Summary

Plant community composition was analysed for 145 relevés, randomly sampled on steep slopes in the Gobi Gurvan Sayhan National Park, southern Mon-golia. Cluster analysis designated seven communities into three main groups, namely mountain steppes, dominance stands of the dwarf shrub Artemisia santolinifolia, and scrub composed of Juniperus sabina. Multivariate classifications corresponded well to available phytosociological classification schemes. Dense mountain steppes on northern expo-sures, as well as juniper stands on south- and east-facing scree slopes, had high contents of organic matter and cations in the soil, while stands with disturbance-tolerant species such as Carex steno-phylla, annuals, or A. santolinifolia grew on less favourable soils. Stands of the latter species showed some overlap with J. sabina with respect to species composition and site conditions, and specimens of A. santolinifolia were present in most relevés of juniper stands. The complete absence of juniper seedlings suggested an apparent potential replacing of ageing specimens of J. sabina by A. santolinifolia. However, both species were distinct in cluster, ordi-nation and correlation analyses, so this process seems to be still in its infancy. Zusammenfassun