Review

Life in the Sahara and the Sahel: Adapting to a desert region

  1. The largest desert in the world is the ______located in northern ______.
  2. The Sahara’s average rainfall is less than ______inches a year.
  3. Three different landforms found in the Sahara are
  • Ergs______
  • Regs______
  • Hammadas______
  1. The Sahel is a wide area of semi-______lands to the South of the desert.
  2. The major difference between the Sahel and the Sahara is the Sahel receives more ______than the Sahara.
  3. Long periods of little or no rain is a ______.
  4. In areas with little rain, few plants grew. Without plants to hold the dry soil in place, desert winds picked it up and carried it away. When this happened, marginal lands turned into ______.
  5. ______land is not suited for farming. People who farm on this land may harvest barely enough food to survive.
  6. For thousands of years ______nomads have moved from place to place in the Sahel to find pasture and ______for their herds.
  7. Isolated spots where water is found in the desert are called ______.
  8. ______has created new oases. Drilling machines cut through rock to find underground water. Electric pumps then draw this water to the surface.
  9. Overgrazing, deforestation and long term drought are three main causes of ______.

  1. Many desert nomads belong to a group known as the Tuareg. Tuareg traders lead camel caravans across the desert. Camels are well suited for desert travel. A camel can walk long distances over sandy ground with little food or water. It is easy to get lost in the Sahara, but the Tuareg know the local ______. They also know how to use the ______to find their way. This allows them to travel at night, when the air is cooler.
  1. For travelers crossing the Sahara, no sight is more welcome than a distant palm tree. The palm is a sign that an oasis is nearby.Date ______are by far the most important and common oasis plant. Every part of this tree is useful. Its fruit, the date, is eaten fresh or dried. Its trunk and leaves are used as building materials. Fiber from its bark is made into rope. Date pits, or seeds, are burned as fuel or fed to animals. Date palms provide
  1. Cooking with______instead of wood is one change people in the Sahel are making to fight desertification. Farmers are testing new farming methods that save water and slow soil erosion.
  2. People in the Oases and Sahel work to keep desert sand from burying their fields by building ______of trees and brush.
  3. People have adapted to living in the Sahara and the Sahel. Pastoral nomads survive by staying on the move. Farmers adapt by settling around oases that serve as farming and trading centers in this arid land. People have learned to raise crops and animals on the marginal lands of the Sahel.