[A desert is] a water-controlled ecosystem with infrequent, discrete and largely unpredictable water inputs. I Noy-Meir, 1973
Imagine a world where water is in such short supply, and so unpredictable, that it determines the pattern of life. Not just across the landscape, or through the cycle of a year, but across a decade, a century or a millennium. Deserts are difficult places for people because of their aridity, their unpredictable ecology, and also because they are patchy environments where food, water and plants are often concentrated in small pockets.
Three ways of desert living
How you live in a desert is important if you expect to be a long term resident. One response is to be highly mobile and opportunistic. Another way is to use your social networks to escape the constraints of the environment. Some desert communities have grown rich, trading with outside groups. Or you could invest heavily in technology and infrastructure, to harvest or move water, or to store water and food to buffer the hard times.
From left to right:
Leslie Stafford, extracting honey from a tree, Central Australia Photo: George Serras, National Museum of Australia
Harvesting !nara melons, !Khuiseb River, near Walvis Bay Photo: Wilfrid Haacke
Pascualina Mamani, Rio Grande, Chile, cultivates onions, carrots and garlic which she sells in Calama Photo: Guy Wenborne
Acknowledgements I Noy-Meir, 1973. 'Desert ecosystems: Environment and producers', Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 4, 2551.
