On May 4th, the scientific expedition team set out to conduct second comprehensive expedition of Qilian Mountain in Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau at 8:30 am. With solidarity and cooperation spirit in mind, team members accomplished the scheduled expedition plan and arrived in Wuwei City at 11:00 pm. Travelling over 550 kilometers, the team had a taste of varied landscapes and different climates, and they left Lanzhou, a warm city, for the hinterland of Qilian Mountain, a frozen and snow-covered land. The team did a lot of surveys, including overgrazing on pasture, damage which is caused by rats and shrub invasion and analyzed grassland grazing capacity in east Qilian Mountain. They not only took samples of alpine meadow soil near Ningchan River for the research on microflora and physicochemical properties of soil, but also used drones to take photos of beautiful landscapes such as glacier, snow, frozen soil and wetland. Other investigations and surveys were also conducted on geological geomorphology, glacier evolution, surface erosion, geological disaster and meteorological observation in Xiying River Station upstream Shiyang River basin(a river in Hexi Corridor, Gansu province). Teachers and students from different schools discussed about the construction of Qilian Mountain National Park and the field observational system of Shiyang River basin, which enhanced communications between different disciplines and reached cooperative intentions in related research fields.
(Translated by Li Xingyi; proofread by Zhang Yina; edited by Zhang Yuyuan)
