explorers, have now disappeared. Nevertheless, it is still the one of the last refuges of wild Bactrian camel (Camelus ferus) in the world. These wild camels may be found in the reed oases on the north edge of the desert. Poplars forests and tamarix shrubs used to be extensively distributed along the lower Tarim River Valley forming the so-called "Green Corridor", but as the lower Tarim River has been drying since 1972 due to the construction of dams, they have greatly deteriorated and some have disappeared. The Lop Nur Wild Camel National Nature Reserve was created in 2001 to preserve wild Bactrian camels and other wildlife in the region. Sand storms The whole of this region is swept bare of sand by the terrific sand storms (burans) of the spring months and the particles of wind-blown sand act like a sand blast. Abrasion of the rocks forms yardangs. The desert itself is abraded, filed, eroded and carried bodily away into the network of lakes in which the Tarim River wanders. The sand also blows across the lower, constantly shifting waterways of the Tarim River and deposits itself onto gigantic dunes that choke the eastern end of the Taklamakan Desert. The extreme weather and ever moving sand dunes have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people. The esteemed biologist Peng Jiamu disappeared in the desert in 1980. See also Tarim Basin Lake Bosten Footnotes External links Surveying the Lop Desert Lop Desert The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia - The Silk Road Wild West China: The Taming of Xinjiang Central Asia and Tibet - Surveying the Lop Desert Deserts of China Geography of Xinjiang Sites along the Silk Road