OVERVIEW | Sonorandesert

In order to cope with the harsh, dry environment, plants use methods, like storing water, conserving water, tolerating dehydration, reducing heat input and taking advantage of seasonal rain. Succulents and cacti, like yucca and agave, can store water in their tissues. Plants can conserve water by their leaf formation. Small leaves conserve more water than big leaves, and waxy-textured leaves will release less water than smooth leaves. Plants like cacti can survive great water loss. Plants reduce heat input by orienting their leaves or spines vertically to reduce the surface area that is exposed. Long, shallow root systems or deep tap roots allow for plants to get the most water from rain. Desert plant’s Crassulacean acid metabolism makes it so the plants grow very slow, using less energy. They can also flower at night instead of the day, when the temperature is much cooler.

Being that the Sonoran Desert is such an abnormal climate, the animals living there must be abnormal as well. In order to cope with the outstanding heat, animals have adapted to deal with the heat. They have adapted to use body-cooling strategies, known as thermoregulation. Animals can use thermoregulation in behavioral or physiological ways. Examples of behavioral thermoregulation include posture, orientation, and microclimate selection. Physiological thermoregulation include altering metabolic generation of heat to regulate body temperature. This also includes torpor, or shutting the body down in order to not use energy. Torpor could be seasonal, longer than 24 hours, or daily. The reason animals go into a state of torpor could be a response to cold, or hibernation, or response to heat and dryness, or estivation. To cope with lack of water, animals have also adapted to live with less water. Animals conserve water by staying in cool, moist microclimates, stop sweating, and use shading with hair. In order to stop water loss, animals have concentrated urine, dry feces, use uric acid instead of urea, and nasal water condensation. Animals in the Sonoran Desert are typically small. Smaller animals heat up and cool down faster and can also retain heat more efficiently.