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China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration (1992)

Chapter: Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
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APPENDIXES

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
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A Overviews of Selected Institutions

INTRODUCTION

Appendix A contains reports from panel members' visits to selected research institutions during the summer of 1991. They outline the basic organization and resources of the institution, identify researchers and briefly describe research relevant to global change. Visits were chosen from a listing of institutions and individuals involved in global change research that the panel compiled in consultation with the Chinese National Committee for the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (CNCIGBP) at the outset of this study. Because of time and financial constraints, it was not possible to visit all of the institutions where relevant work is being carried out.

BEIJING NORMAL UNIVERSITY

Institute of Low Energy Physics

Beijing Normal University operates a laboratory for elemental analysis by the method of proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE). The laboratory, with a Van de Graaff nuclear particle accelerator, is managed by Zhu Guanghua and Wang Xinfu, and is administered by the Institute of Low Energy Physics, which is under the leadership of Lu Ting and Wu Yuguang. The laboratory is also actively supported by the university's computer center and its director, Pei Chunli.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
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Research Highlights

The laboratory has gained international recognition for its analyses of aerosol particle samples. It has entered into interlaboratory comparison analyses of standard samples with participating laboratories at Kyoto University in Japan and at Element Analysis Corporation in Tallahassee, Florida, with results that demonstrate its ability to produce high-quality analytical results.

Researchers have been assisted through interactions with scientists at other laboratories both within China and internationally. Wang Mingxing of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Institute of Atmospheric Physics has advised Zhu Guanghua about aerosol particle sampling and analysis needs in air chemistry research and Wang has made his institute's sampling equipment available to the laboratory. Wang Mingxing brought together Zhu Guanghua and Zhang Xiaoye, a staff scientist at the CAS Xi'an Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, resulting in collaborative studies of aerosol transport characteristics and publication of their work in international journals.

Zhu Guanghua is collaborating with Yoshikazu Hashimoto of Keio University in Yokohama, Japan and Mitsuru Fujimura and Akira Inayoshi at the Nippon Environmental Pollution Control Center in Tokyo, Japan to measure aerosols through a network of stations in China (interior), Korea, and Japan. Through the Japanese collaboration, computer software has been donated to the university for use in its PIXE laboratory and in teaching programs conducted by the computer center. Additional urban air quality research by the laboratory has been supported by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Both Zhu Guanghua and Wang Xinfu have attended the triennial international conferences on PIXE and its analytical applications, where they have presented research results. It is likely that the laboratory will become an important contributor to aerosol studies on a global scale.

CHINA REMOTE SENSING SATELLITE GROUND STATION

The China Remote Sensing Satellite Ground Station, which is administered by CAS, is headed by Wang Xinmin. This ground station is unique in that it is the only Landsat Five, or Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery receiving station in China. The receiving antenna is actually 100 km northeast of Beijing and high-density digital tapes are delivered to the station two or more times a week for processing. Reception is from east of Japan to about 80 percent of China to the west. China needs another receiving station to get imagery for the

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
×

western 20 percent of the country. This station receives and processes only TM data, and a royalty is paid to EOSAT in the United States. This station does not receive Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data.1

TM data are used for mineral exploration purposes, including gold, oil, and coal. China has oil off-shore and in scattered parts of the eastern mainland, and has potentially large deposits in the far western regions (some geologists and others believe that China's oil deposits could rival those discovered in the Middle East). With such possibilities, the Japanese are investing 5.5 × 106 yen in mineral exploration activities in China. Japan is this center's major collaborator.

Major remote sensing application units are the CAS Institute of Remote Sensing Applications, the NEPA Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, and the Peking University Institute of Remote Sensing Technology and Application (see below). In addition, the station provides remote sensing imagery services to more than 30 other units. For example, the station will be the source of imagery used in a national key remote sensing project in the Eighth 5-Year Plan to monitor and forecast natural disasters and crop production (the Commission for Integrated Survey of Natural Resources [CISNAR] and others will be involved). Such services are not automatic, and many research institutes are not able to afford the cost of remote sensing in their research plans.

About 200 persons staff six technical departments (receiving, processing, photo laboratory, digital processing laboratory, geographic information systems [GIS], and remote sensing applications) and three support departments (planning, logistics, and administration). Skilled personnel include both M.S.- and Ph.D.-level people, many from Tsinghua and Peking Universities. Funding is the specific limitation at the station, especially for keeping up state-of-the-art hardware. Personnel use I-squared software now, but have the capacity to write their own.

Some remote sensing research is going on in the applications department, which is being upgraded in anticipation of the launching of Landsat Six (which is expected to go up soon with upgraded capacity of 15 × 15 m pixel in panchromatic). The station is also preparing to handle Synthetic Aperture Radar planned for the Japanese and European remote sensing vehicles. This will change the operations of this unit considerably.

This station has no educational function. Instead, it relies on the remote sensing institute at Peking University (see below) that runs a training center under a coordinated training service for units using remote sensing.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
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CHINESE ACADEMY OF METEOROLOGICAL SCIENCES

The Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences (CAMS), the research arm of the State Meteorological Administration (SMA), currently has about 500 employees. In addition, CAMS has two graduate schools, one in Beijing and the other in Nanjing. Zhou Xiuji is director of CAMS and Ding Yihui is the deputy director.

According to Ding Yihui, scientists at CAMS working in areas relevant to global change can be found at the Climate Research Center, the Atmospheric Chemistry Center, the Institute of Arid Regions Research, the Tibetan Plateau Institute, and the Beijing Data Center. Currently, about 60 scientists (approximately 20 of which have Ph.Ds) and staff members participate in research subjects related to global change. Annual program funding is about $300,000, excluding salaries.

Research Highlights

The following are major global change research projects that will be carried out over the coming decade:

  • Establish observation networks for detecting global change. CAMS will upgrade existing monitoring networks to monitor changes in climate and large-scale air quality at (a) about 200 standard climate monitoring stations, (b) about 500 agricultural meteorology stations, (c) about 100 acid rain stations, (d) seven standard radiation stations, (e) six total ozone (O3) stations and three O3 sonde stations, (f) six regional air quality stations, and (g) one atmospheric baseline station. Some of these activities are supported by the World Meteorological Organization and they include extensive collaborations with other domestic and international scientists.

  • Study the past climate recorded in historical literature. CAMS researchers have studied more than 7,800 pieces of historical Chinese literature dating back to about 1,000 years, and they have established a data set of major droughts and cold and warm periods. In addition, a study of these climate changes and their impact on China's development has been carried out.

  • Participate in tropical ocean expeditions and monitoring. CAMS has been active in the Tropical Ocean and Global Atmosphere (TOGA) program since 1984. Major foci are the energy budget of the tropical ocean and atmosphere and the genesis of El Niño.

  • Model ocean-atmosphere interactions. For ocean-atmosphere coupling dynamic climate models, a three-dimensional global atmosphere model and a six-level oceanic circulation model

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
×

have been developed to study ocean-atmosphere interaction problems such as the genesis mechanism of El Niño. In addition, a two-dimensional water-energy equilibrium model has been developed to study the mechanism of drought in China.

  • Model stratospheric O3 change. A two-dimensional photochemicalradiative-dynamic model has been developed to study stratospheric O3 change and large-scale tropospheric air quality problems.

  • Model climate change in East Asia. The U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Climate Model is used to study climate change in East Asia, including the genesis mechanism of East Asian monsoons and the effects of forest coverage variation on regional climate.

  • Study the impacts of climate change on China's development. Population pressures and an extended drought in north China, where a significant amount of China's food grains are grown, are causing harmful changes to agroecosystems and the water supply. Also, destructive meteorological disasters inflict immense impacts on the populace. These problems are being investigated and response strategies are being formulated. In addition, assessment models of impacts of climate change on socioeconomic activities have been developed.

COMMISSION FOR INTEGRATED SURVEY OF NATURAL RESOURCES

Administered jointly by CAS and the State Planning Commission, the Commission for Integrated Survey of Natural Resources (CISNAR) is responsible for developing and maintaining both past and present data on all the lands and freshwaters of China. With such a national research and data collection mandate, it should be central to any global change research program. CISNAR is headed by Sun Honglie, who is a CAS vice president, member of the CNCIGBP, and chairman of the Chinese Ecological Research Network (CERN). CISNAR has a total of 386 staff, 296 of whom are researchers and technicians, 51 are administrators, and 39 are support staff. The commission also has three ecological field stations (Appendix D).

The view of commission representatives is that CISNAR is central to global change research in China and, rather than having a separate unit devoted to global change considerations, representatives claim to have them built into the work of every project. Such statements belie current limits on understanding of what constitutes global change research or, at the least, indicate a certain expediency in categorizing global change research in its broadest sense.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
×

CISNAR research has an intense ecological flavor. A review of materials provided by CAS about global change research at CISNAR (CAS 1991) reveals interesting work, but, for the most part, research designs do not have any direct connection to global change, and natural resource data collection is not tied to specific research questions. Clearly, the potential exists to develop interesting global change research projects from this work and these data, but it would be overreaching to say it has been done. An historical perspective is said to be included in everything the commission undertakes, and a number of projects include marvelous historical and dendrochronological data.

CISNAR conducts most of the country's large-scale survey research. Much of its work has been expeditionary in character, reminiscent of the former U.S. Biological and Geological Survey. Survey expeditions are multiyear undertakings in large regions such as the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. CISNAR has completed expeditions in all parts of the country over the last 30 years. Maps at various scales are important products of these expeditions. Because of CISNAR's role in national land use planning, personnel want to develop 15 or 16 case studies to monitor change in different regions.

CISNAR maintains large databases of natural resource information and has plans to increase that capacity. It houses World Data Center (WDC)-D for Renewable Resources and Environment and has a database project with the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) through their jointly sponsored Integrated Research Center for Natural Resources and Agricultural Development. It has a national climatological database containing information (for the years 1951 to 1980) from about 1,000 monitoring stations. While CISNAR maintains a data management center, it is not clear it has the appropriate hardware and staffing to do the task. They have a VAX computer, a digitizing table, and about two dozen personal computers (PCs). They have no computer work stations.

Extensive plans are being formulated for the establishment of the CERN Synthesis Center (Chapter 4) at CISNAR. The equipment and training planned for CISNAR in CERN plans will address current limitations, particularly in data management and modeling.

The commission plays an explicit educational role by taking on M.S. and Ph.D. students from participating universities and fostering them through research projects. Between 15 and 20 graduate students work at CISNAR.

CISNAR is an extremely important resource for information and understanding of China's land and freshwaters that are important to global change studies. To make its best contribution to such studies,

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
×

CISNAR would greatly benefit from increased capacities, including data management, trained personnel, and equipment.

GUANGZHOU INSTITUTE OF GEOGRAPHY

The Guangzhou Institute of Geography is supported by the Guangzhou provincial government, and is not connected directly to any CNCIGBP activities. In fact, institute staff were not aware of any national plans for global change research. Nevertheless, the institute is doing some work of interest.

The institute is staffed by 110 scientists and is organized into the following departments: physical geography, economic geography, special economic zones, geomorphology and quaternary studies, remote sensing, coastal and river delta resources, laboratory, and administration. A very few undergraduate students from various regional universities conduct research, although the institute does not confer a degree. The institute has eight computers, ranging from IBM XTs to IBM 386s and some Canadian machines. This institute has no GIS capability because of the high cost of hardware and software. The remote sensing department has Eros II hardware and software purchased from a company in Canada. According to institute officials, the department works with TM data, and it can do carbon-14 and chemical analyses.

Research Highlights

Huang Zhenguo is studying the physical and biological effects of sea-level change on the environment of the Pearl River Delta. Li Pingri, who collaborates with Huang Zhenguo, is doing some very nice historical analyses of coastal changes in the Pearl River Delta. Scientists do not appear to be modeling future changes, although some papers discuss implications; essentially, no predictive work is being undertaken. No collaboration is evident between this coastal zone geomorphology group and Ren Mei-e at Nanjing University, nor with the CAS South China Sea Institute of Oceanology.

Zhong Gongfu is working on a project funded by the National Natural Science Foundation (NSFC) on dike systems, but further information was not available.

INSTITUTE OF ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS

The CAS Institute of Atmospheric Physics is a leading center for research on a broad range of atmospheric physics, including regional and global atmospheric circulation, boundary layer physics, pollu-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
×

tion meteorology, tropospheric physics, and atmospheric chemistry. Zeng Qingcun, director, is well known internationally for ''Zeng's model'' for general circulation. Ye Duzheng, director emeritus, is internationally known for his work on atmospheric circulation in eastern Asia, particularly for his work on the role of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in general global circulation. The institute has about 550 staff members, 14 laboratories, a computing center, a postgraduate division, a postdoctoral program, and an atmospheric observatory at Xianghe.

Since 1986, scientists have been carrying out research in nine areas: climate change and prediction, medium-range weather forecasting, mesoscale dynamics and nowcasting, atmospheric environment, acid rain, middle atmosphere, geophysical fluid dynamics, atmospheric physics and chemistry, and global change. In general, two research areas are of particular relevance to the global change studies—climate modeling and climate diagnostics. The institute is a primary collaborating institute under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Chinese Academy of Sciences Joint Research on the Greenhouse Effect (Appendix C).

Research Highlights

A hierarchy of climate models for the atmosphere and oceans has been used in climate simulations, and more models are under development. The institute's 2-level atmospheric general circulation model (GCM) has been developed since 1987 and is used extensively for climate studies, such as the Asian monsoon, seasonal abrupt changes in atmospheric circulation, severe cold summers, low-frequency oscillations, and teleconnection. The model is also used to participate in the international GCM intercomparison program organized by DOE for understanding differences among GCMs (Appendix C). A multilayer ocean GCM and a multilayer atmospheric GCM are separately under development, with the ultimate goal of studying the ocean-atmosphere interaction. As part of model validation study, these models will also be used to examine the paleoclimate.

Climate diagnostics mainly focus on seasonal, interannual, and long-term climate variability, in particular, monsoon variability. The main purpose of this focus is to understand the physical mechanisms of weather process, such as the formation, propagation, and anomaly of planetary waves, teleconnection, low-frequency oscillation, air-sea coupled oscillations and the effects of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on the general circulation and the climate of China. In recent years, special emphasis has been placed on the 14- and 40-day oscil-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
×

lations, the relationship between the Asian monsoon and summer rainfall in the Yangtze River Valley and the relationship between the Chinese and Indian monsoons. The objective is to improve understanding of the climate system for long-range forecasting and short-term prediction.

The National Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics (LASG), set up in 1985, hosts visiting scientists from all over the world. LASG supports climate, ecology, and environmental research by using data sets and computer-assisted analyses. Main topics are the development of four-dimensional dynamic models, data sets, and methodologies and protocols for handling large volumes of data.

The LASG data center holds more than 200 gigabytes, and the volume of data is growing at more than 1 gigabyte per year. The LASG has a CONVEX mini-supercomputer, Silicon Graphics work station, and numerous micro-computers. Data holdings include basic climate variables, trace gas, land-surface properties, ocean variables, past climate change variables, and global and national carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

The institute publishes Scientia Atmospherica Sinica (Daqi Kexue, quarterly, in Chinese), Advances in Atmospheric Sciences (quarterly, in English), and the Annual Report of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics.

INSTITUTE OF BOTANY

The CAS Institute of Botany is located in pleasant surroundings on the grounds of the Beijing Zoo. The institute is under the leadership of Zhang Xinshi (also known as Chang Hsin-shih and David Chang), who replaced the distinguished Tang Peisung upon his retirement. The institute is large, effectively managed, and covers a wide array of botanical sciences. It has sections dealing with phytochemistry, cytology, nitrogen fixation, photosynthesis, plant physiology, and plant ecology/geobotany. It has the largest herbarium in Asia, with collections predating the 1920s. The professional staff is 580, with a support staff of 200. Approximately 50 M.S. and 20 Ph.D. students are working in the institute. The institute administers three CERN sites: (1) the Inner Mongolia Grassland Ecosystem Experiment Station, (2) Beijing Forest Ecosystem Experiment Station, and (3) Maousu Ecology Experiment Station. The institute is working with the CAS Lanzhou Institute of Plateau Atmospheric Physics and the CAS Lanzhou Institute of Glaciology and Geocryology to establish a research station on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
×
Research Highlights

The institute is involved in interdisciplinary research programs within China and has active international programs with laboratories in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. A major global change study is centered in the Laboratory for Quantitative Ecology, which is described in detail in other sections of this report that detail activities in the Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems (GCTE) Core Project, land cover change, and biogeochemistry (Chapters 4 and 5). Zhang Xinshi will be working with Zheng Du, CAS Institute of Geography, on a multi-institute, multidisciplinary project, "The study of the Origin, Evolution, Environmental Change and Ecosystems of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau," which is funded by the State Science and Technology Commission (SSTC).

Other sections of the institute offer important academic support for the global change effort. For example, the photosynthesis research group, well known for its work on chloroplast membrane structure and biophysics, is planning to participate in climate-vegetation studies by taking part in the construction of models of photosynthesis, regulation of stomatal conductance, and respiration.

Institute researchers are clearly taking an important role in the Chinese global change program and are anticipating an expanding role, particularly in the study of climate-vegetation interactions.

INSTITUTE OF GEOGRAPHY

The Institute of Geography is large and has an extensive mission, including studies of climate, natural resources, economics, and paleoclimate. Under joint sponsorship of CAS and the State Planning Commission (SPC) since 1986, the institute serves as a principal source of geographic data on physical, biological, and economic resources of China, as well as maintaining basic research on natural and cultural resources, information science, and global change.

The institute, under the leadership of Zuo Dakang, has 13 departments, four laboratories, and the National Key Laboratory of Resources and Environment Information Systems (LREIS), which has links to other domestic and foreign institutes. The institute administers two CERN stations: the Yucheng Integrated Experiment Station in Shandong Province focuses on water balance involving moisture exchange in the soil-plant-atmospheric system, and the Beijing Agroecology Experiment Station focuses on the regularity of energy transformation and substance migration of farmland and agroforestry systems in North China and the interrelation of growth and yield formation of crops and woods.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
×

LREIS is equipped with world-class GIS facilities, image processing, cartography, and photointerpretation. The laboratory uses ARC/INFO, a GIS software developed in the United States, and serves as the Asian distributor for this software package. The GIS system is operated on recent Digital Equipment Corporation work stations, which are in the process of being upgraded. LREIS has the ability to produce high-quality maps from aerial photography, Landsat, or other satellite data sources. The laboratory's hardware and software are comparable to those found in U.S. institutions.

LREIS personnel are very much part of the international GIS community, and LREIS has also hosted several recent conferences about GIS. Institute personnel are well trained and experienced in a range of disciplines. Several distinguished scholars are on staff, as well as strong technical personnel. The group is well connected internationally and has considerable exchanges with American and other institutions.

Despite the applied roots of the institute's data activities, it could be a larger player in IGBP's Data and Information Systems (DIS) activities in China and this type of collaboration should be encouraged. The level of China's current participation in DIS is similar to organizations in the United States, for example, the U.S. Geological Survey, and other nations that are also just beginning to participate. The limited role of LREIS, a GIS national laboratory, in Chinese global change research, is due, in part, to its mandate to support planning and development activities and to competition for its overcommitted resources. The institute does not appear to be involved in the WDC-D effort, although it has recently established a specific department to support the CERN subcenter for hydrology (Chapter 4).

Research Highlights

Studies related to global change are conducted mainly in the Department of Climatology and Department of Hydrology. The Department of Climatology studies basic laws of climate formation and evolution and analyzes interactions of various physical processes and changes in past climate periods, maritime climate, monsoon climate, urban climate, near-ground physical climate, and phenology. Recent studies on climate change have concentrated on the East China Plain and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

China possesses a vast resource of historical writings that have frequently been studied by historians, philosophers, and social science scholars. These writings contain climate information that was recorded in different types of historical sources: local gazettes, offi-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
×

cial dynastic histories, personal diaries, ancient literature, and memos to the emperors. It is possible to extract and establish climate series of precipitation, harvests, disasters, and phenology by studying and analyzing these writings. These data also permit historical analysis of the impact of climate change on regional resources, such as water supply, as well as social and economic activities.

Chu Kezen was the first one to use historical writings to establish the history of temperature fluctuation during the last 5,000 years in China. In recent years, under a DOE-CAS joint project (Appendix C), Zhang Peiyuan has been leading a group that is extracting key information on China's past environment from several sources, including the Imperial Archives and tree rings. Most of these historical data have been stored on computer. Some time series of past climate change have been reconstructed: dryness and wetness variation in Beijing (1260–1979), dryness and wetness variation in Luoyang (1000–1979), and temperature fluctuations in Nanjing, Suzhou, and Hangzhou (1724–1980).

Tree-ring sampling, analysis, cross dating, and standardization are carried out in the tree-ring laboratory, thus providing climate information and calibration with historical and instrumental data.

The Department of Hydrology conducts research on slope runoff on the Loess Plateau and on the transformation of Sishui (surface, ground, soil, and atmospheric water) on the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain. Hydrographies of rain type, drainage morphology, and ground conditions are simulated in laboratories. This latter work, which is referred to as the "soil, plant, atmosphere continuum," is labeled as a major new trend in the institute's hydrological research. In recent years, researchers have also studied the water transfer from the Yangtze River to the Huanghe River basin and water resources along the coastal regions.

The institute will be involved in the multidisciplinary project, "The Origin, Evolution, Environmental Change and Ecosystems of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau," which will be conducted from 1992–1996. Zheng Du, a physical geographer, is a lead scientist for the ecosystem portion of the project along with Zhang Xinshi, CAS Institute of Botany. Zheng is a member of the expert committee that is in charge of implementing the project.

Institute activities represent an exciting opportunity to link natural science and human impact studies. The scholarly activities of the institute in paleoenvironments are excellent and innovative, coupling documentary and geophysical evidence in a unique way. Global change research enjoys the strong interest and involvement of the institute's senior scientists.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
×

LANZHOU INSTITUTE OF GLACIOLOGY AND GEOCRYOLOGY

The mission of the CAS Lanzhou Institute of Glaciology and Geocryology is to study the glaciers, ice sheets, and frozen soils of China. Research activities include basic research on ice and snow hydrology and physics and engineering of frozen soils, for example, road building on permafrost and development of monitoring instrumentation for use in harsh environments, including cold, high-altitude, and snow-covered areas.

Institute staff, under the leadership of Chen Guodong, number approximately 400, of which more than 300 are scientists and technicians. The institute contains several scientists who have overseas training in well-regarded U.S. and European laboratories and who have chosen to return because of the unparalleled access the institute provides to mid-latitude glaciers. This high rate of returning students is quite unusual and noteworthy.

Research facilities include the National Key Laboratory for Frozen Soil Engineering, the Tianshan Glacier Research Laboratory at 4,000 m and the Tianshan Glaciology Research Station at 5,000 m (located in the Tianshan Mountains near Urumqi in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region), and, jointly with the CAS Lanzhou Institute of Plateau Atmospheric Physics, the new logistical base station and comprehensive observatory located respectively in Golmud and Wudaoliang in Qinghai Province. The institute houses and maintains WDC-D for glaciology and geocryology. Plans are under way for the construction of an ice core laboratory.

Laboratories are well equipped, including instrumentation for elemental analysis by ion chromatography, liquid water content of frozen soils, and other analyses that are standard in these areas of research. The institute includes unique facilities for carrying out measurements on frozen samples, especially mechanical analyses. Funding has been secured for a mass spectrometer to allow analysis of the isotopic composition of glacier air and for studies of paleoclimate. When this instrument is delivered, the institute will have world-class facilities for the study of paleoclimate and atmospheric chemistry, a key subject in global change research. The laboratory also has modern computing facilities, including a SUN 4 work station, which was obtained via a collaborative project with the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Historically, the scientists from the institute have pursued international collaboration and foreign funding aggressively. Nearly 50 percent of research funding is soft money, with half of that grant

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
×

funding coming from abroad. The institute's chief global change activity is in hosting a series of international expeditions exploring the chemistry of ice cores from mid-latitude glaciers, an avenue of research first explored with U.S. partners, and now carried out with colleagues from many countries, including Japan, the former Soviet Union, and several European nations. The institute organizes incountry logistics, which can be quite challenging given the remote locations and difficult terrain in which the glaciers and ice sheets of China are found.

Research Highlights

Global change research is classified into four areas: (1) ice core studies, (2) snow cover studies, (3) glacial mass balance snowline, glacial discharge, and climate change, and (4) Antarctica.

Ice Core Studies

Ice core studies began in 1982 through a cooperative program with Australian researchers, and currently, active cooperative projects with Americans and Japanese are ongoing. From 1984 through 1987, Lonnie Thompson, from Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University, Xie Zichu, and Yao Tandong conducted studies of ice cores from the Dunde ice cap in the Qilianshan Mountains that form the border between Gansu and Qinghai Provinces. Results of this work show more pronounced temperature fluctuation in the past 50 years than in the previous 10,000.

As part of a paleoclimate study of global climate variability, institute researchers and Lonnie Thompson currently are studying the Guliya ice cap in the western Kunlunshan Mountains in southern Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. Results show that this ice cap has the thickest ice (350 m) and lowest temperatures outside of polar regions, and that it is the highest (6,700 m above sea level) and the largest (320 m2) subtropical ice cap in the world. Ice core samples will be analyzed for past climate, atmospheric gas, and dust composition. Samples will also be taken from low-latitude, high-elevation sites in Peru. It is expected that the Guliya ice cap will contain the best record of the relationship of low-latitude, high-elevation climate to the record of monsoon variability in southern Asia, which has bearing on the relationship between ENSO and monsoon activity (NSF 1991).

Researchers are involved in a major multidisciplinary project, "The Origin, Evolution, Environmental change, and Ecosystems of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau." Shi Yafeng (who also has a research appointment at

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
×

the CAS Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology) is working with Li Jijun of the Department of Geography at Lanzhou University and Li Bingyuan at the CAS Institute of Geography to study environmental changes during the Late Cenozoic Era. Subcomponents include the ice core study mentioned above, lacustrine core drilling (in cooperation with researchers from the CAS Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology [see below] and the CAS Guiyang Institute of Geochemistry), and six natural profiles will be taken from along the edges of the plateau.

Snow Cover Studies

Snow cover studies concentrate on understanding the influence of climate and environmental change on snow cover and feedbacks to climate and the environment. One of the major cooperative projects between Li Peiji and George Kukla of Columbia University has been to investigate the influence of climate change on snow cover in western China, including the study of the relationship between the greenhouse effect, volcanic eruptions, ENSO, and the Indian monsoon on snow cover. Xie Zichu and M. Kotlyakov from the former Soviet Union have been conducting a similar project. Yang Daqing and Jeff Dozier, University of California, Santa Barbara, are studying the spatial and temporal distribution, surface energy transformation, and melting process of snow cover by using field observations at the Tianshan Mountain research stations and remote sensing data.

Glacial Mass Balance Snowline Studies

Glacial mass balance snowline, glacial discharge, and climate change is a research area that has been pursued since the founding of the institute. Currently, Liu Chaohai is the lead scientist for these studies. Several projects are under way: features and fluctuations of glaciers and snow cover in the Tianshan Mountains (a cooperative project between China and the former USSR), the influence of climate change on water resources in northwest China and future climate trends, the relationship between cryosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (a cooperative project between China and the former USSR), and measuring existing glacier fluctuation under phase four of the UNESCO International Hydrology Project.

Antarctic Studies

Glaciology studies in Antarctica were initiated through cooperative projects with Australia. One of the primary investigators, Qin

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
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Dahe, gained international recognition in 1990 as a member of the Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Samples taken during the trek are being analyzed. Around China's Great Wall Antarctic station an ice core study of Holocene Epoch environmental evolution is being conducted in cooperation with Uruguay and the United States.

The institute occupies an important role in global change research in China because it controls access to an important research resource—mid-latitude glaciers—which has brought it funding and extensive international collaboration. Excitement stemming from this role has encouraged the development of a young and highly motivated staff. While some potential U.S. collaborators have encountered problems reaching agreement about cost sharing, overall cooperation with the United States remains strong, due in part to the high mutual regard of individual scientists.

LANZHOU INSTITUTE OF PLATEAU ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS

The CAS Lanzhou Institute of Plateau Atmospheric Physics is responsible for the investigation of the atmospheric sciences in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region, and in areas where the climate is influenced by the plateau. The institute conducts a broad range of studies in atmospheric modeling, numerical weather prediction, climatology, boundary layer meteorology, clouds and precipitation, atmospheric electricity, and radar meteorology. Researchers are making a strong effort in bioclimatology, and this is the principal institute for the Sino-Japanese Atmosphere-Land Surface processes cooperative (HEIFE) experiment (Chapter 4), a bilateral interdisciplinary investigation of the coupling of land surface hydrology, boundary layer dynamics, and mesoscale meteorology.

Under the open and energetic leadership of Guo Changming, the institute is a fairly compact institute of 290 total staff, of whom 60 percent are scientists. It has a strong cohort of young and competent scientists (most staff are under 35), and a graduate program with 20 students. However, it is difficult to retain the brightest young scientists because institutes from less remote areas frequently are able to recruit successfully from this institute. It has a technical support section that produces and maintains instrumentation, much of which is quite impressive.

The institute is housed in functional quarters in Lanzhou. Computing at the institute is limited to PCs and a shared VAX 11/780 computer. Simulation modeling and numerical weather prediction is severely constrained by the lack of computing facilities. Most soft

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
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ware used in modeling, model diagnosis, and data analysis are written in-house. The institute has field facilities for atmospheric electricity studies and several field stations, including one it sponsors jointly with the CAS Lanzhou Institute of Glaciology and Geocryology near Golmud on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau that supports measurement stations at altitudes from 2,800 to 5,000 m. Facilities for micrometeorology and boundary layer meteorology are excellent, including an acoustic sounder, profiling towers, an eddy correlation system, tethersondes, and radiation instruments. At the HEIFE experiment site, instrumentation support personnel have developed and deployed a shortwave radio telemetry system for relaying remote micrometeorological observations to a central receiver and computer.

Research Highlights

While core activities are in the areas of traditional meteorological and climatological research, the institute supports a number of activities that are of direct or supporting importance to global change science. The HEIFE experiment, which addresses land-atmosphere coupling, is of central importance to the Chinese global change program. Supporting activities include ones in synoptic scale and dynamic meteorology, especially in relation to the influence of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

In contrast to general panel observations, planning for the HEIFE experiment involved some coordination of modeling and experimental design by using a mesoscale model to determine whether surface fluxes at experimental sites were representative of the region as a whole. Efforts to integrate modeling into experimental design as part of the HEIFE experiment are very innovative and the potential for leadership in climate system modeling from this institute seems high, despite its remote location and limited computing facilities.

Panel members were surprised to find out that this institute was not included in the CERN network. It appeared that it could contribute to the network in several ways, as well as be able to make good use of investments planned for CERN stations. The panel understood that one of the problems with participation was the institute's lack of a permanent experiment site. However, the Linze site for the HEIFE experiment has and will continue to offer valuable data and be a site of scientific interest. Furthermore, this institute's work fills an important niche in the distribution of CERN sites around the country. The institute's overall strengths make it a sound potential partner in developing a better integration of biophysics and meteorology with ecology.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
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NANJING INSTITUTE OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

The Nanjing Institute of Environmental Science occupies attractive quarters with modern facilities on the eastern side of the city. Under the direction of Zhou Zejiang, this is an institute under the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA). This particular institute specializes in rural environmental problems and it appears to be staffed by a group of sharp young scientists.

Research Highlights

Zhou Zejiang listed six activities considered germane to global change research: (1) preserving biological diversity; (2) deforestation and reforestation; (3) desertification; (4) ecologically sound agricultural practices; (5) biogenic gas flux related to agricultural practices; and (6) biogas production.

A methane (CH4) flux study is ongoing at a research area about 50 km from Nanjing, the results of which were presented at a NEPA-CAS-U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) symposium in Beijing in May 1991 (Li et al. 1991). The basic question being addressed is the effect of rice culture methods on CH4 flux—with a goal being to reduce that flux. Results show large differences, but insomuch as the fertilization and straw treatments were confounded by irrigation treatments in an unbalanced factorial design, the factors underlying the differences cannot be isolated.

Research groups at the CAS Nanjing Institute of Soil Science (Yang Linzhang and Dong Yuanhua, PIs) and this institute (Li et al. 1990) are on the verge of measuring nitrous oxide (N2O) flux simultaneously but are blocked, in part, by a lack of reliable calibration gases. This would be easy to overcome through U.S. collaboration.

NANJING INSTITUTE OF GEOGRAPHY AND LIMNOLOGY

The CAS Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology is under the leadership of Tu Qingying. It is housed in a lovely new building located on a campus with other CAS institutes, including the Nanjing Institute of Soil Science. This institute supports about 20 M.S. students, two Ph.D. students, and a couple of postdoctoral fellows. This may be the largest limnology institution in China, and researchers work on lakes all over the country. This limnological work has a strong component of historical analysis that is germane to the IGBP Past Global Changes (PAGES) Core Project. These lakes could also serve as sensitive monitors of change as well.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
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The institute holds one of China's repositories of ancient written records. This treasure is being analyzed by Chen Jiaqi for flood records of major Chinese rivers over the last 1,500 years (Chen 1986, 1987, 1989, 1991, Undated). Another historical approach is under way by Qian Junlong to analyze tree rings chemically for trace metals (lead, manganese, copper, and cadmium) over time and with respect to soils (Qian Undated, a, b, c). It is of additional interest that she is using an inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometer for this work.

A study of the tendency and impact of climate and sea-level change in China involving 20 institutes is led by Shi Yafeng (Shi 1991). Scientists are reconstructing climate changes over the past 10,000 years and predicting future changes by modeling climate change under various conditions, for example, elevated CO2 and trace gases.

Wang Suming, who works in the Lake Sediment and Environment Laboratory will be working with Wen Qizhong of the CAS Guiyang Institute of Geochemistry to study lacustrine core drilling as part of the component to study environmental change in the Late Cenozoic Era in the SSTC-funded project, ''The Origin, Evolution, Environmental Change and Ecosystems on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,'' which is starting in 1992. Researchers from the Limnological Research Center at the University of Minnesota are also involved in this component.

Other projects were presented as part of Chinese global change research: (1) a riverine hydrology simulation model for two major rivers that takes into account changes in catchment characteristics and ground water and leads to an assessment of the relationships with sea-level rise and effects on crops (Pan Liangbao, PI); (2) coastal zone geomorphology for China's central eastern coast) (Shi Shaohua and Zheng Changsu, PIs); (3) historical and contemporary hydrometeorology of Chinese lakes, particularly in the northwest and Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. (Zhang Xuebin, PI); (4) climate cyclicity from various records but especially lake sediments (Pu Peimin, PI) (Pu 1983, Undated); and (5) remote sensing and GIS.

The institute has some nice equipment and good facilities. In the GIS laboratory, an official stated that the institute cannot afford to buy commercial GIS software, and students have written their own.

Global change research is still in the planning stage. Furthermore, funding is limited and this lack of money has prevented the implementation of projects. Officials would welcome international collaboration in order to be able to start global change research.

Overall, this institute offers particular strength in limnology and some kinds of historical analyses of environmental changes appropriate to PAGES. It may offer capabilities in GIS and remote sensing,

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
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coastal zone geomorphology and sedimentology relevant to the proposed Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ) Core Project, hydrologic modeling, and climatology. However, further communication and confirmation is required. The institute may offer some capacity in the estimation of energy and mass fluxes between land and atmosphere, but again, this awaits further confirmation.

NANJING INSTITUTE OF SOIL SCIENCE

The CAS Nanjing Institute of Soil Science, directed by Zhao Qiguo, is the largest institution in China devoted to soil science, and may be considered the leading center for soil science in the country. Basic research focuses on studies of soil genesis and classification, characteristics of soil distribution, the physical, chemical, and biological processes of soils, and the relationships between soil environmental conditions and plant growth. The institute has almost 500 personnel, almost 400 of whom are scientists, engineers, or technicians, and approximately 20 M.S. and five to ten Ph.D. students.

The institute has ten departments, three experimental stations, and houses the National Key Laboratory of Material Cycling in the Pedosphere, which is open to visiting Chinese and foreign scholars. The buildings are attractive and well maintained inside. The laboratories are clean, orderly, and equipment includes an X-ray spectrograph housed in an air-conditioned laboratory, a minimal Swedish autoanalyzer, and a Perkin-Elmer atomic absorption spectrophotometer.

The following are three field stations the institute administers: (1) Fengqiu Comprehensive Agroecology Experiment Station in Hunan Province on the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain, where wheat, cotton, corn, and other crops are grown; Yingtan Red Soil (ultisols) Hill Experiment Station in Jiangxi Province, where rice, winter wheat, peanuts, corn, and sorghum are grown; and (3) Taihu Agroecology Experiment Station, where rice, vegetables, and fish are grown.

Much research has focused on developing methods to improve soils by using fertilizers and salt-reducing techniques, soil genesis and classification, soil properties, soil information systems, and other methods for improving agricultural productivity of the land. Additionally, the institute is responsible for conducting a national soil survey.

Research Highlights

The institute is involved in three areas of global change study: (1) the study, prediction, and control of soil changes associated with

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
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land use and climate change; (2) the execution of germane experiments and monitoring of change at its stations; and (3) biogenic trace gas research.

Yang Linzhang and Dong Yuanhua are measuring CH4 and CO2 from rice paddies at the Taihu station. This area used to be under a double cropping system in which two rice crops per year were grown. Due to a shortage of labor in the countryside, this practice has been discontinued. Instead rice is grown in the summer months (May to September) and wheat or rice from late October to May. This change in cropping systems is important to researchers estimating CH4 flux from rice paddies. The site has an automatic sampling system and they are measuring N2O. This project will continue through 1995.

Three levels of variability are present in this CH4-producing system: (1) diurnal, (2) events within the rice growing period, and (3) the annual cycle of the cropping system. Another aspect of this system is the fate of the straw, which is either returned to the field, burned in the field, burned domestically as fuel, or fed to animals. It is important to add this last variable when assessing the entire production system.

According to CAS (1991), under a United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) project to produce a global map and assessment of soil degradation, institute researchers produced maps for China and North Korea. Building on this experience, scientists are studying the effect of global climate warming on soils. Expected results include a 1:10,000,000 map of soil change, a soil-terrain database, the development of models for global soil change, and a book on the impact of soil change.

Researchers need a spatial database for extrapolating results for this province, not to mention all of the paddy areas of China. GIS support is available at the institute through Lin Guangsong and Yang Xiangheng and at the CAS Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology located just yards away.

NANJING UNIVERSITY

Department of Geo and Ocean Sciences

The Department of Geo and Ocean Sciences at Nanjing University is home to an ambitious ongoing research program involving sediment discharge and dynamics, coastal and continental shelf geomorphology, and changing levels of the land relative to the sea for the three major river systems of China (Yangtze, Huanghe, and Pearl). This program is led by the renowned scientist, Ren Mei-e (Ren 1991a),

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
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who has numerous collaborators and students involved in this project at the university and at other institutions.

This project fits in exactly with some LOICZ objectives. Ren has the beginnings of an expanded proposal for an integrated study of land cover change, river hydrology and geomorphology, and human and economic impacts in the coastal zone of the Huanghe River (Ren 1991b). This proposal could be a model for global change research in China. He is approaching these phenomena through historical analysis now but was receptive to making it predictive.

NORTHWEST INSTITUTE OF SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION

The CAS Northwest Institute of Soil and Water Conservation is located about 90 km from Xi'an in Yangling in Shaanxi Province. It is a large institute, with a total staff of 372, including 296 scientific and technical personnel, 81 of whom are scientists with research qualifications. Li Yushan is director of the institute. Because of a last minute mix-up, panel members were not able to visit the institute as planned, but two members of its staff, Tang Keli, director of the institute's soil erosion laboratory, and her associate Wang Binke, met with panel members in Xi'an and provided printed materials and verbal descriptions of their programs.

The institute is dedicated to studying soil and water conservation techniques on the Loess Plateau. In anticipation of climate change on the Loess Plateau, research focuses on changes in agricultural practices that will be necessary.

The institute also conducts studies of past climate change in this region of China. The institute is interested in cooperative research with other scientists, especially in the United States, on studies related to IGBP. In fact, Tang Keli was involved in a bilateral meeting of scientists in 1988, organized by the CSCPRC, to initiate cooperative projects on global change. The development of collaborative projects has been limited to date. Although progress has been slow, researchers at this institute remain enthusiastic about developing international cooperation.

Possible topics for collaboration include soil erosion processes, economic benefits of soil conservation, changes in vegetation in response to soil erosion, geologic record of soil erosion, effects of human activity on soil erosion, and developing a GIS database on Huanghe River sediments.

The institute operates seven field experiment sites in the Loess Plateau region. Lists of equipment contain some 2,000 instruments,

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
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some of which are large and include a multichannel analyzer, an inductively coupled plasma quantorecorder, rainfall simulators, remote sensing image processing system, and soil physical-chemical analyzers. The library holds over 85,000 volumes, including 1,100 periodicals, 2,400 journals, and 4,500 publications.

Publication of scientific papers by the institute is found principally in Chinese journals, some of which are in English. Publication in international journals also occurs. The reputation of the institute for the quality of its published research is generally good.

PEKING UNIVERSITY

Research Highlights

A number of relevant research projects have been or are ongoing at Peking University in areas related to global change. Like many other Chinese institutions, work on paleoclimate outweighs other types of research. Paleoclimate studies include studies of loess in the Miaodao islands of Shandong Province in the Pleistocene by Cao Jiaxin and of loess in Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Ningxia Provinces in the Quaternary Period by Wang Nailiang. Two studies of glaciation in the Pleistocene Epoch are ongoing by Liu Gengnian and Cui Zhijiu. A project looking at past human interactions with the environment on the Beijing Plain in the past 5,000 years is ongoing under Hou Renzhi and Xu Haipeng. Han Mukang has completed work on a study of the interaction between environment and sea level.

Historical studies of climate change have included the use of travel diaries by Yu Xixian, tree rings by Liu Jihan, precipitation records from the past 500 years by Wang Shaowu, and a reconstruction of the unusual cooling in the Dali area of Yunnan Province during the last half of the thirteenth century by Yu Xixian.

Studies of climate change by using modern measurement techniques have been completed. Wang Shaowu studied the long-term cycles in air temperature and their relation to global atmospheric circulation. With Zhao Zhongci, he has studied long-term precipitation cycles. Zhao has used numerical modeling of CO2 to study impacts on global climate change. Tang Xiaoyan and Shao Kesheng have studied the effect of CH4 and acid rain on atmospheric chemistry.

As seen below, the university has a remote sensing center that has been used to study the impacts of climate change. For example, Cui Haiting has completed a study of changes in vegetation cover in ecological transition zones in North China and Fan Xinqin has studied urban heat islands in Beijing. Other climate impact studies in

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
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clude studies of water resources by Cui Halting, desert landscape change by Cui Haiting and Huang Wenhua, and changes to the seacoast around Qinhuangdao from the Holocene Epoch to the present by Zu Haipeng.

Center for Environmental Sciences

The Center of Environmental Sciences, under the leadership of Tang Xiaoyan, professor of environmental chemistry, is the major organizational unit under which scientists specializing in chemistry, physics, and mathematics join together in projects in environmental sciences in cooperation with SSTC, NEPA, and the Beijing government. The Department of Technical Physics and the Department of Geosciences also have some faculty working in environmental sciences.

Research fields focus especially on atmospheric photochemistry and acid precipitation. Facilities include a photochemical smog chamber, ion chromatography, and other instruments. A great advantage of conducting research at Peking University is the wide range of opportunities to cooperate with different academic departments. Because of the high prestige of the university, many excellent graduate students carry out thesis investigations, adding to the versatility of research activities.

Under a cooperative exchange arrangement with the University of North Carolina, students may study there for up to 1 year and American scientists may spend up to 3 months in China lecturing, teaching, and conducting research. Results of this program, which is sponsored by EPA (William Wilson, PI), has resulted in advanced training in analytical methods for air pollution research and exchanges of software and modeling procedures.

Under a tripartite agreement among the center, the University of Michigan, and the Russian Academy of Sciences, annual workshops will be arranged to promote international interdisciplinary research and training on global change. No workshops had been held as of the summer of 1992.

Though it sponsors no major journal of environmental science, Peking University is home to influential reviewers of papers in important national journals.

Institute of Remote Sensing Technology and Application

Depending on which sponsoring organization is identifying it, this unit can be known as the Institute of Remote Sensing Technology

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
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and Application (Peking University), National Remote Sensing Center Training Department (SSTC), or the Chinese Universities Remote Sensing Center (State Education Commission [SEDC]). The institute was established in 1983, and has a staff of about 30 to 35 professors, two associate professors, and four senior engineers. Four codirectors oversee different aspects of the institute's work: Cheng Jicheng (research), Chen Kai (administration), Ma Ainai (education), and Xu Xiru (laboratory). A GlS and a geographic expert system are run on PCs. A satellite ground station receives AVHRR data from National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites. Research by using remote sensing techniques is usually geographic in nature and is mainly concerned with water and soil resources. Researchers also carry out geological surveys of ore deposits.

The institute is a training center for institutions using remote sensing imagery, which has reduced the need for individual administrative systems to build up their own training capacities. Furthermore, the center has been the site for regional training programs, for example, a United Nations program for GIS training for the Asian Pacific region.

QINGDAO INSTITUTE OF OCEANOLOGY

When established in 1950, the CAS Qingdao Institute of Oceanology was the first of its kind in China. Its unique contribution, especially its work on marine algae, marine sedimentation, shallow water circulation, experimental marine biology, cultivation technology, and marine resource development, has laid the foundation for the development of Chinese marine science studies. Directed by Qin Yunshan and with a staff of 1,079, it is the largest multidisciplinary oceanographic institute in China. In addition, Qingdao is home to other major oceanographic institutions such as the State Oceanographic Administration's (SOA) First Institute of Oceanography and the Qingdao Ocean University.

The institute has three open laboratories (that accept visiting Chinese and foreign scholars) for studies of marine biology, ocean circulation and air-sea interaction, and ecological toxicology studies. It has nine major departments, namely, the Department of Physical Oceanography, Department of Marine Geology and Geophysics, Department of Marine Chemistry, Department of Marine Environmental Science, Department of Marine Botany, Department of Marine Invertebrate Zoology, Department of Marine Vertebrate Zoology, Department of Marine Experimental Zoology, and Department of Marine Technology and Instrumentation.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
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The institute also has supporting facilities, including a central laboratory, Department of Scientific and Technological Information, three research stations—Yantai Station, Xiamen Station, and Huangdao Mariculture Experiment Station (also a CERN station; Chapter 4), ocean-going research vessels, and an administrative office.

Research Highlights

Hu Dunxin, who heads the CNCIGBP's working group on ocean flux studies, is involved in Chinese Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) activities (Chapter 4). In general, research is centered on resource development and management through comprehensive surveys and studies of China's marine environment and resources. Given what is known about this institute, follow-up is encouraged to determine more extensively its role in oceanographic global change research.

RESEARCH CENTER FOR ECO-ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

The CAS Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences (RCEES) was established in October 1986. It is composed of the former Institute of Environmental Chemistry and the Ecology Center. RCEES' purpose is to promote the cooperation of environmental chemists, ecologists, and geoscientists to solve ecological and environmental issues at regional, national and global scales (RCEES 1991). Under the acting directorship of Huang Junxiong, RCEES has 516 staff.

With 34 laboratories within seven divisions, the size of RCEES and its interdisciplinary nature allow a wide variety of projects. Some of the activities are directly related to global change issues, others are generally related: (1) implementation of national and key environmental projects relevant to regional, urban, and rural economic development, such as acid rain in southwest China, Tianjin and Yichang environmental planning, and the Minjiang River Estuary environmental assessment; (2) participation in joint projects on global eco-environmental issues; (3) basic research in the fields of ecological chemistry, theoretical ecology, and carbohydrates chemistry; (4) research, development, and production of pollution control devices; and (5) provision of advisory and technical information services to central and local governments and enterprises.

The graduate education program is strong; 176 students have been enrolled. Two students have been awarded Ph. Ds, five others have completed their requirements for the degree, and 31 are doctoral students. Seventy-nine students have been awarded M.S. degrees, 24

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
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have completed their requirements, and the remaining are in the process of completing their work for M.S. degrees (RCEES 1991).

RCEES has several well-equipped laboratories, with instrumentation that includes a high-resolution X-ray fluorescence spectrometer with double crystals, a high-frequency plasma emission spectrograph, a Fourier transform infrared spectrograph, a combined gas chromatograph and mass spectrometer, an X-ray diffraction and fluorescence spectrograph, a laser spectrometer, a UV/visible light spectrophotometer, an ion chromatograph, an atomic absorption spectrophotometer, a gas chromatograph, a high-pressure liquid chromatograph, a polarograph, a thermal energy analyzer, a differential thermal analyzer, and a computer work station. In addition, RCEES has a VAX780 computer shared jointly with three other CAS institutes, direct computer connections with an institute in Germany, and about 20 PCs.

About one-third of RCEES's funding comes directly from CAS, the remainder from NEPA, NSFC, and contracts from local governments.

RCEES has a library with a collection of more than 110,000 volumes published in many different languages and a collection that comprises 349 Chinese and foreign scientific journals. In addition, a collection of about 15,000 documents from more than 100 institutions is kept in a regular information exchange link within the country. The Chinese unit of INFOTERRA (UNEP's international environmental database) is also based at RCEES. RCEES staff edit two important journals: Environmental Chemistry (Huangjing Huaxue, bimonthly, in Chinese) and Environmental Science (Huangjing Kexue, bimonthly, in Chinese). Additionally, Zhuang Yahui is the editor of Acta Scientiae Circumstantiae (Huangjing Kexue Xuebao [Journal of Environmental Sciences], quarterly, in Chinese), which is perhaps the top journal of environmental science being published in China.

Research Highlights

Of the seven RCEES divisions, four are contributing to or have the potential to contribute to global change research. The Regional Eco-environmental Assessment and Planning Division has three ecology laboratories and a research group for agricultural and soil chemistry. The Eco-environmental Effects of Chemicals Division includes research groups for atmospheric chemistry, ecological chemistry, biogeochemistry, chemical ecology, organic chemistry, and ecotoxicology. The Environmental Analytical Chemistry Division has four laboratories. The Eco-environmental Information Studies Division has five

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
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research groups working on environmental databases and information.

RCEES has international programs with Germany, Japan (an acid rain study in Chongqing and at other sites in South China), and the United States. Atmospheric chemistry and air pollution studies on local and regional scales seem to be the most numerous of these collaborative programs.

Only a few of the programs at RCEES relate to global change. RCEES provided the following information on these programs as they relate to the panel's interests in (a) atmospheric chemistry and (b) atmosphere-land surface interactions. RCEES proposals for land cover change studies were not funded under the Eighth 5-Year Plan. The center will look for international collaboration, possibly with Australia, Germany, or the United States to fund this type of work. Currently, the only ongoing land use project is one to study land reclamation after mining operations.

Trace Gas Projects
  • Estimation of greenhouse gas emissions (Yang Wenxiang, PI)

  • Studies of the fluxes of N2O, CH4, nonmethane hydrocarbons, and the concentration of carbon monoxide in northern China (planned IGAC contribution) (Su Weihan, PI)

  • Simulation of trace gas emissions from agricultural biomass burning in China (Yang Wenxiang, PI)

  • Study of clean coal application techniques and the control of CO2 emissions (planned) (Zhao Dianwu, PI)

  • Study of the effects of CO2 and O3 on the growth and production of rice, wheat, and corn

  • Study of the effect of CO2, O3, SO2 on the deciduous, broadleaved forest ecosystem2

  • Modeling of climate change and agricultural ecosystems

  • Study of forest ecosystems3

  • Study of the role of emission and absorption of trace gases in forest ecosystems

  • Study of trace gas emissions from soils

  • Study of trace gas fluxes from different environmental systems

  • Study of the chemical reaction of the hydroxide radical and oxygen with greenhouse gases

  • Study of the vacuum ultraviolet photolysis of CFCs

  • Estimation of the atmospheric residence time of some CFCs and N2O and the assessment of the impact of these gases on the O3 layer (planned) (Yang Wenxiang, PI)

  • Study of the key reactions of O3 depletion

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
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Biogeochemistry
  • Study and modeling of the biogeochemical cycles and of natural and anthropogenic emissions of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur in China

Precipitation Chemistry
  • Research on the atmospheric chemical processes for the formation of acid rain in southwest China (Shen Ji and Zhao Dianwu, PIs)

  • Study of the critical loadings of acid precipitation

  • Cooperative study of a control policy for acid deposition

  • Study of the impact of atmospheric deposition on forest ecosystems

In summary, RCEES is a dynamic institute with tremendous potential for contributing not only to the global change programs of China, but also in providing a bridge to U.S. programs. RCEES is in the process of adding a global dimension to their historical focus on local (urban air pollution) and regional (acid deposition) research. They have initiated a number of programs that address global-scale questions, especially in relation to the emission of radiatively active gases to the atmosphere and biosphere and atmospheric interactions (see projects listed above).

RCEES' strengths have been in the areas of local and regional issues of environmental chemistry, but continued development is limited by a lack of resources and facilities. As is common with other institutes, tremendous competition exists for funds and resources. This competition limits the development of new programs and limits the amount of intergroup and interinstitutional cooperation on questions relating to global change.

A number of scientists have excellent research records that address a wide variety of questions of interest to the international community. Concerning collaboration with U.S. scientists in the area of global change research, several RCEES scientists have established cooperative projects, for example, Su Weihan, Zhao Dianwu, and Liu Jingyi (who strongly supports international collaboration in her capacity as Secretary General of the United Nations Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment-CAST program for China). Scientists are eager to build upon these collaborations.

SHANGHAI INSTITUTE OF PLANT PHYSIOLOGY

The CAS Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology was established in 1986 and is directed by Yang Xiongli. It is primarily a molecular

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
×

and cellular biology institution and its main focus has shifted from physiology to tissue culture, biochemistry, and molecular genetics. As well as dealing with plants, research also has a strong microbiological thrust. The institute takes on 10 graduate students per year, and confers its own degree.

Given its current focus, the institute is not an obvious center for global change research. Yet, it has important assets and relevant projects, nevertheless. Wang Tianduo, who is working on a water use efficiency experiment, is a member of the pre-World War II school of scholars whose dignified excellence dots the Chinese academic landscape. Although he has been abroad, he has never been to the United States, where seven of his eight students now work on plant processes. Fu Wei and Ding Yang are two sharp graduate students with good modeling capabilities who are working under Wang.

Research Highlights

Wang Tianduo's current research is centered around the development of a mechanistic model for atmosphere-plant linkages—photosynthesis, respiration, allocation and growth—water flux, and balance. This model, PGROW (which only has parameters for annual plants) is being applied chiefly to crops as part of the water use efficiency project on the Huang Huai Hai Plain in which Wang plays a leadership role (Chapter 4). This project has the potential to make important contributions to regional-scale global change research (Wang 1990). Very importantly, Wang is working actively on the problems of ''scaling up'' analyses. This experience and expertise of Wang and his students might be applied to the development of, or incorporation of China into, a general ecosystem model that links atmosphere-plant-soil through energy-water-chemical exchanges.

Two other projects should be noted for their relevance to global change research. First, Xu Daquan makes detailed gas exchange measurements and is interested in the direct effects of CO2 enhancement on plants. He recently worked on this with Roger Gifford in Canberra, Australia and has some intriguing results on acclimation to higher CO2. Xu Daquan and Qin Guoxiong are working on CO2 enhancement field experiments by using natural CO2 from a well north of the Yangtze River in Jiangsu Province. His laboratory is equipped with an oxygen sensor leaf chamber, an ADC infrared gas analyzer for lab/phytotron measurements, an ADC porometer/infrared gas analyzer for field measurements, and a Wisconsin-type phytotron (without CO2 control facilities). Second, Yu Shuwen works on SO2 and industrially-derived ethylene pollution effects on plants.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
×

SOUTH CHINA INSTITUTE OF BOTANY

The CAS South China Institute of Botany, located in Guangzhou under the directorship of Tu Mengzhao, has six departments—plant genetics, physiology, taxonomy, morphology, resources, and ecology—on a 16 ha campus. These departments provide good biological support for the ecologists and ecophysiologists who are the likely persons to be conducting global change research. The institute administers three ecological research stations and is responsible for the South China Botanical Garden, which was founded in 1958 and covers about 300 ha. The garden has currently more than 4,000 species, including some 500 species of medicinal plants. (Guangzhou has the main phytotaxonomic facilities in South China, including an extensive herbarium where about 700,000 specimens are stored.) The staff consists of 534 people, including 74 senior scientists, and approximately 25 M.S. students.

The institute has experimental rice paddies, greenhouses, and some environmental control chambers. Instruments include an antiquated transmission microscope, a fairly new scanning electron microscope, an organic compound mass spectrometer for the large volume of phytochemistry conducted, a LICOR porometer for plant leaf gas exchange measurements, an oxygen electrode for measuring photosynthesis and respiration of leaf samples, and a gas chromatograph with a flame ionization detector.

The institute's ecological research stations, two of which are in CERN (Chapter 4) are considered to be key to its participation in global change research. The Xiaoliang Artificial Tropical Forest Ecosystem Experiment Station, which is not in CERN, is far down the coast to the southwest and features a subtropical forest restoration project on heavily eroded soils, probably oxisols. Heshan Comprehensive Downland Experiment Station, which is in CERN, is mainly an agroecosystem station devoted to land reclamation (primarily through reforestation with exotic tree species), integrated agroforestry, animal husbandry, and aquaculture production (Yu and Wang 1990). Dinghushan Subtropical Forest Ecosystem Experiment Station4 is located in an UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) reserve and is a CERN station. It features natural and semi-natural subtropical and tropical forest vegetation (up to 400 years old) extending over terrain nearly 1,000 m in elevation (CAS Undated, b). It appears that they have a thorough understanding of the natural histories of these locations, and Dinghushan, in particular, appears to offer excellent research potential.

The institute has no GIS or remote sensing capabilities, but re-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
×

searchers can contact Hu Suozhong at the Department of Geography at South China Normal University for remote sensing data. Because the Dinghushan station has been included in CERN, it should receive equipment and training for GIS. Computer facilities include eight PCs.

This institute has enjoyed three important cooperative programs with other nations that helped to introduce modern ecology and whet researchers' appetites for more. The first of these was with Germany in which a Cooperative Ecological Research Project was Carried out with Hans Brunig of Hamburg University and others on ecosystem processes at the Xiaoliang station. The second is a MAB project on ecosystem restoration with Sandra Brown at the University of Illinois. The third is a MAB project headed by Orie Loucks at Miami University (Ohio) on the comparison of broadleaved forests. James Ehleringer of the University of Utah and Chris Field of Carnegie Institution at Stanford University have done collaborative ecophysiological work at this station.

Institute objectives for global change research revolve around monitoring processes at their research stations. Extrapolating local knowledge to a regional evaluation or developing methods for predicting change had not been considered. With increased knowledge of scientific principles, sampling techniques, modeling, and leadership, this institute could make a contribution by virtue of its geographical location, institutional facilities (including the stations), and the basic skills of the staff. One of its most important resources is the enthusiasm and eagerness of the staff for interaction and collaboration.

For the purposes of discussion, the following are examples of global change research the institute may wish to undertake:

  • Describe land cover change for Guandong Province and southern China more generally over the last several decades (they have a 1970 vegetation map as a base).

  • Develop models for predicting land cover change for specified scenarios of climate change (including crops).

  • Design imaginative ways to measure the states of ecosystems at their stations by using biological measurements such as radial growth increment or degrees of herbivory.

  • Devise ways to learn how subtropical vegetation will respond to elevated CO2. (The institute has adequate photosynthetic measurement capacity.)

  • Create linkages with other regional institutes to do regional appraisals.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
×

SOUTH CHINA SEA INSTITUTE OF OCEANOLOGY

The South China Sea Institute of Oceanology in Guangzhou, under the directorship of Sun Yuke, is one of two sister CAS institutes of oceanology, the other being the Qingdao Institute of Oceanology (see above) in Shandong Province. Within CAS, the Qingdao institute is responsible for the East China Sea and this one for the South China Sea. It confers the M.S. degree and has from five to 15 graduate students.

Research Highlights

The institute is conducting mostly historical analyses that would be considered under the rubric of global change. Researchers are using a multisource (pollen, meteorological data, and archives) climate record for the last 2,000 years for Guangdong Province (compiled by Chen Shixun of Zhongshan University [Chen 1990]). Coral reef structures (Nie et al. 1991, Nie, Undated) are being studied. Nie Baofu has calibrated the lamina widths with seawater temperature over the last decade or so to estimate temperatures of the past several thousand years. Zhao Huanting described coral reef work based on 100 m of island coral for sea temperature proxy data. Zhu Yuanzhi is examining the physical rate of carbonate rock deposition as a function of temperature as another means of historical analysis. Zhang Qiaomin has done an historical study of the evolutionary geomorphology of a tidal inlet. His ongoing work is toward forecasting future change.

A large-scale, multi-institutional project has been ongoing for a number of years that addresses the rise in sea level versus change in land level due to tectonics for the entire China coast. This institute is charged with the South China Sea coastline on this project. As described by Chen Tegu, this project has historical significance, but as part of a forecasting program. At least three opinions on this phenomenon in China have been put forward. It is not clear, though, whether Ren Mei-e from Nanjing University is involved. Chen stated that they would welcome collaboration with the United States on this kind of work.

Lue Youlang is working on a 6 to 8 meter-long deep sea sediment core from the South China Sea. He says it goes back 230,000 years and he is doing oxygen-isotope work on it with Dr. Sacklette, a chemical oceanographer from the United Kingdom. A group including Lue was seeking funding for a similar core from Antarctica.

These are projects pertinent to PAGES, but some have prediction

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
×

potential as well that may be relevant to LOICZ and JGOFS. More directly relevant to JGOFS is Chinese participation, specifically this institute, in the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) and TOGA, and about which Gan Zijun had considerable knowledge. Blue water oceanography is evidently a rather active and important activity here. However, it is hard to say if it has higher priority than coastal zone work. This institute was originally founded for coastal zone work, but as they have accrued vessels (and bigger budgets), they have been able to expand into deep sea cruise work.

He Youhai described a physical oceanography project that is part of TOGA. One of the results of these cruises is measurement of sea surface temperature and currents in the South China Sea. These variables are definitely related to ENSO. One intriguing idea would be to model the relationship of ENSO with these variables and, with GCM scientists, their effect on the timing and strength of the summer monsoon to east China and typhoons.

On the coastal zone per se, a large, multidisciplinary, national-scale coastal zone program was conducted between 1980 and 1986. Individual coastal provinces were responsible for work on their shorelines. Unfortunately, no references or results were available. More generally, the Department of Estuarine and Coastal Studies, headed by Zhang Qiaomin, will be useful for research relevant to LOICZ.

XI'AN LABORATORY OF LOESS AND QUATERNARY GEOLOGY

The Xi'an Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology was established in 1984. Under the management of the Xi'an branch of CAS, the director is Liu Tungsheng, China's senior and leading scholar of geology, who also is a member of the PAGES Scientific Committee. Designated as an open laboratory in 1987, it employs a scientific staff of 10 and additional research fellows and students. This laboratory is one of the leading centers for research on past climate change, and an application has been made to be named a national key laboratory.

Its research program is organized around a central theme of documenting past climate change as recorded stratigraphically in the Loess Plateau from 2.5 million years ago to predict future climate trends and impacts. Researchers address this task by studying the properties, textures, and formation processes of loess and other Quaternary sediments. Loess in China covers 600,000 km2; it is the largest loess deposit in the world. By virtue of its location on the Loess Plateau itself, the laboratory is near suitable geologic sites for carrying out field observations and experiments.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
×
Research Highlights

Scientists can carry out a broad range of geological, geochemical, and geophysical measurements that provide the basis for investigations of past climate change in North China, including geologic observations in the field and measurements by microscopy in the laboratory (An Zhisheng, Zhu Yizhi, and Zhou Jie, PIs), spore pollen analysis (Li Xiaoqiang, PI), radiocarbon dating (Zhou Weijian and Jiang Yu, PIs), stable isotope measurements (Liu Yu and Su Fuqin, PIs), thermo luminescence dating (Xie Jun, PI), magnetostratigraphy (Zheng Hongbo, PI), and chemical element analysis of present day dust aerosol (Zhang Xiaoye, PI).

Laboratory scientists have now established proxy sequences of paleoclimates and environments on time scales of 2.5 million years, 150,000 years, and 20,000 years B.P. for the Loess Plateau. Three of the major results are noteworthy:

  • A theory has been put forth that paleo-Asian monsoon is a controlling factor in environmental changes in central China, for example, that variation in monsoon circulation may have caused variation in temperature, moisture, soil conditions, and plant growth during the past 20,000 years.

  • A distributional model has been developed for paleoenvironments around 18,000 years before present and at the Holocene optimum 9,000 to 5,000 years before present.

  • An abrupt event about 10,000 to 11,000 years before present has been discovered when the summer monsoon weakened and the winter monsoon strengthened, corresponding to the Younger Dryas in the North Atlantic region.

Scientists have actively sought to establish collaboration with researchers at other institutions, including laboratories in the United Kingdom and the United States. An Zhisheng and Stephen Porter, University of Washington, are conducting a comparative study of the chronology and dynamics of Late Quaternary climate and environmental changes between central China and the northwestern United States. Based on research undertaken for the China and America Air-Sea Experiments (CHAASE), An Zhisheng, Zhang Xiaoye, and Richard Arimoto, University of Rhode Island, are conducting a comparative study of the atmospheric transport of soils by focusing on the interannual variability in the atmospheric dust concentrations and the meteorological conditions responsible for the concentration differences (Appendix C).

Results of the laboratory's research have been published in Chi-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
×

nese and foreign journals. One recent publication, in English, Loess, Environment and Global Change, edited by Liu Tungsheng (1991), is a timely and useful compilation of paleoclimate studies of loess in China. Notably, the papers presented in this volume demonstrate a wide diversity of institutions represented by collaborating authors and a solid degree of international collaboration with researchers from Europe and the United States.

XINJIANG INSTITUTE OF BIOLOGY, PEDOLOGY, AND DESERT RESEARCH

The mission of the CAS Xinjiang Institute of Biology, Pedology, and Desert Research, under the leadership of Xia Xuncheng, is to study the arid environment of western Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, including microclimate, soils, hydrology, vegetation, and land use. The institute is particularly concerned with the effects of land use change and climate change on desert and desert riparian vegetation; it is also concerned with water conservation and water management.

The institute administers five experiment stations, one of which, the Fukang Desert Ecosystem Observation and Experiment Station, was visited by panel members. This station is a new and fairly well-equipped facility near the desert margin. The laboratory is equipped for basic soil physical and chemical measurements, and maintains a complement of basic microclimate stations in various desert environments. The station is new and facilities are still being developed. In contrast to the instrumentation of the atmospheric institutes, this ecological station had relatively less expertise in climatological measurements, and future collaboration could aid in enhancing the quality and comprehensiveness of microclimate studies.

Research focuses more on local ecological and environmental problems than on large-scale changes, however it is documenting climate change and ecological change. Scientists study a transect from desert at the southern edge of the Junggar Basin to a glacial lake (Tianchi, a MAB reserve) in the nearby montane region of the Tianshan Mountains. This transect provides an interesting cross section of an area influenced strongly by climate variability and change and by intense human land use. Opportunities for collaboration on both ecological and human dimensions of global change are excellent. An additional opportunity to develop an even longer desert-mountain transect exists between the Fukang station and the CAS Lanzhou Institute of Glaciology and Geocryology's Tianshan Glaciology Research Station. Despite this opportunity, global change research is a new priority for

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
×

the station research group, and, consequently, it is not a well-developed area of strength.

Personnel seemed enthusiastic and knowledgeable about their region. The training of the more senior scientists is fairly conventional (disciplinary) but these individuals seemed open-minded and broad in their interests. Younger scientists included a sprinkling of scientists with strong interests in plant physiology and biogeochemistry.

This institute could be a good partner in potentially excellent research documenting the interaction of climate variability (clearly documented changes in regional hydrology have occurred over the past decade in the Tianshan Mountains and their watersheds) and human land use. Collaboration with the U.S. Long-Term Ecological Research program could be particularly fruitful, given the existence of several CERN activities in the region. The documented reductions in rain and snowfall over the 1980s in this region permit use of (possibly) natural climate variability to probe the response of arid mountain-desert landscapes to climate change.

ZHONGSHAN UNIVERSITY

Although panel members were not able to visit Zhongshan University, research from that university was described during a panel member's visit to the CAS South China Sea Institute of Oceanology.

Chen Shixun, a circulation modeler from the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, has worked with someone at Colorado State University and his work is rather limited due to insufficient computing power. He does not interact with the researchers at the CAS Institute of Atmospheric Physics. Nevertheless, he presented some interesting modeling work that linked climate features with winds and shoreline geomorphology, which would be pertinent to LOICZ.

NOTES

1.  

AVHRR data are received by the State Meteorological Administration Satellite Center from stations in Beijing and Guangzhou. A third station in Urumqi in western China has not been operating for some time. Peking University's Institute for Remote Sensing Technology and Application has a ground station that also receives AVHRR data.

2.  

The project is based on the long-term impact of climate and air pollution on the forest in Mantounguog Forest Observation Station.

3.  

The objective is to provide specific data on China's forest ecology for input to global change studies. The methodology includes soils and plant classification and their mapping, experimental studies of material and energy flows, measurements of atmospheric gas concentrations (CO2, nitrogen oxides, SO2, and O3), and the comparison of differences between atmosphere in urban Beijing and nearby mountain atmo-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Overviews of Selected Institutions." National Research Council. 1992. China and Global Change: Opportunities for Collaboration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2075.
×

   

sphere. Comparisons will be made in different seasons. Trends will be monitored for 5 years and will include some computer modeling. Mountain area studies will be conducted at the CAS Beijing Forest Ecosystem Station, which is located about 2 hours west of Beijing. The cost of the project is 1.8 million yuan, and funding is from SSTC and NSFC (Feng Zongwei and Zhuang Yahui, PIs).

4.  

Tropical and Subtropical Ecosystems is edited at the Dinghushan station. Volumes include papers about Dinghushan. It is published in Chinese with English abstracts and graphs.

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Given China's current and potential impacts on the global environment and the contributions Chinese science can make to global change research, China's full participation in international research programs dealing with global change is very important.

This book provides insights into how research priorities are determined and detailed information about institutional infrastructure, human resources, and other factors that will constrain or facilitate Chinese responses to and research on global change issues.

An overview of research relevant to the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program and the World Climate Research Program is presented. Additionally, research in certain areas of atmospheric chemistry and physical and ecological interactions of the atmosphere and land surface are explored in further detail.

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