Desert Environment

Abstract

A desert can be defined as a continental area on which there is a little or no plant cover because of insufficient rainfall, i.e., areas where the potential rate of evaporation exceeds the rate of precipitation, and where wind action is an important geological agent. Several factors may lead to such conditions, like position of the area within wind systems of natural low humidity, the presence of a mountain chain in the path of rain-bringing winds, the absence of sufficient relief to induce rainfall, etc.