A research project related to restoring the vegetation cover along
northwest China's Qinghai-Tibet railway has been conducted recently
and preliminary progress has been made, Chen Guichen, a researcher
from the Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology under the
Chinese
Academy of Sciences leading the project, has revealed.
Chen predicted that complete recovery would ensure a "green
railway" across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
The Worldwide Fund for Nature lists the plateau, with its
unique, primitive and fragile natural environment, as a priority
area to be given global biodiversity protection.
In the railway building process, relevant environmental
departments and construction units strictly selected the earth
collection and construction sites, said Chen. "Though the local
ecological environment has been affected very little, some of the
vegetation inside the site suffered some unavoidable damage because
of human activities. Our research is aimed at these areas."
Chen said that the work started in 2001 when researchers
selected original plant seeds on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to
conduct scientific experiments.
"The experiments center on four aspects: which kinds of plants
are suitable for artificial cultivation, whether
artificially-cultivated plants can grow in natural conditions on
the plateau, whether the plants can live through the winter
smoothly, and whether the formed plant groups are stable," said
Chen.
Scientists have established three experimental bases in the
Tuotuo River and Beilu River in Qinghai
Province and Anduo County in the Tibet
Autonomous Region. During experiments, they selected six kinds
of plant seeds. So far, the plants have been growing healthily.
Chen said that scientists would conduct further selections among
the seeds and further observation on their growth. They will make
examinations of the stability of the established artificial plant
groups and ensure the artificial plant groups would not exert an
unhealthy influence on the original local plant groups.
"Scientists will do experiments according to the ecological
principles as well as taking the technological and economic
feasibility into consideration for best results," said Chen.
The research is expected to be finished before the completion of
the railway. Meanwhile, the research achievements will be applied
in slope vegetation protection.
The Qinghai-Tibet railway, reaching 5,072 meters above sea level
is at the dangerous and precipitous Tanggula Range, linking Xining,
capital of Qinghai Province, with Lhasa, capital of Tibet
Autonomous Region. It will be 1,956 km long, and have the highest
elevation of any railway line in the world.
(China.org.cn?by Li Jingrong and Daragh Moller, November
28, 2003)
