A place is designated a desert based not on sunlight, but lack of moisture- it is DRY. Lack of moisture equals lack of plant life. Not all deserts are hot- some are very cold- but dry.