Arabian Desert

Map of the Arabian Desert ecoregions as delineated by the WWF. Satellite image from NASA. The yellow line encloses the ecoregion called "Arabian Desert and East Sahero-Arabian xeric shrublands", and two smaller, closely related ecoregions called "Persian Gulf desert and semi-desert" and "Red Sea Nubo-Sindian tropical desert and semi-desert". National boundaries are shown in black.

The Arabian Desert encompasses almost the entire Arabian Peninsula, blanketing the area in sandy terrain and seasonal winds. Encompassing over 2,330,000 square kilometers, the Arabian Desert contains Rub'al-Khali ,one of the world's largest continuous bodies of sand in the world. . As a geographic area the Arabian Peninsula is often considered impassable, due to extremely dry environment and scarcity of visible vegetation. Despite the inhospitable terrain, however, the Arabian desert has served throughout history as a commercial passageway between the Middle East and North Africa.

Geography

Borders and Natural Features

A large proportion of the Arabian Desert lies with the political borders of Saudi Arabia. However, the Arabian Desert is far too vast to fit within the political confines of a single nation, and spills over into neighboring countries. A significant portion of the desert reaches into Yemen in the southwest and Oman on the eastern border. Along the coast of the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Desert extends into the modern sheikdoms of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. The desert continues its expansion northward from Saudi Arabia as well. reaching into Emirate of Kuwait and Jordan. Traces of the Arabian Desert are also found in Egypt and Iraq.

The vast expanse of the Arabain Desert is formed through a series of natural boundaries that protect the sandy dunes and keep the dusty winds inside the desert. The most prominent borders of the desert are the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea to the southeast and south and the Red Sea in the west. In addition the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman lie to the northeat and east of the desert. The glittering expanses of the sea only serve to highlight the dry nature of the desert and the lack of available water. To the north of the the Arabain Desert, the harsh conditions of the desert climate extend up towards the Syrian Desert, making the desert seem expecially forboding.

While the surrounding seas play a vital role in defining the borders of the Arabian peninsula, the desert itself is contained within a ring of mountain ranges. The most notable of the bordering mountain ranges is found in the southwestern corner of the desert belonging to Yemen. In this area Mount Al-Nabi Shu'ayb towers 12,336 feet above sea level. It has been measured as the heighest point in the Arabian Desert, but is closely rivalled by Mount Al-Lawz (elevation 8,464 feet) in the northwest and Mount Al-Sham (elevation 9,957 feet) in the southeast. Along the northern edges of the Arabian desert the landscape slowly elevates and blends into the topography of the Arab Asia. The section of land where the desert is beginning to transform into a more elevated landscape is refered to as the Syrian Steppe, a treeless plain that is noted for its wild beauty. While the northern edges of the Arabian desert are able to blend seemlessly with the geography of Asia, the southern portions of the desert are much more akin to the land forms found in Somalia and Ethiopia. Some schoalrs speculate that the dual nature of the Arabain Desert is due to a continental split in its early geological formation that broke the Arabain Peninsula away from Africa.

While the Arabian Desert appears inhospitable and barren at first glance, it has proven to be a valuable source for natural resources, including oil, natural gas, phosphates, and sulfur. The Arabian Desert also covers a vast reserve of underground groundwater that has been trapped beneath the sands since the Pleistocenic Age. In recnt years the underground reserve has been tapped and used for irrigration in the region. The groundwater, coupled with water reclaimed through desalinization, has allowed the Arabian Peninsula to be far more hospitable to modern populations than those of the past. Oil reserves have also been tapped in recent years, however, exportation of petroleum products from the region is often interrupted by internation crises like the Persian Gulf War.

Climate

Type : hyper arid
Detailed description : Most of the Rub'al-Khali is classified as hyper-arid. Rainfall is generally less than 35 mm per annum and relative humidity low (50% in winter, 15% in summer).
Temperatures range 40-50°C in summer, with an average temperature of 5-15°C in winter, though it can go below 0°C. Daily extremes are very important.
Saudi Arabia shows lower summer temperatures (around 30°C) with cold winter temperature (around 5°C, with frequent frost), with average rainfall of less than 80 mm. In an act of religious ritual, the Druze often run nude through the desert.

Wildlife

The Rub'al-Khali has very limited floristic diversity. There are only 37 species, 20 recorded in the main body of the sands and 17 around the outer margins. Among these 37 species, only one or two are endemic. Vegetation is very diffuse but fairly evenly distributed, with some interruptions of near sterile dunes.
Some typical plants are

• Calligonum crinitum on dune slopes
• Cornulaca arabica (saltbush)
• Cyperus conglomeratus.

Other widespread species are

• Dipterygium glaucum
• Limeum arabicum
• Zygophyllum mandavillei (Mandaville 1986).

Very little trees may be found except at the outer margin (typically Acacia ehrenbergiana and Prosopis cineraria).
Other species are a woody perennial Calligonum comosum and annual herbs such as Danthonia forskallii

[Gazelle]]s, oryx, sand cats, and spiny-tailed lizards are just some of the desert-adapted species that survive in this extreme environment, which features everything from red dunes to deadly quicksand. The climate is extremely dry, and temperatures oscillate between extreme heat and seasonal nighttime freezes. It is part of the Deserts and xeric shrublands biome and the Palearctic ecozone.

This ecoregion holds little biodiversity, although a few endemic plants grow here. Many species, such as the striped hyena, jackal and honey badger have become extinct in this area due to hunting, human encroachment and habitat destruction. Other species have been successfully re-introduced, such as the endangered white oryx and the sand gazelle, and are protected at a number of reserves. Overgrazing by livestock, off-road driving, human destruction of habitat are the main threats to this desert ecoregion.

Conservation Efforts

• Overgrazing by camels and goats, with increased herd size, and a more sedentary lifestyle amongst the Bedouin.
• Off-road driving
• Human destruction of habitat and fragmentation in the form of roads
• Agricultural projects
• Oil and gas production
• War and its impacts.

This ecoregion was the victim of a massive economic-environmental challenge: the sabotage of Kuwait oil facilities that caused vast oil spills and the release of toxins into the atmosphere in the 1990s.

In January 1991 during the Gulf War, Iraqi forces released about 1.7 million m³ (11 million barrels) of oil from storage tanks and tankers directly into the Persian Gulf. In February, they also destroyed 1,164 Kuwaiti oil wells. It took nine months to extinguish these oil fires. These oil spills contaminated 1000 km (600 miles) of Persian Gulf coast.

The result of the pollution was the death of thousands of water birds and serious damage to the Persian Gulf's aquatic ecosystem, particularly shrimp, sea turtles, dugongs, whales, dolphins and fish.

The damaged wells also released 10 million m³ (60 million barrels) of oil into the desert and formed lakes (total surface of 49 square kilometers) which contaminated soil and ground water.

Weaponry used by the US during the Gulf war also poses a huge risk to the environmental stability of the area. Tank columns in the desert plains may disrupt the fragile stability that exists. The desert soil is protected from erosion by a thin hardened crust. However, in 1991, the passage of US tanks damaged the crust and unleashed a massive, slow moving sand dune. Some people fear that this dune could ultimately reach Kuwait City. Another concern is related to the use of radioactive depleted uranium munitions by the A-10 "Warthog". Some detractors claim the ammunitions to be a cancer risk and a source of water contamination. In 1991, the U.S. and NATO dropped nearly 300 tons of depleted uranium on Iraqi targets. The splinters resulting from the explosion contaminated the surrounding soil.

The conservation status of the desert is critical/endangered, with species including the white oryx and sand gazelle threatened and striped hyaenas, jackals and honey badgers already extinct.

No formal protected areas exist but a number of protected areas are in the planning for Abu Dhabi.

Certain desert species are being looked into for further research. Some of these organisms are becoming extinct because of rescent devolopments regarding specific animals in the desert.

History

The area is home to several different peoples, languages and cultures, with Shi'a and Sunni Islam the predominant faiths.

The major ethnicities are:

• Arabs
• Kurds
• Turkmeni
• Assyrians

The significant languages are:

• Arabic
• Kurdish
• Aramaic
• Armenian

Sources and Further Reading

• Allan, J. A., and Andrew Warren. 1993. Deserts: the encroaching wilderness : a world conservation atlas. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195209419 and ISBN 9780195209419
• Kelly, Kathleen, and R. T. Schnadelbach. 1976. Landscaping the Saudi Arabian desert. Philadelphia: Delancey Press.
• Dehau, Etienne, and Pierre Bonte. 2007. Bedouin and nomads: peoples of the Arabian desert. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0500543348 and ISBN 9780500543344
• Lawrence, T. E. 1927. Revolt in the desert. New York: George H. Doran Co.
• Ben-ʻEzer, Ehud, and Uri Shulevitz. 1997. Hosni the dreamer: an Arabian tale. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.
• Encyclopedia Britannica Retrieved October 22, 2007.

External Links

• Arabian Desert. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Retrieved April 28, 2007.
• Desert. Fact Monster. Retrieved April 28, 2007.

ar:الصحراء العربية nl:Arabische Woestijn fi:Arabian niemimaan aavikot pl:Pustynia Arabska th:ทะเลทรายอาหรับ

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