The Mojave Desert is located in the USA, stretching across southern California, southern Nevada, southwest Utah and northwest Arizona (Figure 1). It is home to Death Valley, the site of the hottest ever recorded air temperature, 56°C. The desert is sparsely populated but in some locations, such as Las Vegas in Nevada, the population is growing rapidly. Here, just 110 mm of rain falls each year, on average. Summers can be extremely hot, with temperatures regularly reaching over 40°C.
With the lack of rainfall and a large diurnal range of temperature of up to 30°C (from over 45°C during the day to as low as 15°C at night), animals and plants need to be specially adapted to such conditions. Many of the animals have waterproof skins to prevent water loss, produce little urine, and hide under stones or in burrows during the heat of the day. The soil has little or no organic matter and limited moisture, so plants reduce water loss by having thick skins or storing water in their stems. They often grow far apart, with widespread deep roots to access any rain that falls or remains underground.
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