What kind of desert is the mojave

Some of them are of the more modern variety created when Route 66 was abandoned in favor of the Interstates. Among the more popular and unique tourist attractions in the Mojave is the self-described World's Largest Thermometer at feet high, reportedly also the highest temperature ever recorded in the region located along Interstate 15 in Baker , California.

Digital-Desert : Mojave Desert. Mojave Desert - An Overview. Click for a closer look Country Life Realty Wrightwood, Ca. Desert tortoises have a good adaptation for the desert.

They can store up to one quart of water in their bladder. They feed on plants in the spring so that they have enough water to last them the rest of the year. Plants have adaptations also, such as shallow root systems, spines, and thorns. Shallow root systems can easily absorb rain because they are so close to the surface.

Spines store water by expanding like an accordion. In addition, thorns protect the plants from danger. The Mojave Desert is jeopardized by large cities, such as Los Angeles, which are spreading rapidly through the desert. Military bases are moving in, and farms are developing along the Colorado River.

Yet the Mojave is distinct in several ways. And then there is the near-endemic and very prominent Joshua tree, a species of yucca and the flagship species of this ecoregion. The flagship species of the Mojave Desert ecoregion is the Joshua tree. Image credit: Creative Commons. One of the most impressive attributes of the Mojave Desert is its elevational range, from 86 m below mean sea level in Death Valley to over 1, m above sea level on some mountains, a greater range than any other North American desert.

The climate of the Mojave Desert, like the Chihuahuan Desert, is hot in summer and cool in winter, a warm-temperate climate as opposed to the subtropical climate of the Sonoran Desert or the cold-temperate climate of the Great Basin.

Due to the extreme rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada, Death Valley is also the driest spot in North America, averaging 38 mm of annual rainfall, but with many years with no measurable rainfall.

High elevations are cooler and somewhat wetter. On the fine soils of bajada bottoms where alluvial fans at the base of a mountain coalesce , one of two species of saltbush is strongly dominant, whereas the middle portions of bajadas feature creosote bush and white bursage. Other species of Yucca - the blue yucca and majove yucca, which typically grow to less than 2 metres height - are commonly found in desert shrub communities with a range of drought-tolerant flowering shrubs in the higher and more northerly regions of the Mojave Desert.

The Mojave Desert also contains several cacti, especially chollas and small cacti, although it does not support the larger columnar cacti typical of parts of the Sonoran Desert. The cacti at the upper elevations of the Mojave Desert need to be frost-tolerant, because this desert receives winter precipitation, which sometimes occurs as snow. The two lower images show snow-capped cholla cacti after a winter storm. Descending from the higher regions of the Mojave Desert towards the Sonoran Desert, the vegetation changes progressively.