how have camels adapted to life in a sandy desert

Plant and animal life is scarcer in the cool desert, where the precipitation falls mainly as snow. Plants are generally scattered mosses and grasses that are able to survive the cold by remaining low to the ground, avoiding the wind, and animal life can include both large and small mammals, such as deer and jackrabbits, as well as a variety of raptors and other birds. Plants don't have to be large to be good at surviving through dry periods. For example, the wild tulips of the deserts of central Asia live through most of the year as small underground bulbs. Plant life throughout Arabia has adapted to local climatic, edaphic and biotic conditions. Arid species predominate and seed, protected in tough coverings, can be blown around for years awaiting moisture or a suitable niche in which to germinate.

Plants protect themselves in the semiarid deserts with the help of spines. These also help to shade the surface enough to reduce transpiration to a large extent. Plant eaters devoured the shrubs and small trees that grew at the water's edge, and meat eaters found abundant prey. Plants and animals native to hot deserts and dry grasslands are described, along with the farming practices of the grasslands areas. The hunter gatherer's lifestyle is delineated, with reference to the various groups, from Mongolian nomads to Kalahari Bushmen and Australian Aborigines, who have almost all retreated to settled lifestyles.

Plants, however, need some sunlight in order to absorb these important nutrients and so can’t always access them from the ocean depths. They therefore need to find the nutrients from elsewhere. Plants and animals in this zone must be able to live in air and water. Animals like mussels and anemones hold in moisture by closing up when the tide goes out. Plants that have not completely adapted to sporadic rainfalls in a desert environment may tap into underground water sources that do not exceed the reach of their root systems.

Plants have adapted to the low and unreliable rainfall in two main ways ? To help plants tolerate the desert many plants have features that aid water storage and minimise water loss.

Plant life in the desert is usually spread out over great distances. This is why deserts are often described as barren, or lifeless. Plants like the Acacia and the ocotillo have adapted to the desert climate to loose their leaves during long periods of dryness. The plants also drop seeds and then enter into dormancy.

cactus

Cactuses have sharp spines to keep out animals, succulent stems to store water, and waxy skin to prevent evaporation. Sagebrush has long and extensive roots that can go deep underground to find water. Cactus rustling is illegal, but still it continues. These plants are becoming harder and harder to replace. Cactus wrens, as their name implies, live among prickly desert plants where they build their nests among the spines.

soil,soils

Soil compacted by hard-footed animals is less able to soak up rain when it does fall and is easily eroded by the water and wind. Cutting trees for firewood leaves soil unshaded, leading to an increase in the temperature of the soil and in the rate of evaporation which draws salts to the surface. Soil, water, rocks and climate help determine the types of plants that grow in a biome. The earth has more than 30 kinds of biomes. Soils are poor, and many deserts include areas of shifting sands. Deserts can be either hot or cold.

Soils are course-textured, shallow, rocky or gravely with good drainage and have no subsurface water. The finer dust and sand particles are blown elsewhere, leaving heavier pieces behind.

dune,dunes

Dunes may be longitudinal ridges resulting from winds blowing only in one direction, or they may be star shaped in regions where the wind blows from all directions. Dunes have also been the subject of many desert movies, and have historically been a formidable barrier to vehicular and rail travel. Depending upon one's particular situation, they can be one of the most incredibly beautiful, thrilling, eerie, treacherous or just plain inhospitable places on earth. Dunes are up to 1,200 feet high. This stark and sandy wasteland in Namibia, Africa, has its own kind of beauty.