Due to its geographical location, Turkmenistan plays a key role in the region in the conservation of global biodiversity and the maintenance of biosphere functions. The sharply continental, extremely arid climate (long and hot summer period, seasonal and daily temperature fluctuations within large limits, low amount of precipitation) and the geographical location of the country within the Eurasian continent have significantly influenced the formation of the unique diversity of its flora and fauna. The biological diversity of the country numbers at least 20 thousand species, including more than 7 thousand plant species and about 13 thousand animal species (of which more than 720 are vertebrates). The country's biodiversity is distributed across various ecosystems: plain-desert (about 80% of the country's territory), mountain, river, lake, marine, coastal-marine, and anthropogenically developed.