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%.