Location:
Stations--Agricultural Stations--Chang Wu
Changwu Station, 200 km away from Xi’an City, is situated in the middle south of Loess Plateau, which borders Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. It is geographically located at longitude 107°40′in the east and latitude 35°12′in the north. The landform of this region belongs to typical high land and gully region in the Loess Plateau. In the area, 65% of the area is covered with gully slopes and the remaining 35% with highlands. The elevation here reaches approximately 1200m. The climate is classified as semi-humid, with a mean annual precipitation of 584mm and a mean annual temperature of 9.1°
Staple crops include winter wheat, spring corn, potato, sorghum, proso and bean. Soil in Changwu County belongs to Heilu soil, its parent material is deep moderate loamy Malan loessial soil. The Changwu moderate loamy Heilu soil is a kind of good dryland cultivated soil due to its porous and great water holding capacity. Therefore, the soil has a function of reservoir and play an important role in sustaining stable crop production. Critical agricultural problems in the Wangdong Gully watershed were shortage of cultivated area(Per capita farmland is 0.1hectare. ), serious losses of water and soil erosion during rainfall events, frequent drought and low crop yield. However, the region is relatively rich in gully and slope land with a great developing potential.
The mission of CWS is to study the construction, function, matter and energy cycle as well as environmental impact in agro-ecological economic system in highland and gully region on Loess Plateau for promoting regional economy development and solving the problems of high population density on the demand for land and water resources and ecological environment. The station focuses its research on soil moisture cycling in SPAC and nutrients cycling, balance and development in agricultural ecosystem, the theories and techniques of raising land productivity.
Following researches are presently being done:
(1) Structure, function of multiple agroecosystem in slope and gully landform.
(2) Soil moisture and nutrients balance and evolution features of soil fertility in farmland ecosystem.
(3) Potential crop yield in dryland and theories and techniques system for raising productivity.
(4) Theories and techniques in efficient use of water and soil resources.
(5) Dynamic monitoring in agro-ecological system.
(6) Soil erosion mechanism and comprehensive control methods on plate land.
(7) Hydro-ecological processes and their responses to global climate change at a watershed scale.
(8) Soil quality change of watershed.