desert

Also known as desert regions, 🏜️

AI overview

A desert is a large, dry land area that receives very little rainfall and has sparse vegetation, often featuring sand dunes and extreme temperature changes. Deserts are important habitats that support unique wildlife adapted to harsh conditions and have historically been home to human communities, such as nomadic herders with camels.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Wikidata facts

Image: Libya 4608 Idehan Ubari Dunes Luca Galuzzi 2007.jpg

Show 5 more facts

Unicode character: 🏜
Commons category: Deserts
OpenStreetMap tag: natural=desert
exact match: purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_01001357
hashtag: desert

Sources (4)

via Wikidata · CC0

~64 min read

Article

27 sections

Contents

Etymology
Major deserts
Defining characteristics
Water
Classification
Polar desert
Biological desert
Morphology
Weathering processes
Features
Dust storms and sandstorms
Ecology and biogeography
Flora
Fauna
Human relations
History
Natural resource extraction
Farming
Solar energy capture
Warfare
In culture
Deserts on other planets
See also
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links

A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the land surface of the Earth is arid or semi-arid. This includes much of the polar regions, where little precipitation occurs, and which are sometimes called polar deserts or "cold deserts". Deserts can be classified by the amount of precipitation that falls, by the temperature that prevails, by the causes of desertification or by their geographical location.