Coastal Deserts By: Ian Sanders

What is a Coastal Desert?

  • A desert with hospitable temperatures.
  • The desert is very dry, and some get very rare rainfall.
  • Crescent shaped dunes are likely to be found on a coastal desert.

Geographic Location

  • Coastal deserts are normally located on the west coasts of continents.
  • You can find coastal deserts in North America, South America, Africa, and Asia.
  • These deserts also have beaches because they are near large bodies of water.

Climate

  • These deserts have cool winters and long, warm summers. A good example of this is Chile.
  • Summer temperatures range from 13-24 degrees celsius (55-75 degrees fahrenheit), and winter temperatures are 5 degrees celsius and below (41 degrees fahrenheit).

Primary Vegetation Type

  • The primary producers in the food web are mostly plants.
  • Things like cacti, bushes, and flowers are eaten by insects and small animals.

Characteristic Food Web

  • The primary producers are eaten by insects and rodents.
  • After this, bigger animals eat the smaller one including snakes, lizards and big spiders.
  • At the top of the food web are the hawks and the foxes.

Human Related Threats

  • Some of the big human-related threats to the coastal deserts are military activities and off-road vehicles. This causes damage to the desert cover.
  • Mining is also a threat although it does not focus on that much area, it hurts a lot of the desert surrounding it.
  • These activities cause damage to the desert cover.
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