Characteristics and conservation of biodiversity in Xinjiang

The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region covers nearly 1/6 territory of China, with various landscape patterns, environmental conditions and three key regions of biodiversity of China. The ecosystem here has a relatively simple structure and fragile ecological stability. The coverage of sparse vegetation here is only 2.1% which is far lower than 14%, the average coverage all over the country. Although the fragile and unstable ecosystems are improved partly in the past, the total situation in Xinjiang has worsened (such as drying up of rivers and lakes, desertification and salinization of soil, deterioration of meadow, reduction of biodiversity, etc.). Although the species numbers of Xinjiang are few, the diversity of taxa is very high. The types of plant communities are abundant, and the flora abounds in one-species genus, one-genus family and few-species genus. Also, the fauna abounds in endangered species and endemic species, of which 108 species of vertebrates were listed as nationally protected species. In addition, there are abundant anti-adversity gene pools. The present paper puts forwards several suggestions for biodiversity conservation in Xinjiang.