Kopet Dag

This ecoregion is comprised of mountainous shrub-like Mediterranean xeric woodlands. It is located on the slopes of the KopetDag mountain ranges and includes riparian forests found in the river valleys. Kopet Dag Woodlands are well-studied and high endemism is exhibited among many groups of organisms, up to 18% in flowering plants. Key endangered fauna include leopard, wild sheep, bezoar (bearded) goat, hyena, Indian porcupine, and a number of other rare species of mammals, birds, snakes, and lizards. It represents the center of origin and genetic diversity for wild relatives of cultivated plants such as grapes, pomegranates, figs, almonds, walnuts,wheat, barley and many others. These areas of woodland habitat continue to experience heavy logging and overgrazing. While these areas are currently under protection, enforcement is not always adequate to promote forest regeneration.

The Kopetdag mountains are the northernmost range of the Turkmeno-Khorassan system; they are of medium size, the highest peak reaches 2,872 above the sea level; spread latitudinally in a narrow strip of about 100 kilometers (km) wide and surrounded by deserts. Ranges with high seismic activity are comprised of sandstone, limestone, clay and marl. The region has features of the arid subtropical climate with shortage of moisture and high summer temperatures. Absolute minimum, - 24o Celcius (C); absolute maximum,35-45oC and in some areas 48oC; annual precipitation is 300 millimeters(mm). Geological history of Kopet Dag has provided a diverse arena for the formation of local biodiversity when this mountain chain served as an island corridor between the Balkans and Armeno-Iranian Plateau at the time of reduction of the ancient Tethys Sea 10 million years ago. With further aridization, landscapes gradually changed. In the Pleistocene (less than one million years ago), this mountain corridor was a site of constant dispersal and probably, of local speciation. Many endemic species, especially plant species are refered to this age. Located between northern and southern deserts of Asia, Kopet Dag mountains could house relic mesophile flora and fauna which could not survive aridization of adjacent lowlands. Transgressions of the Proto-Caspian Sea periodically returned these desert mountains to the island condition. During the recent glaciation (16,000 to 10,000 years ago) this corridor could have been invaded by almost modern European and Asian "refugee" species. Then, a new aridization disrupted many ranges and effectively isolated European forest and meadow species that found their refuge in the riparian forests along the mountain valleys, such as highly endemic orchids in mesophytic walnut and elm forests.

credited to eoearth and flickr: atamerdan,Jay williams,sjameron