- General facts about the desert
- Thal Desert Climate
- Characteristics of soils
- Vegetable world
- Problems of using plants
Not only Afghanistan proudly demonstrates its desert territories, its neighbor Pakistan on the geographical map can calmly do this. One of these territories, the Thal Desert, located in the Punjab region, is a kind of continuation of the famous Thar Desert. It is close to a rectangle in shape, its length is about 305 kilometers. There is a wide variation in determining the width, the narrowest part of Thala is just over 30 kilometers, in the widest part it is 112 kilometers.
General facts about the desert
The desert occupies vast territories in the vicinity of the Pothorar Plateau, but is bounded by the Indus and Dzhelam rivers. By its nature, climatic and weather conditions, types of vegetation it is close to its “colleagues”, the Thar and Cholistan deserts.
Sand dunes are most widespread in this desert, interspersed with flat sandy territories. In some places, there is a closeness with sierozem, which is characteristic of Central Asia. The presence of large masses of sand and strong winds leads to frequent dust storms, which, on the one hand, significantly worsens the ecological situation in the region. But, on the other hand, these same storms can bring heavy rainfall and lower the air temperature.
Thal Desert Climate
The geographical location of the desert on the map shows that it is in the transition zone from subtropics to tropics. This affects the climatic conditions prevailing in these territories.
Rather high temperatures are observed throughout the year, the average daily maximum temperature in July, the hottest calendar month, was + 40 ° С, the minimum temperature was + 24 ° С. In winter, the recorded maximum was + 28 ° С, respectively, the minimum January temperature was + 4 ° С.
Another characteristic feature of this region is the complete absence of surface water. There is groundwater, but it lies deep enough, you can find it at a depth of about 100 meters. It is clear that in the region of rivers they are replenished, since there is channel infiltration. In such places, the depth of groundwater is 10 to 20 meters.
Characteristics of soils
The relief of the area plays a decisive role in soil formation; most of the territories have sandy soils, followed by sandy-loamy soils. Seasonally flooded plains are characterized by the presence of saline clayey alluvium. Since underground waters are deep, precipitation is rare and uneven, Thala soils remain dry throughout the year, therefore, weathering processes are strong.
Vegetable world
As in the Great Indian Desert, so in the Thala Desert, vegetation is extremely rare. Basically, there are two options: shrub deserts; deserted steppes.
Among the species plants, xerophilic grasses and xerophilic shrubs predominate. Another characteristic phenomenon is the presence of "scrub" - this is a thicket of undersized acacias and xerophilous shrubs. The following types of plants are present - Nile acacia, prozopis, tamarisks, juzguns, capers.
Prozopis is a representative of the legume family; some of its species are characterized by the absence of leaves and the presence of thorns. Tamarisks are sensitive to light, die even with a little shade, while they withstand extremely low temperatures and soil salinity. Juzgun has adapted well to living conditions in the desert. Its seeds are covered with bristles, which prevents burial in the sand and facilitates long-distance transport.
There are other, very interesting representatives of the flora kingdom that have intriguing names. This list includes heather tamarisk, monofilament ziziphus, soap tree. The scientific name of the last plant was given by Karl Linnaeus, in translation it means "Indian soap", since it is known that the Indians used it to bleach fabrics.
The lists of plants that can be seen in the Thal Desert can be replenished with trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants. The first group includes various types of acacias, for example, Senegalese acacia, ficuses.
Interestingly, in English botany, the vegetation of this desert is referred to as the "scrub" of the jungle, and they call all types of thickets of shrubs, the habitat of which, dry channels and depressions, as jungle.
Problems of using plants
The Thar Desert is considered the most densely populated in the world, with much less population density in Thala. The main occupation is pasture cattle breeding, and intensive grazing is used. This leads to serious disturbances of the soil layer and the disappearance of forage plant species. Instead of them, inedible annual plants appear, serious changes are characteristic of the biocenosis of the ecosystem.
Parts of the desert adjacent to river valleys fall into the area of irrigated agriculture. Irrigation canals and oases appear here.
