Desert Zoocoenosis

Abstract

Seemingly uninhabitated deserts provide shelter for surprisingly rich and diverse zoocoenoses. Only in some extreme cases, such as the polar areas, is the faunal component very scanty: in Antarctica, where vegetation essentially consists of blue-green algae, lichens (more than 400 species) and mosses, invertebrates include only protozoans, turbellarian worms, nematodes, rotifers, tardigrades, mites, ostracods, copepods, collembolans and dipterans. On the Antarctic coasts animal life is more abundant, including also various vertebrates (i.e. petrels, penguins, pinnipeds), since nourishment is supplied there by marine resources, which is generally the case on the edges of the sea throughout the whole world.