T5.4 Cool deserts and semi-deserts

T5. Deserts and semi-deserts biome

T5

Profile summary

Full profile at https://global-ecosystems.org/explore/groups/T5.4

Brief description

Cool deserts and semi-deserts occur on cool temperate plains and plateaus in central Eurasia and temperate parts of the Americas from sea level up to 4,000 m. Strong winds and freezing temperatures prevail, with low annual precipitation falling as winter snow or sleet. Productivity is low on infertile sandy and clay soils, often with high salinity. Vegetation comprises a sparse cover of low grasses and dwarf shrubs, interspersed with bare patches, with some areas having only lichens and mosses or no vegetation at all. Fauna includes large nomadic herbivores including antelopes, wild horses and camels, which control composition of vegetation. Predators include raptors, snakes, bears, and cats.

Key features

Xeromorphic suffratescent or non-sclerophyll shrublands or grasslands; freezing temperatures in winter low, rainfall offset by reduced evapotranspiration burdon; low diversity and endemism.

Overview of distribution

Cool temperate plains and plateaus from sea level to 4,000 m elevation in central Eurasia, western North America, and Patagonia. Extreme cold deserts are placed in the polar/alpine biome.

Map description

Major and minor occurrences were initially identified using consensus land-cover maps (Tuanmu et al. 2014) and then cropped to selected terrestrial ecoregions (Dinerstein et al. 2017) at 30 arc seconds spatial resolution. Ecoregions were selected if: i) their descriptions mentioned features consistent with those identified in the profile of the Ecosystem Functional Group; and ii) if their location was consistent with the ecological drivers described in the profile..

Map code and version: T5.4.web.mix v1.0. DOI

Version history

Profile versions

  • v2.1 (2022-04-06): MG Tozer; DJ Eldridge; D Faber-Langendoen; DA Keith.1
  • v2.01 (NA): NA.
  • v2.0 (2020-05-31): MG Tozer; DJ Eldridge; D Faber-Langendoen; DA Keith.
  • v1.0 (2020-01-20): MG Tozer; D Faber-Langendoen; DA Keith.

Available maps

Read more details about the current map versions here.

  • Web navigation (code: T5.4.web.mix, version v1.0)
  • Indicative Map (code: T5.4.IM.mix, version v1.0)

Read more details about older or alternative versions of maps for this functional group.

  • Indicative Map: discarded (code: T5.4.IM.alt, version v2.0)
  • Web navigation: requires review (code: T5.4.web.orig, version v1.0)
  • Indicative Map: discarded (code: T5.4.IM.orig, version v1.0)

References

Main references

References used in the different versions of the profiles.

  • Johnson SL, Kuske CR, Carney TD, Housman DC, Gallegos-Graves LV, Belnap J (2012) Increased temperature and altered summer precipitation have differential effects on biological soil crusts in a dryland ecosystem Global Change Biology 18: 2583-2593
  • West NE (1983) Comparisons and contrasts between the temperate deserts and semi-deserts of three continents Ecosystems of the World vol. 5: Temperate deserts and semi-deserts (Ed. NE West). Elsevier, Amsterdam

Map references

References used in the different versions of the maps (current and discarded).

  • Beck, H., Zimmermann, N., McVicar, T. et al. (2018) Present and future Köppen-Geiger climate classification maps at 1-km resolution Sci Data 5, 180214 DOI:10.1038/sdata.2018.214
  • Dinerstein E, Olson D, Joshi A, Vynne C, Burgess ND, Wikramanayake E, Hahn N, Palminteri S, Hedao P, Noss R, Hansen M, Locke H, Ellis EE, Jones B, Barber CV, Hayes R, Kormos C, Martin V, Crist E, Sechrest W, Price L, Baillie JEM, Weeden D, Suckling K, Davis C, Sizer N, Moore R, Thau D, Birch T, Potapov P, Turubanova S, Tyukavina A, de Souza N, Pintea L, Brito JC, Llewellyn Barnekow Lillesø JP, van Breugel P, Graudal L, Voge M, Al-Shammari KF, Saleem M (2017) An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm, BioScience 67: 534–545. DOI:10.1093/biosci/bix014. Data-set available on-line
  • Tuanmu, M.-N. and W. Jetz (2014) A global 1-km consensus land-cover product for biodiversity and ecosystem modeling Global Ecology and Biogeography 23(9):1031–1045 DOI:10.1111/geb.12182

Footnotes

  1. This is the current version available at official site.↩︎