The Yucheng Comprehensive Experiment Station (Yucheng Station) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) (Shandong Yucheng Agro-ecosystem National Observation Research Station, SYA-NORS ) was formally established in 1979 under the auspices of the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGSNRR-CAS), became an experiment station for agro-ecosystems of the Chinese Ecosystem Research Network (CERN) in 1992, entered the first batch of national stations as a pilot station in 1999, and officially became a national station in 2006. With the strong support from the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), IGSNRR, and CAS, the station has made great development over the past 40 years. It rated excellent (8/97) in the evaluation of the national field station organized by the MOST in 2019.

Locations of Yucheng Station

Yucheng Station has four locations, headquarter in Beijing, main station and farm in Yucheng, and Dongying center in Shandong Province. Its main station (36°50′ N, 116°34′ E, about 17.5-26.1 a.s.l.m), located in Yucheng City, Shandong Province, represents typical agricultural management systems in the Huanghuaihai Plain (means Yellow River or Huanghe, Huai River, and Hai River, HHH Plain) or even North China Plain (NCP). The agro-ecosystem is dominated by wheat-corn rotation. This region has a semi-humid monsoon climate with an average annual temperature of 14.7°C and a mean annual precipitation of 623.7 mm with most of the rainfall occurring between June to September. The annual evaporation is about 950 mm, with total solar radiation of 5225 MJ/m² and sunshine duration of 2640 hours. The accumulated temperature higher than 0℃ is 4951℃ with frost-free period of 200 days. The groundwater level is generally 1.5-7.0 meters. The soil is dominated by calcaric fluvisol with a silt loam surface texture (13% sand, 65% silt, and 22% clay). The main properties (0–20 cm depth) of soils are as follows: pH, 8.30; total organic matter, 12.6 g kg^-1; total (nitrogen) N, 0.89 g kg^-1; total (phosphorus) P, 2.11 g kg^-1; total (potassium) K, 21.4 g kg^-1; and soil bulk density, 1.27 g cm^-3. 

In response to the major problems facing agricultural development in China, especially in the soil quality safety, water shortage, agricultural waste treatment and pollution, agro-ecosystem degradation, agricultural product quality safety, agro-ecosystem response to climate change etc., the station focuses on the national strategic needs such as rural revitalization and green development, and through long-term field positioning observations of the farmland ecosystem in the Irrigation Area of the Lower Reaches of Yellow River (IRA-LRYR).

Its aim is to promote the demonstration of agricultural production patterns with high and stable crop yields, efficient and sustainable use of resources, and ecological and environmental safety, to serve national food security, ecological security and environmental security, and to build an open research platform for agricultural ecosystems with international influence, an experimental demonstration base for advanced agricultural technologies and patterns, and an open research platform for domestic and international excellence. It will be an open research platform for farmland ecosystems, an experimental demonstration base for advanced agricultural technologies and patterns, and a training base for outstanding scientific research and management talents from home and abroad. 

Facilities & Resources

Yucheng station has a wide range of scientific facilities and resources in the pursuit of the research objectives. Most of them, work in support of national funding from MOST and CERN.

In the observation field system, there are 33 experimental observation fields, including 7 long-term CNERN observation fields. 28 fields are in Yucheng station and other 5 fields in Yucheng city, and the observation elements include moisture, soil, atmosphere and biological elements.

The representative fields include water surface evaporation observation field, large scale lysimeter, eddy covariance flux tower, Water-carbon-nutrient nexus field, critical zone soil and water processes observation field, pasture experiment field, Groundwater-Agroecosystem Experimental Simulator (Yucheng GAS), Unmanned Aerial Vehicle（UAV） for ecosystem research.

1) Yellow River Delta Research Center, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS

The Yellow River Delta Research Center was established in December 2017 and was put into use in October 2018. The total construction area is about 3000 square meters, which can meet 30-50 researchers to carry out work in the center at the same time. The experimental land is divided into control experimental area (100 mu), long-term experimental area (200 mu), experimental demonstration area (700 mu), etc.

2) Observation field system at Yucheng Station

Distribution of facilities at Yucheng station