A desert can be considered as a cold desert when it has hot summers but with extremely cold winters. These deserts are formed in plain areas and also call it as plateaus or mountain areas in temperate region of the world. They are mostly located in the temperate zones and also present in the higher mountains rain shadow.
As an example, Patagonia Desert bounded by the Andes to west part of it and in central Asia, the cold mountains does not precipitate from the monsoon.
The cold deserts are to be located in the tropic as well Polar Regions. As the other deserts, it also formed due to the very low rainfall. In Asia, the Gobi is the coldest desert whose temperature in winters equal to the minus 40 degree Celsius. The scientist considered Antarctica as the coldest desert due to the less rainfall in that region. These cold deserts occur only when the temperature rises on the particular area. The environment is also very dry because of the remoteness from the coast which results in atmospheric humidity from a lack of onshore winds.
The ecosystem in Cold Deserts:
These cold deserts are found in some of the major places like Greenland, Iran, Western China, Antarctica and some other places.
There are some famous cold deserts in all over the world:
- The Atacama which was located on Coasts of Peru and Chile.
- The Gobi which was located in Northern China and Southern Mongolia.
- Great Basin which was located in the Western United States.
- Iranian which was located in Iran, Afghanistan and also in Pakistan
- Namib which was located on Coasts of Southwestern Africa.
- Takla Makan which was located in Western China.
- Turkestan which was located in Parts of the Middle East and Southwestern in Russia.
The climate in Cold Deserts:
In winter seasons, the rainfall occurs in very large amount as compare to the summers and the rainfall occurs in between 14-25 cm or sometimes more than that according to the situations. The rainfall can be expected in the month of April or May and it is also the time when monsoon cone to India.
On an average, the temperature rises from -2 to 4 degree Celsius in winters and 21 to 27 degree in the summer season.
The ecosystem is nothing but it may be helpful for the survival of living organisms. In cold deserts it is very difficult to survive but many organisms are capable to survive there too.
Animal Adaptations in Cold Deserts: In Cold Deserts, most of the animals don’t have the ability to stay in cold places and they change their places according to the atmospheric conditions. But there are also so many animals that are meant for the cold regions, they are only available in the cold mountains or cold deserts and make themselves to live there.
- Deer have the ability to stay only in winter and in summer it will migrate, after shedding his coat.
- Some other mammals like kangaroo rats, kangaroo mice, kit fox and several kinds of lizards and all dig burrows and jackrabbits, wolves, lizards etc. and have the strength to survive at extreme conditions.
Plant Adaptations in Cold Deserts:
In cold deserts, the plants having the capability to survive were rice grass, black sage, and some other plants. Even most of the plants cannot survive because of heavy rainfall. Due to this, it can’t absorb all the water in its surrounding. If a huge amount of water is available in their surroundings, it will not stay for a long time.