“…Shrubs mainly consist of Zygophyllum xanthoxylon , Nitraria tangutorum , Caragana brachypoda , Ceratoides latens , Oxytropis aciphylla , Artemisia sphaerocephala, and Artemisia xerophytica , with Reaumuria soongorica as the dominant species. The major grasses/forbs species are Cleistogenes squarosa , Peqanum nigellastrum , Cynanchum komarovii , Salsola pestifer Suaeda glauca , Bassia dasyphylla , Corispermum mongolicum , Artemisia dubia, and Plantago lessingii (Yuan et al., 2018). Midday gerbil, northern three‐toed jerboa ( Dipus sagitta ), and Mongolian five‐toed jerboa ( Allactaga sibirica ) are dominant small‐mammal species, and predators such as long‐eared hedgehog ( Hemiechinus auritus ), Eurasian eagle owl ( Bubo bubo ), Marbled polecat ( Vormela peregusna ), and Corsac fox ( Vulpes corsac ) are also present in the system (Wu & Fu, 2005; Xu, 2013).…”