Life In The Hot Sahara Desert

The Sahara Desert is the world's largest hot desert and is spread across 8.6 million square kilometers in Northern Africa. The average year round temperature in Sahara exceeds 30C with the temperatures rising above 50 degree centigrade during summers and the winter temperatures falling below freezing point. With the daily temperature variation fluctuating anywhere between the values -0.5 to 37.5 degree centigrade, the conditions are really harsh and difficult to sustain life and this condition is further deteriorated due to the hot, dusty winds. The high temperatures during summer, scanty rainfall, and freezing winters, along with the severely dry weather make Sahara's weather very inhospitable. As a result, plant and animal population is sparse.

Plants and animals develop certain adaptations in order to adapt to life in the harsh desert conditions.

Desert plants possess very long roots that penetrate very deep into the earth, and their broad leaves are replaced with spines, and thick green stems in desert plants like cactus where the spines help in preventing excessive water loss while the stem performs photosynthesis as well as holds water for a very long time. Xerophytes, grasses, shrubs, and trees comprise the common vegetation in the Sahara desert.

Desert animals rarely come out in the hot sun and instead stay underground during most part of the day and eat such foods which contain a lot of water content. The desert animals are also smaller in size which minimizes water loss from their bodies. The animal species found in the Sahara include the desert hedgehog, gerbil, jerboa, cape hare, common jackal, dorcas gazelle, oryx, dama deer, Nubian wild, barbary sheep, anubis baboon, spotted hyena, sand fox, Libyan striped weasel, the slender mongoose, rattlesnakes, kangaroo rats, kit foxes and numerous species of frogs, toads, crocodiles, lizards, chameleons, skinks, cobras snails, brine and algae shrimps.

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