What comes to your mind when you hear the name desert? If scorching hot temperatures along with sand, camels and cactus are the first things then you are probably wrong. A desert is not always about high temperature, sand and dryness.
The most suitable definition of a desert is a place that gets a little precipitation. Cold Deserts can be defined as deserts which have hot summers but extremely cold winters.
Facts you didn’t know: –
- A few scientists consider Antarctica to be a type of cold desert because it gets very little rain or snow.
- On an average, these deserts get around 15-26 cm rainfall.
- Cold deserts are found in the Antarctic, Greenland, Iran, Turkestan, Northern and Western China.
- They are also known as polar deserts.
- These deserts are generally found in certain mountainous areas.
- Some famous cold deserts are: – Atacama, Gobi, Great Basin, Namib, Iranian, Takla Makan, and Turkestan.
- Antarctica is the largest cold desert of the earth.
- Cold deserts are divided in to two sub-categories: – Cold and Coastal.
- These areas generally have short, wet and moderately warm summers with mean average summer temperature of 21-26°C.
- Most of the animals found in these areas grow a thick fur coat in winter. In summer, they shed their fur coat.
- Cold deserts are very vulnerable for the following reasons: – global warming, settlement expansion, diversion of large rivers and other developments.
- Shad scale, grasses and camel’s thorn are some plants that can be found in cold deserts.
- The snowfall in these deserts makes it difficult for plants to grow.
- Most part of the Antarctica is often covered with ground cover like lichens.