Location and General Description
Types and Severity of Threats
Justification of Ecoregion Delineation
This ecoregion represents a transitional zone between desert and foothill savannas in Turkmenistan and a small section of northern Iran. It includes the semi-deserts and takyrs (seasonal salt lakes with little to no vegetation) of the Kopet Dag region according to Pereladova’s (1998) map of Central Asian ecosystems. In Iran, the ecoregion contains an adjacent area of Iranian steppe from Zohary’s (1973) geobotanical map of the Middle East. This small area was isolated from similarly designated steppe in the rest of Iran by the Elburz Range, causing the species composition to more closely resemble that of the Kopet Dag.
Pereladova, O., V. Krever and M. Williams. 1997. Biodiversity Conservation in Central Asia. Moscow.
Zohary, M. 1973. Geobotanical foundations of the Middle East, volume1,2. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart, Germany.