What are the hot climates?
- Equatorial
- savanna
- Hot desert
What are the temperate climates?
- warm temperate oceanic
- cool temperate oceanic
What are the cold climates?
- tundra
- boreal
What is natural vegetation?
The vegetation that grows naturally in an area without the influence of people. It adapts to different climate types.
Hot desert climate description?
Hot deserts are located roughly between 15º and 30º
e.g Sahara, Australian Desert
What’s is the temperate during the day in the hot desert and what is the reason it’s like that?
- high daytime temp reach reach 30ºC-50ºC
* clear skies because there is no water vapour, the sun is high because it’s near the equator
What’s is the temperate during the night in the hot desert and what is the reason it’s like that?
- go down to 5ºC
* no cloud cover so there is rapid heat loss
What’s is the precipitation like in the hot desert and what is the reason it’s like that?
- conditions are very different dry and rainfall is rare, annual rainfall is less than 100mm, there are long periods of drought with the occasional sudden downpour of rain
- dry winds blow over areas, some winds blow over cold currents so they don’t pick up my moisture (e.g the Canaries Current)
How has the vegetation in the hot desert adapted to the climate?
- widely spaced apart
- they have taproots that go deep into the ground
- they have thick protective skins and waxy barks that prevent loss of moisture e.g cactus
How has the animals in the hot desert adapted to the climate?
e.g Camels
–store fat in their hump for food reserves
- they have long eyelashes to protect their eyes from sand
- they have wide hooves for desert sands
What is desertification?
The turning of the land into desert. It is most likely to happen at the edge of the world’s deserts
E.g the Sahel
What are the causes of desertification?
- drought: the Sahel has little to no rainfall, it’s rainfall is confined to short periods but it’s unreliable and global warming has also resulted in more droughts
- population growth creates more of a demand for firewood so more trees are cut down, there is also a greater demand for food so forests are cleared for farming
- there are increased numbers of cattle which leads to overgrazing, the vegetation cover is reduced and the soil is blown away (soil erosion), then the desert sand invades and the desert advances
What are the effects of desertification?
- there are more famines e.g mali resulting in death and those that survive go to refugee camps
- people are forced to migrate for food, nomadic people who live here are forced to move their herds south to the grasslands, this put these areas under pressure and the process of desertification continues
- some people migrate to cities (e.g Bamako) causing overcrowding there
What are the solutions to desertification?
- planting trees and drought resistant plants will slow the movement of sand
- new breeds of animals can be introduced that are more suited to a drier climate
- creating new grassland would conserve soil and water
- deeper weeks can be dug for irrigation schemes to help plant and crop growth
Describe the warm temperate oceanic?
Between 30º-40º north and south of the equator
E.g California
What’s the temp like during the summer in the warm temperate oceanic climate and what are the reasons behind it?
- hot-average at 30ºC
* quite close to the equator, so direct sunshine and a cloudless sky
What’s the precipitation like during the summer in the warm temperate oceanic climate and what are the reasons behind it?
- dry
* high pressure dominates the area and trade winds blow over dry land so they don’t have moisture
What’s the temp like during the winter in the warm temperate oceanic climate and what are the reasons behind it?
- mild, temp around 10ºC
* sun still high and the prevailing wind is usually south-westerly so the wind is warm
What’s the winter precipitation like during the winter in the warm temperate oceanic climate and what are the reasons behind it?
- moist, with rainfall from 400mm-700mm
- south-westerly winds blow from the oceans so they are moist, there are depression over the Mediterranean and there are occasional heavy downpours
What is the natural vegetation of the warm temperate oceanic climate?
- cork
- pine
- cypress
- cider
- olive
How do trees adapt to the warm temperate oceanic climate?
- they have thick bark and waxy leaves
- plants are widely spaced
- they have long roots for moisture e.g cork tree
What is the human activity in the warm temperate oceanic climate?
- wood is cleared for agriculture
- crops include vines, olives and wheat
- overgrazing results in the soil cover being removed
- irrigation schemes
What is the boreal climate like?
Between 55º north and the arctic circle
E.g Canada, Sweden and Finland
What’s the temp like during the summer in the boreal climate and what are the reasons behind it?
- days are long, average temp= 6ºC
* the area is far from the equator but during summer the northern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun so it’s warmer
