Geoscience

World Focus on Third Pole Research

On July 24, Nature reported in its 454th Issue the latest progress in the research of climate and environment of the Tibetan Plateau. The article is entitled the Third Pole of the World. The article described the significance of the Tibetan Plateau research in terms of environment degradation and global warming, and the importance of the Chinese Tibetan Plateau research to the international scientific community. The article highlighted the efforts and projects that have been made by the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, CAS (ITP). Prof. Yao Tandong from ITP is referred to as authority in conducting the field work on the Tibetan Plateau, and in organizing international joint expedition in the harsh environment with Tibetan glaciers. He and his Chinese colleagues, in the article, acknowledged as “among the few researchers persevering in difficult field condition to gather data on the plateau.’”Their ice core drilling and analysis have yielded “the most comprehensive temperature reconstruction of the plateau”. Prof. Xu Baiqing, who is also from ITP, expert in black carbon research on the Tibetan Plateau, is also quoted. His proposition of reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases and black carbon as the top priority in curbing the pollution to other regions in Asia has been highly commented. The article also briefed Prof. Yao’s ongoing project to document all Chinese glaciers, to continue identify and monitor potential dangerous glacial lakes because of warming. In the end, the article pinpoints the Tibetan Plateau as “a crucial testing ground for how humans and the environment collide in a globally warmed world”, and ends with Prof. Yao’s comment, “what we do about them probably will determine what’s going to happen to it in the future.”

Blue-green Algae: New Way to Control Desertification

Recently, a new method to stabilize sands with the terrestrial nitrogen-fixing blue-green algae accomplished by the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, CAS (patent No.: 200510091252.0) was authorized the national patent of invention. The new method includes blue-algae cultivation, inoculation environment, inoculation time and inoculation volume. By using the microbiological technology of the terrestrial nitrogen-fixing blue algae, etc. the moving sands in the fixed or semi-fixed desert area can be quickly stabilized, and the ecological restoration in the fixed or semi-fixed desert area can be realized. With limited rainfall in the desert, the nitrogen-fixed blue-green algae are inoculated artificially, while the photosynthesis is made by themselves. The soil surface is later formed, thus the organic elements in the soil are increased, and soil structure improved, thus finally sands are prevented and stabilized. The survival and growth of the soil surface formed by the microorganism groups with the terrestrial nitrogen-fixing blue-green algae as the major element (including the terrestrial nitrogen-fixing blue-green algae, silkweeds, bacteria, fungi, lichens, mosses, etc.) has irreplaceable role in the stabilization of moving sands, soil expansion and growth, and environmental improvement in the arid desert area.