On Mar. 10, 2016, director CHEN Xi and deputy director GUAN Kaiyun of Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (XIEG), Chinese Academy of Sciences, visited Institute of Gene Pool of Plants and Animals (IGPPA) and Institute of Genetics and Plant Experimental Biology (IGPEB), Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan (ASU), together with Prof. ZENG Fanjiang of Qira National Field Research Station for Desert Steppe Ecosystems and Prof. ZHANG Daoyuan of Turpan Eremophytes Botanical Garden, CAS.

During the visit, XIEG and IGPPA signed a cooperation agreement that the ecological research stations in Kyzyl Kum will be involved in the “Ecological Monitoring Network in Central Asia” (EMNCA). The two sides also specified the cooperation on the establishment of meteorological station, data collection, data sharing and fund support, etc. 

According to the observation instrument standard of CAS’s field station network, EMNCA is an observation instrument system covering  ice, forest, grassland, farmland, lake and desert ecosystems based on the original ecological stations in  Central Asian countries. It mainly concentrates on 4 geographical units, including the Altay Mountains, the northern slope of Tianshan Mountains, the southern slope of Tianshan Mountains and the Pamirs. At present, 11 stations were setup, including 5 stations in Kazakhstan, 2 in Uzbekistan, 1 in Kyrghyzstan and 3 in Tajikistan. 

At the same time, the delegation of XIEG also inquired the research progresses of plant introduction and conservation, and visited the monocotyledon germplasm garden. Then, the XIEG expanded the consensus of enhanced cooperation on those scientific fields with IGPPA. 

In IGPEB, with a deep discussion on cooperation mode, operation mode, talents training and achievement output, both sides signed a cooperation agreement on the “Establishment of China-Uzbekistan Youth Lab”. Director CHEN Xi and other delegators, accompanied by the director Alisher Abdullaev of IGPEB, visited the cotton germplasm collection fields, and investigated the application of Xinjiang’s modern cultivation technique and drip irrigation under film technology of cotton. 

This visitation builds a closer cooperative relation between XIEG and institutes of ASU. Moreover, it provides a good platform for the future academic communication on the behalf of the botany and ecological researches.

XIEG and IGPEB signed a cooperation agreement on the “Establishment of China-Uzbekistan Youth Lab”