About 3.8 million square meters. The KM surface of Australia (44%) occupy arid territories, of which 1.7 million square meters. km - desert. This suggests that Australia is the most arid mainland on the globe.

The deserts of Australia are confined to an ancient structural elevated plains. The climatic conditions of Australia are due to its geographical position, orographic peculiarities, a huge waters of the Pacific and the neighborhood of the Asian mainland. Of the three climatic belts of the Southern Hemisphere of the desert, Australia are located in two: tropical and subtropical, and most of them takes the latest belt.

In the tropical climatic belt engaged in the territory between 20 and the 30th parallel in the desert zone, a tropical continental desert climate is formed. The subtropical continental climate is distributed in the southern part of Australia, adjacent to the Great Australian Bay. These are the outskirts of the big desert Victoria. Therefore, in the summer, from December to February, the average temperatures reach 30 ° C, and sometimes above, and in the winter (July - August) decrease on average to 15-18 ° C. In some years, the entire temperature period can reach 40 ° C, and the winter night next door to the tropics drops to 0 ° C and below. The amount and territorial placement of precipitation is determined by the direction and nature of the winds.

The main source of moisture serve "dry" Southeast Passats, since most of the moisture is delayed by the mountain ranges of East Australia. The central and western part of the country, corresponding to about half of the area, receive an average of about 250-300 mm precipitation per year. The smallest amount of precipitation, from 100 to 150 mm per year, gets the Samenson desert. The seeding season in the northern half of the continent, where the monsoon change of winds is dominated, is timed to the summer period, and, in the southern part of it, during this period there are arid conditions. It should be noted that the number of winter precipitation in the southern half decreases as the mainland is progress, rarely reaching 28 ° Yu.Sh. In turn, summer sediments in the northern half, having the same trend, do not apply to the south of the tropics. Thus, in the zone between the tropical and 28 ° Yu.Sh. There is an aridness belt.

For Australia, the excessive variability of average annual precipitation and the unevenness of their fallout during the year are characterized. The presence of long arid periods and high average annual temperatures that dominate the large part of the continent, determine the high annual values \u200b\u200bof evaporation. In the central part of the mainland, they make up 2000-2200 mm, decreasing to its edge parts. The surface waters of the continent are extremely poor and extremely unevenly distributed through the territory. This is especially true of the deserted Western and central regions of Australia, which are almost unprecedented, but constitute 50% of the continent.

Australia's hydrographic network is represented by temporary drying watercourses (cries). Australia desert rivers running a partially indian ocean pool and an air lake pool. The mainland hydrographic network is complemented by lakes, which are about 800, and a significant part of them is located in the deserts. The largest lakes - Air, Trenz, Carnegie and others - are salt marshes or dried basins coated with a powerful layer of salts. The lack of surface waters is compensated by the wealth of groundwater. There is a number of large artesian pools (deserted artesian pool, the north-western pool, the northern part of the Murray River basin and part of the largest groundwater basin in Australia - the Great Artesian Basin).

The soil cover of the desert is very peculiar. In the northern and central regions, red, red-brown and brown soils are distinguished (characteristic features of these soils are acidic reaction, staining iron oxides). Serious soils are widespread in the southern parts of Australia. In Western Australia, descendant soils are found in Western Australia. For large sandy desert and large desert, Victoria is characteristic of red sandy desert soils. In the faceless internal depressions in the south-west of Australia and in the pool of Lake Eyre, salt marshes and solonts are widely developed.

The Australian deserts in landscape are divided into many different types, among which the most often Australian scholars allocate mountain and foothill deserts, deserts of structural plains, rocky deserts, sandy deserts, clay deserts, plan. The most common sandy deserts, occupying about 32% of the continent. Along with the sandy deserts, stony deserts also have widespread areas (they occupy about 13% of the area of \u200b\u200barid territories. Popular plains are alternating of large-frame deserts with dry beds of small rivers. This type of desert is the source of most of the country's desert watercourses and always serves as a habitat of aborigines. Desert The structural plains are found in the form of a plateau with a height of not more than 600 m above sea level. After the sandy deserts, they are most developed, occupying 23% of the area of \u200b\u200barid territories dedicated mainly to Western Australia.

The deserts and semi-deserts are anhydrous, dry areas of the planet, where no more than 25 cm of precipitation falls per year. The most important factor in their formation is the wind. However, no hot weather is observed in all deserts, some of them, on the contrary, are considered the most cold regions of the Earth. Representatives of flora and fauna in different ways adapted to the harsh conditions of these areas.

How do deserts and semi-deserts arise?

The reasons thanks to which the desert occurs, there are many. For example, there are little precipitation because it is located at the foot of the mountains, which their crests close it from the rain.

Ice deserts were formed for other reasons. In Antarctica and the Arctic, the main snowy mass falls on the coast, to the internal areas, snow clouds practically do not reach. The level of precipitation is basically much varied, for one snowfall, for example, the annual norm may fall. Such snownotes are formed hundreds of years.

Hot deserts are distinguished by a variety of relief. Only some of them are completely covered with sand. The surface of the majority is littered with pebbles, stones and other different rocks. Deserts are almost completely open for weathered. Strong gusts of the wind pick up the fragments of small stone and hit them about the rocks.

In the sandy deserts, the wind transfers sand around the territory, creating wave-like injuries that are called dunes. The most common type of dunes - verakhans. Sometimes their height can reach 30 meters. Comb dunes can have a height of up to 100 meters and stretch 100 km.

Temperature mode

The climate of the desert and semi-desert is quite diverse. In some regions, daytime temperatures can reach 52 o C. This phenomenon is associated with the lack of clouds in the atmosphere, therefore, nothing saves the surface from direct sunlight. At night, the temperature is very much reduced, which is again due to the absence of clouds that are able to delay the heat emitted by the surface.

In the hot deserts rain - the phenomenon is rare, but sometimes the strongest rains occur here. After the rain, the water is not absorbed into the ground, and rapidly flows from the surface, washing the soil particles and pebbles in dry canals that are called Wadi.

Desert location and semi-desert

On the continuity, which are located in northern latitudes, are deserts and semi-deserts of subtropical and sometimes there are also tropical - in Indo-Ganga lowland, in Arabia, in Mexico, in the south-west of the United States. In Eurasia, unnecessary desert areas are located in the Central Asian and South Kazakh plain, in the basin of Central Asia and in the Orange Highlands. The Central Asian deserted formations are peculiar to a sharply continental climate.

In the southern hemisphere of the desert and semi-desert meet less often. There are such deserted and semi-desert formations such as Namib, Atakama, deserted formations on the coast of Peru and Venezuela, Victoria, Kalahari, Gibson Desert, Simpson, Grand Character, Patagonia, a large sandy desert and semi-desert carru in South-West Africa.

Polar deserts are located on the mainland islands of the Parishery of Eurasia, on the Islands of the Canadian Archipelago, in the north of Greenland.

Animals

The animals of deserts and semi-deserts for many years of existence in such localities managed to adapt to harsh climatic conditions. From the cold and heat they are hidden in underground nora and feed on, mainly underground parts of plants. Among the representatives of the fauna there are many types of carnivorous: fenwiths, puma, coyota and even tigers. The climate of the desert and semi-desert contributed to the fact that many animals had a great thermoregulation system developed. Some desert residents can withstand fluid loss up to a third of their weight (for example, Gecko, camel), and among invertebrates there are species that are able to lose water to two thirds of their weight.

In North America and Asia there is a mass of reptiles, especially many lizards. Snakes are also quite common: ephs, various poisonous snakes, removal. From large animals there are saigas, kulans, camels, a vilorog, which recently disappeared (in captivity it can still be found).

The animals of the desert and semi-deserts of Russia are a wide variety of unique fauna representatives. Sandstone hares, hedgehogs, Kulana, Jameman, poisonous snakes inhabit the country's desert regions. In the deserts that are located in Russia, you can also meet 2 types of spiders - Karakurt and Tarantula.

In the polar deserts a white bear, sheep, sands and some species of birds live in the polar deserts.

Vegetation

If we talk about vegetation, then in deserts and semi-deserts there are various cactus, severe cereals, shrubs-psammofit, ephedra, acacia, saksaululy, soap palm trees, edible lichen and others.

Deserts and semi-deserts: soil

Soil, as a rule, is poorly developed, water-soluble salts prevail in its composition. Among the ancient alleavial and foresawid deposits, which are reworked by the winds. Gray-brown soil is inherent for sublime plain sites. Solonchaki is also characteristic of the desert, that is, soils that contain about 1% of the easily soluble salts. In addition to the deserts, Solonchaki are also found in the steppes and semi-deserts. Groundwater, which contain salts, are deposited in its upper layer when the soil is reached, resulting in a soil salinization occurs.

Completely others are characteristic of such climatic zones as subtropical deserts and semi-deserts. Soil in these regions has a specific orange and brick-red. Noble to her shades, she received the appropriate name - red and yellow-bees. In the subtropical belt in the north of Africa and in South and North America there are deserts where the serosons were formed. In some tropical desert formations, red-yellow soils were formed.

Natural and semi-desert are a huge variety of landscapes, climatic conditions, vegetable and animal world. Despite the harsh and cruel temper of the desert, these regions became their home for many species of plants and animals.

May 12, 2013.

The presence of natural zones on the mainland and their placement directly depend on climatic belts. Based on the fact that Australia is considered the most arid continent, it becomes clear that there can be no longer a wide variety here. But the natural zones of Australia have the extraordinary uniqueness of the vegetable and animal world.

Many deserts and few forests

In the smallest mainland, zonality is well traced. This is due to the prevailing flat nature of the relief. Australian natural zones gradually replace each other in a meridional direction after changing the temperature and amount of precipitation.

The southern tropic crosses the mainland almost in the middle, and most of its territory is located in a hot tropical climatic belt, which makes the climate arid. By the number of drop-down annual precipitation, Australia is among all the continents in the last place. Most of its territory during the year receives only 250 mm precipitation. In many areas of the continent, no rain drops for several years.

Australia, whose natural zones share the continent into three parts, in the east and west has several zones stretched along the coast, where the amount of precipitation is noticeably more. The mainland is in the first place in the relative area of \u200b\u200bthe desert areas and in the last place on the forest area. In addition, only 2% of forests of Australia has an industrial importance.

Features of natural zones

Savanns and palpal people are located in the subequatorial climatic belt. Grass predominate in vegetation, among which acacia, eucalyptus, bottle trees grow.

In the east of the continent, in conditions of sufficient moisture, there are such natural zones of Australia as wet-neutropic forests. Among the palm trees, fakes and tree ferns are inhabited by the silent musicals, wings, kangaroo.

The natural zones of Australia differ from similar territories on other continents. For example, semi-deserts and tropical deserts occupy huge areas on the mainland - almost 44% of its territory. In the Australian deserts you can meet unusual thickets of dry barbed shrubs called scrubs. Plots of semi-deserts, crouched cereal plants and shrubs, are used as sheep pastures. There are large sandy deserts that differ from the deserts of other continents in that there are no oasis.

In the south-eastern part and in the south-west of the continent there are subtropical forests in which eucalyptus and evergreen beech are growing.

Originality of organic world

Flora Australia, thanks to long-term isolation from other continents, has a large number of endemics plants. Almost 75% of them can be seen only here and anywhere else. More than 600 types of eucalyptus, 490 types of acacia and 25 types of Kazaurins are found on the mainland.

Animal world is even more peculiar. Among the animals endemics make up almost 90%. Only in Australia can be found mammals, which in other continents disappeared a long time ago, for example, the echidna and water - ancient primitive animals.

Source: FB.ru.

Actual

miscellanea
miscellanea

All the deserts of Australia lie within the Central Authority Area of \u200b\u200bthe Australian Floristic Kingdom. Although the species wealth and level of endemism, the deserted flora of Australia is significantly inferior to the flora of the Western and northeastern regions of this mainland, however, compared with other deserted regions of the globe, it is also distinguished by the number of species (more than 2 thousand), and the abundance of endemics. Species endemism reaches 90% here: has 85 endemic clans, of which 20 are in the family of comprehensive, or astera, 15 - moored and 12 - cruciferous.

Among endemic clans, there are background desert cereals - Mitchell's grass and triodia. The large number of species are presented families of legumes, myrth, protein and comprehensive. Significant species diversity is demonstrated by the childbirth eucalyptus, acacia, protein - Grevilleia and Hakeya. In the very center of the mainland, in the gorge of the desert mountains McDonnell, narrowly emerged endemics are preserved: a low-spirited palm tree and macrozamia from cicades.

Even some types of orchids are settled in the deserts - ephemers, germinating and blooming only in a short period after the rains. Rosyanka penetrate. Intergundable decreases and the lower part of the slopes of a variety of curtains of the prickly cereal of triodies. The upper part of the slopes and the crests of the barhane are almost completely devoid of vegetation, only individual curtals of the prickly cereal of Siegokhloe settle on the bulk sand. In the interbarch decreases and on flat sandy plains is formed rarending by the ancient from the casuarine, individual copies of the eucalyptus, acacia of the navel. The shrub tier is formed by the protein - it is a hake and several types of Grevilleia.

Sleeping, ragotia and evchylene appear on a slightly saline location. After rains, intergundable decreases and the lower parts of the slopes are covered with colorful ephemers and ephemeroids. In the northern regions in the sands in the wilderness of the Simpson and the large sandy species composition of the background, there are somewhat changing: there are other types of triodics, plectrhne and Chenoborod; It becomes a variety and species composition of acacia and other shrubs. Along the line of timewater, gallery forests are formed from several species of large eucalyptus. Eastern outskirts of the Big Desert Victoria are occupied by sclerophilic shrub thickets Mom scrub. In the south-west of the big desert, Victoria dominate the lowest eucalyptus; The herbal tier form a kangaroch grass, the types of the pitch and others.

ARIDA-Australia's arid are very weakly populated, but vegetation is used for grazing.

Climate

In the tropical climatic belt engaged in the territory between 20 and the 30th parallel in the desert zone, a tropical continental desert climate is formed. The subtropical continental climate is distributed in the southern part of Australia, adjacent to the Great Australian Bay. These are the outskirts of the big desert Victoria. Therefore, in the summer, from December to February, the average temperatures reach 30 ° C, and sometimes above, and in the winter (July - August) decrease on average to 15-18 ° C. In some years, the entire temperature period can reach 40 ° C, and the winter night next door to the tropics drops to 0 ° C and below. The amount and territorial placement of precipitation is determined by the direction and nature of the winds.

The main source of moisture serve "dry" Southeast Passats, since most of the moisture is delayed by the mountain ranges of East Australia. The central and western part of the country, corresponding to about half of the area, receive an average of about 250-300 mm precipitation per year. The smallest amount of precipitation, from 100 to 150 mm per year, gets the Samenson desert. The seeding season in the northern half of the continent, where the monsoon change of winds is dominated, is timed to the summer period, and, in the southern part of it, during this period there are arid conditions. It should be noted that the number of winter precipitation in the southern half decreases as the mainland is progressing, rarely reaching 28 ° Yu.Sh. In turn, summer sediments in the northern half, having the same trend, do not apply to the south of the tropics. Thus, in the zone between the tropical and 28 ° Yu.Sh. There is an aridness belt.

For Australia, the excessive variability of average annual precipitation and the unevenness of their fallout during the year are characterized. The presence of long arid periods and high average annual temperatures that dominate the large part of the continent, determine the high annual values \u200b\u200bof evaporation. In the central part of the mainland, they make up 2000-2200 mm, decreasing to its edge parts. The surface waters of the continent are extremely poor and extremely unevenly distributed through the territory. This is especially true of the deserted Western and central regions of Australia, which are almost unprecedented, but constitute 50% of the continent.

In addition to the largest deserts of Australia - Victoria and a large sandy desert, there are also present on the territory of the green continent other arid territories.

If you are interested in the desert of Australia, then you costThat on the mainland there is both tropical and subtropical deserted territories. What do these arid zones represent?

There is a Gibson desert in the center.

Europeans for the first time visited this covered with an adverse crushed desert agriculture in 1874..

Despite tough climatic and natural conditions, people live on this territory. tribe Aboriginal Australia Pintubei.

This nestland indigenous tribe is one of those that retained the traditional ancient way of life of the Aborigines Green continent.

In addition, Gibson Desert rich in the animal world. Typical representatives of Australia animals are inhabited here - red kangaroo, sumspapers, lizard-moloch, herbal wretched and emu.

Also inhabit the sample badger, which has previously inhabited 70% Australian territory, and today is on the verge of extinction. The main vegetation of Gibson desert - Spinifex and Acacia.

Desert Simpson

Simpson Desert, which is located in the very center of Australia - This is the protected zone of the green continent, on which the famous world is located.

This pond temporarily filled with waterI eating from underwater Australian rivers and being a house for many animals of Australia.

Here live Ducks, eagles, seagulls, Australian pelicans, kingfisher, wavy parrots, pink cabada, swallows and other representatives of the Ninithofauna mainland.

There are also found here Temmar tushakchiki, deserted gangscapes, sampling and mouse, Dingo dogs, wild camels and kangaroo.

Simpson Desert Flora is represented by drought-resistant cereals and spines. Today in the desert there are a number of protected areas. Tourists come here to make trips on the SUV on the dunes.

Interesting fact!In the 19th century, they wanted to graze cattle here and build settlements, but the climate did not allow it. The Simpson desert was also disappointing for oil seekers who conducted searches here in the 70s of the last century and did not find this natural resource.

Small sandy desert

Small sandy desert is in the west of the green continent. Flora and fauna, as well as the relief of this desert area is similar to the characteristics of a large sandy desert.

On the territory of the Small Sandy Desert is her main watercourse - Seyvory Creek Riverwhich flows into the north of the desert lake disappointment.

Despite the fairly tough climate, which the deserts and semi-deserts of Australia are famous, the tribes of the indigenous population of the mainland live here. The biggest is tribe Parnngurr.

The only way through the desert, namely, the canning scotching route takes place in the northeast of the Small Sandy Desert.

Deserts of Australia - Tans and Te Pinnaks

Another deserted territory of Australia called the Tama, which is in, is investigated by more than the remaining dry zones of the mainland. Here Europeans made an expedition yet up to the 20th century.

The desert taami is the rocky-sand dunes whose area 292 194 km².

Climate Tama - semi-desert. The average annual precipitation is much more here than in other deserts of Australia.

In 2007. Here they created a protected territory of Aboriginal North Tans, which covers an area of \u200b\u200babout 4 million hectares. To date, gold is being made here. In recent years, various areas of tourism have been developing.

It's important to know! Representatives of the Fauna and Flora Australia, which are on the verge of extinction.

The desert called Te Pinnacks is small in size of the territory that is located in the southwest of the green continent.

The name is translated as "The Desert of Pointed Rocks" And speaks for itself. The sandy area of \u200b\u200bthe desert "decorated" towering stones from one to five meters.

Learning more About the arid territories of Australia, it becomes clear why some types of unique Australian animals could not survive in such severe climatic conditions.