Abstract: In order to understand the species diversity and faunal characteristics of amphibians and reptiles in Helan Mountains, field surveys were conducted by transects from 2007 to 2008. A total of 19 species belonging to 12 genera, 8 families, and 2 orders were recorded, among which, Elaphe carinata and E. mandarina were  new species records to Ningxia. The Shannon’s diversity index (H) and evenness index (E) of the amphibians and reptiles in Helan Mountains were 2.250 and 0.563, and the family and species numbers of the amphibians and reptiles accounted for 72.7% and 67.9% of those in Ningxia, and 66.7% and 50.0% of those in Inner Mongolia, respectively. In Helan Mountains, Bufo raddei, Rana chensinensis, Phrynocephalus przewalskii, P. frontalis,Eremias argus, and E. multiocellata were dominant species, Psammophis lineolatus, Coluber spinalis, and Rhabdophis tigrinus were common species, and others were rare species.Among the 19 species, 14 species belonged to the Palaearctic realm, and 5 species were widespread species. Species of Mongolia-Xinjiang Region were dominant, accounting for 42.6% of the total. This study showed that the amphibians and reptiles in Helan Mountains had the typical faunal characteristics of Western Desert Sub-region of the Mongolia-Xinjiang Region.

Key words: Ecological risk, Ecological health, Ecological security, Assessment method, Index system