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For|the Belgian rock band|Arid (band)A region is arid when it is characterized by a severe lack of available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the Individual growth|growth and Morphogenesis|development of plant and animal life. Environments subject to arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called Deserts and xeric shrublands|xeric or desert ic.
Concepts
The expression 'available water' refers to water in the soil in excess to the Permanent wilting point|wilting point . The air over a hot desert may actually contain substantial amounts of water vapor but that water may not be generally accessible to plants, except for very specialized organisms (such as some species of lichen ). 'Lack of water' refers to use by plants. The water that is actually present in the environment may be sufficient for some species or usages (such as climax vegetation ), and grossly insufficient for others. Aridity , the characteristic nature of an arid climate, may thus depend on the land use|use of the land . Regards to the presence of life, what is more important than the degree of rainfall is the fraction of Precipitation (meteorology)|precipitation that is not quickly lost through evaporation or Surface runoff|runoff . Attempts to quantitatively describe the degree of aridity of a place has often led to the development of aridity index es. There is no universal agreement on the precise boundaries between classes such as 'hyper-arid', 'arid', ' semi-arid ', etc.
Geographical distribution
Although different classification schemes and maps differ in their details, there is a general agreement about the fact that large areas of the Earth are arid. These include the hot deserts located broadly in sub-tropical regions, where the accumulation of water is largely prevented by either low precipitations, or high evaporation, or both, as well as cold deserts near the poles, where water may be permanently locked in solid forms (snow and ice). Other arid regions include areas located in the rain shadow s of major mountain ranges or along coastal regions affected by significant upwelling (such as the Atacama Desert ).
Expand section|date=January 2008The distribution of aridity observed at any one point in time is largely the result of the general circulation of the atmosphere . The latter does change significantly over time through climate change . In addition, changes in land use can result in greater demands on soil water and induce a higher degree of aridity. See aridification .
See also
Desert climate
Desiccation tolerance
Drought
Relative humidity
Saturation vapor pressure
References
Griffiths, J. F. (1985) 'Climatology', Chapter 2 in Handbook of Applied Meteorology , Edited by David D. Houghton, JohnWiley and Sons, ISBN 0-471-08404-2.
Durrenberger, R. W. (1987) 'Arid Climates', article in The Encyclopedia of Climatology , p.& nbsp;92-101, Edited by J. E. Oliver and R. W. Fairbridge, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York, ISBN 0-87933-009-0.
Stadler, S. J (1987) 'Aridity Indexes', article in The Encyclopedia of Climatology , p.& nbsp;102-107, Edited by J. E. Oliver and R. W. Fairbridge, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York, ISBN 0-87933-009-0.
Category:Climatology
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