Country

Mongolia: 16 ecoregions. Each with its climate now and toward 2050, and its conservation tier.

Sixteen Palearctic ecoregions cross Mongolia in clear latitudinal and elevational bands. Boreal Trans-Baikal conifer forests and the montane conifer forests of the Sayan, Altai, and Khangai ranges occupy the north and the mountains, grading through the Daurian and Selenge-Orkhon forest steppes into the vast Mongolian-Manchurian grassland, then into the desert steppes of the Gobi: the Eastern Gobi, Gobi Lakes Valley, Great Lakes Basin, and Alashan Plateau semi-desert. Alpine meadow and tundra cap the high ranges. This is an extreme continental climate everywhere, with a hard divide between forested, snow-fed uplands and arid steppe and desert below. Plants here must handle severe winter cold and short summers; the practical gradient for growers runs north to south, from taiga conifers through steppe grasses to true desert-steppe shrubs.