Biome Desert Vulture

The ''desert climates are found in low-latitude deserts approximately between 18° to 28° in both hemispheres. These latitude belts are centered on the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, which lie just north and south of the equator. They coincide with the edge of the equatorial subtropical high pressure belt and trade winds. Winds are light, which allows for the evaporation of moisture in the intense heat. They generally flow downward so the area is seldom penetrated by air masses that produce rain. This makes for a very dry heat. The dry arid desert is a true desert climate, and covers 12 % of the Earth's land surface.''

• Temperature Range: 16° C
• Annual Precipitation: 0.25 cm (0.1 in). All months less than 0.25 cm (0.1 in).
• Latitude Range: 15° - 25° N and S.
• Global Range: southwestern United States and northern Mexico; Argentina; north Africa; south Africa; central part of Australia.

(By the way apparently there are cold deserts as explained in the next paragraph I know strange, just a heads up.)
''The deserts that are in Greenland, Antarctic and the Nearctic ecozone, are called cold deserts. These deserts are characterized by cold winters with snowfall and high overall temperatures throughout the winter, and sometimes in the summer too. The mean winter temperatures in a cold desert falls between -2 to 4°C, and in the summer, between 21-26°C.The mean annual precipitation in cold deserts ranges between 15-26 cm. The soil in this area is salty, silty, and heavy. The plants in cold deserts are widely scattered and vary between 15 cm-122 cm in height. The main plants in these areas are deciduous, most of which have spiny leaves. Animals species found in the desert are jackrabbits, kangaroo rats, grasshoppers, pocket mice, and antelope ground squirrel. Deer are found too, but only during the winter.''
''The sagebrush of Utah, Montana, and the Great Basin, along with the Nearctic ecozone, make up the semiarid deserts. Here, the summers are moderately long and dry with the winters bringing in a normal low concentration of rainfall. Plants and animals are benefited by the cool nights that reduce moisture loss from transpiration, sweating, and breathing.The soil in the semiarid deserts range from sandy and fine-textured, to loose rock fragments, gravel, or sand. Near the mountain slopes, the soil is shallow, rocky, gravely, and well-drained, whereas at ground level, the soil is sandy and fine-textured.Plants protect themselves in the semiarid deserts with the help of spines. These also help to shade the surface enough to reduce transpiration to a large extent. Some of them also have silvery or glossy leaves that allow them to reflect more radiant energy. Creosote bush, bur sage, white thorn, cat claw, mesquite, brittle bush, and jujube are the names of some of the plants found in the semiarid desert. Mammals such as rabbits, kangaroo rats, and skunks, along with grasshoppers, ants, snakes, and lizards, inhabit this desert.''
''The Nearctic and the Neotropical ecozones are home to the coastal desert(as near the sea). The average temperature in this area ranges between 13-24°C, with the temperatures dropping to 5°C and below, during the winter. The average rainfall measures 8-13 cm.The soil in the coastal desert is fine-textured with moderate soil content, and is fairly porous with good drainage. The plants have thick, fleshy leaves or stems that can take large quantities of water when it is available, while storing it for future use. Some plants also have corrugated surfaces with longitudinal grooves and ridges. The salt bush, buckwheat bush, black bush, rice grass, little leaf horse brush, and black sage are some of the plants that thrive in coastal deserts.''
The three common plants that I have found when researching the desert biome that I think are neat.

Mojave Aster
''This is a shrubby plant that is able to grow up to 30 inches high. It has stems that are gray-green in color and long silverfish-green, narrow, hairy leaves. This desert plant has narrow purple flowers with lavender rays surrounding a yellow disk-like center, which grows up to 2 inches in diameter. Unfortunately, this desert plant dies soon after flowering.''
Cactus
''This desert plant is also known by a host of other names like the Hedgehog cactus, Claret Cup cactus, King's Cup cactus, Pancake Prickly Pear cactus, and the Mound cactus, to name a few. The stems of this plant are cylindrical in shape and grow up to 1 foot long and 1 to 1½ inches thick. It has about 9 to 10 ribs on the stem. The flowers of this beautiful plant are deep-red in color with an arrangement of petals that form the shape of a cup. It has fruit too that are also red in color, and are edible. The cactus takes advantage of the cool night air to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide. The most common kind found in American deserts are the Barrel cacti, that are easily identifiable from their bulbous, round shapes, which are surprisingly quite huge when seen in person. This unique plant blossoms red flowers, or yellow-green varieties that grow at the top, turning it into a pretty sight for those who come across its kind.''
Soaptree Yucca
''This desert plant is a 10-18-foot-tall plant with palm-tree-like leaves, that grow at the bottom of the plant. The soaptree yucca gets its name because of the presence of a soap-like material inside the roots and the trunk of the plant. This plant is also used for decoration in many American gardens.''

As with the plants I also did the liberty to choose three common known animals that inhabit the deserts.

Armadillo Lizard
''The armadillo lizard is an animal that preys on bigger and stronger predators like humans. The length of its body is 15-17 inches long, the tail is 14-16 inches long, and it weighs 8-17 lbs. The hind legs of an armadillo lizard are a little shorter than its fore. It is able to wriggle easily because of the shape of its head, body, and club-like tail that is flattened in appearance. Predators are unable to harm the armadillo lizard because of the hardened shell-like armor on its body.''
Desert Tortoise
''The forelegs of a desert tortoise are muscular and flattened with long claws, which are adapted to dig deep burrows. Desert tortoises make popping, hissing, and poinking sounds when in distress or fear. These tortoises live in burrows to escape the cold and heat. Desert tortoises are subjected to infrequent rains that fall in the basin. Most of their water intake comes from moisture found in wildflowers and grass that they eat during the spring. The desert tortoise has the ability to store about a quart of water in its bladder to be used when necessary. It is considered a threatened species, thus, it is unlawful to touch, harass, harm, or keep a desert tortoise as a pet.''
Water-holding Frog
''This frog, unlike its many relatives, develops a cocoon for storing water, where it nestles underground for most parts of the year. The water lasts long enough for it to sustain itself during the dry months of the year, where the rainy season allows them to leave their hiding place and lay eggs in puddles formed by the rain. The eggs then hatch within these puddles, soon enough before the water dries up.''

One of the major problems that deserts are having currently is the of the ''lack of rainfall in the desert, plants take longer to grow, which leads to less animals and faster desertification which is a big issue facing our world. Current our deserts cover 1/5 of the world, but because of human activities deserts are expanding. Human activities that harm our deserts are, off road vehicles, they leave tracks in the soil for up to 2 decades, causing looser soil. Also animals that hide in the sand such as the sand viper can be hurt. Collectors continue to take precious cacti from the desert causing extinction, and less plants to hold down the soil. Other issues result from farming and mining, hunting, and development of the deserts. All these activities continue to loosen desert soil. Sandstorms from deserts are now increasing. This is harmful because the dust particles in the air from these storms are small enough to enter your lungs, and cause major issues for humans. Dust is also being deposited in reservoirs, which causes more health concerns.'' I have a few ideas that we could tackle this problem with the deserts.one of my ideas is terraforming the land to our choosing, with terraforming we could start early by trying to turn our deserts to our likening so we can have experience when we start terraforming dead planets. With the deserts turned to farm we could support a larger population on earth with abundance of farmland and land.

 

The Vultures niche  is being a'' scavenger, the cinereous vulture feeds on carrion ranging from large mammals to fish and reptiles. Scavengers play an important role in the ecosystems they inhabit; by feeding on dead animals they recycle nutrients and speed the process of decomposition.''

 
(Best found Pyramid for food chain yet)

The species that that can compete with the all mighty Vulture would be the coyotes because they also play as a scavenger but more as a aggressive role to take down there meal as seen in the Looney toon's but the Vultures just wait to see there them die then they move in to eat the body.(clearly shows intelligence *chough*)Which leads to competition between the two in which to defend there meals from each other. well it seems I have accomplished all the objectives so I will stop typing so .......bye.

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/desert-biome-animals-and-plants.html
http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/climate.htm
http://desertbiomes3rdhour.weebly.com/desert-enviroment-problems.htmlhttp://www.lpzoo.org/animals/factsheet/cinereous-vulture