Plant communities of the Great Gobi B Strictly Protected Area, Mongolia

This paper presents the fi rst syntaxonomical overview of plant communities of the Great Gobi B Strictly Protected Area. Within Mongolia this region represents the south-westernmost protected area and preserves several species listed in the IUCN Red List. Therefore the region is of high importance to the country and moreover for the whole Central Asian eco-zone. Knowledge of the main habitat types is a precondition for nature conservation. Based on 211 vegetation samples collected during the summer of 2003 we derived 16 vegetation units. There are two mountainous communities; eight zonal semi-desert units, and the extra-zonal vegetation is assigned to six communities. The described vegetation units are compared with available descriptions from other Gobi regions.