Satellite view of the central Da Hinggan-Dzhagdy Mountains, on the border of Russia and China Photograph by USGS   Palaearctic Temperate Coniferous Forests   95,900 square miles (248,300 square kilometers) -- about the size of Oregon Vulnerable

· Location and General Description
· Biodiversity Features
· Current Status
· Threats
· Ecoregion Justification
· References
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The ecoregion is known for its unique "Daurian flora", which is transient between Siberian and Manchurian floras.. There are over 1200 species of vascular plants, two thirds of which are Siberian, and one third is local Daurian, Mongolian and Manchurian. Daurian larch dominates on the altitudes of over 500 m a.s.l., forming the typical landscapes’ features. Mongolian oak, hazel heterophyllous, alder, silver and black birch, poplar, elm, Siberian apricot, Siberian hawthorn, etc., are found here. This ecoregion represents the southern range for several rare mammals of the Palaearctic fauna, including wolverines (Gulo gulo), lynx (Felis lynx), and elk (Alces alces).

Location and General Description

Biodiversity Features

Current Status

Types and Severity of Threats

Justification of Ecoregion Delineation

This ecoregion is concentrated in the Da Hinggan range in northeastern China and extends into subboreal forests with similar characteristics in the Amur basin north of the Russia border. The CVMCC (1979) Vegetation Map of China classes montane larch forests of Siberian origin (1) mixed with pine and spruce (2b, 3a) were used to form the area within China. This corresponds roughly to the Mackinnon et al. (1996) Da Xingan region of the Northeast China Province biogeographical zone. In Russia, ecoregion lines correspond to the southern taiga within the Central Siberian forest province in Kurnaev’s (1990) forest map of the USSR.

References

Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, Committee of Earth Observation Satellites. 1997. Resources in Earth Observation. http://sirius-ci.cst.cnes.fr:8100/cdrom-97/ceos1/casestud/firedet/firedet2.htm

Chinese Vegetation Map Compilation Committee (CVMCC). 1979. Vegetation map of China. Map (1:10,000,000). Science Press, Beijing.

Gvozdetskyi, N. A., and N. I. Mikhailov. 1987. Fizicheskaya geografiya SSSR. Moscow.

Gao, J. 1986. Research on the ecosystem balance and rational utilization of forest resource in hulunbuir league. Symposium of the Strategy for the Construction of Forest in Northeast China. Shengyang.

Eastern and Central Asia. Countries and Peoples. Moscow, 1982.

Foreign Asia Physical Geography. Moscow. 1956.

Kurnaev, S. 1990. Forest regionalization of the USSR (1:16,000,000). Department of Geodesy and Cartography, Moscow.

MacKinnon, J. 1996. Wild China. The MIT Press, Cambridge.

Nikolskaya, V. V. 1962. Dalniy Vostok. Moskva.

Okhranyaemie prirodnie territorii yuzjnoi chasti Dalnego Vostoka (Охраняемые природные территории южной части Дальнего Востока). Vladivostok, 1988.

Southern Part of the Far East (Natural Conditions and Natural Resources of the USSR. Moscow, 1969. [Южная часть Дальнего Востока (Природные условия и естественные ресурсы СССР. Москва, 1969.].

Taiga at the Ocean. Red Book Endangered Species of Primorye. "Russian Island" Almanac. Vladivostok 1999-2000.

Zhao, J., Z. Guangmei, W. Huadong, and X. Jialin. 1990. The natural history of China. McGraw Hill Publishing Company. New York.

For more general information on this ecoregion, go to the WildWorld version of this description.