Introduction

Located near Bayingol town of Hejing county, the Station was established in 1971, 700 km from Urumqi. The Station lies on the extensive Bayanbulak Grasslands, in the middle of the Tianshan Mountains and west of the Great Yuerdus Basin, at 42º54′N, 83º43′E and at an altitude of 2,470 m above sea level. Swan Lake, a State Nature Reserve, is found in the center of the Bayanbulak Grasslands.

A corner of Bayanbuluk Station for Desert Steppe Ecosystem

The beautiful Swan Lake

The headstream of Kaidu River

Research Fields

(1) Restoration of degenerated pasture

(2) Long-term observation of biological diversity and environmental factors affecting pastures

(3) Impact of human activities and climate change on pasture productivity and animal husbandry

Routine Monitoring

Primary productivity, the number of plant species, and edaphic parameters were measured since eight permanent grassland sites were installed in 1984. An automatic weather station (Campell Inc., USA) was established in 2005.

Measuring the deposition of atmospheric nitrogen in Bayanbulak

Experiment of nitrogen deposition

Major Accomplishments

Since the Station was established, it has implemented 13 projects with a total budget of 2.6 million yuan and has received 8 Awards. Amongst these were:

(1) The project entitled ‘A study of grassland amelioration and integrated techniques for the establishment of sown subalpine grassland in Xinjiang’ won a second prize for Scientific and Technological Progress Awarded by the CAS in 1979

(2) The book named ‘Grassland Common Sense’ obtained a third prize for Scientific and Technological Progress Award by the CAS, and a minority letter prize for excellence in countrywide literature in 1980  

(3) The project ‘Establishment of a demonstration of introduced grasses for the Bayanbulak Grassland’ was awarded the prize for its contribution to improving Xinjiang by Science and Technology (1996) and a third prize for Scientific and Technological Progress Awarded by the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region (1997)

Personnel

There are 9 research staffs in the Station, including 1 professor, 2 associate professors and 2 visiting professors.

There are currently 5 postgraduate students in the Station, including 1 PhD candidates and 4 MSc candidates.

Contact

Director: Prof. HU Yukun

Tel: +86-991-7885365

E-mail: huyk@ms.xjb.ac.cn