Xinjuang Uygur region, China Photograph by © WWF/Ronald PETOCZ   Eastern Asia: Central China Montane Grasslands and Shrublands   144,600 square miles (374,400 square kilometers) -- about the size of Montana Relatively Stable/Intact

· A High, Cold Desert
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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A High, Cold Desert

If you were trying to pick one of the toughest places in the world to live, you might consider the Northern Tibetan Plateau-Kunlun Mountains Alpine Desert ecoregion of Central Asia. Temperatures here are bitterly cold, snowfall is rare, and winds are strong. As a result, the region supports only the toughest plants and scattered populations of hardy animals. With a few exceptions, this isn't a place where humans have chosen to live.

Special Features

The alpine deserts of this ecoregion extend across a plateau between two mountain regions: the Karakoram and the Kunlun. To get some idea of how remote the Kunlun region is, consider that it looks southward into the highest and least-populated part of the Tibetan Plateau. And to the north, it looks into the hyper-arid Tarim Basin. Hard frosts occur nearly every night of the year. Plant cover is sparse, with just a few spruce forests growing on north-facing slopes. Soils are salty. Lake beds are primarily dry.

	Herds of wild yaks travel single file through the snow, with each yak carefully stepping in the footprints of the yak before it!

Wild Side

The climate of this ecoregion is so harsh that biodiversity is relatively low. Tibetan antelopes (chirus), Tibetan argali, blue sheep, Tibetan gazelles, and wild yaks all graze within the eastern part of the region. In the western parts, Asiatic ibex, blue sheep, and "Marco Polo" sheep (an argali subspecies) inhabit nature reserves and other areas. Snow leopards, brown bears, and wolves live here in low densities. And black-necked cranes and Tibetan snowcocks breed around the salty lakes at the edges of the ecoregion.

Cause for Concern

The pressures of human activity are quite small in the more remote parts of this ecoregion. In the milder and more productive areas, hunting and competition from domestic livestock create some pressures on wild mammals. Conservationists consider the pockets of spruce forests vulnerable because they are so slow-growing. And they believe nature reserves need better management because immigration and herding are increasing around them.

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