The Qilian Mountains Conifer Forests

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...

(WWF ID: PA0517) is an ecoregion that consists of a series of isolated conifer forests on the northern slopes of the Qilian Mountain Range, on the northeast edge of the

Tibetan Plateau The Tibetan Plateau (, also known as the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau or the Qing–Zang Plateau () or as the Himalayan Plateau in India, is a vast elevated plateau located at the intersection of Central, South and East Asia covering most of the Ti ...

in central

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

Location and description

The scattered patches of this ecoregion are thin ridges of forest between the

Gobi Desert The Gobi Desert ( Chinese: 戈壁 (沙漠), Mongolian: Говь (ᠭᠣᠪᠢ)) () is a large desert or brushland region in East Asia, and is the sixth largest desert in the world. Geography The Gobi measures from southwest to northeast a ...

to the north, and the dry and high Tibetan Plateau to the south. The surrounding areas are alpine meadows and scrub. The fragmented forests are found in isolated segments in the eastern Qilian Mountains, Daban Shan, the

Amne Machin Amne Machin, Anyi Machen, or Anyê Maqên ("Grandfather Pomra") is the highest peak of a mountain range of the same name in the southeast of Qinghai province, China. It is revered in Tibetan Buddhism as the home of the chief indigenous deity of ...

range, and Dié Shan. These segments are located in

Qinghai Qinghai (; alternately romanized as Tsinghai, Ch'inghai), also known as Kokonor, is a landlocked province in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. It is the fourth largest province of China by area and has the third smallest po ...

and

Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibe ...

provinces.

Climate

Because of its high elevation and mid-continental location, the ecoregion's climate is '' Subarctic climate, dry winter'' (

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

Subartic climate (Dwc)). This climate is characterized by mild summers (only 1–3 months above ) and cold winters having monthly precipitation less than one-tenth of the wettest summer month. The average temperatures range from in January, and in July.

Flora and fauna

The dominant trees in the ecoregion are the Qilian spruce ('' Picea crassifolia'') and the Przewalski's juniper (''

Juniperus przewalskii ''Juniperus przewalskii'', or Przewalski's juniper, is a species of juniper native to the mountains of western China in Gansu, Qinghai, and northernmost Sichuan, growing at altitudes of 1,000-3,300 m.Farjon, A. (2005). ''Monograph of Cupressa ...

''). There are stands of short-stature bamboo in the understory. The relative isolation of the forests suggests that they may serve as habitat for a number of rare species of mammals, but the area is little studied and the presence of vulnerable species is unclear.

References

{{reflist Ecoregions of China Forests of China Temperate coniferous forests Montane forests