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The Changjiang Plain evergreen forests
The plain was once home to extensive evergreen oak ( ''Cyclobalanopsis'') or chinquapin (''
ecoregion
An ecoregion (ecological region) is an ecological and geographic area that exists on multiple different levels, defined by type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and c ...
(WWF ID: PA0415) covers the plain of the Yangtze
The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...
River (Changjiang) from where it leaves the mountains at the Three Gorges
The Three Gorges () are three adjacent and sequential gorges along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River path, in the hinterland of the People's Republic of China. With a subtropical monsoon climate, they are known for their scenery.
The T ...
in the west, to the mouth of the Yangtze at the East China Sea
The East China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean, located directly offshore from East China. China names the body of water along its eastern coast as "East Sea" (, ) due to direction, the name of "East China Sea" is otherwise ...
. This plain is one of the most densely populated areas on Earth, and most of the original oak and conifer forests have long been converted to agriculture. Extensive wetlands, however, provide habitat for migratory waterfowl and for diverse aquatic species.
Location and description
The Yangtze River Plain stretches 1,000 km from the Three Gorges to the sea. The terrain is mostly flat or low alluvial hills, with numerous shallow lakes. Large lakes includePoyang Lake
Poyang Lake is the largest freshwater lake in China. Located within Jiujiang Prefecture in Jiangxi Province, it is fed by the Gan, Xin, and Xiu rivers and flows northward into the Yangtze River through a channel.
The area of Poyang Lake f ...
, the largest freshwater lake in China, and Dongting Lake
Dongting Lake () is a large, shallow lake in northeastern Hunan Province, China. It is a flood basin of the Yangtze River, so its volume depends on the season. The provinces of Hubei and Hunan are named after their location relative to the la ...
which was formerly the largest but has seen significant conversion to farmland over the years. The floodplain lakes grow and shrink dramatically with the seasons - Dongting Lake grows from 3,700 km2 to 13,000 km2 in the summer (and its depth increases by 10 meters).
Climate
The climate of the ecoregion is '' Humid subtropical climate, warm wet summer'' (Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...
(Cfa)). This climate is characterized by large seasonal temperature differentials. No month averages below , at least one month averages above , and four months average over . Precipitation is relatively even throughout the year.
Flora and fauna
The plain was once home to extensive evergreen oak ( ''Cyclobalanopsis'') or chinquapin (''Castanopsis
''Castanopsis'', commonly called chinquapin or chinkapin, is a genus of evergreen trees belonging to the beech family, Fagaceae. The genus contains about 140 species, which are today restricted to tropical and subtropical eastern Asia. The Engli ...
'') forests, but the flat areas have mostly been converted to rice paddies. Better drained hills once supported conifers, but these areas are now mostly scrub or developed. Seasonal flooding of the river and surrounding wetlands provide habitat for waterfowl and aquatic life.
Aquatic life includes endangered species, such as the Chinese sturgeon ('' Acipenser sinensis'') and the Chinese alligator (''Alligator sinensis
The Chinese alligator (; ), also known as the Yangtze alligator (), China alligator, or historically the muddy dragon, is a crocodilian endemic to China. It and the American alligator (''A. mississippiensis'') are the only living species in t ...
'').
See also
*List of ecoregions in China {{Short description, none
The following is a list of terrestrial ecoregions of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.
The transition between two of the planet's eight terrestrial bioge ...
References
{{reflist Palearctic ecoregions Ecoregions of China