Tugay is a form of
riparian forest or
woodland associated with
fluvial
In geography and geology, fluvial processes are associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by them. When the stream or rivers are associated with glaciers, ice sheets, or ice caps, the term glaciofluvial or fluviog ...
and
floodplain areas in arid climates. These
wetlands
A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...
are subject to periodic inundation, and largely dependent on floods and groundwater rather than directly from rainfall. Tugay habitats occur in
semi-arid and
desert climates in
central Asia. Because Tugay habitat is usually linear, following the courses of rivers in arid landscapes, Tugay communities often function as
wildlife corridors. They have disappeared or become fragmented over much of their former range.
Distribution
The centre of the range of Tugay vegetation is the Tarim Basin in north-western China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, where the Tarim Huyanglin nature reserve in the middle reaches of the Tarim River holds the largest areas of intact Tugay forests, with a 1993 estimate of about 61% of the total. The Central Asian countries hold another 31%, with smaller areas remaining in the Middle East and Pakistan. Tugais also occur in the Caucasus.
Vegetation
Close to rivers and where groundwater levels are shallow, the vegetation is usually dominated by poplars
''Populus'' is a genus of 25–30 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar (), aspen, and cottonwood.
The we ...
(especially '' Populus euphratica'') and willows such as '' Salix songarica''. Where the forest has been disturbed, other species such as tamarisk, sea-buckthorn and oleaster will grow. Herbaceous plants include reeds, common spike rush, jointleaf rush, fleabane, cocklebur
''Xanthium'' (cocklebur) is a genus of flowering plants in the tribe Heliantheae within the family Asteraceae, native to the Americas and eastern Asia and some parts of south Asia .
Description
Cockleburs are coarse, herbaceous annual plants ...
and thorn apple. Grass tugai vegetation is dominated by '' Phragmites australis'', '' Calamagrostis'' and ''Typha
''Typha'' is a genus of about 30 species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae. These plants have a variety of common names, in British English as bulrush or reedmace, in American English as reed, cattail, or punks, in A ...
''. Where the groundwater is deeper, oaks and elms
Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of Nor ...
will dominate.[British Petroleum. 2002. "Ecological Baseline Report". BTC Pipeline ESIA, Azerbaijan. Retrieved 2013-03-30.] The principal causes for the loss of tugai vegetation include dam construction, tree cutting, grazing, and agriculture.
Notes
See also
*Bosque
A bosque ( ) is a type of gallery forest habitat found along the riparian flood plains of stream and river banks in the southwestern United States. It derives its name from the Spanish word for 'woodlands'.
Setting
In the predominantly ar ...
, an analogous forest type in arid and semiarid regions of the southwestern United States
References
{{reflist
Forests
Deserts and xeric shrublands
Riparian zone
Wetlands