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Location: Home > Facilities > Stations
Qianyanzhou Experiment Station
Update time: [March 10, 2009]
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The History

In 1983, Qianyanzhou Subtropical Forest Ecosystem Research Station, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Qianyanzhou Station for short) was founded by Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) as the pilot experimental site of the Integrated Scientific Survey in the Mountainous-hilly Region of South China. In 1985, it was designated as the Integrated Development Demonstration Base of Mountain-Lake-River Project of Jiangxi Province. In 1992, MAB nominated it as an international experimental station and became a training center of UND Jiangxi Project. Since 1998, it has been one of the basic CERN stations. In 2002, Qianyanzhou Station became a member of ChinaFLUX.

Natural Conditions

Qianyanzhou Station is located in the Taihe County, Jiangxi Province in Southern China (26°44'48"N, 115°04'13"E). The area is characteristic of a typical subtropical monsoon climate with average annual air temperature of 17.8 °C and mean annual precipitation of 1485 mm. The average elevation is approximately 100 m, and the relative relief is 20-50 m. Red soil, dominating the subtropical of south China, is the main soil type in the station. Due to deforestation and unreasonable land utilization, the original vegetation, evergreen broad-leaved forest, had been replaced by planted forest, shrub and some secondary vegetation. The forest canopy, mainly composed of Pinus elliottii, Pinus massoniana and Cunninghamia lanceolata, has increased from 0.4% to 70% since the establishment of the station.

Long-term Objective

The long-term objective of the station is to emphasize the structure, function and primary processes of subtropical forest ecosystems. Based on the above objectives, Qianyanzhou Station developed a famous model known as “Qianyanzhou model” in the 1980’s, providing a good example for restoring degraded hilly lands and improving ecosystem services in subtropical China. In recent years, priorities have been given to the exploration of belowground biological processes, the study on carbon, nitrogen, water cycling as well as their interaction of planted forests, and structure and function optimization of planted forests. Breakthroughs have been made in plant root and leaf functional traits and ecological functions, and relevant achievements have been published in the international top academic journals such as Nature.

The Major Tasks

1. Belowground biological processes and their mutual feed-back mechanisms with aboveground structure and function in subtropical forests

2. Coupling cycles of carbon, nitrogen, and water and their responses to environmental changes in subtropical forest ecosystems

3. Patterns and mechanisms of the coupling process between river basin material cycle and eco-hydrology in subtropics

4. Sustainable management of subtropical plantation and improvement of service function in river basin ecosystem

Contact information

Dr. Ma Zeqing
A11, Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101
Tel:+86-10-6488 9027
Email: mazq@igsnrr.ac.cn

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Email: weboffice@igsnrr.ac.cn Address: 11A, Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101, China