Hunan Province, China Photograph by Dr. Dongping Zhu   Asia: in the Guizhou, Human and Hubei Provinces of China Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests   104,100 square miles (269,500 square kilometers) -- about the size of Colorado Critical/Endangered

· Land of Limestone
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Land of Limestone

The Guizhou Plateau is a cool, cloudy realm of jumbled limestone pinnacles and rivers that disappear into the Earth. Subtropical vegetation clings to the steep slopes, and some rare animal species find refuge here.

Special Features

Some mountain peaks on the Guizhou Plateau can be up to 4,600 feet (1,400 meters) high. The air is cool, and the weather is cloudy more than 200 days of the year. But even though the area gets significant rainfall, areas can experience drought stress because karst limestone does not hold water well. It is so porous that it quickly draws away water that would normally be available in the soil for plants. Because of the limestone, the area is riddled with caves and sinkholes, and many local rivers are partially subterranean.

	There are only 300-500 Guizhou snub-nosed monkeys left in the world, and all live in the Fanjing Shan National Nature Reserve. The reserve contains so many rare species that the United Nations named it a special "Man and the Biosphere" nature reserve in 1986.

Wild Side

The dry, rocky conditions of the Guizhou Plateau are perfect for many types of evergreen trees, including laurel, tea tree, and even some species of oak. Some species are very rare, including the conifer Cathaya argyrophylla, which does not even have a common name, and the coffin tree (Taiwania flousiana); the tree fern Cyathea spinulosa; and the flowery dove tree. Chinese red pine grows in the north and east, while Yunnan pine grows in the south of the conifer forest. Chinese fir grows in the north, with spruce at the highest elevations. Some mountaintops support coniferous hardwood forests. In this ecoregion, Tthe chatter of endangered Assamese macaques and Francois’ leaf and Guizhou snub-nosed monkeys fills the air. Sika deer and red gorals graze peacefully but are always on the lookout for predators, even possibly including leopards and tigers, although they have not been documented to be in this area for quite some time now.

Cause for Concern

Today the original forest vegetation across the Guizhou Plateau has been largely replaced by scrub or sparse woodland. Although Ooriginal forest types still exist within the protected areas, but they are almost completely gone outside those areas, except for small patches on the remote and inaccessible limestone hills. Habitat conversion to for agriculture, hunting, and inadequate management of existing nature reserves are among the major threats to this region.

For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report.