Part II
Chinese Literature on Grassland Studies
Part II contains reviews of Chinese literature on the grasslands of northern China. Except for Chapter 9, which reports on social science research in the grassland areas, these reviews are organized by region rather than by discipline or topic. This choice reflects in part the fragmentation of Chinese science—that is, most of the reviewers and the researchers of whom they write are more familiar with their own locale than with a national scientific community. It has the additional advantage of permitting the reviewers to include comments on the vegetation and other aspects of the regions covered in their pieces. Although the National Academy of Sciences panel responsible for this report provided the reviewers with comments on preliminary drafts of their reviews, the work presented below represents the final judgment of the authors themselves.