YINCHUAN, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Amid the chilling wind of an early winter morning, Nong Haojun, a 26-year-old PhD student, set out toward an experimental field deep in the interior of the Maowusu Desert, one of the major deserts in China’s northwest. This was his final trip this year to collect soil data after a six-month stay focused on wilderness research regarding desertification prevention.
Nong connected the sensors buried underground and transferred their readings to his laptop. This data, which included soil temperature, moisture and other basic indicators, forms the basis of long-term research endeavors in the area. "Some monitoring points have operated for more than a decade, so the collection cannot be interrupted," he said.
Nong is in the fourth year of his stint at a national ecological monitoring and research station focused on this desert in Yanchi County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in northwest China. He is among more than 400 students and faculty members from Beijing Forestry University, who have successively been stationed in this county since 2000.
After 25 years of tireless work by Nong and many others, the once barren, shifting dunes of Maowusu have been transformed into a lush, thriving expanse, which acts as a microcosm of China’s broader success in combating desertification.
Yanchi County is located on the southwestern edge of the Maowusu Desert, and receives little rainfall. In the 1980s and 1990s, overgrazing and excessive excavation had led to severe grassland degradation there, resulting in over 80 percent of land becoming desertified. Nightly winds roared through the area, with drifting sand sometimes piling as high as rooftops.
Every year during the growing season from April to November, students and researchers from Nong’s university "migrate" to Yanchi County, where they dedicate themselves to greening the desert.
This year, as usual, more than 10 students stayed on site to keep the research station running. They caught insects, counted vegetation, collected soil samples, and kept meticulous records and analysis -- all to help develop scientific solutions for curbing desertification.
Nong’s daily research routine revolves around catching insects in the desert to uncover the true role that desert soil animals play in the process of arid land rehabilitation.
During the height of summer, when surface temperatures in the desert can exceed 45 degrees Celsius, Nong often walked for up to 30 minutes, braving swarms of mosquitoes to reach experimental plots. There, he drilled and dug holes to set cups containing alcohol in the ground to lure beetles and other soil arthropods. A week later, he would come back to collect them.
"By comparing the ratio of males to females in desert soil fauna, we can predict the future reproduction of a certain population," Nong explained.
The research station, featuring not only a lab and storage space, but also the dormitory where researchers reside, is located about 5 kilometers from the nearest village. The researchers, who prepare their own meals, make a supply trip to the closest township once a week. With night temperatures dropping below freezing, they have to rely on electric heaters to stay warm, since there is no central heating at the station.
Drawing on research conducted at this station, Beijing Forestry University has published more than 300 academic papers, secured over 20 nationally authorized invention patents and cultivated more than 180 postgraduates in fields such as desertification control and desert ecology, thereby providing scientific and technical support for desert control and ecological restoration in not only Ningxia but also throughout the country.
After years of sustained efforts, vast, connected sand fields have been effectively contained. The overall vegetation coverage in Yanchi County has reached 58.56 percent, transforming the area from a windswept sand hollow into a steadily recovering landscape of green.
A report on ecological civilization released last week noted that China’s green development has been driven by national will, secured by institutional reform, powered by scientific and technological innovation and oriented toward win-win cooperation.
According to a national plan released in 2022, China aims to bring 67 percent of all treatable desertified land under effective management by 2030.
Nong said that ecological restoration, much like ecological research itself, is a slow and patient endeavor. It has taken generations of effort to produce the changes visible today. "I’m proud to carry on the work handed down by those who came before me," he said.
Right now, Nong is busy sorting the samples he is bringing back to Beijing. Inside a foam box, more than 300 soil samples and over 500 herb specimens are neatly arranged, each carefully labeled. Once he returns to campus, a new round of indoor experiments will begin.
Nong said his favorite plant is caragana, known as ningtiao in Chinese, a pioneer desert shrub with deep, extensive roots that anchors loose sand and resists erosion, while blooming resiliently in the form of small yellow flowers.
"They fight against the wind and sand like warriors, paving the way for other plants to take root and grow," Nong said. "In the desert, I wish I were a caragana."
原文地址：http://en.people.cn/n3/2025/1125/c90000-20394607.html