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DEFINITION OF DESERT

A desert is a desolate stretch of barren or arid land mass of great spread, with little or no vegetative cover, mainly covered in sand, gravels or pebbles or a mixture of these, with practically no form of surface water, having minimal or no significant annual rainfall.

A desert is a landscape or region of land that is very dry because of low rainfall amounts (precipitation), often has little coverage by plants, and in which streams dry up unless they are supplied by water from outside areas

. Deserts can also be described as areas where more water is lost by evapotranspiration than falls as precipitation.

Desert plants must have special adaptations to survive with this little water. Deserts generally receive less than 250 millimetres (10 in) of rain (precipitation) each year. Semidesers or steppes are regions which receive between 250 millimetres (10 in) and 400 to 500 millimetres (16 to 20 in).

Do you think of a desert as a hot, dry place where sand stretches as far as you can see? The Sahara in North Africa is like that even the northern part of Nigeria, but most deserts are not. All deserts are dry, but some deserts are very cold more especially at night. Plants(herb) and animals(camel) live in most deserts. People have learned to live in deserts all over the world.

Most deserts form because of air movements over the planet. Masses of dry air create deserts. For example, deserts can form where air currents go over mountains. Water gets squeezed out of the air as it passes over the mountains, and a desert forms on the other side of the mountains. Deserts can also form along some seacoasts where there are currents of cold water. There are two main bands of desert areas, one north of the equator and one south of the equator. The equator is an imaginary line that goes around Earth’s middle.

Although the Sahara desert is the largest desert in the world.  The Sahara is very hot during the day, but it cools off at night because sand does not hold heat well.

Deserts get very little rain, but some plant growth there e.g. trees, herbs, shrubs, wildflowers still manage to grow in some desert areas. Due to their special features or adaptation that helps them get and store water. They have small leaves to keep water from escaping into the air. Some desert plants have long roots that reach water deep underground. Other plants, called succulents, can store water from a desert rainstorm in thick roots, stems, and leaves.

Bird, reptile, insect and some kind of mammal, are animals that are life in the desert. Desert animals have adaptations that help them surviveIn northern Nigeria it is well 

Desertification is one of the most serious environmental and socio-economic problems of our time. Desertification describes circumstances of land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid regions resulting from the climatic variation and human activities