The Mountains Of Southwest China

The Mountains Of Southwest China

By Ty Farrington, Ty Eubanks, and Henry Hornung

Citations

Mountains of Southwest China

http://www.cepf.net/resources/hotspots/Asia-Pacific/Pages/Mountains-of-Southwest-China.aspx

Mountains of Southwest China

http://www.cepf.net/where_we_work/regions/asia_pacific/southwest_china/Pages/default.aspx

Mountains of Southwest China

https://broom02.revolvy.com/topic/Mountains%20of%20Southwest%20China

Mountains Of Southwest China-Endangered Forest

http://dailyhomestudy.com/mountains-of-southwest-china-endangered-forest/

The Ecosystem

• One of the most threatened ecosystems in the world
• Logging grew in 1950's but was banned in 1998 (the ban didn't completely get rid of the problem
• The Three Gorges Dam affects the environment in a negative way
• Yangtze forest has declined by 85%
• Many major river systems pass through the mountains

Threats to the Ecosystem

Ecosystem Services

• There is deforestation and logging in the area that may lead to an increase in the risk of flooding and desertification.
• There Also Drastic climate change which can cause vegetation to be destroyed which means that the animals that eat that vegetation might starve.
• Along with illegal hunting which can lead to lead getting stuck in animals and cause lead poisoning and affect animals that eat the animals with lead poisoning.
• Finally there is overgrazing which means that animals can overpopulate and eat to much of their food source to the point where only a few animals live. In this ecosystem, bamboo is the most eaten plant and has been endangered because of it and because of deforestation. Bamboo is endangered because of multiple endangered species in the reserve that are eating it. The giant panda, red panda, and golden monkey are all endangered species that eat bamboo.

• When there is a lack of biodiversity food can be affected because some animals depend on only one food source and when there are not many predators to hunt these animals they might overpopulate and eat the food source until there isn't much of it left.
• Lack of biodiversity can also mean a lack of resources because if a type of wood comes from only one type of tree and that type of tree is endangered or extinct then there is lack or none of the resource. Also if a type of medicinal affect comes only from one type of herb and an animal over populates and the animals eat all the herbs then that medicinal resource is gone.

Wildlife

• 12,000 different species
• 237 different mammal species
• 611 different species of birds
• 92 different species of reptiles and 70 species are snakes
• 90 different species of amphibians
• 92 different species of fish
• Some of the main threatened/endangered species in this ecosystem are giant pandas, red pandas, golden monkey, Xizang alpine toad, Szechwan pit viper, bamboo, and many other plant and animal species
• Tigers disappeared in the 1960's
• Szechwan pit viper- habitat:grassland, mountain, | venomous
• •Xizang alpine toad- lives by streams, agriculture is harming stream system
• Giant Panda-large black and white bears that eats for significant amounts of bamboo, rodents, and birds and live in bamboo forests in the mountainous regions
• Red Panda- orange, black, and white colored small raccoon like animals with bushy tails, they live in the rainy, forest habitat. They eat bamboo, acorns, and berries
• Golden Monkey-yellow, black, and red monkeys with large lips that live on wet trees and eat leaves, fruits, and bamboo
• Only 5.3% of this ecosystem is a national reserve and it only contains pandas and 4,000 plant species
• Most of these threatened and endangered species are herbivores, but some are carnivores and omnivores.

Solutions

• One way to help stop deforestation or logging is to plant trees
• One way to help stop illegal hunting is to raise up the penalty of illegally killing animals
• They could also set up more isolated and larger reserves blocked off from hunters
• One way to help protect animals from overgrazing is to make certain animals legal to hunt to protect them from overpopulating and overgrazing

Location

• Stretches over 262,400 km of temperate to alpine mountains between the Tibetan Plateau and the Central Chinese Plain
• The Mountains of Southwest China is made up of many hotspots and is located in the southwestern part of China
• There are some permanent glaciers on the peaks of Sichuan, Yunna, and Xizang
• Different climates ranging throughout region
• The different areas include Coniferous forests, bamboo groves, scrub communities, savanna meadow, prairie, freshwater wetlands, and alpine scrub and scree communities