2.1. Geography of the study area
The study site is located in the desert (34 ° 09 ′ - 49 ° 08 ′ N and 73
° 25 ′ - 96 ° 24 ′ E) of the Junggar Basin in northern Xinjiang Xinjiang
Uygur Autonomous Region (hereafter Xinjiang), China.. It is
characterized by drought and little rain in desert habitat, strong
environmental heterogeneity and high seasonal precipitation. The annual
average precipitation does not exceed 200mm, and the annual average
temperature is \(-\)4 to 9 ℃, which is a typical continental arid desert
climate. Natural vegetation mainly consists of shrubs, perennial herbs,
and ephemerals (Ma et al., 2021). Precipitation is mainly concentrated
in spring and early summer, and there is relatively stable snow cover in
winter, which provides favorable environmental conditions for the
successful completion of the life cycle of ephemerals in the region (Shi
et al., 2006; Zhang et al., 2020). During the peak growing season of
ephemeral plants, their vegetation coverage can reach 40%.