Xueling Spruce Nature Reserve

Xueling Spruce Nature Reserve

The reserve is located in Gongliu County in the western section of Tianshan Mountain in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Area is 28,000 hectares. Its geographical location is between 82°51’-83°06’ east longitude and 43°03’-43°15’ north latitude.

The protected area includes several branches of Nalati Mountain in the western section of the Tianshan Mountains in the middle, and the terrain is high in the south and low in the north. The current mountain mass was formed by the Cenozoic fault movement and was strengthened during the Quaternary orogeny. After a long period of wind erosion, it has become today's majestic and diverse landform with undulating folds and ravines. There are often thick Quaternary loess sedimentary layers accumulated in the hilly areas of Zhongshan and Qianshan. Because the territory is surrounded by mountains on three sides in the south, north and east, and the mountains in the west decline and the terrain is open, the dry and hot continental airflow from the east has little impact, while the warm and humid airflow from the west along the Ili River Valley can be driven in for a long time, making the climate in the reserve better. It becomes warm and humid: 1,500 places have an average annual temperature of 3.7°C, an average temperature in January of -11°C, an average temperature in July of 16.5°C, an annual accumulated temperature greater than or equal to 10°C of 1,900°C, a frost-free period of 90 to 100 days; annual precipitation The volume is 600-800 mm, the annual evaporation is 1100-1200 mm, and the annual average relative humidity is 70%. The bedrock is mostly composed of metamorphic rock, gneiss, quartzite, marble, and dry magmite. There are six soil types, distributed from low to high as follows.

Alluvial meadow soil low-altitude river floodplain area

Mountain chernozem forest soil 1200-1400 meters

Mountain chernozem soil 1400-1800 meters

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Mountain dark brown forest soil 1600-2600 meters

Sub-alpine meadow soil 1800-2800 meters

Alpine meadow soil 2800-3000 meters

< p>There are Kurdenin River, Shatbulak River and Xiewude River in the territory, all of which flow into the Dajiergahu River.

The main protected object of the nature reserve is the Snow Ridge spruce, and there are 6 Snow Ridge spruce communities within the territory.

Xueling spruce is a unique tree species in the forests of Tianshan Mountains. Deep in the towering Tianshan Mountains, it is vigorous and tall, green all year round, with steep slopes and endless stretches, like a green Great Wall built along the mountain. The wind blows in the forest sea, the sound of pines and waves, and the undulating green waves are as powerful as the tide. Snow Ridge Spruce is an evergreen tree with needle-shaped leaves and slightly curved leaves; the fruit ball is oblong and brown. The snow-capped spruce in the Tianshan Mountains is said to have migrated from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau more than 40 million years ago and has evolved into the most spectacular forest tree unique to the Northwest.

More than 90% of the forest land in the Tianshan forest area has Xueling spruce growing there. On the shady slopes of the Zhongshan belt at an altitude of 1,400-2,700 meters, there are snow-capped spruce peaks and ridges, winding east and west. Its lower edge is often mixed with tall broad-leaved forests, which are lush and colorful, forming a beautiful scenery.

Nalati Mountain on the banks of the Ili River is the area where snow-capped spruce trees are most luxuriant. The unique warm and humid climate promotes fast growth, high density and high yield rate of spruce. The Xueling spruce trees here are 50 to 60 meters tall, and their annual rings are over 300 to 400 years old. The crown of the tree is long and narrow, and the main trunk is thick and straight, rising from the ground like a giant umbrella that is folded up, layer upon layer. More than 1,000 cubic meters of wood can be produced per hectare. Such a tall and vast virgin forest is rare even in the world and can be called the essence of the Tianshan forest.

A snow ridge spruce is a miniature reservoir. The spruce root system is extremely developed. It only needs rainwater and does not choose soil. Whether it is rocks or ridges, it will advance along small gaps. As time goes by, the strong roots penetrate the rocks and cracks, and some of the exposed roots are shaped like lions and some like cuttlefish. With this huge root system, each mature spruce tree is like a water pump and can store 2.5 tons of water. Snow Ridge spruce evaporates 50% more water than the ocean at the same latitude and area. Water vapor rises and turns into clouds and rain. Therefore, the vast snow mountain spruce growing area is a very precious water conservation area.

Xueling spruce is a fine wood with light wood and straight texture. It is the main raw material used in Xinjiang for construction, furniture, paper making, etc.

The West Tianshan National Nature Reserve, with the Qatbulak Mountain Canyon as its core, can be called the kingdom of snow-capped spruce. The mountains here are covered with ice and snow, the slopes are towering with trees, and the vast mountains contain vast stretches of spruce trees, with an altitude of about 1,500-2,000 meters and an area of ??280 square kilometers.

The spruces in the reserve conserve water resources, and the unique inversion zone climate also brings complete primitive forest vegetation types in the mountainous area, making it a typical representative of the entire Tianshan forest ecosystem. In this mountain garden, broad-leaved forests such as birch, aspen, wild apple, and wild apricot stand densely together; shrubs such as willow, tamarisk, wild rose, and raspberry grow everywhere; hundreds of medicinal herbs of different shapes; dense forests on steep mountains Deep in the depths, more than 300 species of wild animals and insects, including brown bears, snow leopards, and roe deer, live and multiply. It can be called the "natural gene pool" of wild life species in the hinterland of the Eurasian continent. Here, the green firs are like waves, the fruit trees are colorful, the grass is green, streams are everywhere, grasslands and forests are intertwined, deep gorges and open valleys are scattered; the beautiful and charming places are like the water towns in the south of the Yangtze River, and the majestic and precipitous places show the ruggedness of the Northwest. The stunning scenery is unparalleled anywhere.

Animal species in the snow-covered spruce of the Western Tianshan Mountains: snow leopard, ibex, red deer, lynx, golden eagle, brown bear, rabbit cat, prairie eagle, goshawk, alpine snow chicken, hunting falcon, kestrel wait.

Plant species in the snowy mountains of the West Tianshan Mountains include carex, sage grass, Polygonum bulbils, alpine bluegrass, Tianshan rowan, Tianshan birch, honeysuckle, rose, horned lark, red-tailed shrike, etc.