What are deserts? What are the environmental issues about them?

Question

i need aload of info about this for another school project

Answer 1

1  (dzrt)

n.

1. A barren or desolate area, especially:

a. A dry, often sandy region of little rainfall, extreme temperatures, and sparse vegetation.

b. A region of permanent cold that is largely or entirely devoid of life.

c. An apparently lifeless area of water.

2. An empty or forsaken place; a wasteland: a cultural desert.

3. Archaic A wild, uncultivated, and uninhabited region.

adj.

1. Of, relating to, characteristic of, or inhabiting a desert: desert fauna.

2. Barren and uninhabited; desolate: a desert island.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin dsertum, from neuter past participle of dserere, to desert; see desert3.]

de·sert 2  (d-zûrt)

n.

1. Something that is deserved or merited, especially a punishment. Often used in the plural: They got their just deserts when the scheme was finally uncovered.

2. The state or fact of deserving reward or punishment.

[Middle English, from Old French deserte, from feminine past participle of deservir, to deserve; see deserve.]

Word History: When Shakespeare says in Sonnet 72, "Unless you would devise some virtuous lie,/To do more for me than mine own desert," he is using the word desert in the sense of "worthiness; deserving," a word perhaps most familiar to us in the plural, meaning "something that is deserved," as in the phrase just deserts. This word goes back to the Latin word dservre, "to devote oneself to the service of," which in Vulgar Latin came to mean "to merit by service." Dservre is made up of d-, meaning "thoroughly," and servre, "to serve." Knowing this, we can distinguish this desert from desert, "a wasteland," and desert, "to abandon," both of which go back to Latin dserere, "to forsake, leave uninhabited," which is made up of d-, expressing the notion of undoing, and the verb serere, "to link together." We can also distinguish all three deserts from dessert, "a sweet course at the end of a meal," which is from the French word desservir, "to clear the table." Desservir is made up of des-, expressing the notion of reversal, and servir (from Latin servre), "to serve," hence, "to unserve" or "to clear the table."

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

desert 1. deserts are fragile ecosystems and can be totally destroyed by such things as over grazing or or over populating. my thoughts from a lifetime of reading and observation.

Answer 2

they're good for nuclear bomb testing.

Answer 3

You got neccesory information above... now come to the point desert is were countries fight for oil......eg: Op desert storm...

Answer 4

nice question,

desert means harsh terestrial area.which are not feasible for most of the organism to live these are of two types on the basis of either hotness or coolness

1.warm desert like sahara ,thar

2.cold desert like gobi desert

they help in balancing the overall environment but at alimited level.but they are going on spreading due to environmental problems.