Country
Afghanistan
Afghanistan: 15 ecoregions. Each with its climate now and toward 2050, and its conservation tier.
Landscape and climate
Fifteen ecoregions cover Afghanistan, and every one of them is dry, high, or both. Desert and xeric shrubland systems hold the lowlands and basins, from the Registan-North Pakistan sandy desert to the Central Persian desert basins and a ring of xeric woodlands (Baluchistan, Paropamisus, Central Afghan Mountains). Above them, montane grassland ecoregions take over: the Hindu Kush alpine meadow and Ghorat-Hazarajat alpine meadow, the Pamir alpine desert and tundra, and the Karakoram-West Tibetan Plateau alpine steppe. The only forest ecoregion is the small East Afghan montane conifer forests in the east. The practical picture is a continental climate of cold winters, hot dry summers, and scarce moisture; plants that succeed here are steppe, meadow, and dryland species, with irrigation doing the work rainfall does not.
Ecoregions here
Afghan Mountains semi-desertBadghyz and Karabil semi-desertBaluchistan xeric woodlandsCentral Afghan Mountains xeric woodlandsCentral Persian desert basinsEast Afghan montane conifer forestsGhorat-Hazarajat alpine meadowGissaro-Alai open woodlandsHindu Kush alpine meadowKarakoram-West Tibetan Plateau alpine steppeNorthwestern Himalayan alpine shrub and meadowsPamir alpine desert and tundraParopamisus xeric woodlandsRegistan-North Pakistan sandy desertSulaiman Range alpine meadows