The Cold Desert Biome

Geography

snow field with peak

The Atacama Desert is located in Chile, South America and it runs through the Pacific Ocean to the Andes Mountains. It is made up of salts basins, sand and lava flows. It also has a moon like landscape. The Atacama has a town called Calama in it contains motels, restaurants, and shops. Some of the oldest mummies found on earth come from the Atacama Desert and are said to be 9,000 years old!

Weather Cycles

The Atacama Desert is a pretty cold place and is one of the driest places on earth. Temperatures rang from 0 degrees Celsius and 25 degrees Celsius. The atacama almost never gets any rainfall. Many times it will go for years without any rainfall. Some places in the Atacama Desert haven’t seen rainfall for over four hundred years. Atacama always has salt lakes, snow on the mountaintops and some underground water. Most of the precipitation in the desert comes from fog that blows from the Pacific Ocean. The Atacama Desert has short and moist summers, but long cold winters. In the summer time it can be about 32 degrees Fahrenheit and in the winter it can be about -5 degrees or -110 degrees Fahrenheit.

Survey of Organisms

Animalia

killer whales

Seal Killer whale

Photo of Seal Seals use their whiskers in the dark to feel

For the fish.

It has white patches on both sides of the eye and

Including the throat and along its belly.

cell

Protista

It is a unicellular organism that is very

Small and you need a microscope to see them.

Ref:FU1121 Carmine wax-gill fungi Ref:FU1584 Wood hedgehog fungi Fungi

Wood hedgehog carmine wax-gill

It can increase resistance to

Bacteria and insects in non-ruminant

Animals.

Plantae

Horsetail

Comanchaca

It is 20 feet high! And it is as thick as many plants survive because

A wrist of this plant, saving water!

Specific Animal

The killer whale is the largest member of the dolphin family. They have long rounded bodies with dorsal fins on their backs. They also have black bodies with white patches on both sides of their eyes.

Kingdom-animal

Phylum- chordate

Class-mammalia

Order- cetacea

Family genus- delphinidae

Species-orinus orca

The earliest known living killer whale in existence lived about 40 to 50 million years ago.

When discussing the reproductive system, they are born tail first to limit the risk of drowning. Because it has the strong bond with its mother for so long the reproductive maturity occurs late; which is usually between 7 to 10 years. When the female gives birth to the calf the nursing time is a long period of time. For some, it can be more then a year.

For the respiratory system, the killer whale breathes through a blowhole which is located on the dorsal side of its head. It also holds its breath while swimming under water. Then it begins to exhale just before coming to the surface of the water.

As far as the circulatory system is concerned, it adjusts to conserve or dissipate body heat and maintain body temperature. The dorsal fin is surrounded by veins. Which the veins contain cooled blood. Then the arteries contain very warm blood from the core of the body. There is heat transferred from artery to vein,

Food Web

Cold Desert Biome

~*Adaptations*~

Animals and organisms of all kinds all have to adapt to each and every setting of this biome. For some this may be hard, but necessary in order to live .Although it is tough to find anything living in the desert Atacama, there are some scattered small patches of plants, which lets animals and insects live. Some plant species have adapted well to this dry environment by developing tap roots that run very deep into the ground gathering water from below. There are flocks of flamingos that live in and around the salt lakes eat red algae that grow in the waters.

Flamingoes at Salar de Atacama

Flamingos have to adapt to this environment by what they eat, and where they find it. Flamingos are a water bird so of course they need water to survive, so I consider that a special characteristic to allow it to survive in its environment.

Camels are adapted to their environment by having long eye lashes which protect its eyes from the sand during sandstorms. Their nostrils are muscular so that they have the strength to keep them closed and to keep the sand out. They have long necks and long legs because it is easier to give off heat.

Plants

Deserts plants have many adaptations to survive in such a dry environment. In order to grow they need to be good at storing and finding water. Some plants found in the Atacama Desert are Cacti, creosote bush, sagebrush, and the ocotillo. Cacti are good with storing water because their waxy skin won’t let water escape. Their roots are shallow, and widely spread so that any rain can be absorbed as fast as they need it. All of these plants must adapt to hardly any rainfall and have extensive root systems that come up to the surface to absorb any possible rainfall, and go far down to absorb any water saturated in the ground.

Desert Tortoise

Common Name- Gopher Tortoise

There are a couple of reasons why the population of the Desert Tortoise isn’t very great. For one, not that many “hatchlings” will make it to adulthood. There shells stay soft for the first five years and they are usually preyed on by coyotes, roadrunners, gila monsters, and ravens. Another reason the Desert Tortoise population grows slowly is because they don't reproduce very fast. Females don't breed until they are 15 to 20 years, and they only lay eggs when there is enough food. The Desert Tortoise is a "threatened" species under the California state Endangered Species Act in 1989 and the federal Endangered Species Act in 1990.

[IMAGE} Ferruginous Hauk

Shrubs are planted because shrubby vegetation provides food for the small animals the Ferruginous Hawk feeds on. So by planting shrubs, they hawk’s prey also has food to keep them alive long enough for the hawk to get a hold of that certain small animal.

Kit Fox

When you hear the name “Kit Fox” you would automatically think “fox” right, because of the last part of its name. But the Kit Fox doesn’t act like a fox at all. The Kit Fox is very easily trapped, sometimes the Kit Fox eats poisonous animals by accident which is bad for its health and usually causes this animal to die.

Endangered Species

[IMAGE}

Symbiosis

In the desert, symbiosis happens regularly. A lot of insects survive only because of other plants and animals. An example is if an insect were trying to hide on a plant the same color as its self, it would blend in very very easily. This might help an insect from being hunted or preyed on. So not only does in increase its chances of surviving, but it is also a good hiding spot. A lot of animals can blend in with their environment. Like the example on this website: http://nhs.needham.k12.ma.us/cur/Bio96_97/P5/desert/desert.html

“Other animals blend in with the large cacti which vary in color and texture”. This is all a variety of symbiosis.

+ = Symbiosis because the green cacti shelters this bug because they are alike in color, so therefore organisms that prey upon this insect aren’t able to see this bug too easily.

Quest

What adaptations do plants or animals have to make the live in this Cold Desert Biome?
Name some organisms that can be found in the Cold Desert Biome
Name one or more endangered species and name some of the ways we can change it becoming extinct.
Name what you think could be an example of symbiosis in the Cold Desert Biome
What are some ways you think you could help out the environment or organisms in this biome?