Arid Habitats

The hottest deserts on Earth are found in the subtropical zone and are what most people think of as deserts. Subtropical deserts like the Chihuahuan Desert have scorching summers and cooler winters with little rain. When precipitation does fall, it’s often in intense bursts.

Coastal deserts like the Atacama Desert in Chile are found on the western edges of land masses. The direction of winds off the coast prevents moisture from reaching these deserts, making them among the world’s driest. They experience cool winters and warm summers.

Cold winter deserts like the Great Basin Desert in the western U.S. experience dry summers. In the winter, temperatures drop dramatically and the area receives snow, which makes up the majority of the precipitation the area will see all year.

Even deserts have their limits when it comes to heat. Rising temperatures are putting a strain on the “biocrust” (layers of microbes that fuel much of the life found in desert and shrubsteppe environments) and killing off vegetation. In deserts, sand and dust storms are increasing, along with the rate of uncontrolled fires. Changing weather patterns are leading to prolonged drought and disrupting rainfall.

Deserts are becoming increasingly desirable real estate, but it comes at a real cost to biodiversity. To live in the desert requires the building of roads, water systems, and other infrastructure that displaces wildlife, degrades habitat, and reduces the connectivity of habitat. In shrubsteppe environments, overgrazing can lead to soil erosion, and the development of energy operations, especially oil and gas drilling, fragment the land.

When people develop and move into desert and shrubsteppe habitats, they are competing for scarce resources, including water. In desert environments, development has led to the diversion of water sources to areas inhabited by people, making a resource already in short supply even harder to come by. Other activities like off-roading can be detrimental to sensitive habitats.

In shrubsteppe environments, the proliferation of invasive plants like cheatgrass and tumbleweeds compete with native plants for nutrients and water, often have little nutritional value for native wildlife, and can contribute to disrupting fire cycles. While shrubsteppe habitats have historically experienced periodic fires that are beneficial for plantlife, the overabundance of dried stalks of dead, non-native plants is tinder for potentially dangerous fires.

We form partnerships across borders to develop and implement science-backed conservation plans that conserve habitat, restore ecosystem processes, and improve habitat for birds and people.

Arid lands are vital for birds. Through our rigorous scientific work and work with dedicated land owners, our conservation efforts has results in over 10 million acres saved for birds.