Formalizing scientific collaboration. DRI President Dr. Stephen G. Wells signs a Memorandum of Understanding with Dr. Guo Zhengtang, president of the Chinese Academy of Science's Institute of Earth Environment in Xian, to encourage joint research efforts between the two organizations. Wells received the crossed flags as a souvenir commemorating the event. |
Nevada and much of western North America had an uninvited visitor from Asia in the spring of 2001: immense clouds of dust particles from the western deserts of China and Outer Mongolia that were large enough to be easily tracked across the Pacific Ocean by orbiting satellites. Uninvited but not totally unexpected, the Easter weekend event was at least the fourth time in six years that Asian dust had made the transcontinental journey.
Primarily a visual inconvenience for Americans and a minor and passing health concern, these dust clouds constitute a serious health threat to Chinese communities immediately downwind of the dust source areas as well as to China's neighboring Asian nations. Dust clouds are also the most globally visible evidence of the increasing desertification and related environmental challenges facing Central Asia.
Last December, the Desert Research Institute paid the dust a return visit, with an eye toward helping to remedy that problem and work with Chinese scientists on other environmental issues. DRI President Dr. Stephen G. Wells and several institute scientists met with top Chinese research managers and environmental scientists to sign and implement the last of four collaborative research agreements between DRI and several top Chinese scientific organizations.
 Clues to global warming in a remote Chinese glacier. DRI scientist Dr. Ross Edwards collects samples of snow from a remote glacier in the Tian Shan Mountains of northwestern China. The samples were analyzed for traces of black carbon "soot," a by-product from the combustion of fossil fuels and biomass. Recent research has shown that black carbon in snow decreases the snow's albedo (or reflective properties) allowing the Earth's surface to absorb more solar radiation thus contributing to global warming. Ultra-clean sampling techniques were used to collect the samples. Edwards is wearing "clean room" apparel to prevent contamination of the samples. (Photo by Professor Zhongqin Li, Director of the Tianshan Glaciological Station, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Lanzhou, China.) |
The most recent agreement, a memorandum of understanding or MOU, was signed by President Wells and Dr. Guo Zhengtang, president of the Chinese Academy of Science's Institute of Earth Environment, or IEECAS, on Dec. 3 in Xian. That followed the signing of an MOU last fall by Dr. Wells and Dr. Wang Tao, director of the Chinese Academy of Science's Cold & Arid Regions Environmental Engineering Research Institute, and Dr. Fahu Chen, director of the Center for Arid Environment and Paleoclimate Research-both located at the University of Lanzhou.
Previously, DRI had entered into similar agreements with President Zhihong Xu of Peking University and with Prof. Y. S. Li, head of the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering of Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
These agreements build upon a collaborative relationship between DRI and Chinese scientists that includes the first MOU signed in 1996 with Nankai University. The research at the core of the collaborations has revolved around air quality issues. China's resurgent economy and the consequences of thousands of years of intense agriculture coupled with changing regional climates have brought the health aspects of deteriorating air quality conditions to the top of the country's domestic agenda.
In recent years, the government of China has initiated major programs to address the dust problem, general air pollution issues and an assortment of other environmental concerns in which DRI has strong research capabilities. Desertification and related arid lands issues are particular subjects of common scientific interest between the Chinese research groups and the institute, Wells says.
 Air quality and public health. On a rainy rooftop in Tonglien, China, DRI scientist Dr. Judy Chow, right, and two Chinese air quality scientists prepare to change filter packs on an air pollution sampler. The air samples are being collected as part of a women's health study of the effects of toxic materials in suspended particles on prenatal development. (Photo by Dr. John Watson of DRI.) |
Wells also visited Chinese scientific institutions in Lanzhou, Xian and Hong Kong as part of his visit, presenting overviews on DRI's research programs and working out details for interaction between DRI and Chinese scientists.
Drs. John Watson and Judith Chow, two internationally recognized air quality experts in DRI's Division of Atmospheric Sciences, accompanied President Wells to Xian for the MOU signing. Their collaboration with Chinese scientists extends back more than a decade and has generated a steady stream of Chinese graduate research students to DRI's Reno and Las Vegas research facilities to learn the latest air quality monitoring and analytical techniques.
Institute scientists have also been undertaking collaborative work examining long-term evidence of pollution and climate change in Tibetan glaciers. Other Tibetan studies involve the ancient economics of Yak herding and the common practice of collecting Yak dung for home heating fuel on the Tibetan Plateau to understand the impact of changing land-use patterns.
"The recent major investments in faculty, laboratory and research support facilities in China have created an excellent working environment for our scientists," Wells points out. "The MOUs have created an encouraging climate for collaboration, and scientists from all the organizations involved are now pooling their ideas to develop plans for research programs that we hope will continue for years."
 DRI archaeobotanist and paleoecologist Dr. David Rhode tracks the productivity of a Tibetan yak dung collector across the Tibetan Plateau to understand the basic economics of the process. Yak dung is the primary fuel for cooking and heating for the herding culture, which is facing major changes in a centuries-old lifestyle. Traditional grazing lands are being fenced and more people are living in permanent settlements. Yak dung collectors now roam as far as 50 miles in pickup trucks to gather enough dung to fuel their needs. Is it a cost-effective trade-off? Is there any alternative? (Photo by David Madsen) |
"China's problems may seem remote from the challenges we face in Nevada or North America, but the parallels are actually very close," Wells says. "The impact of China's development and the growing environmental awareness of so many people create a compelling scientific challenge that will have global implications."
The health of its people is the Chinese government's first priority in addressing its pollution problems, but there's also another very practical implication to keep in mind: with millions worldwide either heading to China for the Beijing Olympics in 2008, or tuning in to scrutinize how China throws its global party, the country's environmental posture will be an integral part of the picture.
China is working hard to make it a positive one.
-John Doherty
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