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Gobi Desert Ecosystem

The Gobi Desert, its name meaning "waterless place," is the fifth largest desert in the world and the largest in Asia. With an elevation of 3,000 to 5,000 feet above sea level, the Gobi is located in Northern China and Southern Mongolia, but desertification is actually causing it to expand southward further into China. The first fossilized dinosaur egg found was located in the Gobi Desert.

Plants
- Despite the barren and rocky appearance in much of the Gobi Desert, sparse plant life does exist. These are hearty plants that survive on extremely low moisture with the help of long, widespread roots. The saxual tree is unique in that it stores water behind its bark. Animals and humans are able to collect it, sometimes simply by squeezing the bark. Wild onions provide an important food source for animals, and traveling humans have described the taste as hazelnut-like. Saltwort is one of the only plants that can survive in the Salt Desert region of the Gobi because of its immensely high tolerance for salt.
Animals
- The Gobi's abundance of animals despite the harsh climate is a testament to adaptability. Jerboas are small, kangaroo-like rodents that can leap up to 10 feet in the air. Golden eagles feed almost exclusively on jerboas, and some native people of the Gobi have trained the birds of prey to hunt for them. The snow leopard and the Gobi bear were both once common, but are now endangered, especially the bear, with numbers dwindling down to only 50 individuals at the lowest. Animals that live in the Gobi as well as other parts of the world include camels, wolves and muskoxen.
Climate
- The Gobi Desert experiences extreme weather patterns, caused mostly by high winds, both hot and cold. The temperature can shift 60 degrees F up or down in only 24 hours. Winter lows can reach minus 40 degrees F, and summer highs can reach 122 degrees F. Because of the high elevation, it is not uncommon to see frost or snow, most of which comes from Siberia, atop the dunes. On average, only 7.6 inches of rainfall hit the Gobi a year. Most rain is blocked by the Himalayas.
Geography and Ecozones
- There is much less sand in the Gobi than in other deserts, dunes only comprising five percent of the total area. The landscape is mostly bare rock, thanks in part to the winds. The desert is broken up into five ecozones. The Eastern Gobi Desert Steppe has many salt ponds and low-lying areas, as well as mountains. The Alashan Plateau is made up of desert basins and low-lying mountains. The Gobi Lakes Valley and the Dzungarian Basin both lie between different mountain ranges. The Tian Shan Range is a border between the Gobi and the Taklamakan Desert, which is separate because of its sandy basin features.

Nature