Boundaries

This ecoregion covers the Central Anatolia inland drainage basin, which includes the Lake Tuz and Konya basins. It is surrounded by the Northern [430], Southern [432], and Western [429] Anatolia ecoregions in the center of Anatolian Turkey.

Topography

The open central or Anatolian Plateau lies between the northern Pontus and the southern Taurus mountain ranges, without major mountain ranges itself. The plateau is isolated from coastal regions and is over 500 m almost everywhere.

Freshwater habitats

Central Anatolia contains several major lakes with other minor lakes and small streams. Tuz Lake is saline. Sudden storms can cause flash floods.

Terrestrial habitats

The ecoregion lies on part of the Anatolian Plateau, a plain of semi-desert or steppe with a number of depressions harboring water. Rivers are incised into this plateau surface. Tuz Lake is surrounded by salt-encrusted marginal steppe. The landscape is mostly dry farming with some irrigated land and tree crops, deciduous forest, and some mixed forest in the west.

Description of endemic fishes

There are nine endemic cyprinids, including species from the genera Gobio, Pseudophoxinus, Alburnus, Chondrostoma, and Squalius. Cobitis bilseli is the only other endemic species from the Cobitidae family.

Ecological phenomena

The arid plateau has numerous basins that have variously been connected in the past. This has presumably led to isolation and speciation.

Justification for delineation

The ecoregion contains a high level of endemism and speciation in the Cyprinidae family in isolated basins. Sultan Marsh near Kayseri is a Ramsar site. The cyprinids Pseudophoxinus anatolicus, P. crassus, Alburnus akili (now extinct), Capoeta pestai, and the cyprinodonts Aphanius anatoliae and A. transgrediens are in the Red List (IUCN 2009).

Level of taxonomic exploration

Good