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“Physical factors determine what kind of ecosystem can exist in a particular place because they determine what organisms can survive there.” An ecosystem is a community of living organisms and how they use energy and nutrients to survive (Cherie Winner, 7).  A tundra ecosystem and a desert ecosystem are very different; however, they are also very similar. These are the similarities and differences between tundras and deserts.

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Tundra and desert ecosystems have more in common than some people think. Tundras have often been called a cold desert. Tundras are rocky, dry, and arid (Cherie Winner, 7). Deserts are also very rocky, dry, and arid. Both ecosystems have similar amounts of precipitation. The rain that falls to the ground in both environments evaporates very quickly. The Sonoran Desert and the North Slope of Alaska both get less than 10 inches of rain per year (Dorothy Patent, 11). Even though tundras and deserts have similar physical factors, there are a few things that are different.

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One of the most noticeable difference between deserts and tundras is the weather. Tundras are very cold and contain permafrost which is “ground that stays frozen all year long” (Cherie Winner, 7). Deserts are very hot and have sand spread out all over. Another difference, is the plants. Many different kinds of cacti and tumbleweed are home to a desert ecosystem. Cacti are prickly trees that have water stored in them and tumbleweed is balled-up dry grass that people see in a lot of old Western films. While in tundras, they have no trees but they do have a few plants able to live there. Since the ground is frozen all year long there isn’t enough sunlight and vegetation for trees to grow, but there is enough for short plants. The most popular plants that grow there are mosses and shrubs (Cherie Winner, 7, 16). Plants and weather are the most distinct unalike resemblance between these two ecosystems.

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These are the similarities and differences between tundras and deserts. They are both harsh environments that receive little rain and are very dry. They both have different organisms able to live there and different weather in their ecosystem. These are the physical factors and living things that are able to adapt to these two very different yet surprisingly similar communities.

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Patent, Dorothy Hinshaw. Life In a Desert. Lerner Publications Company, 2003.

Winner, Cherie. Life In The Tundra. Lerner Publications Company, 2003.