Mojave+Desert

**__Climate and Location__**
The Mojave Desert is a semi-arid desert.³ The Mojave Desert is found at elevations of 2,000 to 5,000 feet.It is a transition desert. It is located in the south western United States. Most of the desert is located in California. The Sonoran Desert is to the south and Great Basin Desert is to the north. The Mojave Desert has a wide range of temperatures. They range from a low of 8°F in January and a high of 119°F in August. From May to October the temperatures usually climb above 100°F. At nights during the summer the temperature is in the low to mid 90s. During the winter there are strong, dry winds. The winds are usually around 25mph and have ocasional gusts of 75mph. The average annual precipitation is about 5 inches.¹

**__Flora and Fauna__**
The Mojave Desert has a wide range of animals. Most of the animals located in the Mojave Desert are reptiles but there is a lot of other animals. The reptiles in the Mojave include snakes, lizards and tortoises. The types of snakes that are in the Mojave are the Desert Rosy Boa, Red Racer, Gopher Snake, Mojave Rattlesnake, and the Mojave Desert Sidewinder. The lizards of the Mojave Desert are the Desert Iguana, Chuckwalla, Zebra-Tailed Lizard, Long-Nosed Leopard Lizards, Side-Blotched Lizard, Mojave Fringe-Toed Lizard, Southern Desert Horned Lizard, and the Great Basin Whiptail.There is 1 type of tortoise in the Mojave Desert its called the Desert Tortoise.The insects in the Mojave Desert are the Rough Harvester Ants, Tarantulas, and the Tarantula Hawk Wasp. The mammals of the Mojave Desert are Burros which were introduced to the Mojave, Coyotes,and the Bighorn Sheep. The plants of the Mojave include Bladderpod, Creosote Bush, Jimson Weed or Datura, the Joshua Tree, Athel, Tamarisk Salt Cedar, Canyon Live Oak, Shrub Live Oak, Gooding's Willow, Coyote Willow, Fremont's Cottonwood, Utah Juniper, California Juniper, Two Leaf Pinyon, Single Leaf Pinyon, New Mexican Locust, Cat Claw Acacia, Honey Mesquite, Smoke Tree, and the Desert Willow.²



**__Population__**
The Mojave Desert has over 250 different species of birds, reptiles and other animals.⁴

**__Human Interaction__**
The Mojave Desert is highly effected by human interaction. The Mojave Desert has 6 military bases, 4 national parks, a Bureau of Land Management, it has many abandoned and active mines, off-road recreation sites and waste disposal sites. This destroys the organisms living environment which could in turn destroy the whole life cycle of the Mojave Desert. The more that humans expand the more of a chance that the organisms will not survive. The human population in the Mojave Desert is raising rapidly so they will need to build more homes and businesses to support the people. This is another reason why the ecosystem could be destroyed.⁵

Citations:1)http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/mojave_climate_page.htm 2) http://www.nps.gov/archive/moja/mojaan.htm 3)http://www.worldbiomes.com/biomes_desert.htm 4)http://www.mojavedesertlandtrust.org/newsletters_07winter.html 5)http://access.usgs.gov/prog_priorities.html