Tibetan Plateau probe providing global warming insight

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An international team led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has been combing the land and probing deep into the lakes of the Tibetan Plateau to see how changes in the Earth’s “Third Pole” affect global flooding and glacier retreat.

As shown by photos released by the CAS on Friday, the researchers have taken valuable samples of Stipa purpurea, a tough grazing grass that plays a critical role in sandfixing on the plateau.

Xinhua Photo

Starting in June this year, the probe is the second of its kind, launched 40 years after the first.

Xinhua Photo

The most recent phase of the expedition has been undertaken in Ngari Sanai in the westernmost part of Tibet, centered on the glaciers and lakes scattered across the plateau at an altitude of around 4,500 meters.

Xinhua Photo

With sampling apparatus installed, the scientists are able to collect data from the bottom of the highland water resources and document variations in temperature, depth and water quality.

Xinhua Photo

According to senior expedition member Yang Yongping, this is critical in understanding “spillover effects” – the consequences triggered by major hydrological events. He said water changes in Tibet could impact not only the plateau but the entire Northern Hemisphere.

Xinhua Photo

The CAS hopes the expedition will provide significant references for study of the wider region’s ecosystem.

Over the next five to 10 years, Chinese scientists will go on expeditions to areas of extreme weather and ecology in mid-Asia, Iran and Eastern Europe, according to Xu Baiqing, general director of this mission.

(With inputs from Xinhua)