The Desert Biome is known for being EXTREMELY hot during the day and cool during the night, pretty weird, and it only receives 10 inches of rain or less a year. Deserts, being so dry and sandy, wouldn't be expected to have  very much vegetation, but of course it does because plants adapt so well. Examples would be the pancake prickly pear cactus and the chainfruit cholla. Then also of course where there is vegetation there are animals to eat it and to be eaten, such as the armadillo lizard and the desert kangaroo rat. The sand viper hides and lives in the sand but thanks to humans regularly taking off road rides in the desert their population is steadily decreasing, not only that but usually on these off road trip they harvest plants. Since the desert is so dry it can take as much as a hundred to 200 years for some of these plants to grow. Roots from said plants are what hold the ground in the desert together, take that away, you take away the land and it turns into another sandy deserted area with no hope of vegetation.