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 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, 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.

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