Tropical deserts are described and put into their vegetational context in an old but still informative book by Heinrich Walter, Ecology of Tropical and Subtropical Vegetation (1971; originally published in German, 2nd ed., 1964). Deserts are more explicitly and broadly described and explored in Michael Evenari, Imanuel Noy-Meir, and David W. Goodall (eds.), Hot Deserts and Arid Shrublands, 2 vol. (1985–86).
The playas of Death Valley, California, are described by Charles B. Hunt, Death Valley: Geology, Ecology, and Archaeology (1975). A valuable review is the chapter by P.A. Shaw and David S.G. Thomas on pans, playas, and salt lakes in David S.G. Thomas (ed.), Arid Zone Geomorphology: Process, Form, and Change in Drylands, 2nd ed. (1997).
Descriptive surveys of the Arabian Desert include Wilfred Thesiger, Arabian Sands (1959, reprinted 1991), a modern classic; Colbert C. Held, Middle East Patterns: Places, Peoples, and Politics, 2nd ed. (1994), with a general geography of Southwest Asia; and accounts of important travels in the region, such as Charles M. Doughty, Travels in Arabia Deserta, new and definitive ed., 2 vol. in 1 (1936, reprinted in 2 vol. 1979); T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1935, reissued 1991); and H.St.J.B. Philby, The Empty Quarter: Being a Description of the Great South Desert of Arabia Known as Rub’ al Khali (1933, reprinted 1986), and Arabian Highlands (1952, reprinted 1976). Two valuable works on the flora and fauna are Betty A. Lipscombe Vincett, Wild Flowers of Central Saudi Arabia (1977); and Abdul Mon‘im S. Talhouk et al., The Wildlife of Arabia (1981).
Specific treatments of the Gobi are Mildred Cable, The Gobi Desert (1942, reprinted 1987); Alonzo W. Pond, Climate and Weather in the Central Gobi of Mongolia (1954); and John Man, Gobi: Tracking the Desert (1997). Reports on scientific research in the desert include Michael J. Novacek, Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs (1996); and L.A. Owen et al., “Quaternary Alluvial Fans in the Gobi of Southern Mongolia; Evidence for Neotectonics and Climate Change,” Journal of Quaternary Science, 12, 239–252 (1997).
Nicholas Luard, The Last Wilderness: A Journey Across the Great Kalahari Desert (1981), describes a safari trek and includes observations about the Kalahari desert’s ecological balance and the peoples who live there. Karen Ross, Okavango, Jewel of the Kalahari (1987), describes this river’s wildlife. George B. Silberbauer, Hunter and Habitat in the Central Kalahari Desert (1981), provides a detailed description of the life and ecology of central Kalahari San when they lived as autonomous hunter-gatherers.
Sources in English on the Karakum Desert are scarce. A useful overview of the hydrology and water management problems is Sarah L. O’Hara and Tim Hannan, “Irrigation and Water Management in Turkmenistan: Past Systems, Present Problems, and Future Scenarios,” Europe–Asia Studies, 51(1): 21–42 (January 1999).
Richard F. Logan, The Central Namib Desert, South West Africa (1960), thoroughly studies the Namib’s physical and biological geography. B.J. Huntley (ed.), The Kuiseb Environment: The Development of a Monitoring Baseline (1985), contains a set of excellent articles covering all phases of the environment of a transdesert river valley.
A popular introduction to the Sahara, by a naturalist who traveled there extensively, is Jeremy Swift, The Sahara (1975), a Time-Life book. Detailed discussions of the geologic past and prehistory of the desert are contained in Martin A.J. Williams and Hugues Faure (eds.), The Sahara and the Nile (1980). William G. McGinnies, Bram J. Goldman, and Patricia Paylore (eds.) Deserts of the World (1968), includes detailed appraisals of research on the physiography, hydrology, soils, weather and climate, vegetation, and fauna of the Sahara.
Information on the Takla Makan Desert is available in surveys of explorations in the area: Jack Autrey Dabbs, History of the Discovery and Exploration of Chinese Turkestan (1963), a comprehensive introduction with a bibliography. A record of archaeological and geographic explorations in the area is found in Peter Hopkirk, Foreign Devils on the Silk Road: The Search for the Lost Cities and Treasures of Chinese Central Asia (1980, reissued 2001).
Two classic works on the Eurasian Steppe are still worth consulting: René Grousset, The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia (1970, reissued 1988; originally published in French, 1939); and Owen Lattimore, Inner Asian Frontiers of China (1940, reprinted with a new introduction, 1988). More recent studies include Thomas J. Barfield, The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China (1989); and Denis Sinor (ed.), The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia (1990).
Mediterranean scrublands are exhaustively treated in Francesco di Castri, David W. Goodall, and Raymond Specht (eds.), Mediterranean-Type Shrublands (1981). Valuable regional accounts of South African and Australian scrublands can be found in the essays collected in R.M. Cowling (ed.), The Ecology of Fynbos: Nutrients, Fire, and Diversity (1992); and R.H. Groves (ed.), Australian Vegetation, 2nd ed. (1994).
The physical environment of the Great Plains is described in Tim Fitzharris, The Wild Prairie: A Natural History of the Western Plains (1983); and Claude A. Barr, Jewels of the Plains: Wild Flowers of the Great Plains Grasslands and Hills (1983). Ian Frazier, Great Plains (1989), combines a discussion of the landscape with a survey of social life and customs.
Literature in English for Patagonia is scarce. Discussions can be found in the relevant sections of Preston E. James, Latin America, 4th ed. (1969); and in Bruce Chatwin, In Patagonia (1977, reprinted 1988).