Hot deserts

• Hot deserts get very little rain, under 250 mm a year, and many lie around 30 degrees north and south of the Equator, where air sinks and the weather is dry. The Sahara is a hot desert.
• Plants and animals are adapted. A cactus stores water and has spines. A camel stores fat in its hump, which gives it energy, and has wide feet for sand.
• Deserts offer opportunities such as mining, solar energy, farming with irrigation and tourism. The challenges include extreme temperatures, water supply and inaccessibility.
• Desertification is land on the edge of a desert becoming desert-like. Causes include drought and changing rainfall (physical) and overgrazing, cutting down trees for fuel and over-cultivation (human). Strategies include planting trees and managing water and soil.

Adaptation

A feature that helps a plant or animal survive in its environment.

Inaccessibility

A place being remote and hard to reach, so it costs more to develop.

Desertification

Land on the edge of a desert turning into desert-like land.

Overgrazing

Too many animals eating the plants, leaving bare soil.

Irrigation

Bringing water to crops by pipes or canals.

Great Green Wall

An African project to plant a belt of trees and restore land on the edge of the Sahara.

• Saying camels store water in their humps. The hump stores fat.
• Using the Sahel as your hot desert case study. The Sahel is a fringe area used for desertification. Your opportunities and challenges case study must be a hot desert.
• Writing that inaccessibility means very hot. It means hard to reach, with poor roads and long distances.

6 questions, 10 marks. Answer, then press Check. The marking guide explains how the marks are worked out. Nothing is saved.