Description
Coastal desert is a desert that is more hospitable than all other desert types in both rainfall and temperature. They are located in places by ocean but also by dry desert areas and where they meat is the coastal desert.
Location
They are located in places by ocean but also by dry desert areas and where they meat is the coastal desert.
Climate
In the summer temperatures range from 13-24 degrees Celsius. While in the winter temperature is 5 degrees Celsius and below.
The maximum temperatures recorded is around 35 degrees Celsius and negative 4 degrees Celsius for the minimum.
The rain amount may vary in different coastal deserts
Animals found
Common animals found in coastal deserts include coyotes, badgers, toads, insects, lizards, snakes, and birds such as great horned owls, golden eagles and bald eagles.
Food Web
The tertiary consumers in the food web would be the Great Horned Owls, Golden Eagles, and Bald Eagles, Coyotes.
Following them would be the secondary consumer like Lizards and snakes.
After them would be Toads and badgers which eat the the insects, which eat the lead producer or plants.
Primary Vegetation
The common vegetation found on coastal deserts are, black bushes, black sage, buckwheat bushes, chrysothamnus, little leaf horsebrush, rice grass and salt bushes.
Human Related Threats
The Coastal Deserts of the world are threatened by a combination of human exploitation and climate change that could, within decades, wipe out many unique habitats and many species
The human exploitation of desert regions resulting in the drainage of underground aquifers (Main source of water) and soil poisoning through salinisation - is speeding up the rate at which deserts are drying out to the point of killing vegetation and animals.
Namib Desert
Location
The Namib is a coastal desert in southern Africa. It has a location like many other coastal deserts.
The Namib stretches for more than 2,000 kilometers.
Climate
The Namibs aridity is caused by the descent of dry air of the Hadley Cell, cooled by the cold Benguela current along the coast of Africa.
It has less than 10 mm (0.39 in) of rain annually and is almost completely dry. Besides rain being scarce, it is also hardly predictable.
Vegetation
The common vegetation in the Namib is black bushes, different Cactus species buckwheat bushes, chrysothamnus, little leaf horsebrush, and salt bushes.
Food Web
The tertiary consumers in the food web would be the Coyotes.
Following them would be the secondary consumer like Lizards, snakes, and in some cases ostriches.
After them would be small amphibians which eat the the insects, which eat the lead producer or plants.
Human Related Threats
The main human related threat in the Namib is the tourists visiting the area.
As a result of the Welwitschia plant, which is considered a living fossil, and is found only in the Namib Desert, many tourists are attracted.
These tourists are killing vegetation and hurting the food web.
Plans to help the Namib and other coastal deserts
As of now the Namib and many other deserts are in fine condition but if in later years the destruction becomes worse there may be many plans ahead.
One plan may be to make all the deserts natural reserves and off limits to human touch.