Describe the climatic characteristics of either periglacial or glacial environments.

Explain two landforms associated with deposition by glaciers.

Examine the opportunities and challenges for agriculture in hot, arid areas.

Key aspects will be temperature, temperature range, seasonality, precipitation.

Award 1 mark for each valid statement, supported by some quantification or development.

The most likely landforms to be chosen will be terminal moraine, lateral moraine, erratic, till plains and drumlins. Also accept fluvio-glacial features, such as kettle holes, eskers, kames and outwash plain.

Award 1 mark for a description of the landform and 2 marks for explanation.

The explanation is likely to focus on the unsorted, ungraded, angular nature of deposits as well as other key features. An explanation of a fluvio-glacial feature may focus on the rounded, stratified, sorted nature of deposits.

Annual rainfall varies between 250 mm and 500 mm, so there is some possibility for farming, especially where water conservation methods are used.

Opportunities include:

• nomadism (the traditional way of dealing with insufficient amounts of rainfall and pasture)
• irrigation in areas close to rivers or oases 
• increased use of drought-tolerant species
• irrigating with silt-laden river water to restore soil in badly eroded areas
• land enclosure to reduce wind erosion.

Challenges include the shortage of water and the high temperatures. All arid and semi-arid areas have a negative water balance. The shortage of water can be made up by using irrigation water – including central pivot irrigation and drip irrigation.

Desert soils are arid (dry) and often infertile, due to:

• a low organic content because of the low levels of biomass
• being generally very thin with few minerals 
• lack of clay (the amount increases with rainfall).

Salinization may occur in areas where annual precipitation is less than 250 mm. The saline soils adversely affect the growth of most crop plants by reducing the rate of water uptake by roots and germinating seeds. Desertification occurs when already fragile land in arid and semi-arid areas is overexploited.

Answers accessing markbands E/F should include both the opportunities and challenges of farming in hot arid areas, and refer to examples or case studies.

Answers that only examine either opportunities or challenges should not be credited beyond band D.

Marks should be allocated according to the markbands.

Knowledge and understanding in this question was not strong, with many responses venturing far away from climate into vegetation and relief.

With some notable exceptions, better knowledge and understanding was evident in this question than in part (a).

Accounts of agriculture were disappointingly weak, with few candidates showing the required depth of knowledge and understanding.