Ecosystems

This ecosystem comprises the eastern three quarters of the country and is continues with the Arabian Desert of Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. It is a gently undulating plateau with an elevation of 500 to 900 m. Four broad habitats –types can be distinguished in these ecosystems:

• Hammada; smooth

The freshwater fish fauna of Jordan is very characteristic. It was formed from five different faunal origins; the Palaearctic, Indoasiatic, Afrotropical, Tethys relict and Mediterranean. This uniqueness attracted ichthyologists and biologists already in the 18th and 19th centuries to survey the area

The Jordanian coastline covers about 27 km at the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba, which extends for about 180 km off the Jordanian shore in the north of the Straits of Tiran in the south. It has an average width of 20 km and an average depth of 800 m.

The Gulf of Aqaba consists of a series of

Jordan has limited forest resources, with less than 1.5% of the country being classified as forests. Of this forest land, only 26% have forest cover with a canopy density of 10% or more and the rest is mostly composed of land sparsely covered with vegetation.

The forests in Jordan, especially