China and Global Change Opportunities for Collaboration (1992) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 91-118
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From page 91... ...
For example, even though biogeochemistry includes more than trace gas research, the panel chose to limit its detailed investigation to biotic controls on selected trace gases, climatevegetation dynamics, and soil organic matter and soil nutrient turnover.
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From page 92... ...
The extent and nature of current atmospheric chemistry research is indicated by a survey of papers published in five leading Chinese journals) over a 3-year period: China Environmental Science (Zhongguo Huanjing Kexue, Chinese language, bimonthly)
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From page 93... ...
A similar indication of the scope of atmospheric chemistry re,earch in China is given by the proceedings of the International Conference on Global and Regional Environmental Atmospheric Chemistry held in Beijing, May 3-10, 1990. At that conference, 89 of the 173 platform or poster papers reported mainly regional and urban-scale Chinese research, and of these, 38 papers addressed acid rain.
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From page 94... ...
1990~. Recently, as part of International Global Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC)
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From page 95... ...
Aerosols Current research in aerosol chemistry in China is more limited hen in other areas of atmospheric chemistry. As discussed above, aerosol studies focus primarily on urban- and regional-scale probems.
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From page 96... ...
The CAS Institute of Atmospheric Physics and SMA have sent scientists to work with modelers in the United States.3 Total O3 is measured regularly by CAS Institute of Atmospheric Physics scientists at a station in Beijing and another in Yunnan Province. Ground-based remote sensing techniques for measuring stratospheric trace gases such as O3 and nitrite (NO2)
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From page 97... ...
However, the use of precipitation chemistry data to adlress global change issues requires integrated data obtained by simiar methods over national scales over an extended period of time. Jnfortunately, the precipitation composition data currently available are generally not adequate to address the question of China's impact In global change.
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From page 98... ...
The Huanghe River Commission, for example, employs about 30,000 employees and responsibilities include all infrastructure—from cooking to communications. The ministry runs two training universities, the Nanjing Institute of Hydrology and Water Resources and the Wuhan Hydraulic and Electrical Engineering University, where training includes flood forecasting, water supply, and river forecasting; the work tends to be extremely practical and aimed at day-to-day operations.
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From page 99... ...
he project will continue research on the effects of climate change on resin hydrology and water resources of several major rivers located n different climate zones of the country. Subsequently, researchers vill develop response strategies based on the results.
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From page 100... ...
The northwest China research area includes the arid regions to the north of the Kunlun Mountains and to the west of the Helanshan Mountains, including all of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, the northern part of Qinghai Province, the Hexi Corridor in Gansu Province and the western part of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Participating research units are the CAS Lanzhou Institute of Glaciology and Geocryology and the CAS Nanjing Institute of the Geography and Limnology.
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From page 101... ...
Water-use efficiency studies, such as those conducted at the CAS Institute of Geography and the CAS Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology, are considered a new trend in Chinese hydrological research. CAS researchers describe a soil-plant-atmosphere continuum to refer to "sequential system studies" of the hydrological flow through that continuum (CAS 1991~.
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From page 102... ...
Third, an ambitious program analyzing vegetation dynamics supports national and regional estimates of carbon storage and primary productivity is under way at the CAS Institute of Botany. There are also some Chinese studies of soil nutrients and organic matter.
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From page 103... ...
. the budget for the N2O-exchange between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere is largely unknown" (Bouwman 1990~.
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From page 104... ...
Some work on N2O in rice paddy systems is also going on at the CAS Nanjing Institute of Soil Science. Climate-Vegetation Dynamics', Net Primary Productivity', and CO2-Vegetation Interactions The CAS Institute of Botany group led by Zhang Xinshi has an ambitious and integrated effort linking Chinese climate, vegetation, and productivity.
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From page 105... ...
One notable exception has been work at the CAS Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology, where studies on the effects of CO2 enrichment on crop growth have been conducted since 1960 (CAS 1991~. Initial experiments by using elevated CO2 for approximately two weeks after flowering increased rice yields by up to 30 percent and reduced the dropping of cotton balls prematurely by up to 47 percent.
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From page 106... ...
The work reported from Inner Mongolia and similar work conducted at the CAS Xinjiang Institute of Biology, Pedology, and Desert Research is primarily descriptive in nature but provides valuable information. The value of Chinese data on soil element storage and turnover is twofold: it augments the global database on these properties and, because soil nutrients and nutrient turnover are controls over many aspects of atmosphere-biosphere exchange, it provides context for other process studies in China, such as on trace gases or biophysics.
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From page 107... ...
Soil science and soil microbiology are central fields in global change, but as in the United States, the soil sciences are just starting to develop research agendas separate from agronomy and related to the earth and ecological sciences. The barriers to interdisciplinary study of biogeochemistry in China are clear, given the disciplinary nature of the basic research and funding organizations.
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From page 108... ...
Land cover change underlies some of the other focal areas addressed by this study and it is basic to some of the IGBP core projects described in this report. Land cover is a structural expression of terrestrial ecosystems underlying their contributions to energy and water budgets, biogenic trace gas fluxes, and the export of materials from land to the coastal zone through fluvial and eolian transport.
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From page 109... ...
. Monitoring contemporary land cover change provides a broad index of large-scale alterations that can be propagated to other areas such as those downstream of eolian or fluvial transport.
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From page 110... ...
More recently, literature has begun to emerge that treats land cover change as part of global change science, although it is no more than regional in scope.
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From page 111... ...
This is an example of land cover change caused, in large part, by climate change rather than from land use. In contrast with much of the literature available that focuses on historical change, a notable attempt has been made by the Second Working Team of the National Climate Change Coordination Group (NCCCG 1990)
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From page 112... ...
Of the major global change research projects listed by the CNCIGBP for the Eighth 5-Year Plan, six can be easily defined as land cover change research: (1) the development and utilization of the Loess Plateau and global environmental change; (2)
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From page 113... ...
In Nanjing, a few institutes are or could be contributing to land cover change research. At the CAS Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, considerable historical analysis could be relevant.
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From page 114... ...
The CAS Institute of Geography's historical and contemporary land cover studies are highly germane to the study of land cover change. The National Key Laboratory for Resources and Environment Information Systems conducts some of the most comprehensive
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From page 115... ...
Ultimately, an appropriate GIS system and coordinated remote sensing system for the country will be needed to bring order to the spaial data and to monitor continuing land cover change expediently. The other ingredient needed for projecting land cover change is a system of relating vegetation components (species or functional groups)
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From page 116... ...
Additionally, as in other countries, an entirely different genre of social science models is needed for predicting how land use would be likely to change in response to climate, population, economic, and technological change scenarios. Furthermore, land cover change research must have strong ties to research on the human dimensions of global change, which, in the case of China, is an area of great relevance and potential.
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From page 117... ...
4. This area has been nourished by international exchanges and by the strong scientific leadership of Ye Duzheng, who has collaborated extensively with foreign and Chinese research communities, bringing them together.
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