· A River of History
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
· Looking Ahead

Global 200 Snapshot

The Yangtze River and Lakes ecoregion supports diverse fish, mammals, and plants that are well adapted to constantly changing water levels and flow. This large temperate river harbors a freshwater fauna that is very diverse, perhaps the first or second richest of temperate rivers, and unusual with ancient species such as alligators. Many waterfowl and shorebirds also rely on this ecoregion to breed and rest during migrations.  

A River of History

Much of ancient China's commerce was transported along the Yangtze River. Today, the Yangtze (known locally as Chang Jiang, or "Long River") is a center for agriculture, industry, and tourism. But the river and the lakes that it feeds are also where diverse species of fish, birds, and mammals have lived for centuries.

Special Features

The cold waters of the Kunlun Mountains in northern China get the Yangtze River off to a good start. From an elevation of 16,076 feet (4,900 meters), the river-the third longest in the world-descends rapidly as it flows through gorges and runs past limestone hills. The river and the lakes it feeds undergo extreme seasonal changes in size and depth. During the summer rainy season, swollen waters of the Yangtze River flood into the surrounding lake basins; during winter and spring when river levels are low, the lakes drain back into the river. Fish and animals have adapted to these changes and move freely among lakes and land connected by flooding.

	The Chinese river dolphin is not able to see very well, but it can hear with incredible sensitivity. It detects its prey by listening to sound waves in shallow water, a rare ability known as echolocation. The Yangtze River is the only place on Earth where this severely endangered creature lives.

Wild Side

If you are really lucky during a visit to the Yangtze River, you might see two extremely rare mammals, the Chinese river dolphin, or baji, and the Yangtze finless porpoise. They share the water with many types of fish, such as the Yangtze sturgeon, the Chinese paddlefish, and the Chinese sucker. The Japanese crane and other migratory birds spend every winter at Poyang Lake along the eastern Yangtze in Jiangxi province. Giant salamanders creep along the rocky bottom of clear tributaries. And if you hear a big splash, it might just be from an otter or rare Yangtze alligator entering the water to hunt prey.

Cause for Concern

Fish farming, deforestation, cultivation of surrounding land for farming and grazing, oil drilling, industrialization, urbanization, and introduced diseases from domestic waterfowl pose widespread threats to this ecoregion. The most pressing and severe threat is construction of dams and dykes on the Yangtze and its tributaries, which alter the natural flow regime, block migratory routes, and sever the connection between the rivers and their floodplain habitats. The most serious of these projects is the Three Gorges Dam. When complete, it will be 607 feet (185 m) high and will store 40 billion cubic meters of water. The addition of water into the Yangtze from other sources also threatens to upset water levels and create opportunities for the introduction of species.

Looking Ahead

The health of the Yangtze River and Lakes ecoregion depends on finding a balance between human activity and the environment. When the Three Gorges Dam is completed in about 15 years, life in the ecoregion will be changed forever. More than a million people in the ecoregion will have been relocated and the natural flooding cycle of the river will be lessened. The dam is to be used for flood control, but it is unclear what effects it will have on the rare Chinese river dolphin and Yangtze sturgeon.