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    4.1 The Sonoran desert

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    notes on 4.1 Cambridge stage 8 science

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    4.1 The Sonoran desert

    Uploaded by

    touanouria87
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    notes on 4.1 Cambridge stage 8 science

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    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

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    notes on 4.1 Cambridge stage 8 science

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    3 views2 pages

    4.1 The Sonoran desert

    Uploaded by

    touanouria87
    notes on 4.1 Cambridge stage 8 science

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    Group members: Nouria, Adonaï, Leïna, Rose

    Date: Monday, 25th November 2024

    4.1 The Sonoran Desert


    • The Sonoran Desert is located in the state of Arizona in the USA.
    • Deserts are not easy places for animals and plants to live as deserts do not get much
    rainfall so the organisms living there have adaptations to help them survive with little
    water.
    • A specie of tall plants that live in the Sonoran Desert are saguaro cacti. The saguaro cacti
    grow very slowly and they can survive up to 100 years old. The plant’s roots spread out
    widely underneath the soil ready to take up any rain that falls on the ground.
    • Many animals live among those desert plants, like the Gila woodpeckers that make holes
    in the cacti to make their nests.
    • Cactus wrens (the animals that use cactus as their homes) often use a different kind of
    cactus, called a teddy bear cholla, to make their nests. Teddy bear chollas are so spiky that
    very few animals come near it, which protects the cactus wrens from predators.
    • During the hot days, lizards, tortoises and other animals rest in the shade of plants or
    burrow into the soil, where it is colder depending on the depth.
    • In the Sonoran Desert, it rarely rains, but it rains heavily at least once a year. When the
    rain comes, the desert is transformed and many plants quickly produce flowers. Insects
    living there feed on the nectar and pollen from the flowers which helps in the
    reproduction of the plants through pollination. At night, animals like bats feed on the
    nectar from the flowers of agave plants.
    • Seeds fall on the ground and are collected by ants, which take them into their nests to
    provide a food store. Many months or years later, some of the uneaten seeds may
    germinate to produce new plants.

    Interactions in the Sonoran Desert

    • As seen in the information above, the animals and plants of the Sonoran Desert depend on
    each other to live as they interact with each other, which means the actions of one organism
    affects another.

    Non-living things in the desert

    • Not only other organisms affect the plants and animals in the Arizona desert. There are also
    interactions between the organisms and the living parts of their environment.
    • Like, the bright sunlight that helps plants to photosynthesise and produce their food that
    other organisms eat.
    Group members: Nouria, Adonaï, Leïna, Rose
    Date: Monday, 25th November 2024
    • The temperature which is often high during the day, but much lower at night. But some
    animals are nocturnal, which helps them to avoid drying out. As it is cooler underneath the
    soil, some animals like the tarantula, dig burrows for shelter during the day.
    • Rocks and soil provide minerals which helps the plants to grow and they also serve as a
    building material for ground-nesting birds.
    • Water which all organisms need to keep their cells alive is also a non-living organism that is
    essential and that the organisms in the desert have an interaction with. Rain, when it comes,
    allows them to be more active.
    • The desert air allows carbon dioxide for plants who use it in photosynthesis, and releases
    oxygen for all living organisms to use.

    • The organisms also affect the environment. For example, droppings from the kangaroo rats
    become part of the soil. The gases they take in and give out affect the composition of the air.

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