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- Dictionarydesert/ˈdɛzət/
noun
- 1. a waterless, desolate area of land with little or no vegetation, typically one covered with sand: "the desert of the Sinai peninsula is a harsh place" Similar
- 2. a flock of lapwings: rare "a desert of lapwings rises from a ploughed field"
adjective
- 1. like a desert: "overgrazing has created desert conditions" Similar Opposite
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DESERT definition: 1. an area, often covered with sand or rocks, where there is very little rain and not many plants…. Learn more.
- English (US)
DESERT meaning: 1. an area, often covered with sand or...
- Desert Spanish Translation
DESERT translate: desierto, desertar (de), abandonar,...
- Znaczenie Desert, Definicja W Cambridge English Dictionary
DESERT definicja: 1. an area, often covered with sand or...
- Desert: Russian Translation
DESERT translate: пустыня , бросать, покидать , покидать,...
- English (US)
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.
1. : arid land with usually sparse vegetation. especially : such land having a very warm climate and receiving less than 25 centimeters (10 inches) of sporadic rainfall annually. 2. : an area of water apparently devoid of life. 3. : a desolate or forbidding area. lost in a desert of doubt. 4. archaic : a wild uninhabited and uncultivated tract.
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desert, any large, extremely dry area of land with sparse vegetation. It is one of Earth’s major types of ecosystems, supporting a community of distinctive plants and animals specially adapted to the harsh environment. For a list of selected deserts of the world, see below.
Desert environments are so dry that they support only extremely sparse vegetation; trees are usually absent and, under normal climatic conditions, shrubs or herbaceous plants provide only very incomplete ground cover. Extreme aridity renders some deserts virtually devoid of plants; however, this barrenness is believed to be due in part to the effects of human disturbance, such as heavy grazing of cattle, on an already stressed environment.
The desert environments of the present are, in geologic terms, relatively recent in origin. They represent the most extreme result of the progressive cooling and consequent aridification of global climates during the Cenozoic Era (65.5 million years ago to the present), which also led to the development of savannas and scrublands in the less arid regions near the tropical and temperate margins of the developing deserts. It has been suggested that many typical modern desert plant families, particularly those with an Asian centre of diversity such as the chenopod and tamarisk families, first appeared in the Miocene (23 to 5.3 million years ago), evolving in the salty, drying environment of the disappearing Tethys Sea along what is now the Mediterranean–Central Asian axis.
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Ecosystems
Deserts also probably existed much earlier, during former periods of global arid climate in the lee of mountain ranges that sheltered them from rain or in the centre of extensive continental regions. However, this would have been primarily before the evolution of angiosperms (flowering plants, the group to which most present-day plants, including those of deserts, belong). Only a few primitive plants, which may have been part of the ancient desert vegetation, occur in present-day deserts. One example is the bizarre conifer relative welwitschia in the Namib Desert of southwestern Africa. Welwitschia has only two leaves, which are leathery, straplike organs that emanate from the middle of a massive, mainly subterranean woody stem. These leaves grow perpetually from their bases and erode progressively at their ends. This desert also harbours several other plants and animals peculiarly adapted to the arid environment, suggesting that it might have a longer continuous history of arid conditions than most other deserts.
Desert floras and faunas initially evolved from ancestors in moister habitats, an evolution that occurred independently on each continent. However, a significant degree of commonality exists among the plant families that dominate different desert vegetations. This is due in part to intrinsic physiologic characteristics in some widespread desert families that preadapt the plants to an arid environment; it also is a result of plant migration occurring through chance seed dispersal among desert regions.
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A desert is a large, extremely dry area of land with sparse vegetation. Learn about the origin, distribution, and characteristics of deserts, as well as the plants and animals that live in them.
Desert definition: a region so arid because of little rainfall that it supports only sparse and widely spaced vegetation or no vegetation at all. See examples of DESERT used in a sentence.
A desert is an area of land that receives very little precipitation, usually less than 25 centimeters (10 inches) a year. Learn about the different types of deserts, their causes, and their effects on plants, animals, and people.
A desert is a large area of land, usually in a hot region, where there is almost no water, rain, trees, or plants. ...the Sahara Desert. ...the burning desert sun. The vehicles have been modified to suit conditions in the desert. Synonyms: wilderness, waste, wilds, wasteland More Synonyms of desert.
