While traveling towards the wind volcano at an altitude of 5,010 meters, Tibetan antelopes were seen migrating along the Qinghai-Tibet Highway many times on the way. Photos/Reporter Qian Ye
Coco Ciri. Since the establishment of the National Nature Reserve in Coco Siri in 1997, tibetan antelopes have been cared for here and their numbers are picking up.
Wind volcano, the highest point on the way to the expedition.
In the hinterland of Coco Siri, the river net shone brightly among the meadows.
Sonandaj conservation station, towering bronze statue of Tibetan antelope, golden horns sticking out into the sky.
A dung beetle on the beach of the Tuotuo River, in the Jiangyuan area, its black and shiny carapace appears unusually clean.
The Si's plateau loach, which is caught by the expedition team in the Tuotuo River, can attach its eggs to the legs of the birds for migration.
The soaring Chumar River makes it difficult to fish for fish samples.
The road at the front of the snow line meets a wild donkey, and its white belly is very conspicuous in the daylight.
A river of life
Tuotuo River.
A seductive name. For those who live deep inland, seeing the true color of the source of the Yangtze River requires a long journey. Its source, the glacier of the GradangDong Snow Mountain, which never retreats, condenses the longest river in China, the Yangtze River, with a drop of meltwater.
It is a river of life.
In the more than 6,300 kilometers of the Yangtze River, there were more than 370 kinds of fish, including Chinese sturgeon, rouge fish, "three fresh yangtze river" and "four big fish". And today these are all history. The Chinese sturgeon is on the verge of extinction, the anchovies in the three fresh in the Yangtze River have not been found for many years, and even the common four large fish are decreasing sharply, and the ecology of the Yangtze River has been precarious.
Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon, many people may not have heard of this fish. This large indigenous salmon is a remnant of the ice-age cold-water fish. It usually inhabits foothill streams at altitudes of 700 to 1000 meters above sea level. The Mako River in Qinghai may be the last water where this fish can be discovered on this expedition.
In August 2017, the Yangtze River Fish Resources and Environmental Science Expedition, organized by the Ministry of Agriculture, began. The scientific expedition will take 5 years to go from the source of the Yangtze River to the mouth of the sea. Find out the fish resources of the Yangtze River and design rescue plans for rare fish. The first stop of the expedition was to investigate the fish and water environment in the source area of the Yangtze River. 4 days, more than 3,000 kilometers away, Huxiang Geography will show you the details of this investigation in the Heyuan area.
At the end of September, the expedition team will enter Dongting Lake. We will also continue to follow this story about water and fish.
Written by/Reporter Qian Ye
Diary of the Yangtze River Source Expedition: Face to face with Tibetan antelope and wild donkey in the Tuotuo River
In August 2017, the five-year scientific expedition plan for the Yangtze River Basin, which received special financial support from the Ministry of Agriculture, was implemented. The survey will go from the source of the Yangtze River to the mouth of the sea. It includes numerous tributaries in the upper and middle reaches as well as Dongting Lake and Poyang Lake. The purpose of the scientific expedition is to find out the bottom of the fishery resources of the Yangtze River, understand the current situation of the water environment of the Yangtze River, and design rescue programs for endangered fish.
4 days is still too short. If I had the chance, I think I would abandon the journey of the car like the American wilderness writer Olsen, preferring to walk slowly on the surface like a mole, experiencing the rocks under my feet, breathing in the sparse air on the soft river beach in the upper reaches of the Tuotuo River, and secretly loading the mountains and white clouds rising in the distance of the river beach into the Nikon camera with memory 64G. Although this requires overcoming high reactions with cold ice sheet climates.
Of the 4-day trip, the weather was the most variable. On August 26, when the Quhe River returned to Tanggula Mountain Town Road, he encountered a rainbow. It was raining, and 10 minutes ago, when sampling on the Riverbed of Dangqu, I experienced an ice particle, the wind poured into the storm jacket, and the body seemed to be stabbed by an ice knife. At this time, standing on the highway, you can enjoy the beautiful scenery of the sun when the sun sets, I run to the rainbow, the future has time to focus, a drizzle hit, and even poured out the rainbow on the edge of the sky. The weather on the source of the Yangtze River is indeed uncertain.
On August 26, the weather on the Dangqu River was cloudy and sunny, with rainbows and ice particles
Tibetan antelopes migrate along the Qinghai-Tibet Highway with their cubs
When the car roared up to the Kunlun Pass at an altitude of 4768 meters, the rain mixed with ice particles smashed on the window, the oxygen content in the air was even thinner, and the scientific expedition team was only 300 kilometers away from the Tuotuo River.
The local driver, Master Zhang, drove his 200,000-kilometer Toyota SUV in front of him, and a wild donkey stood in front of the snow line, and the thick fog obscured the top of the snowy mountain, but its white belly was still so conspicuous, it stood on an empty grassland, as if the rows of cars were just moving stones.
Soon the Sonandaj protection station passed in front of the car window, and the towering bronze statue of the Tibetan antelope, with its golden horns reaching out into the sky. The Tibetan antelope was hunted for its fur that could withstand the cold, and Sonandaj was a warrior in the reserve and represented Coco Siri's determination against poaching. After the establishment of the National Nature Reserve in Coco Siri in 1997, the Tibetan antelope here was cared for and the number was on the rise. When we crossed the five beams and climbed to the wind volcano at an altitude of 5,010 meters, we saw herds of female Tibetan antelopes with their cubs migrating along the Qinghai-Tibet Highway many times on the way, because of the rush, we only stopped in front of a few puddles to photograph the sheep drinking water. Master Zhang said that autumn is the time when Tibetan antelopes migrate outwards, and this time is the season to watch Tibetan antelopes.
When the car reaches the Chumar River Bridge, there is a traffic jam, and the cars on the winding Qinghai-Tibet Line have no end in sight, which is much more spectacular than the morning and evening rush hours in the city. Master Zhang's Toyota SUV finally came in handy, rushing left and right, sometimes simply flipping off the road and advancing along the side road left by the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, with several muddy pits, and the team members on the car also experienced the thrill of drifting.
At 4 p.m., I dodged two traffic jams and finally arrived at the first sampling point, the Bend riverbed. The Tibetan word for "Dangqu" means "swamp river", and its source is a continuous swamp and permafrost. When Qu was identified as one of the sources of the Yangtze River, we arrived at the time of the river's network of Dangqu in the flood season.
The river beach is full of cushion-shaped dotted plums and flat spikes, but unfortunately we missed the flowering period of the little plums. Push forward a month, and its white petals will decorate the soft river beach like a sea of stars. At this time, they hugged their bodies tightly and huddled together, ready to withstand the coming cold.
The convoy arrived at the anchorage point one after another, and we hiked on the Dangqu Riverbed to find a place to go fishing. Dr. Wu Jinming, the leader of the scientific expedition, and Yu Luxian of the Qinghai Naked Carp Rescue Center put on fishing leather pants and took the lead in the water. Avoiding the turbulent main stream, they found a shallow shoal in the winding part of the river to try their fishing.
The curved river surface is so wide that even when you look around, the crisscrossing river network still shines white among the meadows in the distance. In the afternoon, the sun on the plateau is dazzling, passing through the low clouds that flow, shining on the river surface of the low hills and meadows. In the distance, a snow-capped mountain is dazzling, about 30 kilometers away from us.
The Jiejiang River, which often fishes in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, carefully observes the banks of the river. The sandy river beach is very soft, and only the meadow gathering place will have a solid foot feeling. Near the riverbed, you can sometimes see the footprints of birds, and even a cluster of bright green aquatic grass floating in the water. Jie Jiang was very excited, "there must be fish", look closely, you can even see small fry swimming in the water.
Soon, Dr. Wu Jinming, who was fishing, came with good news and caught a small-headed plateau fish, not long, only 7 cm long, white throughout, scaleless, and black spots on its back.
The shallow shoals walked quickly, and still not a few fish could be caught. Several members of the team discussed going in the direction of the downstream dry water. The guide of the expedition team, Yan Guocheng of the Golmud Fishery Resources Monitoring Station, participated in the local rat extermination operation in the Dangqu River last winter and camped on the lower hills. Yan Guocheng said that he had caught a ruler-long mollusk in the main stream with yak. The so-called billfish is the common name of the local people for another kind of split-bellied fish, the naked-bellied leaf whiskerfish. This slit-bellied fish with two long beards under its mouth is more distributed in the Jinsha River section and has few fishing records in the Jiangyuan area. In the 2009 Yangtze River source scientific expedition organized by the Ministry of Agriculture, a one-pound bare-bellied leaf whisker fish was caught in the Tuotuo River, which was the largest fish caught in the Jiangyuan scientific expedition.
JieJiang and Yu Luxian explored the downstream main stream section. Use lifting nets that can be fished in deep waters to explore fishing in the rushing Dangqu River. Hiking on the plateau is a chore, lifting the net is heavy, and soon the team members begin to breathe. The river is very urgent, the water temperature is low, the Jiejiang River accidentally slid into the deep water, the leather pants into the water, struggling to the shore, at this time it is 6 pm.
The weather in the plateau has changed, and the previous bright sunshine has been obscured by a black cloud. The cold wind that rolled up from the ground mixed with raindrops hit the face cold and bone-chilling. After a while, the sky smashed down the ice particles, the wind poured from the trouser legs and cuffs into the storm jacket, fortunately, the team members had already bought autumn pants to withstand the cold when they stayed in Golmud, and the joke of the captain Dr. Wu Jinming that "wearing autumn pants is the minimum respect for the source of the Yangtze River" finally came in handy.
Jie Jiang and Yu Luxian finally returned to the team. They caught more than 40 fish from the main stream, small-headed highland fish, and also Loach. The wind gradually grew stronger, the river was crumpled by the wind, the black clouds pressed over the mountain, and the sky darkened.
Back at the Tanggula Mountain Town garrison, after a day of rapid marching, the evening wind blew again, and many of the team members were highly resentful. For dinner, one person and one bowl of northwest noodles, the accommodation conditions in Tanggula Mountain Town are limited, but the oxygen supply is sufficient, and several people with high reactions are gathered around the hall to absorb oxygen, preparing to advance to the Tuotuo River tomorrow.
On August 27, the weather on the Tuotuo River turned cloudy and sunny
The dung beetle crosses the river beach and encounters a yellow sheep that is not afraid of people
At an altitude of 4,540 meters, the convoy crawled upstream along the riverbed of the Tuotuo River to a new height. The temperature is 6 degrees Celsius, even if you hide in the car, you can feel the fierce wind of the Tuotuo River coming from outside. The weather was bad in the morning, but the grass beach was thriving. The distant mountains are hidden in the thick fog, the skyline seems to have not been torn apart by the sun, the leader of the expert group, Professor Wei Qiwei, who is also the oldest person in the expedition team, stands on the river and sighs at the completely different middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River source area, he is impressed by the primitive and wild beauty of the Yangtze River source.
In the distance, the Tuotuo River Bridge on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway looms, and our sampling site is only 10 kilometers away from the town of Tuotuohe. Although the weather is not ideal. Wu Jinming and Yu Luxian still put on leather pants and entered the Tuotuo River to fish. In comparison, the water of the Tuotuo River is relatively turbid and the runoff is also large. It may be related to recent rainfall.
The Tuotuo River beach is located on a flat sandy field with undulating mountains in the distance of the riverbed. When the 9 a.m. sunlight tears through the clouds and gradually ignites the sky, the towering green mountains in the distance reveal their true turquoise color. There are no steep cliffs or tight cut corners, and the vast meadows on both sides of the river beach are full of soft curves, although they are mountains, they are also included in the relaxed vision.
Grass grows on the beach. It can be judged that the grass plants commonly found in the plateau wetland are mainly scattered with hardy plants commonly found in frozen soils such as Artemisia annua, Astragalus hairy, spiny bean, and sandy aeolian chrysanthemum. Although the flowering period of the cushion-shaped ground plum has been missed, there are still star-shaped snow rabbit flowers that are still blooming, and the purple petals hidden in the grass are easily recognizable. A species of plant of the genus Artemisia equina with yellow flowers, it is a rare visitor on the beach of the Tuotuo River. The morning dew still hangs on its yellow petals, the bracts are tender green, and they are covered with sparse yellow margin hairs. Feeling the temperature drop, it seems to have entered the last part of its life cycle.
As leaning over to observe the river beach, a dung beetle leisurely breaks into the camera, its small posture and black and shiny carapace are unusually clean. In the Jiangyuan region, it seems that this feces-feeding beetle has also become clean, and it swaggers into a thicket of spiny beans, which are large, swollen and hairy fruits that have surpassed its size. Then it carried its bulky body, stepped over the barbed sword-shaped leaves of the sandy anchovy, and stopped in front of a towering plant of the genus Asteraceae, which stood tall at the waist, the yellow petals of its head had not yet opened, and the dung beetle took a few steps back, dodging the footprints of humans, and then crawled along the soft sandy flattens toward a cluster of towering flat spikes.
The fishermen on the riverbed also went farther and farther. The Hui people who do hotels in Tanggula Mountain town have revealed that they often catch a pound of large fish in the Tuotuo River, and the shape of the fish is more like a bare-bellied leaf whisker fish, which may also be a large small-headed plateau fish. The largest small-headed highland fish caught on this trip was less than half a pound, coming from the Chumar River. Yan Guocheng of the Golmud Fishery Resources Conservation Station said that plateau fish grow extremely slowly, like small-headed plateau fish, which may only grow 1 centimeter a year, and the drastic changes in the hydrological environment and the predation of birds are threats to the survival of fish, and every surviving plateau fish is a miracle of vitality.
Wading through the tributaries of the river network at the edge of the Tuotuo River, Yu Luxian carried the net towards the main stream. The riverbed is densely packed with sandbars, some of which are inhabited by spotted geese or red hemp ducks. Captain Wu Jinming brought back a frightened chick from a riverbank, it jumped into the water after being frightened and was rescued, the temperature was very low in the morning, the chicks were frozen and shivering, and from its linen-colored feathers, it was difficult to distinguish what bird's offspring were, but lying alone on the riverbank, it must be to avoid the predation of red foxes or other predators.
The vast beach of the Tuotuo River is not only full of meadows, but also provides a home for many animals. On the way back from the sampling, a flock of yellow sheep accidentally slipped out of the riverbed beach, three females formed a small group, 2 ate grass with their heads down, and one of them sentry. When the vehicle approached, it still did not walk away, but looked up, and did not seem to be afraid of people.
In addition, the burrowing pika in the depths of the meadow was also eager to try, waking up from the hazy morning just now, and it was nearly noon when the convoy left, where the sun shone on the plateau, and a large number of Dai Sheng flew from this end of the grassland to the Tuotuo River.
On August 27, the chumar river was sunny
In the Chumar River in the flood, the small-headed plateau fish were dyed red
On the way to the Chumar River, there was another big traffic jam, the 36-kilometer convoy before and after the Chumar River Bridge was strung together in a long line, the cars shone in the sunlight, and many semi-trailers seemed to have been hit by high reaction, because the lack of oxygen caused by insufficient combustion, black smoke, drivers honking their horns, helplessly the convoy was still congested. Climbing up a hillside to look out, the S-shaped convoy snaked like a long snake to the end of the sky, and the expedition team prepared to turn around, change sampling points, and head straight for the Chumar riverbed under the road.
At 4 p.m., we drove to the fluffy mudflats of the Chumar River until the marshland blocked the way. Two wild donkeys stood on the high ground and looked up, then bowed down to graze. 300 yards away, a marmot couple with two newborn baby marmots emerged from the cave and looked up at the convoy. The marmot couple was more alert and immediately brought the cub back to the cave and did not show their heads again. Further away, in the lowlands, a lone male Tibetan antelope stood in the shadows cast by the clouds with its head held high.
Jiejiang changed into a set of boots and tried to walk on the swampy surface of the riverbed. One footprint at a time. Professor Ni Chaohui, a member of the scientific expedition expert group, speculated that these sunken swamps may have been caused by the collapse of the underground nests of highland rabbits, which recently flooded their underground networks.
The Chumar River is the most abundant of the three sources of the Yangtze River. The swollen river washed down the bridge in the source area. And mixed with a huge amount of sediment tumbling downstream. It wasn't even a yellow river, it was fuchsia.-red. The sediment not only stained the river red, but even stained everything in the riverbed red, and the red foam rolled out of the strange pattern and piled up on the shoal, which the expert group leader Wei Qiwei thought was a huge oil painting made of some kind of organic matter.
Compared with the soft silt and sand of the Dangqu and Tuotuo rivers, the riverbed of the Chumar River is very sagging, and it is necessary to change into a set of boots to move forward, and the sticky mud hinders the fishermen from moving forward, once increasing the burden of walking on the plateau.
At this time, the sun is shining and the sun can be based until 8:30 p.m. The waters of the Chumar River rush downstream like a herd of muscular wild yaks. Behind the wide riverbed are rows of snow-capped mountains like ice cream cones. The snow line at the top of Kunlun stretched long, and the breast-shaped mountains were huddled next to each other, and a layer of blue clouds floated above their heads.
The magnificent landscape of the Chumar River arouses the fighting spirit of the fishermen. After a 2-kilometer hike along the riverbed, Jie Jiang and Yu Luxian arrived at the backflow area. Yu Luxian and his assistant spread out their nets and began to catch fish along a straight line. Soon after, a small-headed plateau fish with a body length of 15 centimeters was fished out of the purple-red river water, and the team members were extremely excited, but when they looked closely at this fish, it was also dyed red by the river water, which was very different from the body color fished out of the Dangqu and Tuotuo rivers.
How do schools of fish feed in a river with such a turbulent and large amount of sediment? Due to the harsh climate and the water flow environment that may change the riverbed at any time, how much vitality fish need to survive in this environment.
In 1990, Wu Yunfei, a researcher at the Northwest Plateau Institute of Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, spent three months running through more than a dozen large and small lakes in Coco Xili, including Sun Lake, Coco Xili Lake and several saltwater lakes. The Tuotuo River and Chumar River in the source area of the Yangtze River have successively investigated fish, and only 6 species of fish have been found.
In addition to the small-headed plateau fish, Si's plateau loach, and fine highland loach that we caught, there are also small-eyed highland loach, bare-bellied leaf whisker fish, and thorny plateau loach.
According to researcher Wu Yunfei, the bare-bellied leaf whisker fish and the small-headed plateau fish prefer to inhabit the fast-flowing and rocky sections of the river, while the plateau loach prefers to stay in shallow waters. Bare-bellied leaf-whiskered fish and spiny plateau loach eat insects or mosquito larvae in the water. Other concentrated highland fish feed on diatoms attached to the rocks at the bottom of the river.
Whether it is habitat or feeding habits, the days of the 6 species of highland fish are very difficult. Growth is also slower. However, the number of these fish in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River is still considerable, at least from the catch of this survey, the fish population has adapted to the living conditions of the plateau and alpine cold.
【Dialogue】
The grasslands in the Heyuan area are very precious and once used, it is difficult to recover
Ni Chaohui is a member of the expert group of the Yangtze River Source Scientific Expedition Team, director of the Fishery Ecological Environment Monitoring Center of the Middle and Upper Reaches of the Yangtze River of the Ministry of Agriculture
Xiaoxiang Morning Post: Arrived at the source of the Yangtze River for the first time, talk about your feelings about the source area.
Ni Chaohui: The hydrological conditions at the source of the Yangtze River are significantly better than those in the lower reaches. Muddy waters are seasonal. We happened to be raining in the source area of the river this time, and the sediment content was very large. Sediment brought in by the upstream. Once the rain stops, the water quickly clears. There is also a difference between morning and afternoon.
At present, the three sources of the Yangtze River are the Chumar River in the north, the Tuotuo River in the main source, and the Dangqu River in the south. The development of this river, judging by their sources of replenishment, is still different.
The Chumar River originates in the mountains, and the water supply mainly depends on rainfall, so we see that the runoff of the Chumar River is the most turbid, the largest river with the largest amount of water, which is completely red.
Tuotuo River is different, rainfall is on the one hand, Tuotuo River has another important source of water, that is, glacial meltwater. It won't cause the river to be as turbid as it did rain, but glacial meltwater is time-sensitive, maybe a little less in the morning, a little more in the afternoon, and a little more in the afternoon.
Dangqu is even more different, when The Qu is fully developed in a swampy area, which is supplemented by surface water and groundwater conserved in the swampland. Although these three are the source areas of the Yangtze River, the water supply of the three rivers is still different. This results in differences in hydrological, physical and chemical characteristics. Once you reach the Tongtian River, it becomes a river.
What this expedition saw. From the perspective of the general environment, the heyuan area has not changed much from the perspective of water environmental conditions, and basically belongs to no man's land. At present, there are two main factors affecting hydrological conditions, the first is industrial wastewater pollution. The second is agricultural surface pollution, the use of fertilizers and pesticides, through surface runoff into the river. The third is the pollution of domestic wastewater of urban residents, which is relatively small in the heyuan area. But I also saw some garbage in the Dangqu River, mainly traffic pollution on the Qinghai-Tibet Line, but this is not the main problem. The overall environmental quality of the Yangtze River source area remains unchanged. The aquatic plants in the source of the Yangtze River are relatively single, and the benthic animal species are relatively simple, mainly protozoa, mosquito larvae, water earthworms and the like, there is no essential change, or the original ecosystem.
Xiaoxiang Morning Post: Are there any ecological problems that worry you?
Ni Chaohui: There are also some pollution problems in the Heyuan area, that is, the manure pollution of livestock. We found a strange phenomenon, at that time there was no way to explain, that is, in Longyang Gorge, the original thought that the water quality of longyangxia reservoir is very good, from the outside view is very clear, the transparency is very high, but its nitrogen and phosphorus content is high, even more than three types of water standards. There are no major cities upstream, and the only city is Mado County. So where does all this nitrogen and phosphorus come from? After our analysis, it is the manure of cattle and sheep. Pass through the swamp and water flow to dragon sheep canyon. Generally, nitrogen and phosphorus enter the water and are decomposed and utilized by plants and ephemerals, but the water temperature of Longyang Gorge is relatively low, aquatic plants and plankton do not grow much, and the efficiency of nitrogen and phosphorus conversion is relatively poor. It is also because the water temperature is low, bacteria and algae can not multiply in large quantities, so the water quality is still so clear. But it will increase the burden on the downstream, and when it reaches Sanmenxia, the temperature will be high, and it will become a burden.
The grassland plants in the entire yangtze river source area are worse than those in the Aba section of the river at an altitude of 3,000 meters. Of course, it may be that its altitude is too high, the vegetation is more difficult to grow, and the grassland vegetation is very valuable, and once it is used, it is very difficult to recover. However, at present, the overall utilization rate of swamp meadows in the source area of the Yangtze River is not high, and there is no grazing phenomenon. Tibetan antelope and wild camels are also available.
Xiaoxiang Morning Post: What is the current ecological status of the Yangtze River?
Ni Chaohui: Except for the Heyuan area of the Yangtze River, the Yushu is completely unrecognizable.
I am now more focused on non-polluting projects, and the typical example that has changed the river agency is hydropower projects.
Water conservancy projects play a very important regulatory role in the downstream, in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, especially below Yichang, there are natural hydrological retention processes, there are natural increases, there are dry periods, abundant water periods, flood periods. When the flood came, it flooded the beach, and when the water receded, it became land. This is a natural process, and the entire Yangtze River hydrological system depends on this process. Now the Yangtze River has been turned into a water pipe, and the lake has been completely sealed for aquaculture.
As soon as the upstream reservoir was built, the hydrological system was completely broken, and the beaches in the river were also degraded, and these beaches were spawning grounds for many fish. The middle reaches of the Jinsha River have been basically developed, and only one upstream is left, the Tiger Leaping Gorge. From there down, until the dozen or so steps in Yibin were all opened. One reservoir after another turned the original rushing Jinsha River into a basin of still water.
Drifting fish such as small head fish and plateau loach, once the reservoir is built, they will all be finished. Because reservoirs and hydropower stations have changed the natural landscape of rivers, many fish have lost their original habitat. Once the habitat is lost, the fish cannot survive. Now some work, such as breeding and stocking, the fish's home is gone, where do you put it? If it is put down, it cannot reproduce, it cannot have offspring, and does each generation rely on breeding and herding?