This question was attempted by many candidates and their performance in it was poor. Most of the candidates that attempted it exhibited poor knowledge of the Hot Desert Climate. Some candidates did not know the location of the Hot Desert Climate and some even wrote on more familiar Equatorial Climate instead of the Hot Desert Climate.
The candidates were expected to present their answers with the following points:
(a) Location
- Found within latitudes 15° - 30° North and South of the Equator.
- Mostly on western side of continents.
- Examples are: North Africa (Sahara desert)
- Arabia (Arabian desert)
- Iran (Iranian desert)
- Southern Africa (Namib and Kalahari deserts)
- Australia (Great Australian desert)
- South America (Atacama desert)
- On plateaux e.g. Gobi and Turkestan, Pantagonia deserts.
(b) Characteristic features
- High temperature of about 50° - 77oC
- annual range of temperature is about 11oC
- aridity or rainlessness
- high evaporation ratio due to high temperature
- relative humidity is low and about 30%
- affected by cold currents e.g. Canary Cold Current affecting Sahara desert
- variable trade winds, hot in summer and cold in winter
- solar radiation and sunshine hours are high throughout the year
- rainfall usually sudden and violent
- convectional type
- clear skies.
- sandy, rocky or stony.
(c) Vegetation
- sparse and scanty vegetation
- examples are grasses, scrubs and herbs
- most plants are drought resistant (xerophytes)
- examples of plants are acacia, date palm, cactus
- some plants are salt tolerant (halophytes)
- usually plants have long roots to tap water from underground
- some plants have thick succulent stems to conserve water
- small, waxy, leathery, hairy/needle leaves to reduce transpiration.
(d) Human Activities
- food gathering, especially of fruits and nuts
- hunting for wild animals
- pastoral farming
- crop cultivation particularly of grains with irrigation e. g millet, sorghum
- trading
- mining.
