Gobi Desert, northeast of Dalanzadgad, Mongolia Photograph by Hessberg and Schulze   Palaearctic Deserts and Xeric Shrublands   108,800 square miles (281,800 square kilometers) -- about twice the size of Wisconsin Vulnerable

· Stepping into the Desert Steppe
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Stepping into the Desert Steppe

If you were to travel inland from the east coast of China, you'd first cross a flat coastal plain. Then you'd climb up and over a chain of mountains and find yourself in a semi-arid steppe. Finally you'd reach the Central Asian deserts, called gobis. These deserts and the surrounding steppe regions may seem sparse and not very hospitable for life. But in fact they sustain many creatures, including black-tailed gazelles, marbled polecats, and greater plovers, and are occasionally visited by snow leopards, brown bears, and wolves!

Special Features

The Eastern Gobi Desert Steppe stretches from the Inner Mongolian Plateau in China northward into Mongolia. Included in the ecoregion are the Yin Mountains and many low-lying areas with salt pans and small ponds. Summers here are warm to hot, depending on the elevation, and winters are made intensely cold by frigid northerly winds. Most of the precipitation falls during the summer. If you were to wander through the region, you'd encounter a number of drought-adapted shrubs such as gray sparrow's saltwort, gray sagebrush, and low grasses such as needle grass and bridlegrass.

	Several species of jerboas found in this ecoregion are capable of jumping up to 10 feet (3 m) across in a single bound.

Wild Side

Among the many wild inhabitants of this ecoregion are four species of jerboas: the long-eared, Kozlov's pygmy, Mongolia, and Gobi. Jerboas are mammals that are adapted to burrowing and jumping in sandy habitats. They have long, flexible tails, and their hind legs can be as much as five times the length of their forelegs! Other animals adapted to this dry land are Asian wild asses, Saiga antelope, and a number of bird species including the pallas sandgrouse, Mongolian desert finches, cinerous vultures, houbara bustards, Henderson's ground jays, chukars, and lammergeiers. The mountains of the region are believed to be potential habitat for rare snow leopards, but it is not known whether any live there now.

Cause for Concern

The vegetation of this desert ecoregion is hardy in many ways, but it is also vulnerable to trampling by livestock and off-road vehicles. Human impacts are greater in the eastern Gobi Desert, where rainfall is heavier and grasses grow densely enough to sustain livestock. In Mongolia, many urban dwellers have returned to rural communities to become nomadic herders. A growing number of them raise goats as a source of cashmere wool, but these goats have degraded the grasslands.

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