Xilin River

The Xilin River (Chinese: 锡林) of Inner Mongolia, China, is located in the middle latitudes. A study of the land cover types recognized 17 sub-classes in the Xilin River Basin including nine types of steppe habitat based on the dominant grasses in different areas and eight non-grassland habitats including current cropland, harvested cropland, urban areas, wetlands, desertified land, saline and alkaline land, water bodies and lands which could not be classified because of cloud cover in satellite images.[1][2]

锡林
Location
CountryChina
RegionInner Mongolia Autonomous Region

Geography

The east side of the Xilin River Basin is lined with 1500 m tall mountains and hills and to the west are the Daxing-An Mountains with the elevation along the River decreasing from southeast to northeast (902 m). The landscape of the basin is covered by lava tablelands, low mountains, hills, plateaus, and sandy lands. Diverse plant communities cover this area of steppes.[1][2] Animal husbandry is important to the local economy. Stipa grandis steppe and Leymus chinensis steppe are dominant/climax plant habitats in the basin.[2]

Climate

The temperate steppe of the Xilin River Basin has an average annual precipitation of 350mm. The average annual temperature is 1.7 °C at Xilinhao. July, the hottest month, averages 20.8 °C. January is the coldest with the lowest monthly temperature averaging -19.8 °C. From southeast to northeast, the temperatures and frost-free period increases while precipitation decreases gradually.[2]

Cities along the river

Xilinhot lines along the middle of the Xilin River. Xier and Baiinxile are upstream from Xilinhot.[2]

Current conditions

Grassland degradation and desertification have increased because of overgrazing and inappropriate crop cultivation, which is a result of the growing human population[1] and overgrazing has introduced new successional communities to the ecosystem,[2] although efforts to study and improve the situation are ongoing.[1][3][4]

References
  1. Chen Siqing, Liu Jiyuan, Zhuang Dafang and Xiao Xiangming. 2003. Characterization of land cover types in Xilin River Basin using multi-temporal Landsat images. Journal of Geographical Sciences 13(2):131-138, doi:10.1007/BF02837451.
  2. C. Tonga, J. Wub,c,*, S. Yonga, J. Yangd, W. Yonga. In press. A landscape-scale assessment of steppe degradation in the Xilin River Basin, Inner Mongolia, China. Journal of Arid Environments: in press
  3. Gu XH, He CY, Pan YZ, Li XB, Zhu WQ, Zhu XF. 2007. Optimizing management on degraded grassland in Xilin River Basin based on ecological risk assessment [Article in Chinese with English abstract]. 应用生态学报 [English journal title is referred to as The Journal of Applied Ecology or The Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology]: 18(5):968-76
  4. Yuan F, Han XG, Ge JP, Wu JG. 2008. Net primary productivity of Leymus chinensis steppe in Xilin River basin of Inner Mongolia and its responses to global climate change. [Article in Chinese with English abstract]. 应用生态学报 [English journal title is referred to as The Journal of Applied Ecology or The Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology]: 19(10):2168-76

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