The Hengduan Mountains subalpine conifer forests are a temperate forest in the Hengduan Mountains of

southwestern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

China. The forests extend within the Jinsha (upper

Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...

) and Yalong River valleys from approximately 32°N to 27°N. In addition, a portion of the

Anning River The Anning River () is a river in the Hengduan Mountains region of southwestern Sichuan, China. The river is tributary of the Yalong River, itself a tributary of the Jinsha River which is the head stream of the Yangtze. The river is located pri ...

valley and Mianmian Mountains near

Lugu Lake Lugu Lake () is located in the northwest of the Yunnan plateau, with the middle of the lake forming the border between the Ninglang County of Yunnan Province and the Yanyuan County of Sichuan Province. The formation of the lake is thought to have ...

support the subalpine conifer forests. This region covers northern

Yunnan Province Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the ...

, western

Sichuan Province Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

, and the extreme eastern edge of the

Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China in Southwest China. It was overlayed on the traditional Tibetan regions of � ...

. The Hengduan Mountains subalpine conifer forests are one zone in a range of

montane ecosystems Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

that transition between tropical and temperate

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...

s along the southeastern fringe of the

Tibetan Plateau The Tibetan Plateau (, also known as the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau or the Qing–Zang Plateau () or as the Himalayan Plateau in India, is a vast elevated plateau located at the intersection of Central, South and East Asia covering most of the ...

. The Hengduan forests reach elevations higher than and extend to the

treeline The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snowp ...

, beyond which are

montane grasslands and shrublands Montane grasslands and shrublands is a biome defined by the World Wildlife Fund. The biome includes high elevation grasslands and shrublands around the world. The term "montane" in the name of the biome refers to "high elevation", rather than th ...

classified as the

Southeast Tibet shrub and meadows The Southeast Tibet shrub and meadows are a montane grassland ecoregion that cover the southeast and eastern parts of the Tibetan Plateau in China. The meadows in this region of Tibet are in the path of the monsoon rains and are wetter than the ...

. The Hengduan conifer forests are separated into two arms by the

Shaluli Mountains The Shaluli Mountains (), known in Tibetan as Powor Gang, are a large mountain range in western China between the Upper Yangtze (Jinsha) and Yalong Rivers. It is one of the core ranges of the Hengduan group of mountains. The Shaluli Mountains s ...

. Environmental groups have recognized this

as being threatened by "a growing human population and the resulting demand for non-timber forests and wildlife products for medicinal and other uses".''Ecoregions'' at panda.org

References

Flora of Tibet Ecoregions of Asia Ecoregions of China Forests of China Montane forests Palearctic ecoregions Temperate coniferous forests {{ecoregion-stub