Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources

Mercury (Hg), a highly toxic contaminant that persists globally, can be stored in the cryosphere and released into aquatic ecosystems as glaciers melt, posing potential risks to human health.

Known as a pioneer herb on the moving sand dunes of Central Asia, sand rice has been recommended as a potential future crop due to its excellent drought tolerance and rich nutritional value.

As an important indicator of climate change in cold regions, changes in lake area are important for understanding hydrological and ecological processes in cold regions.

Across China: Drone-based IoT helps monitor ecosystem of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau-

Glacier mass balance is one of the most important parameters characterizing glacier changes. However, the scarcity of glacier mass balance and meteorological data in the glacier area limits our understanding of glacier changes in the Tianshan Mountains.

Microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) is a cost-effective and environmentally friendly technology to improve saline soil. It aims to use urease generated by bacteria to catalyze urea hydrolysis and produce carbonate, which combines with calcium ion in the cementation solution to form calcium carbonate precipitates and calcite crystal.

Changes in precipitation patterns under global climate change affect plant biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems, with potentially important implications for ecosystem function and processes.

Accurate snow cover information is crucial for studying global climate and hydrology. However, deep learning approaches for retrieving snow cover fraction (SCF) often suffer from limitations in training data dependence and interpretability.

The freezing index (FI) is a crucial factor for calculating the temporal and spatial distribution of permafrost and the thickness of the active layer in a permafrost region. Understanding the variation in thermal conditions of the permafrost active layer is significant for investigating both the spatial and temporal distribution of permafrost as well as its degradation.

Agriophyllum squarrosum, also known as "sand rice," is a drought-tolerant and saline-tolerant psammophyte. As a pioneer plant on the quicksand, A. squarrosum is widespread on sandy surfaces in northern China and is well-adapted to climate change. In addition, A. squarrosum is known to be one of the herbage resources for camels, goats and sheep in desert areas of China. However, the nutritional and feeding value of…

The Tibetan Plateau (QTP) is composed of complex and diverse topographic features, as well as many significant differences in water, heat, and momentum flux exchange under different underlying surfaces. Alpine, or high elevation wetlands are a common type of underlying surface on the QTP.

Paleoclimate data, also known as climate proxies, is essential for investigating past climate variability and can help assess the extent of recent climate change.

The world experienced an unprecedented heat wave in 2022, and this long duration and extreme heat wave event aroused widespread concern. Heat wave events have a huge impact on the global melting of glaciers.

Water scarcity and low soil fertility are the main factors limiting crop production in semi-arid regions. One the other hand, excessive water resource input and large amount of fertilizer application not only lead to low water productivity and nitrogen use efficiency, but also produce a series of environmental problems and affect the structure and function of farmland ecosystem.

Dust deposited on a glacier's surface can reduce the albedo of the ice and increase absorption efficiency of solar radiation, which has a significant impact on glacier melting and global climate change.

Lacustrine beach ridge reservoirs have become important targets for oil exploration because of their proximity to oil sources and high reservoir porosity and permeability. However, the sedimentary architecture and hydrodynamic processes involved in their formation are still unclear, especially for the embayed beaches.

Radiocesium (RCs) has long half-life, strong radioactive toxicity, and high bioavailability. The migration and transformation of RCs in the environment have aroused much attention.

Lakes on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) play a critical role in the regional water cycle, weather, and climate. However, the characteristics of the lake-atmosphere interaction over the high-altitude lakes are still unclear.

It is well known that nitrogen (N) deposition can affect plant community assembly in the temperate desert steppe, thus resulting in changes in local ecosystem functions and species diversity.

Climate warming and permafrost thawing on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) have changed the distributive features of permafrost, which leads to alterations in soil moisture and permeability, and exerts profound impacts on groundwater flow regimes on the QTP.