Country

Uzbekistan: 8 ecoregions. Each with its climate now and toward 2050, and its conservation tier.

Deserts and mountains divide Uzbekistan between them. The Central Asian northern desert and Central Asian southern desert dominate the lowlands, with the Badghyz and Karabil semi-desert in the far south and the Central Asian riparian woodlands threading green corridors along the rivers - the one naturally tree-rich habitat in the desert zone. Eastward the land rises into the Alai-Western Tian Shan steppe, the Gissaro-Alai open woodlands, Tian Shan montane steppe and meadows, and at the extreme the Pamir alpine desert and tundra. Continental extremes rule: hot, bone-dry summers and cold winters in the lowlands, shorter and colder seasons with altitude. Gardening depends on irrigation nearly everywhere, and the plants that thrive unaided are steppe bulbs, drought-hardy shrubs, and riparian trees like those of the natural river woodlands.