Source: Sci-tech Daily          23^rd, October, 2004

Mt Seqila, 4000m of elevation, situates in East Tibet. Aware of the fact that tree lines, the transition zone between meadow and forest, vary seasonally in different years, Chinese scientists would establish a complex monitoring station in this mountain to observe ecological variation.

According to Prof. Yao Tanddong, director of ITP, in the next three years, a number of scientific monitoring and observation centers will be set up on the Plateau. Within the first part of this program will be stations in Namucuo, Dingri and Linzhi, areas along the south-north extensional Qinghai-Tibet Road.

Prof Yao introduced that the station in Namucuo would major in three aspects of field work: geodynamics, environment and landscape process, and atmosphere process. Thanks to the convenient traffic there, the station in Namucuo would be under smooth construction during the first part of the program.

As to the monitoring center in Dingri County, North Slope of Mt Everest, Gangga station will be the base for observation of Mt Everest regions. The range within this observation will extend south to Mt Everest and Zhuo’aoyou Peak, and southwest to the Xixiabangma Peak. Complex monitoring and observation of geophysics, climate proxy, hydrology, atmosphere environment, and ecology will be the main tasks carried out in this station, mainly through regular auto-monitoring, together with seasonal observation at some selected spots.

The station in Mt Seqila in Linzhi will be a study center of sub-alpine geology, with an atmosphere-monitoring center in the town of Bayi and a glacier monitoring station on Zepu Glacier in Pomi County, 3200m of elevation. All of them will form a complete natural laboratory for monitoring and analysis of atmosphere-landscape process and its interrelationship with global change.

So far, stations in Linzhi and Namucuo have been completed, attracting many scientists to conduct their preliminary expedition work there. The construction of the station in Mt Everest will be carried out early next year.