THE VEGETATION OF QAIDAM BASIN AND ITS SUROUNDING MOUNTAINS
青海省柴达木盆地及其周围山地植被

The Qaidam basin is situated in the north-east Qinghai-Xizang plate-au, its distribution pattern of vegetation is very camplicated. The east-ern part of it belongs to the semiarid desert steppe zone with the zonalvegetation desert steppe. The middle part belongs to the arid desert zonewith shrubby and dwalf semi-shrubby gravelly desert. The western part isan extremely arid bare-desert without vegetation in the gravelly gobi andlow mountains. At the bottom of the basin, a ring-shaped belts of the ve-getation from the edge toward the centre shows the following sequence:flood plain-the shrubby and dwarf semi-shrubby gravelly desert belt, all-uvial plain-the shrubby and semi-arboreou sandy desert belt, alluviallacu-strive plain-the shrubby saline desert belt, lacustrine plain-the holophyticgrass and forb meadow belt, and finally, bare salt crust and salt lakes. In the mountains of the Qaidam region there is great difference in thevertical belt spectrum of the vegetation between east and west: the verti-cal spectrum in the desert steppe zone is: mountainous steppe-mountaino-us evergreen needleaf forest-subalpine shrubland-alpine meadow-alpine spa-rse vegetation; in the arid desert zone: dwarf semi-shrub mountain rockydesert-alpine steppe-alpine meadow-alpine sparse vegetation; and in thebare desert zone: bare low mountain rocky desert-dwarf shrubby mountainrocky desert-alpine steppe-alpin sparse vegetation.