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Post by grega94 on Mar 5, 2018 9:36:17 GMT -5
Steppes are usually associated with semi arid climates but can they also exist in desert climates? If a place is technically a desert due to low precipitation and high transpiration but with a steppe like ecosystem could it still be called a considered desert? Or would you say that a true desert would be an ecosystem that lacks vegetation, particularly grass and what little vegetation exists will be woody or succulent. So for example the Hanford Site in eastern WA gets 6.14in (156mm) of precipitation yet is still dominated by grass. LinkNow maybe cold deserts are just very grassy, however there are very cold places that are just as barren as the hotter deserts. For instance there is Kyzyl which is semi arid and receives 217.9mm (8.579in) of precipitation and as expected has a steppe ecosystem. Link, However when you go further west into the valley it gets very barren, Link. How much precipitation do you think that spot get? |
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Post by Lommaren on Mar 6, 2018 9:23:42 GMT -5
It has a lot to do with air temperature and exposure to winds too. The more sheltered a place, the easier it is to grow vegetation even in rather extreme circumstances. Take the forests in SW Greenland for example  |
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Post by Palider on Mar 6, 2018 11:24:02 GMT -5
Steppes are usually associated with semi arid climates but can they also exist in desert climates? If a place is technically a desert due to low precipitation and high transpiration but with a steppe like ecosystem could it still be called a considered desert? Or would you say that a true desert would be an ecosystem that lacks vegetation, particularly grass and what little vegetation exists will be woody or succulent. Both the Köppen and the Trewartha systems use a formula to decide whether a climate is or isn't a desert or a semidesert. I assume the formulas are derived from observations, i.e., trying to predict if a climate will have xeric vegetation or no vegetation at all by looking at other climates that exhibit that vegetation. In addition, they only use average temperature and average precipitation but there's a lot of other variables that affect vegetation, like the amount and strength of sunshine, the wind speed, the soil type, how common droughts are, the diurnal range, the extreme temperatures, etc. So it's obvious that the formulas have their limitations. To answer your question, the word desert usually refers to lack of features, so if a place has a desert climate but has some vegetation, then I would consider it a semidesert. So for example the Hanford Site in eastern WA gets 6.14in (156mm) of precipitation yet is still dominated by grass. LinkI wouldn't say that place is dominated by grass. The cover doesn't look very dense and there's spots with no cover. But yes, the place is climatically a desert but from a vegetation perspective it is a semidesert. It has a lot to do with air temperature and exposure to winds too. The more sheltered a place, the easier it is to grow vegetation even in rather extreme circumstances. Take the forests in SW Greenland for example I didn't know there were forests in Greenland  |
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Post by grega94 on Mar 9, 2018 2:16:39 GMT -5
Steppes are usually associated with semi arid climates but can they also exist in desert climates? If a place is technically a desert due to low precipitation and high transpiration but with a steppe like ecosystem could it still be called a considered desert? Or would you say that a true desert would be an ecosystem that lacks vegetation, particularly grass and what little vegetation exists will be woody or succulent. Both the Köppen and the Trewartha systems use a formula to decide whether a climate is or isn't a desert or a semidesert. I assume the formulas are derived from observations, i.e., trying to predict if a climate will have xeric vegetation or no vegetation at all by looking at other climates that exhibit that vegetation. In addition, they only use average temperature and average precipitation but there's a lot of other variables that affect vegetation, like the amount and strength of sunshine, the wind speed, the soil type, how common droughts are, the diurnal range, the extreme temperatures, etc. So it's obvious that the formulas have their limitations. To answer your question, the word desert usually refers to lack of features, so if a place has a desert climate but has some vegetation, then I would consider it a semidesert. So for example the Hanford Site in eastern WA gets 6.14in (156mm) of precipitation yet is still dominated by grass. LinkI wouldn't say that place is dominated by grass. The cover doesn't look very dense and there's spots with no cover. But yes, the place is climatically a desert but from a vegetation perspective it is a semidesert. It has a lot to do with air temperature and exposure to winds too. The more sheltered a place, the easier it is to grow vegetation even in rather extreme circumstances. Take the forests in SW Greenland for example I didn't know there were forests in Greenland Yeah there are trees in Greenland LinkWould you consider this a desert? if so would it be the most northern desert in the world? it's on lake Baikal, how dry do you think that place would be? Also would you consider shrub land such as this in Arizona to be desert? |
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