Lop Nur, located in the southeastern part of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China, used to be a vast inland lake with blue waves in history. Later, after experiencing drastic changes in geography and climate and being affected by human activities, Lop Nur was finally dried up completely and turned into a "sea of death" raged by wind and sand after the 1950s and 1960s. The huge arc-shaped salt crusts formed after the lake dries up are hailed as the "ear of the earth" when viewed from the air.
In July 2020, in order to systematically understand the current status of Lop Nur's biodiversity, especially the possible ecological changes and trends under the current global warming and humidification, China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBDGDF) decided to carry out a ten-year scientific investigation expedition in Lop Nur. The plan is to conduct a comprehensive survey and record the changes in genes, species, and ecosystems in the Lop Nur area, as well as the current status, to explore the laws of ecological succession in this area and its impact on the development of human civilization. This will help western China in the future, provide scientific support for regional development and major project decision-making. At present, after more than two months of intense coordination, the preparatory work for the first phase of the scientific investigation has been fully completed.
On October 8, the relevant staff members of CBCGDF and representatives of the scientific expedition team held the last round of preparatory meeting remotely before their setting off. According to the plan, the scientific expedition team of the first phase of the investigation that will depart on October 9 in 2020 will consist of the terrestrial vertebrate group (including birds, beasts, amphibians and reptiles) and the aquatic animal group (including fish and plankton), the plant group, the soil and microbiological group, and the macro and communication groups. The scientific expedition team will focus on the collection and acquisition of background data on biodiversity and hydrological ecology in the Lop Nur area, including sample collection of aquatic organisms, soil, desert plants, insects, microorganisms, and genes, etc., to lay the foundation for the long-term development scientific investigation in the future.
At this virtual preparatory meeting, all parties made a brief report on the preliminary preparations, and the groups communicated on issues such as material delivery and procurement. Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, the Secretary-General of CBCGDF is full of expectations for the first phase of the scientific expedition. Under the premise of emphasizing the safety of investigation and research, he said: The current climate warming is changing the global hydrological cycle, and the critical point of China's climate has also begun to drift in a large area. The precipitation in semi-arid and arid areas in the north has increased significantly in recent years. It is foreseeable that in the next ten years, the biodiversity of the Lop Nur area is likely to undergo significant changes. He hopes that the scientific expedition team will be able to link this investigation with the long-term nature of the ten-year survey, as well as the current global climate crisis, biodiversity crisis, public health crisis and other strategic issues in the process of field investigation. Think boldly and creatively, and on the basis of full respect for facts, meticulous verification, and get good scientific research results. Dr. Zhou said: “For the other scientific research teams that failed to participate in this scientific expedition for other reasons, I hope to them continue to pay attention to the front-line scientific expedition in Lop Nur area this time, if with related scientific research issues, or scientific research, sampling tasks, etc., we can still entrust our frontline scientific expedition team to carry out collaboration.” He hoped that this ten-year scientific investigation of Lop Nur will eventually form a large team of cooperation in the process of long-term field scientific research, and truly promote the study of the laws of ecological succession in the Lop Nur area from all aspects.
(Photo credit: CBCGDF)
Original Chinese article:
http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/14027.html
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