EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Chinese Red Pine (Pinus tabulaeformis var. tabulaeformis)
Inner Mongolia, China

Explanation:  What is going on in these photos?  These are Chinese red pines, a regionally distributed tree endemic to northern China, that is under attack.  The culprit is not bark beetles, or fire, or scale insects, or fungus ... but rather massive sand dunes that are migrating across the landscape and swallowing up the native vegetation in their path.  

This is the massive problem of desertification -- the inadvertent creation, by people, of desert-like conditions resulting from excessive forest cutting, overgrazing, and other resource uses too intense for the land to sustain.   

Although Chinese red pines are not currently threatened, perhaps they can still serve as a flagship species to garner further concern for the land in this part of China, Nei Mongol or Inner Mongolia.  Chinese red pines do seem to occur in areas with sandy soil and can actually help to stabilize some sand dunes.  However, they cannot stop the advancing of massive dunes out of control from land abuse.  

China is working on the desertification problem and has instituted a soil stabilization and reforestation program and other activities to stem the growing deserts.  

Chinese red pine constitutes one of the warm temperate coniferous forest types of China, and the species is generally widely distributed, mostly occurring in the northern part of the country.  The pines in these photos constitute a remnant community.

Chinese red pines are not just attractive parts of the landscape.  They are used as a source of medicinals to help with ailments of the muscles, bones, digestion, and respiration.  The wood is used for construction; the pulpwood produces resins for vanilla flavoring and to make turpentine; the bark produces tannins; the needles contain an insecticide and are used for making dye; and other uses have been documented.  

Saving the species and especially its ecological communities from further degradation can help to maintain its many amazing qualities and uses for future generations.