干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Informative investigations on the aboveground plant biomass of grass communities were made in the colline, montane and lower alpine belts of two mountain regions in Mongolia, the Charchiraa in the northwest and the Ich-Bogd in the south of the country. Temperature and precipitation conditions influence the biomass production. The mountain steppes and the lower alpine meadows, the main summer pasture regions of the Mongols, give especially good yields. The biomass of the colline belt (dry steppe in the Charchiraa, semi-desert or desert steppe in the Ich-Bogd) amounts to only 1/6 of the mountain steppes, including the high portion of woody parts of perennial plants. A general comparison with biomass investigations of Russian authors in Mongolia gave similar values and high fluctuations from year to year.