news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

Lhasa, August 18, Xinhua News Agency, Title: Important achievements released! The second Qinghai-Tibet scientific expedition "unpacked"

Xinhua News Agency reporters Li Hua, Wei Guanyu and Yang Fan

The ecosystem of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is improving overall, the Asian water tower will enter an ultra-warm and wet stage, and human activities may have appeared as early as 190,000 years ago...

On the 18th, Yao Tandong, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and captain of the second Qinghai-Tibet scientific expedition team, led scientific research experts from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Peking University, Lanzhou University and other institutions to release the important results of the ten major tasks of this scientific expedition in Lhasa.

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the roof of the world, the water tower of Asia, the third pole of the earth, an important ecological security barrier in my country, and an important protection area for the unique culture of the Chinese nation.

Since the launch of the second comprehensive scientific survey and research on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in August 2017, my country has organized more than 2,600 scientific expedition teams with more than 28,000 people to conduct scientific expeditions across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, continuously decoding the Earth's Third Pole and showing the world a series of results of China's scientific expeditions to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

——Global warming, will Asia’s water tower cause “imbalance”?

Scientific research has found that over the past 15 years, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has been getting warmer, wetter, and greener, and the ecosystem is showing an overall positive trend. However, the imbalance of the Asian Water Tower caused by the warming and wetter climate has also brought us some concerns. Scientific research models predict that the Asian Water Tower will enter an ultra-warm and wet stage in the 21st century; by the end of the 21st century, the loss of glacier material in some areas will exceed half...

"As the world warms and glaciers melt, Asia's water towers are becoming warmer and wetter, causing an imbalance," said Wu Guangjian, a researcher at the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Studies of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. "On the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, some small glaciers at lower altitudes are disappearing, which is consistent with the trend in other parts of the world, such as Europe."

The imbalance of the Asian water tower is like the balance of income and expenditure of glaciers for water storage. The "income" comes from accumulation processes such as precipitation, and the "expenditure" comes from consumption processes such as melting, infiltration, and transpiration. If the "income" cannot catch up with the "expenditure", the glacier will experience negative growth.

The overall river runoff has increased, and the water supply capacity of the Asian Water Tower has been enhanced... The scientific research assessment results show that although the water volume of the Asian Water Tower will tend to increase in the future, the downstream water resources must strengthen the construction of a scientific early warning system for disasters such as ice avalanches and glacial lake outbursts in the future.

——New species have arrived. What new discoveries has the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau brought?

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which is home to a variety of rare species, has made new discoveries in terms of biodiversity.

Plants that were once thought to be extinct, such as the Kuru Rhododendron, Medog Lily, Gongshan Meconopsis, and Zhongdian Shepherd's Purse, have returned to people's vision during the second Qinghai-Tibet scientific expedition. Rare animals such as snow leopards, clouded leopards, Bengal tigers, and jackals also frequently appeared in wild footage.

Relevant research shows that the frequent appearance of Bengal tigers highlights the integrity of the ecosystem structure and functions in the Medog region of Tibet, and its important role in the protection of rare and endangered wild animals around the world.

Some "new friends" have also joined the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau biological "family". Through a large number of field surveys in weak and key areas of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, researchers have discovered a series of new species of animals, plants, and microorganisms, including Medog four-orange flower, Zayu chain snake, snow mountain giant clawed shrew, and pseudo-shenyi.

The second Qinghai-Tibet scientific expedition has discovered more than 3,000 new species so far, including 205 new animal species, 388 new plant species, and 2,593 new microbial species.

——The exploration never stops. How early did human activities begin on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau?

Scientific research has found that the earliest human activities on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau may have occurred 190,000 years ago. In Qiusang Village, Lhasa, the research team also discovered the world's earliest rock art dating back 169,000 to 226,000 years, bringing us closer to the early human life on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

At the Baishiya Karst Cave site in the northeast of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the research team discovered a fossil of the Denisovan mandible dating back at least 160,000 years, revealing that this group once lived in the high-altitude areas of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The expedition team found that the Denisovans were able to use different animals in the area and had a wide range of diets, revealing their strong adaptability to high-altitude environments.

Yao Tandong said that the ecological environment protection of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is a major strategic need of the country. Keep moving forward and keep exploring. With the continuous deepening of scientific research, mankind is in a period of more thorough understanding of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. In the future, its mysterious veil will continue to be revealed to the world. (End)