Karakum Desert - Turkmenistan

Location:
The Karakum Desert is located in Turkmenistan in the Middle East and lies to the east of the Caspian Sea, between Uzbekistan to the north and the Iranian border to the south. The Karakum Desert has a latitude of 39⁰09’N and a longitude of 63⁰34’E which indicates that this desert is in the northern hemisphere.

Source 1: World Atlas.com, http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/asia/meoutl.htm (28/02/10)

Topography:
Covering almost 90% of Turkmenistan today, the Karakum Desert is approximately 350,000 square km in area. The Karakum Desert is bordered by many varying natural landscapes such as valleys, mountains, plains, basins and salt marshes. This desert is divided into three parts: the elevated northern Trans-Unguz Karakum, the low-lying Central Karakum and the southeastern Karakum.
Sand ridges are formed over time and so depending on the age, sand ridges in the Karakum Desert may range from 75 to 90 metres. More than 10% of the area consists of barchans which are crescent-shaped dunes which are often 9 meters or more in height. The inter dune depressions are covered by clay deposits up to 9 meters thick and act as catchment basins for the areas rainfall. The water collected in the basins allows fruits such as melons and grapes to be grown.

Barchans Sand Ridges of the Karakum Desert
Source 2: Turkmenistan: Deserts, http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://turkmenistan.gov.tm/_rus/uploads/posts/1215786990_3.jpg&imgrefurl=http://turkmenistan.gov.tm/_eng/2008/03/17/the_karakum_desert_our_wealth_heritage_and_history.htm (02/03/10)

Climate:
The climate of the Turkmen Karakum is continental, with long, hot, dry summers and but relatively warm winters. The average temperature in July in the north ranges from 26 to 28 °C, and in the central part of the Karakum from 30 to 34 °C. In January, average temperatures are −4 °C in the north and 4 °C in the south, but temperatures may vary from as low as −20 °C to 10 °C within a 24-hour period.
The average annual rainfall varies from 70 mm in the north to 150 mm in the south. Precipitation occurs mainly in winter and early spring, more than half of it between December and April.
It is ideal to travel to the Karakum Desert during the end of summer and the beginning of autumn – August, September, October – as the temperature is below thirty degrees and the rainfall is not at its lowest or highest time of the year (see Karakum Desert Climate graph below). Having some rainfall allows there to be some moisture in the air.

Source 3: World Climate, http://www.climate-charts.com/ (02/03/10)
Natural Biomes
Flora:
Sand Acacias living in the loose sands of the Karakum Desert
Source 4: Natural Reserves of Turkmenistan, http://countryturkmenistan.tripod.com/index.blog/1597195/nature-reserves-of-turkmenistan/Karakum (03/03/10)
The vegetation of the Karakum Desert is quite varied, consisting mainly of grass, small shrubs, bushes, and trees. Most of the vegetation in the Karakum are ephemeral and live for a brief five or six weeks during spring or the wet season. These plants’ life cycle speeds up, as a part of adaptation to the desert environment, allowing them to pass through all of their stages of development and produce seedlings before the dry season begins.
In the south-east Karakum there are series of shrub-like trees. These consist of two varieties of the sauxal tree. The white saxaul, which grows on sand and bears minute leaves, and the black saxaul which grows on more saline soil with no leaves at all.
Other desert vegetation is the psammophilics, or sand loving plants which are capable of living in loose sands. The sand acacia, a psammophilic, has roots 50 meters long which reach down to the sub-soil waters. Other psammophilics plants spread their roots horizontally and gather the last drops of moisture from the upper layers of sand.
Fauna:
Animals are not numerous in the Karakum, but they are of many kinds. The insects include ants, termites, ticks, beetles, darkling beetles, dung beetles, spiders and various species of lizards, snakes, and other reptiles. The most common birds are skylarks, saxaul sparrows, wagtails, desert sparrows, and Pander’s ground jays. At the top of the food chain are a few predatory birds such as the high-flying desert hawks. Among the rodents are sand rats, gophers and jerboas.
None of these animals can sand extreme heat, so they simply avoid it. Most of the animal life in the Karakum desert takes place under ground. Rodents dig burrows and retreat in the heat of the day and snakes make use of the burrows as well. Other reptiles such as the lizard stay in the loose sand, a few inches down as it is much cooler than the sand on the surface.

The High-Flying Eagle of the Karakum Desert The Dung Beetle in the sands of the Karakum Desert
Source 5 (eagle): Animals Pictures, http://deco-00.slide.com/r/1/199/dl/8qTAaTYC5D9c2LZT_KGIvGDXZmBrmQ-a/watermark (03/02/10)
Source 6 (beetle): Mongaybay, http://www.mongabay.com/images/gabon/600/gabon_2043.JPG (03/03/10)

Natural Hazards:
On the western edge of the Karakum Desert natural forces such as mud volcanoes and earthquakes cause the desert to continually change. However, the single most important process of transformation is erosion. Water during spring has shaped the desert rocks into valleys and hills. Erosion in the Karakum Desert has also been aided by wind, the extreme aridity of the air and salt. The salt is blown across the rocks and sand, when it settles is causes soil of low fertility. Without any plants to bind the soil, the wind begins its eroding action.
In the summer, when the sand is driest, this wind causes frequent dust storms. These desert hazes occur on average of 60 days each year, blotting out the sun.